THEME: HOW TO BE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD  
LESSON: SIX
TOPIC:  Inward Witness
TEXT:  Rom 8:14-16, John 16:13-15, Prov 20:27, Gal 5:16

MEMORY TRACK:  

By God’s grace, we looked at the importance of the inward witness and its crucial role in a successful Christian journey.

The Lord re-emphasize to His servant Rev Kenneth Hagin, that the primary way He ordained to lead His children in the New Testament is through the inward witness (voice) There could be secondary ways of how the Lord communicates with us, but the surest and safest is through our regenerated human spirit.

The inward witness (Rom 8:16, Eph 1:13, 1John 5:19)

The Father gave us the Holy Ghost as a tour guide to navigate a world riddled with darkness and laden with many traps. The leading of the Holy Ghost is of great necessity for any believer that desires to prosper in the Spirit (3 John 1:2). The world of the spirit is a world that man has been alienated from because of the death that occurred to man (Eph 4:18).

The Holy Spirit is more eager to lead us than we are to yield to Him, from the new birth experience, the spirit of the living God had begun leading us by simply assuring our heart about our salvation in our spirit. There is a witness within us that makes us have a guarantee that we are born-again (John 3:3-8, 2Cor 5:17, Rom 8:16) It is the Holy Ghost that quickened our spirit that assures our heart that we are born again. The assurance did not come by prophecy. It did not come by vision but by the simple witness of the Holy Ghost to our heart that we are born-again, made anew in Christ.

The same way the Holy Spirit wants to assure our hearts daily in matters that concerns our development in the Spirit. Our journey began as that of little child that is learning to be accustomed to the voice of his mother, father and everyone within his/her environment. The more the child develops the better he/she can clearly distinguish between the voice of mother and father and every other person around (John 10:4,27) We are to get accustomed to the voice of the Holy Ghost within us, by reason of use.

Activity of the mind in the leading of the Spirit

Our minds want to always catch on matters that has to do with man It seeks not to be unfruitful. It is the adversary’s most viable weapon in leading man. Satan tries to get the mind busy in such a way that there will always be conflict in agreeing to the impression of the Spirit of God within us (Rom 8:6-8).

Fleece: it is simply the activity of the mind around comfortable leading, or simply put, the mind wanting to be sure about where or what it is doing (Judges 6:36-40) Nobody wants to be unsure of what to do and where to go, so the mind earnestly desires a token it can hold on to as an assurance. Fleece is simply living by sight and refusing the faith life, leading of the spirit is purely a faith-based life. 

Fleece is a lazy believer’s way of being led, because as it were, it is not leading. It is just the mind assuming a role that it should not assume. Scripture did not record that as many as are led by fleece are the sons of God, but rather as many as are led by the Holy Spirit.

It is good to note at this juncture that evil spirits that has led man for many years do not really desire to stop leading men because the end result of their leading is destruction. Every leading has an end in mind, no leading is without an intention (Prov 16:25). We have to be trained to follow the inward witness. Some ways of developing our sensitive to the Spirit include:

  1. Reading and meditating on scriptures (Ps 29:3-4, Joshua 1:8, Ps 1:1, Deut. 29:9)
  2. Praying in the Holy Ghost (Jude 1:20, Rom 8:26)
  3. Listening to messages (Rom 10:17)

And many other activities the Holy Ghost would inspire us as we develop in yielding to the Spirit.

Conclusion

The Lord has great desire for everyone of His children to prosper in leading, because the Lamb Himself wants to lead us to living fountains of waters. The Holy Ghost wants to lead and trains us till we can respond to the leading of God and the Lamb (Rev 7:17)