In
an earlier post titled “Empowered to Profit” I highlighted that the secret for
our success in this life lies with our relationship with the Holy Spirit. I
pointed out that the Holy Spirit is the key for success because He is the one
who has been given the mandate to teach the Christian and lead him in the way
he/she should go. For the Christian, the importance of knowing and
understanding the voice of the Holy Spirit cannot be overemphasized especially
in the area of living a successful life. He has been given to us as a gift from
God not only to prepare us for heaven but also to lead us in this life. He is
the assurance of our salvation (Ephesians
1:13,14; 2 Corinthians 1:22) but
He is also our ever present help in this life. He is our greatest resource, but
sadly He is very under utilized by many in the body of Christ. May that not be
true of you in Jesus’ name.
The
first step in discerning the voice of the Holy Spirit is to first acknowledge
that the Holy Spirit is a person, a part of the Godhead, who dwells in us. A
lot of people consider Him to just be a force or power but He is actually a
person. In all the references that Jesus made of the Holy Spirit, He referred
to Him as a person (check John 14:16,17,26;
15:26; 16:8,13,14). That is the first step, once you acknowledge or
understand that He is a person, as Christ is, it will not be difficult for you
to accept that He has a voice and therefore speaks. You might note that in our
everyday language, we use the word person to refer to a living being, i.e. the
body when it is dead is no longer called a person because every time we use the
word person, we are referring to a living being. This means for us to refer to
the Holy Spirit as a person, it means He is a living being and He has the ability
to speak to those He relates with.
However,
let me point out here that there is a difference between a human being and a
personality. Personality suggests qualities like: talking, moving, hearing.
Human beings are persons because they exhibit these traits. Human beings are
also corporeal beings because they have a physical body. The Holy Spirit, on
the other hand, is a personality but not a corporeal being because He does not
have a physical body
The
second step is to understand that God speaks to all of His children, not just the church leaders, pastors, apostles
or prophets. Others say that God has stopped speaking to people, i.e. that He
spoke only to the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles, but I would
like to tell you that He continues to speak today because He is the same
yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews
13:8).
Others
still, limit God’s voice to those who are considered to be “anointed”, they
think that God speaks only to “special” people. But let me point out that you
are special too. God has given you a mandate, a task, a purpose to fulfill in
this world which no other person can fulfill and for you to accomplish it, you
need His leading which He will provide through the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, if
you are a Christian it means you are anointed. The Greek word for ‘Christ’,
from which we also derive the word ‘Christian’ means ’anointed’, ‘the anointed
One and the body of His anointing’; so Christians are “the anointed ones or the
body of His anointing – His church”, thus making you individually anointed as
well. In fact the apostle John, in referring to the Holy Spirit, talks of Him as an anointing that we
all have as Christians (1 John 2:27).
I pray and hope this post will remove some of the misconceptions people have
about the leading of the Holy Spirit.
As
a child of God you are entitled to
divine leading. In fact, it is that leading that confirms that you are a child
of God for “as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14).
Furthermore, Jesus says all who belong to God hear what God says and further, His
sheep listen to His voice (John 8:47;
10:27), and this is critical otherwise He would not be our Shepherd. If He
is to shepherd us, then we need to be able to discern His voice. All this means
you have the capacity or ability to hear His voice; do not be intimidated when
others tell you they have heard such and such from God, you too can hear and
you must hear otherwise you will not be a successful Christian.
In
a nutshell, I will say that for you to be led by the Holy Spirit, you need to
be aware that He is a person who dwells within you to guide and lead in the way
you should go. Let me add that God does not speak to you just to threaten or
make you afraid, rather He speaks to advise, instruct, teach, counsel and
guide. God arranges to lead you into what He has planned for your life.
However,
I would like to point out here that the primary reason God will speak to us
through the Holy Spirit is not to just lead us, but He will speak to us because
we are in a relationship with Him. Moreover this relationship is likened to
that of a bridegroom and his bride. For those of you who have been or are in
such a relationship, you will agree that a major ingredient for such a
relationship or indeed any relationship to be successful is communication. You
have to speak to that person frequently and it is not just about advising them,
you will joke and laugh with them, share stories, affirm them etc. That is exactly
what the Holy Spirit wants to do in our lives.
Now
let us consider five of the ways in which God speaks to us[1].
It is as we recognize that God is able to speak to us in these ways that we will
be alerted of His voice. In other words, the knowledge that He can speak to you
through one or more of these ways will prepare you and also make you pay closer
attention to Him. I will dwell a bit on the first two ways in which God speaks
to us and then briefly share on the last three. Note that the ordering does not
signify the order in which God speaks to us; it is just an ordering that I have
used for ease of explanation.
1.
The Scripture (God’s word). In discerning the
leadership of the Holy Spirit, knowledge and understanding of the Word of God
is very essential. Not only does the Holy Spirit lead us directly through the Word,
it is also the means by which we test every other form of leading to ensure
that it is truly God’s leading. Your success is therefore partly dependent on
how much of the Word of God you know and understand because the Holy Spirit, in
leading you, will take what He has already spoken in the Word and He will not
go outside of the Word. In Psalms 138:2, we read that God has exalted His Word
even above His name and in John 16:13-15,
Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will take of what He has already spoken.
His instruction to Joshua was to
meditate on the Word and observe it, because his success was dependent on it
(see Joshua 1:8). In Psalms 119:105, we are told that the
word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path; in other words, we know the
way we are to go by it. And 2 Timothy
3:16 tells us that the word of God is given for our instruction. All of
this to stress the importance of, and the role, the word of God plays in our
instruction.
In fact, in some cases you might
find being silent on a particular matter because He has already spoken of it
explicitly in the Bible. For example in the choice of who to marry, He has
already said you are not to be unequally yoked (2 Corinthians 6:14) and if you ask Him about marrying someone who
is not a Christian, His silence will not mean He has endorsed it, rather He is
just saying “Have you not read…?” (this is the same response Jesus gave the
Pharisees when asked about divorce in Matthew
19:1-8, meaning there are some things we should not even ask God because He
has already written it in the Bible).
Some have said that the BIBLE is an
acronym for ‘Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth’, the key word being ‘Instructions.’
The Bible gives us the instructions by which we are to live. The Bible gives
direct instructions on how we are to go about life in certain cases but at
times it only gives us a principle by which we are to abide. This is why the
consistent study of the Bible is a key discipline for every Christian. Notice I
used the word study, do not just read the Bible like you do a newspaper or a
novel; rather, study it - the whole of it and not just parts of it - because in
it you will find the counsel of God for life.
Besides directly giving instructions
through the Bible, God can bring the scriptures to your heart in such a way
that you understand what God is saying about the situation you are faced with
and the decisions you have to make. As you read the scriptures, a light or
impression will come to you as the word will relates to your situation. In
other words, you will see the application of the word to your situation. The
Psalmist says “the entrance of your word brings light” implying the word will
bring an understanding about the situations you face (see Psalms 119:130). The limitation here is that the interpretation of
every scripture depends on the purity of the heart. However, it is worth noting
that scriptures will always back each other up; so if you are not clear, check
if there are no other scriptures in conflict with what you are sensing or if
there are other scriptures supporting what you are sensing.
I will give a recent example of
where God used the scripture to speak to me concerning a certain matter. I am
leading a certain group of people who are organizing a big event. During our
preparations, we got to a place where many felt discouraged and did not know
how we could move forward because we did not have the resources we needed to take
the next steps. During my personal devotions I read of Jesus’ feeding of the
5,000 and the 4,000. As I was reading these portions of scripture, I got the
sense that God was telling me to pay close attention to the principles He was
teaching through these miraculous events. As I considered the scriptures, I
began to understand that God was telling us as a group to basically give Him
what we have by using whatever resources we have available to start taking the
next steps and He would supply the rest. You see we had almost decided to
remain where we were until we got the required resources. As I shared it with
the group we began to do just that and sure enough doors have been opened and
resources made available. This is just one way in which God leads us.
2. The
inner voice of the Holy Spirit.
I believe this is the primary and most common means through which God will
speak to you and me. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit has come to live
inside of us and He is not dumb. The Spirit of God who lives in you knows the
mind of God concerning your life and He would lead you from within (1 Corinthians 2:10,11). You, however, need to train
yourself to differentiate between the voice of the Holy Spirit and the voice of
your reasoning. This is because if your mind is not renewed by God’s word, you
may hear the voice of your own reasoning and think that it is the voice of God.
We, therefore, need to train ourselves in order to be led this way
because we need to learn and recognise how He speaks to us in our spirit. As we
grow in fellowship with God, we become more aware of His voice. Naturally, it
is easier for you to recognise the voice of someone you spend a lot of time
talking with, so learn to spend a lot of time with the Holy Spirit and grow in
intimacy with Him.
Being led of the Holy Spirit in this
way can come to you as a spark in the heart- a glow which can continue to grow
with time. It is an inner consciousness or conviction concerning certain
decisions. It is an inner knowing, and I can challenge you that we have all
been led by God in this way before. Remember all the times you felt something
within you caution you or compel you to do certain things. Most people when
they have not paid attention to this inner check will say “But I felt something
within me say…” Well it is not something; rather it is someone, the person of
the Holy Spirit.
One of the ways to know whether what
you are sensing is from the Lord is peace. This peace is an inner quietness and
an assurance in your heart that lasts not for a few moments but every time. Isaiah 32:17 says the effect of
righteousness, which is right standing with God, is peace and Colossians 3:15[2]
(TEV) says “The peace that Christ gives
is to guide you in the decisions you make; for it is to this peace that God has
called you together in the one body” (also check this verse in the
Amplified version). Therefore, if you do not have this peace then do not follow
it, “for God is not the author of
confusion, but of peace” (1
Corinthians 14:33).
If you still have questions,
continue to pray about it until there is that assurance within you, do not be
presumptuous. One of the scriptures I have come to like is Philippians 3:15 where Paul gives us the assurance that God will
make all things clear to us in due course. This, however, should not give us an
excuse to disobey God because we do not fully understand what He is calling us
to do or because we are afraid of going out and doing it.
Note that this leading
is not just for big decisions but even for seemingly small ones because God
wants to be involved in every area of our life. It is in these small things
that we begin to learn to recognise His voice. I remember in 2008, there was a
time when I felt that God was not speaking to me anymore because I was not
getting a “word” for anyone or concerning big decisions. But one day, I
realised that God was in fact speaking to me more than before but He was
speaking to me about the seemingly small things. I remember Him telling me
things like routes to use when driving around town and how to plan my day. One day I was dropping off a
friend at her house and I got the sense that I should drop her by the gate, I
did not pay much attention because I had always dropped her inside the gate. On
this particular day, however, I scratched the car as I was reversing out. It
was a small scratch but a very good reminder to pay closer attention to the
voice of the Holy Spirit.
I once heard a preacher speaking on
courtship say that, “If you do not hear God’s voice concerning the little
things of life, how are you going to hear Him when He speaks to you about your
future spouse?” You see, it begins with the small things for “he who is
faithful in little will be faithful in much” (Luke 16:10). So learn from the little things, pay close attention.
He can speak to you about even the clothes you wear each day. As you exercise
yourself in hearing His voice in the little things, you will be able to hear
Him more clearly on the major things.
3.
Dreams, visions and trances. In Job 33:14-18 we are told that God speaks to man in dreams and
visions of the night. I have heard it said that God uses these to get your
attention when your heart is far from Him. In other words, God will speak to
you in a dream because He has attempted to speak to you in other ways but you
have not been attentive. This is taken from what verse 14 says “For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man
perceiveth it not”. Now, I cannot vouch for this interpretation but suffice
to say that God does speak to us through dreams, visions and trances (see Psalms 89:19, Hosea 12;10). For each of
these, you can check Genesis 28:11-18
where God appears to Jacob at Bethel, Matthew
2:12-22 where God instructs the wise men not to go back to Herod and where
Joseph is instructed to flee to Egypt on his return to go to Nazareth, Acts
9:10-19 where Jesus appears to Ananias in a vision, Acts 16:9-10 where God spoke to Paul in a vision, and Acts 10:10-16 where Peter fell into a
trance. There are more scriptures which we can use here but I have just given
these as examples and you will note that in each instance God was giving
instruction to His people through visions.
You need to be very careful when
interpreting dreams as coming from God and relying upon them as being God’s
leading. This is because dreams can be very deceptive and the devil can
manipulate them for he can transform into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). You must,
therefore, subject every dream to prayer until you get light and direction
about it, consider Daniel who took some time to pray with his friends
concerning the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2). This also shows us that in some cases you can share the
dream with others to help you with the interpretation. This is very important
because I know and have heard of a lot of people who have gone astray because
they did not carefully judge and test the dreams they had.
It is also worth noting that dreams
may come as a result of many cares and much activity (Ecclesiastes 5:3). This means that sometimes it is anxiety or
thinking about something too much that will bring about a dream and so it is
not necessarily God that is speaking to you. As a leader of a student
organization in college I remember times when, days before a national retreat
we were organizing, I would continually dream about it and in those dreams I
would be working out how to handle some of the challenges we were facing or
even of how the retreat should be run. All this time, it was not God speaking
to me rather the dreams came as a result of activity. At the same time, I can
also testify of times when God has spoken to me concerning things to come and
even current situations through dreams and these helped me to better understand
what was going on.
In the case of visions, we find 3
types of visions mentioned in the Bible: a spiritual vision, a trance and an
open vision. You will notice that I have categorized a trance as a type of a
vision. These different types of visions are defined in this way: a spiritual
vision is where you see with the eyes of the spirit and not with your physical
eyes like in the case of blind Paul in Acts
9 who saw the Lord when he had been blinded; a trance is where your
physical senses are suspended to the extent that you don't know where you are
or what is going on around you as in the case of Peter in the scripture already
pointed out above; an open vision is where you see with your physical eyes and
your physical senses are intact.
Let me also say here that one needs
to be careful with the interpretation of visions. In the Old Testament we are
told of false prophets who conjured up visions and misled the Israelites,
unfortunately this is also the case today for Jesus warned us that many false
prophets will come in the end times but we should be alert (see Jeremiah 14:14, Jeremiah 23:16 and Matthew
24:11,24). This is why the apostle John in 1 John 4:1-3 tells us to test every spirit and you do this by
weighing it against the Word. If the vision does not exalt Christ and if it
does not line up with the Word of God then you can be assured that it is not
from God. This just emphasizes again why it is important that you should know
the Word of God. It is the best means by which you can check if anything is
truly coming from God. As pointed out earlier, the Word will not always lead
you directly by saying something directly in line with what your situation but
the principles laid out in it can give direction.
4. Prophecy. Today, a lot of people rely on
this to get leading from God. However, one should know that prophecy should
only come as a confirmation of what God has told you before. An account in Acts 15:32 tells of how Judas and Silas
as prophets exhorted and confirmed the disciples, in other words they confirmed
what they already knew. The Bible tells us to also judge all prophecy, in other
words, we are not to always take it at face value (1 Corinthians 14:29-32, 1
John 4:1). This is because although it is the perfect Spirit of God
speaking through prophecy, the vessel that is being used is imperfect. You
judge prophecy by what God has already spoken to you concerning the matter at
hand but also according to the word of God. You must be careful to test every
spirit and see whether it is of God. Many today make the mistake of just
accepting prophecy at face value and are therefore led astray. This is not to
say that you should despise prophecy, for we are exhorted to honor it. Rather
what I am saying is that you are to carefully judge it by the scriptures.
You
should also note that the gift prophecy is for edification,
and exhortation, and comfort.
For the New Testament Christian, prophecy will not necessarily tell you what
you should do, it may tell you of things to come but will not give you specific
guidance. Consider the account in Acts
21:10,11, Agabus told Paul what
would happen but did not give him specific guidance and from Acts 20:22,23 you will notice that
Agabus only confirmed what Paul already knew. This was not new information to
Paul.
Furthermore, there are times when
you have to wait for the prophecy to come to pass. At such times you are wage
war by that word by not only bringing it before God but also by taking the
necessary steps to position yourself for the fulfillment of the prophecy (see 1 Timothy 1:18). Most times I find that
we want a word of prophecy to come true right there and then, yet sometimes
prophecy is for a particular time, a set time. Also, you need to remember that
the word of prophecy will not always give you the full details of what is going
to happen. It now rests with you to seek God and find out more.
Let me give a warning on prophecy
that others have already given, Do not build your life on prophecies. Do not
guide your life by prophecies. Build your life on the Word! Let those other
things be secondary. Put the Word of God first! The indwelling Spirit is your primary
source of guidance by the word of God, cultivate/grow your inner man.
5.
Counsel from disciplers and elders: I think this is an area most us
disregard when it comes to seeking God’s leading. Yet we see God leading His
people through godly counsel with drastic consequences upon the refusal to heed
such counsel. A classic example would be Rehoboam who in 1 Kings 12:1-24 lost part of the kingdom of Israel because he chose
to ignore the counsel of elders and instead listened to his fellow youths (see
also 2 Chronicles 10:1-11:4).
The Holy Spirit may also speak to
you through godly counsel of disciplers or elders. A discipler is someone to
whom your heart is open, someone more mature than you in the faith, has
knowledge of the Word, has received Christ and has continued to walk in Him
with evidence of character for a long period. Their counsel does not come
merely as information; it should come as confirmation and should bring about
peace in you.
Galatians
2:2 gives us an
example of Paul who submitted his vision and revelation to the apostles who had
oversight over the preaching of the gospel and to whom he was accountable. Proverbs 15:22 tells us that in the
multitude of counsel purposes are established. Do not walk alone, have someone
who can provide objective counsel to you, there is a place for them in
discerning God’s leading.
In
conclusion, I would like to urge you to submit your plans first to God and He
will establish them (see Proverbs 3:5,6;
16:3). In submitting them to Him, you should be willing to agree with Him
when He says no or changes the manner in which you are to carry them out
because obedience is crucial for your success. As you do everything, bear in
mind that He has promised to lead you; in fact, it is not merely a promise. As
we shared previously, He has given Himself the duty of leading you. Isaiah 30:20,21 says you shall hear a
voice behind you telling you which way you should go, and Isaiah 50:4,5 informs us
that if we are truly His disciples then He wakens our ears morning by morning
so that we will hear His voice.
God
is speaking to us more than we give Him credit for; it is just that our
reception of His signal may not be functioning all the time. And so the problem
is not with the transmitter, God in this sense, it is with the receiver which
is you and me. So clean up that receiver, become more aware that He is there to
lead you to success and begin to expect His leading and obey it.
Grace
and peace
[1] This
is not an exhaustive study, so I would urge you to study the topic more
extensively on your own, read books that specifically dwell on the subject and
find what others have taught on the same
[2] Most versions of this verse say let the peace of Christ rule. The
Greek word translated rule (brabeuo) means to act as an umpire hence generally, "to arbitrate, decide”, representing
"the peace of Christ" as deciding all matters in the hearts of
believers. (Vines NT Dictionary)
