How to Be Sensitive to the Holy Spirit — Al Henson

I really appreciate the privilege. I enjoy teaching, preaching. I enjoy ministering. I truly am humbled before the Lord for the opportunity to, as a young man, to be able to minister, especially in the preparation days for the spiritual awakening, and to be able to minister some of the truths of revival.

I was thinking about this being entitled this week, The School of Revival, and it really is humbling to stand here. I think of the verse in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 1, Paul saying, Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we thank not.

And I want you to know that I understand that my standing here to minister to you is an act of the very mercy of God, and an evidence that he is full of mercy, and mercy for. And I praise the Lord, though, that he honors his promises.

He says, If we seek him, we shall find him, if we seek him with all of our hearts. That was the first verse that I ever memorized after giving my life to the Lord. I memorized some verses through childhood, some of the childhood verses, John 3, 16, and others like that.

But when I gave my life to the Lord, that was the first verse that God cared me to, to memorize. And in Matthew 6, 33, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

And the Lord has honored that promise in my life. He has blessed me as I have sought him, that I may know him some, and have known him in some intimate ways. And I really praise the Lord for that. I thank the Lord for the privilege to speak on the subject this morning of how to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's direction.

Learning to Be Sensitive to the Holy Spirit

If you have your Bible, turn with us to the book of John, in chapter 9. It's really been a blessing for me, as Brother Ralph mailed to me the list of those subjects that he wanted me to speak upon. Often in coming into a situation like this, they don't tell you what to speak upon, and so you pull out three or four of those messages that God's used before in the past, and you preach those.

But this has been really a blessing for me, to be able to spend the extra time in studying, and preparing, and putting together those things that God has shown me out of the Word, in relationship to these subjects.

After I first gave my life to the Lord, I went off to seminary. Within a matter of 14 days from the moment I'd given my life to the ministry, my wife and I had sold everything we had, and moved. We had both, we gave a two-week notice, and the day after that two-week notice was up, we were loading that night, and we moved some 600 miles to go to seminary.

And we were making a good salary, our combined salary. I was 21, and I was vice president of a corporation, and she was an executive secretary, and our combined salary, and this was 12 years ago, was $27 ,000.

And that was quite a bit for a young couple that was 21, and 19, and no children, and 12 years ago. We gave all of that up, all of our dreams, for the physical things, but really I must say we gave up nothing to gain everything.

I thought before I was surrendering, I was giving up a lot, and after I'd given it all up, I realized I'd given nothing to gain everything. And in those early days, I began, as I began to seek the Lord, the first thing, as I began to read the New Testament, it became very, very obvious to me that I needed to understand the ministry and work of the Holy Spirit.

I needed to understand the ministry and the work of the Holy Spirit. And so, I would say for the next 18 months, that was my primary area of study in the Scriptures, was the ministry and work of the Holy Spirit.

And I praised the Lord for those things, and reading books by Moody, and Torrey, and Finney, and Andrew Murray, and others like that, trying to just get through those books, and to sense what it meant to be filled with the Spirit of God.

And especially the praise that kept coming out of these books, to be endued with power from on high. To be endued with power from on high. And so this morning, how to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's direction.

First of all, and I've got a list of just six or seven things here, that we'll be looking at different things that maybe draw all of this together. A lot of people, I know, it's one of the greatest desires of my heart and of your heart, to be able to be led by the Spirit of God.

We want to be led by the Spirit of the Lord. And we want to know that. And so, I want this to be not only a doctrinal message, but also a very practical message in how you can have some assurance that you're being led by the Spirit of God, and sensing His direction in your life.

Recognizing the Need for the Spirit's Guidance

First of all, number one, recognize the need. If you want to write this down, and then we'll look at the passage of Scripture. Recognize the need. The need to be led by the Holy Spirit. And have such a need that you determine in your heart never to move outside of the will of God.

And I believe this is an important beginning. To recognize the need to be moved by the Holy Spirit. To be led by the Holy Spirit. And never ever to be led outside of the will of God. Now, here in Christ's life, in John, in chapter 5 and verse 19, Jesus speaks of this in his own life.

And he says here, "...then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself.". The Son can do nothing of himself. And I think when we consider the subject of how to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's direction, if the Son of God, who is very God Himself, recognized that He could do nothing of Himself, how much more must we start there?

To have that deep, heartfelt attitude. That deep, heartfelt need that I can do nothing of myself, even in this area of making decisions. And oh, I would caution you as you begin to grow in the Lord and your understanding of the Word begins to grow and your understanding of spiritual things.

Never let that cause you to lose that utter sense in your heart of destitution, even in this area of following the Lord. Be careful for nothing. And literally that means be anxious or worried about nothing.

But I think in another sense it means don't take anything for granted. And so Jesus Himself says, "...and the Son of Man can do nothing of Himself.". And literally studying this out in the Greek, that means that Jesus was saying here, literally, nothing can proceed out of Christ or the Son of Man Himself.

Nothing can come out of Himself. And so for us, that utter attitude within us that without God, without Christ, without the Holy Spirit, there is nothing of any value that can proceed out of ourselves, not even the knowing of the direction of God and being led by the Lord.

But notice Christ's way of moving was, but what do you see if the Father do? What things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. And as I understand this verse of Scripture, Jesus Christ rested patiently, waited upon the Father to move.

And then when the Father moved, He moved. And then He would wait again and rest. And when the Father would move, He would move. I did a study through the book of John with this thought in mind. And it's interesting that this gospel of John emphasizes this point, that Jesus, one place in the gospel of John, would say that, "...that which I speak, I speak not of myself, but I hear my Father speak.

And when he speaks, I speak.". And so this utter need, and even in Christ's life, that he would never move except the Father moved. He would never speak except the Father spoke. And oh, how we often rush through life, through our church services, through our relationships with our wife and our children.

And we go through the course of the day and we have moved and we have spoken and we have operated and we have functioned, never at any point looking for the Father to move, that we might move with him, listening for him to speak, that he might speak and then we might speak on his behalf.

So there must be first that recognition of that utter need and dependency upon God. Even the disciples in John chapter 13 and 14, you remember the story there in the latter part of John 13, when Christ had told the disciples for the first time, "...I am leaving you.".

And then John 14 begins to take place and the verses there in the beginning are very, very familiar to us. "...Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.". And the word troubled means they're literally agitated or churning.

They were so disturbed over this fact, they had such a sweet, intimate friendship with Christ and they had committed their lives to him. And now their heart, much like the washing machine inside, that churning, that's what that word was troubled.

Their very inward being was turning within them. And so Christ takes the opportunity there in John 14 to say to them, "...Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.". And he first comforts them with that, "...Where I am going, you know where I'm going.

And the way to get there, you know. I am the way, the truth and the life.". And then one of the disciples says, "...Jesus, you don't understand. We don't know where you're going. We don't know the way to get there.".

And so he answers there, "...I am the way, the truth and the life.". So he comforts them with that. And then the next thing he comforts them with is the thought that greater works than I have done, you shall do in my name.

And then the third thing that he comforts them with, he says, "...When I go, I will not leave you comfortless, but rather the Father will send the Comforter unto you, and he shall be and is the Holy Spirit.".

The word Comforter there means to come alongside one. To come alongside one. As I have been at your side, and when you have awakened in the morning and you've been able to look to me and say, "...Jesus, now what do we do today?".

Or, "...Jesus, we are in need. Help us.". Or, "...Jesus, there's this truth in Isaiah and chapter 53 and verse 5. We don't understand it, Jesus. Help us understand it.". And the disciples thought that they were going to lose this intimate, personal relationship with the Lord.

And so they were troubled inside. And so they asked him, "...What do we do?". And he said, "...I'm going to send you to come alongside one, and he shall be your Comforter. He will guide you. He will lead you.

He will strengthen you. He will teach you. And whatsoever things I have taught you, these things he will bring to your remembrance and give you understanding.". Now, that's where we need to start in this idea of how to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's direction, to awaken every morning with that kind of need to come into a service, if you're ministering as a pastor, with that kind of need and that kind of dependency and that kind of desire only to see the Father move, to sense what He is doing, and then move with Him.

I was in just our Sunday evening service, and I'm always constantly during the service trying to ask the question. We plan out the services, and we have already planned sort of when there's going to be a prayer here.

We're going to sing certain songs and certain specials, and we may be going to have a share time, and we plan those things, and we plan when we're going to receive the offering. So we basically plan the service out.

But my music person and my ushers and the congregation and the song leader and the organist and the pianist and all of those that are singing specials have this one understanding that Christ is in charge of His church and that we are there, and we have prayed in advance and believed God for Holy Spirit direction in advance.

But we also acknowledge that we may have missed that, or God may not even tell us until we get into the service what He wants to take place there. So those who sing specials know they are to prepare and to pray and be ready to sing, but they may not sing.

If God says, you don't sing, you don't sing. And I know that I have prepared to preach, and if God says, cut that off, do something else, then yes, Lord, it's your church, you're in charge, you lead, and you guide.

And we have found that on occasions God changes things, and it's generally when God changes things that we have some of the most unique and blessed movings of the Lord among us. For instance, I had a real burden upon my heart to do some teaching on the body of Christ and how it functions together, so I was well prepared this Sunday night with the first in a series of four messages on some teaching on the local church and the body of Christ and how we function together.

But yet as I moved into the service, I had these thoughts that, God, I'm not sure yet of what you really want here. So they would begin to sing, and for some reason I had this impression upon my heart that God did not want me to speak up on the platform, but rather to move the podium down in front of the first pew and to minister from there.

If I was going to speak on the body, the body of Christ, just sort of get down with the body of Christ. And so during the song service, I asked my song leader and my associate if they'd move the podium down for us.

It's not a large podium, just a small podium. And so they moved it down, and the song leader came to me and he said, Do you want to continue on with a couple of courses after the offering is taken? And I said, Yes, I wish that you would.

And you keep singing until I tell you something differently. I think God maybe wants to change the service tonight. And so I stood at the front pew, and as he began to sing, I turned around and I glanced at the second pew, and all of a sudden, my single pastor's face caught my attention.

And I noticed that he wasn't singing along with the courses, and that is totally out of character for him. And I didn't know whether he was struggling with something or burdened about something. So I felt impressed just to lean over and say, Mark, what's on your heart?

And when I leaned over and asked him that question, tears started flowing down his cheek, he said, Brother Al, I've been studying this thing of separation, biblical separation from the world. And my heart is just burning with what God's been showing me, and I just was thinking and meditating on that.

So I just turned back around and I said, Lord, maybe he's got the message for tonight and not I. And I seem to have a piece about that. So I turned back around and I said, Mark, we're going to sing one more course and give you three minutes and you're preaching tonight.

He came to the podium and he began to speak. And you knew that you knew that Christ had ordered it all up and he really didn't speak for any long. I'm glad he didn't have it all outlined and prepared to preach.

It just poured out of his heart. Holy Spirit conviction fell upon the church service. And he preached for about just a short period, about 20 or 25 minutes, and we just came, I came to the podium and we begin to sing Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty and open up people to come to the altars and people to kneel in their pews and and just all of the auditorium people were kneeling and the altars were filled and God was dealing with his body about this issue of personal separation from the world.

Holiness. And then, as is in our church, we when we receive someone in to the membership, we receive them in covenant relationship. It's not baptistic in nature. There's a lot of things about our church that are not baptistic in nature as far as forms of government and the way of running the church and different things of that nature.

And it's really interesting the doors that the Lord has opened up. Just 10 days ago, I spoke to a group of pastors in the Independent Fundamental Baptist rank about this large. And then to be able to move from there to 10 days later to come to here is really unheard of.

If they knew I was here, they probably wouldn't let me be speaking there. No, no, they have they have pretty well an awareness. But I've learned something, always earned the right to be heard. And I begin to sit among these brethren and obey God.

And after a year or so of sitting among them in their meetings, one of them who knew me personally asked me to speak. Instead of preaching against a lot of things, I just preached about Jesus. And then another asked and another and another.

It's almost now getting embarrassing with all of these preachers as they come together. It's sort of supposed to be known that everybody sort of has the opportunity to speak. And I'm speaking almost every time we get together now.

And they're listening. And little by little, I can more unfold the truths of revival and praise the Lord. They're listening. God's opening their heart to the truth. But in our back to the illustration in our covenant relationship, as a person joins our church, they must be willing to make a covenant, a public covenant.

That is, first, a covenant to love unconditionally, and then secondly, a covenant to live in the world and in the community with holiness. And if they break the covenant of holiness by sinning in front of their peers or those they work with, and we all will, we acknowledge that.

That they'll humble themselves and make it right that the name of Christ would not be defamed in any way. Well, after the first verse, one member came up and he said, Brother Al, I need to talk to the congregation.

And he stood and confessed a couple of things that he had done to defame the name of Christ in the community. And he said, I've asked the Lord's forgiveness and I'm going to go to those people and ask their forgiveness.

But I've dishonored the covenant that I made with you. Please forgive me. And then another. And I remember a young couple that came up and this went on for a period of time. As probably five or ten came, even in this one area.

And this one couple had just went to their tenth high school graduation reunion. And as they were there, before they'd given their lives to the Lord, they were sharing that how they had really enjoyed the worldly dances.

And how going to the reunion, the music was there and all of their friends and all were dancing. And they had a sense in their heart they should not participate in this worldly sensual kind of dancing.

And it's interesting, I've never, ever, ever in ten years that I've preached there ever said anything against dancing. Never. I don't know that I've ever preached against smoking. I have found that when you get people right with God, inwardly the Holy Spirit is a good preacher in these areas of their life.

And so they said they were there and she was sharing. And she said that we first, we went out and there was a slow dance. And we decided that that would not be too bad. So we went out and we danced slowly together.

And then we sat down and then came more of the sensual dances. And we found ourselves out there and before we knew it, we were really participating in all of this. And I'm sharing with you, they were standing there sharing and they weren't, they were tears streaming down their face.

And how they felt like that they had had an opportunity to be Christ-like and they blew it. To be a witness and they blew it. You see, only by being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, we would have missed Sunday evening what God had for us.

And that sensitivity first comes with a realization. Father, you move and we'll move. Secondly, in this area of how to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, turn with me, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 16.

Recognizing the Mind of Christ

Secondly, recognize you already have the mind of Christ. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 16, you may want to read the verses prior to this. In verse 14, let's just pick up there. For the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him.

Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual. Anytime you see in the New Testament that word spirit with the U-A-L up on it, it means controlled by the Spirit.

All those things controlled. For instance, the spiritual gifts, it literally means the gifts that are under the control of the Holy Spirit. But he that is spiritual. Remember in Galatians chapter 6 it says, Ye that are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness.

That word spiritual means, ye that are under the control of the things of the Spirit, restore such a one. So here, but he that is under the control of the things of the Spirit judgeth or discerneth all things.

Yet he himself is discerned of no man. For who, now notice verse 16,. For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Now that's what we're speaking about today. We want to know moment by moment the mind of the Lord.

Who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? Who hath known this mind of God that he might be instructed and might have the instruction of the Lord? Now here it is, but we have the mind of Christ.

Recognize that you have within you the mind of Christ. The instruction of the Lord and the will of God is already possessed within you. You already have the mind of Christ. A lot of people go at this thing at trying to find the will of God.

And they look at it, I know I used to look at it this way in my life. Was I saw this great big forest filled with trees. And God somewhere hidden behind one of those trees had his will for my life. And what I was to do was to go into that forest and look behind and seek and search until I had found hidden somewhere the will of God and the instruction of the Lord for my life.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say seek to know the will of God. It always says seek to know God, to know him. And to maybe put this in practical terms as I learning in my own life. I believe that right now that God is revealing to me all of the will of God that he wants me to know right now.

And so when I come about to wanting to know the instruction of God or to recognize the leading of the Holy Spirit in my life. I first don't seek to know the will of God, but I seek to know that I know that I know that I know that I know that I know that I am right with God.

And then when I know that I know that I know that I am right with God and the Spirit is bearing witness that I am right with the Lord. And feel with the Spirit that I accept at that point that God is revealing to me all of the known will that he wants me to know.

And if there's certain questions that I have about certain things that I may need to do or that I would like to do or I am considering doing. And God is not giving me any further instruction in that area.

I accept what instruction I have and rest in that. Now I want you to take all that I'm going to say in context because I want this to be a very practical message. And this is a very difficult subject to speak upon because it's a very confusing subject to most people.

And I think one of the reasons why it is confusing is because that Satan really gets involved here. And he's always trying to confuse the minds of believers that they may not know the will of God to keep us from obeying him.

Quenching and Grieving the Holy Spirit

Point three now that I want to make. Why must I first seek to know that I am right with God? Instead of looking these verses up, I'll just give them to you because I want to move to get through all of this.

First Thessalonians 519 says quench not the spirit of God. Quench not the spirit of God. The word quench there means to render ineffective. Render not the spirit of God ineffective. And we're speaking in the area this morning of being instructed by the spirit of the Lord, being led by the spirit of God, being sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

So if there is known sin or there is sin in my life, then that sin has quenched or rendered the Holy Spirit ineffective in this area of leading me and guiding me. Even as I might go to the word to find leadership and guidance and direction, as I go to the word, the spirit of God is not illuminating.

I may be getting some some knowledge out of the word, but I'm not getting wisdom and counsel, spiritual wisdom and counsel out of the word of God apart from the Holy Spirit. So I must first know that I am right with God so that the spirit of God is not quenched, even in this area of giving me spiritual instruction and spiritual leadership and guidance.

And secondly, Ephesians 430 says, picking up in verse twenty nine, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. But that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers and grieve not.

There's the phrase and grieve not. The Holy Spirit of God, grieve not. You see, any sin in our lives is actually spiritual adultery, spiritual adultery. Now, think with me about that. How would you feel, wife, if your husband went out and you caught him in the act of adultery?

Husband, how would you feel if you caught your wife in the act of adultery? When we sin and I think it is important for us and that will help us to hate iniquity and love righteousness is to see sin from God's perspective.

Sometimes I think as we preach that we simply must go to the blood and be cleansed. And and I think we could not preach that enough. And the simplicity and finding God's forgiveness and God's cleansing, sometimes in teaching that we almost come to the place that we belittle the hurt and the grief and the pain that we bring to God, our husband, the Lord Jesus.

When we sin, don't turn there, but in Jeremiah in chapter four or chapter six and verse seven, God sees the sins of Israel. And this is what God says it does to him as a fountain casted out her waters.

So she that is Israel, God's people casted out her wickedness. Violence and spoil is heard in her before me continually is grief. And wounds, the sins of God's people pour out in the very throne room of God.

Their wickedness is poured out before the Lord. It is very presence. And they wound God, they deeply hurt him. And they deeply grieve him. Just as you would be grieved if your mate was in a tall tree, God is grieved.

And all this may give us a greater understanding of his love and mercy. But when we sin and we are not right with the Lord. Then our sins not only render the Holy Spirit ineffective and inoperative in our lives, especially in this area of leadership and guidance.

But we grieve the Holy Spirit and thus we cannot know leadership of God. The guidance and direction of God in our lives. Now, let me speak to the one sin that I think so hinders us from having this clear direction from the Holy Spirit in our minds.

And that is, first of all, the sin of fear. We are afraid of the will of God. Many of you went and prayed and said, Lord, I want to know your will. You don't seem to hear any clear direction. You don't seem to have any clear direction.

And often it is because you really want to hear, but you are really afraid to hear. There may be many of you sitting here, a good number. It would not surprise me that there would be a good number of you that in certain areas of your life, you are wanting instruction.

You already have that instruction within you. Because you have Christ. You have the mind of Christ. And yet there is a part of you that wants to know, but there yet is another part that still has this sin of fear.

You are afraid. You are afraid of the will of the Lord and what sacrifice He might call. You are afraid that the will of God may lead you from some present worldly things that you have certain securities in.

And so fear being sin has rendered the Holy Spirit ineffective. It has quenched Him and grieved Him. And you have no clear voice of God. The spirit of fear. Afraid. Perfect love. Understanding that God loves you perfectly.

And that anything He would ever ask you to do is good for you as well as good for Him. And good for the Kingdom of God. Do not fear. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Do not be afraid of the will of God. The second sin that often is a great hindrance here in this sensitivity to the Spirit of the Lord is the sin of unbelief. First, unbelief that God really could clearly lead you.

And secondly, unbelief that if He told you to do something, He actually would provide for that which He would call you to do. And that unbelief renders the Holy Spirit ineffective and inoperative in this leading and guiding in your life.

And there is no sensitivity. Dear brothers and sisters, I think that what we're speaking to this morning is one of the greatest needs in the body of Christ. That there is so little sensitivity to the Holy Spirit that we go through most of our days with very little obedience to God.

And we have so complicated this thing of being led by the Spirit of God that so much unbelief. In the next hour, I'm going to speak a little bit to the subject. That I believe that most of our spiritual lives, we are man-centered in the way we think about things and not Christ-centered.

And I want to speak to that issue. And I believe even in this thing of knowing the will of God, we are man-centered and not Christ-centered. We must move on now. Number four, how does the Holy Spirit speak to us or move us?

That's a good question, isn't it? Okay, Brother Al, you said we have the mind of Christ. You've told us that we might be able to be hearing this mind of Christ. How does the Holy Spirit move us or speak to us?

How the Holy Spirit Speaks and Leads

First of all, in the book of Acts, if you would, just turn there quickly. Acts chapter 13, verse 2. Just to first show biblically that the Holy Spirit does speak to us. We're going to do a moment on how He speaks, but that we might be clear on this thing.

The Holy Spirit does speak to us. As they ministered to the Lord, in verse 2, this is the church, and fasted, the Holy Spirit... What's the next word? Say it aloud. He said, didn't He? That's interesting, isn't it?

The Holy Spirit said. For some reason, we look at the disciples and the apostles and we think, oh, the reason why they were so clear in how to follow the Lord was God was audibly speaking to them. I don't think so.

I think the Holy Spirit said just like He says today. Back up with me just a little earlier in the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 10. Remember the story here that Peter is up on the roof and God is trying to deal with him in this area of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles.

And as He is doing that, in verse 18, let's pick up. And called and asked whether Simon... These are the three men that have showed up. Sir named Peter were lodged there. And Peter thought on the vision.

As Peter thought, while Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit... What's the next word? Said. Now how does the Spirit say? Signed to. By the Holy Spirit. He said. How does He say? Now don't look the passages up, but there are three New Testament words.

Ephesians 1 .14 uses the word the earnest of the Spirit. We have the earnest of the Spirit. Acts 20 and 23, Paul speaking about the Spirit says there. He says there, I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem.

And the Holy Spirit. Or the Holy Spirit witnesses. That bonds and afflictions abide in me. So we have first the word earnest. Then we have the Spirit witnessing. Or we might put in other terms, bearing witness to us.

And perhaps the most clearest word in the New Testament concerning this said of the Holy Spirit. How does He say? How does this mind that we have within us? The instruction of Christ that we have within us.

How does it speak to us? First John 2 .20 says this. But you have an unction. The word unction. You have an unction from the Holy One. You have an unction from the Holy One. So we have an earnestness.