The Leading of the Holy Spirit

So, we want to talk about the leading of the Holy Spirit.

How do we follow, how do we know, how do we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit?

A few things, if you go online and listen to sermons about the leading of the Holy

Spirit, if you listen to ten sermons, you're probably going to get eleven different explanations of

what that means and how to do it.

I was listening to one Pentecostal preacher on the radio, and she said that the

leading of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, the way the Spirit works is you just follow your.

Heart.

Being led by the Spirit means you follow your heart.

Well, this might surprise you, well, well, hold on, hold on.

I'll take it.

Leading of the Spirit, follow your heart.

It might surprise you, I actually think there is some legitimacy to that advice in that believers have been given

a new heart.

Psalm 37 verse 4 says, delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the

desires.

Of your heart.

It is God who puts the desires in there.

However, on the other hand, the Bible does say the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately

wicked.

Who can know it?

Jeremiah 17 verse 9.

So you have both statements.

So we have the new nature, the new heart that can follow your heart.

But then that old nature, this is why going back a month or so, the two natures of the.

Believer.

That's why we need to know that.

So there's still that old nature that's there where following your heart can get you into a lot

of trouble.

So the first thing might surprise you.

This isn't going to surprise you when I say we always have to go back to the word of God.

We always have to test it through the word.

So the cloud above the tabernacle, yes, the Israelites could see it.

It was either stationary and they remained there or it would move and they

would move.

But they really didn't know that unless they had the word of God to instruct them, okay, we can see this

cloud, it's staying here or there's the cloud, we can see it, it's moving.

They didn't know what that meant except that the word of God instructed them, here's what you do, right?

So they still had to go back to the word of God.

So follow your heart, have a new heart and it can be led by, test it against the Bible and make sure.

So we always have to go back to God's word.

I mean, this is kind of basic if you don't know that.

All right, any comments so far, the leading of the Holy Spirit?

This is a kind of a difficult subject in some ways, Marcus.

Well, just that verse, delight yourself in the Lord, that's where you start.

If you're delighting yourself in the Lord, well, then your heart is going to be in the right place

sometimes to thrive.

So let me just give you my thoughts on the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Christians might wonder, should I take this job or should I take this job?

Should I marry this person or should I marry that person?

Should I move to this city or what should I do?

God is not going to give you specifics.

God is not going to speak from heaven and say, marry Jamie.

You know, that's not what he's going to do.

There's no Bible verse, thou shalt move to Baltimore, speaking directly to you.

That's not going to happen.

So how do you know?

Well, you look to principles in God's word first, we already said that.

And then like the Israelites, we act or move

when we see God move in.

What do I mean by that?

This is my understanding of it.

I believe God leads us in his will when we are confronted with situations that are beyond

our control.

If they were situations within our control, we wouldn't know if it's God opening the door or

me opening the door.

So we need to follow what God is doing and we need to watch and we need to do a lot of.

Waiting.

What's the longest period of time that the Israelites stayed camped?

I don't know, but there were some times where they were there a long time, they had to wait on God.

Sometimes you always think, well, I need to be doing some, I need to be doing something.

Well, sure.

But sometimes you need to wait on the Lord.

So we have to be active and faithful with what God has entrusted to us, but we need to be

patiently waiting for God to open up that door.

If that seems too subjective, I would say this, as

long as there is no clear command in scripture, if you're delighting yourself in the Lord,

you can do what you want.

That might not sound spiritual to you, but if there's no clear command in the scripture one way or the other,

you can do what you want to do, what you feel is best, what seems

wise and God seems to be doing this and yes, that's what I'm going

to do.

Obviously, pray about it, consider what is wise, what is best.

Ultimately, the Lord has to give us peace in our spirit.