LESSON: FOUR
TOPIC:  HOW TO BE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD  4
TEXT:  Acts 17:16; Ecclesiastics 1:17; Mark 2:8: Ecclesiastics 7:9; Romans 8:16; 2nd Corinthians 2:13: Romans 1:9; Acts 18:5; John 11:33

MEMORY TRACK:  

ln our last lesson, by God’s grace, we learnt that there is a culture we are trusting God to help us not to lose in our generation as Christians, and that is the culture of deliberately waiting on our born-again new creation spirits! Last week we spoke, by God’s grace, of the distractions that makes it difficult to give attention to our spirits, particularly the dangers around “information overload” amongst other distractions. Also, we mentioned and explained some habits that can make us prosper in our endeavour of being Spirit-conscious rather than mental or outward information-conscious, when it comes to leading.

Some of these godly habits can help us give attention to our spirits: Reading the Scriptures; Praying in the Spirit; Reading godly and biblically-sound Christian literature; and listening to godly and biblically lyrical music.

The spirit of a Christian: the place for believers to deliberately live and spring from! (1st Corinthians 2:11)

Before the soul would be made spiritual (Christ – 1st Corinthians 10:3-4), and before the soul would be saved (incorruptible/Everlasting – 1st Peter 1:3-5) It is good to know that through the nature of Christ that God has given us in our recreated human spirits (at the New Birth), He put light for life in our spirits through the Righteousness of God which our spirits are, and which our spirits constantly measures out (Romans 1:16; Romans 8:10).

The truth is that the spirit of a Christian is not just THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN CHRIST by nature and personality (2nd Corinthians 5:11; Romans 3:22) It is also a measuring rod or standard of what is right according to God’s standard for each and every believer. We may not fully understand all the doctrines or mysteries of the gospel (Colossians 2:2) at the different seasons of our  Christian growth (which is obvious because our souls has to grow from babyhood to childhood to man/sonship to fatherhood – 1st Corinthians 13:11) But in God’s wisdom, our new creation-spirit was given us to serve as (amongst other things) “a yardstick/parameter of knowing God’s will or God’s righteousness or what is right on different issues of our day to day Christian life here on earth”.

What “the word of Faith” movement has relied on and taken advantage of so much, and prospered by is following both the leading of The Holy Spirit in their spirits, and much more knowing how to “pay attention to their spirits” for guidance and life. Yes, they may not have been granted a deep thrust into the knowledge of the gospel of Christ (Romans 1:16) – the power of God that was meant to teach their souls the spiritual life that their spirits have become. But with the milk, they learnt and mastered how to explore and rely on their spirits for directions for life. Therefore, coming into so many conquests and victory over devils and demons, and attaining and undeniable status of righteousness.

It is good to state, at this juncture, that the reason why the Holy Spirit teaches and trains believers with precepts and doctrines is to help wash the believer’s soul in a measure (milk) Afterwards, make the soul spiritual (Christ) so that the soul can better give attention to and expressly yield the recreated new creation-spirit, and then the soul together with the born-again spirit make a journey into salvation (Hebrews 7:25).

Pay attention to Your spirit (and of course the Holy Spirit in Your spirit) for life and living

The leading of the Holy Spirit is not going to be “twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, four weeks a month, twelve months a year occurrence, no! The leading of The Holy Spirit is at the discretion of the Holy Spirit, when He chooses to lead us and/or when we deliberately take matters to the Lord or seek guidance specifically from The Holy Spirit of God! (Acts 8:26-39).

But our born-again recreated human spirits have the yardstick of leadings/righteousness that can keep us in line within God’s counsel and our spirit will be there to guide us twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, four weeks a month, twelve months a year etc.! This mercy and blessings we ought to give attention to and take advantage of (1st Corinthians 2:11) It is good to add, at this point, that it is The Holy Spirit that teaches us (our souls) how to harness this great provision that is in our spirits.

Below are some definite attitudes/behaviours of the recreated born-again human spirit that tend towards leadings/directions as seen in the New Testament life of some saints of God:

  1. Acts 17:16: The spirit of Paul the Apostle was being stirred within himself. Paul’s spirit was stirred when he saw the level of idolatry in Athens. It takes giving attention to our spirits to pick such.
  2. 2nd Corinthians 2:13-14: Apostle Paul did not have rest in his spirit. This is the response of Paul’s spirit to not seeing Titus, his son in the ministry. Again, it is not a trouble/restlessness in his mind, but his spirit. The next verse revealed there hath been a warfare in the spirit over Titus, but victory came through. Hallelujah!
  3. Acts 18:5: Apostle Paul was ‘pressed’ in his spirit to testify that Jesus is the Christ to the Jews. It was a weight on his spirit by the Holy Spirit, and he clearly knew what it was, and why the press. We better master how to pick and respond to these kinds of impressions in our spirits, by paying attention to our spirits.
  4. Mark 2:8; Jesus Christ perceived in His spirit the thoughts that some scribes were thinking when He did a notable miracle. Again, this is an ability of a spirit that is alive.

All of the above are just some examples of what and how the spirit of a Christian can measure out what is right or the will of God on a matter if only we pay the price of disciplining ourselves to pay attention to our spirits.

Conclusion

It is good to add that obeying our recreated spirits, by yielding to the impressions, pressings, nudgings, withdrawals, stirrings, pictures etc. that our spirits exude and push towards our soul, makes the interaction between our spirit and soul increase and grants us a better flow of life between both entities. This will put us in a place where we daily do and align with the will of God, as it springs from our spirit, and in the long run position us to consistently stay in the will of God. A person who yields to their spirit (and much more the leading of the Holy Spirit, which is greater and stronger) will always find himself/herself in the right place at the right time, doing the right things that the Lord intended for them! Halleluyah!