Holy spirit prompting

HOLY SPIRIT PROMPTING
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
When the Holy Spirit Prompts You to Act, ACT!
by Ward Cushman
When the Holy Spirit Prompts You to Act, Act!
In yesterday’s post I discussedfour indicators when it’s time to act. A friend
commented he would add one more. When the Holy Spirit prompts us to act,
we need to obey. He’s absolutely correct. His point is so important I am going
to devote this post to that topic.
In generalI lean towards objectivity. I trust you have seenin my posts that I
seek a biblical basis for everything I teach. Listening to the Spirit is subjective.
That makes this a tricky subject. We have all heard people say, “The Spirit
(or Godor Jesus)told me to do this.” That phrase has been used to justify all
kinds of actions. Evenif you think a person is flat out wrong in what they’re
saying, how can you respond when someone says that? You can’t disagree
with what they say they heard.
There are abuses or mis-uses of the principle that the Spirit of God
communicates with us. Does that mean we should ignore this topic? By no
means! The scriptures are clearthat the Spirit of God communicates with us.
Here is a list of 50 different things the Spirit does in our lives . We need to
grow in learning how to discernthe Spirit’s work in our lives. We don’t have
the space to talk about everything the Spirit does, so I’m going to highlight
five ways the Spirit prompts us to act.

5 Ways the Holy Spirit Prompts Us to Act
The Spirit leads us to be godly Galatians 5:18, 16-25;Romans 8:14. In both of
these passages the Spirit’s leading is relatedto Spirit-filled living. He tugs at
our hearts, leading us to make the right choices. He prompts us to sayno to
the flesh and yes to Him to manifest the fruit of the Spirit.
The Spirit convicts people to change John 16:7-11. In this context He convicts
the world, not Christians of sin, righteousness and judgment. A person only
comes to faith when they receive the truth from the Holy Spirit of their need
for Jesus.
The Spirit compels us to worship. Ephesians 5:18, 16-21. We canchoose to
worship, but there are times when our hearts overflow with worship, praise
and thanksgiving because the Holy Spirit is filling us.
The Spirit prompts us to change our behavior Ephesians 4:29-31. When our
words or attitude doesn’thonor God the Spirit lets us know by sharing His
grief in our hearts.
The Spirit guides us to use our spiritual gift 1 Corinthians 12:4-7. There is a
specialgrace and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit unique to eachgift. When we
follow the prompting of the Spirit we’re supernaturally effective in the area of
our gift.
The communication from the Holy Spirit, who doesn’thave a body, is with
our spirit. So we don’t actually hear a voice, we sense His prompting. Some
say they heara voice. No one can debate what people say they experience.
Let’s all agree onthis; today let’s be sure to do what the Spirit prompts us to
do."
Question:I wanted to ask you a question, I will sometimes getwokenup and i
will getprompted to pray for someone. Iwas last month prompted to pray

something very confusing for someone I know. What exactly does this mean,
and how canI best discern promptings from the Holy Spirit?
Answer: Promptings or leadings are a common experience for the Christian
believer:
Simeon was “movedby the Spirit” to go into the temple where Josephand
Mary were dedicating Jesus to God (Luke 2:27).
Jesus was “ledby the Spirit” into the desertto be tempted by the devil (Luke
4:1).
Paul was “compelledby the Spirit” to go to Jerusalem(Acts 20:22).
But, it is equally important to remember that there are other kinds of
promptings that we can experience besides the leadings of the Holy Spirit.
Some can be goodpromptings, while others canbe bad:
Your heart can “prompt” you to give (Exodus 25:3).
But your sin can also “prompt” you to speak (Job 15:5).
And your troubled thoughts can “prompt” you to answer(Job 20:2).
The devil even “prompted” Judas to go out and betray Jesus (John13:2).
Becoming a Christian does not ensure that all your promptings are now from
God. As a matter of fact, the apostle John says:
Dearfriends, do not believe every spirit, but testthe spirits to see whether
they are from God… (1 John 4:1)
Looking back over the examples I gave of promptings from the Bible,
Some were from the Spirit of God,
Others came from ourselves (our hearts, our sin, or our troubled thoughts),
and
Some even came from the devil himself.

So, it’s important to distinguish which “promptings” are really from us (or
from evil spirits), and which ones are truly from God.
When it comes to being prompted to pray something specific for another
person, I would be very cautious about this, unless it agrees with Scripture.
This is really the test: Does it agree with Scripture? If the answeris yes, then
it is from God. If not, then it could be either from you or an evil spirit.
Remember, Satan is a master at twisting the Scriptures to mean something
God never intended… (see Luke 4).
It’s always better to look at the contextof a passage andsee what God
intended, rather than praying a phrase from the Bible out of context. As you
continue to grow in holiness, you will also find yourselfgrowing in your ability
to discern God’s will:
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to testand approve what God’s
will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
Warmly in Christ,
PastorTim
Topics:Christian Living
The Author
Tim Augustyn
Is the Holy Spirit Tugging at Your Heart Today?
July 3, 2016

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
— Romans 8:14
When your journey of faith begins, you may not have all the answers you
would like to have before you take your first steps of faith. For instance, when
my family moved to the other side of the world so many years ago, we
sincerelythought it would be a one-yearinvestment in the USSR. But when
we took the first step and arrived at that land, God gave us the next step.
When we obeyed that step, He then gave us the next, and the next, and the
next.
That’s the way it is for all of us when we walk with the Lord. As wonderful as
it would be to see the whole picture before we get started, He usually leads us
one step at a time after we get started. This has certainly been true in my life.
God had given me a vision for my life, but His instructions for moving toward
that goalcame one stepat a time.
Romans 8:14 says, “Foras many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the
sons of God.” The word “led” is the Greek word ago, whichdescribed the act
of leading about an animal, such as a cow or a goat, at the end of a rope. The
ownerwould wrap a rope around the animal’s neck and then “tug” and
“pull” until the animal startedto follow him. When the animal decided to
cooperate andfollow that gentle tug, it could then be gently “led” to where its
ownerwanted it to go.
Today I want to encourage youto pay careful attention to the “tugging” and
“pulling” of the Holy Spirit in your heart. He is a Gentleman and does not
force you to obey Him. He prompts you, tugs on your heart, and pulls on your
spirit to get your attention. Sometimes His “tugs” may be so gentle that you
almost miss them. But if you’ll develop your sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, He
will gently “lead” you exactly where He wants you to go with your life.
Also, don’t demand that the Holy Spirit tell you the whole story first! Trust
Him! Remember that Jesus calledHim the “Spirit of Truth” (John 16:13)to
help you understand that the Holy Spirit and His leading canbe trusted! He is
the “Spirit of Truth,” so if He is leading you to do something, you can know

He has a goodreasonfor it. He sees andknows what you cannot see. If you
will follow Him, the Holy Spirit will take you exactly where you need to go
and help you reach your maximum potential in life.
As I reflect on all that has happened throughout our years of ministry, I
realize that our testimony is one of being “led” by the Holy Spirit. We give
Him all the glory for leading us. We weren’t smart enough to accomplish
everything that has been done, but the Leader we were following knew exactly
how to lead us. Becausewe were following Him one step at a time, He led us to
a high place of victory in so many areas. And we’re not the only ones who
have been led. Our partners have also been led by the Spirit in their giving
and praying. Because theyhave had a heart to cooperate with God, we have
seenHim do the impossible againand againand again.
As you look at your own life today, I urge you to make the decisionto let the
Spirit be your Leaderin every area of your life. Let Him take you by the heart
and give you a little “tug” and “pull” in the right direction. Then say, “Lord, I
sense that You are tugging on my heart, and I’m ready to let You lead me
where You want me to go.”
You may not see the full picture from the onset of your journey. Certainly my
wife and I could never have conceivedwhat a huge impact would be achieved
in the former USSR when we were first getting started. But part of the
excitement is letting God be in control! Watching where He leads and seeing
what He does through you will later give you cause forgreatrejoicing. You’ll
be so thankful that you allowedHim to be the undisputed Leader in your life!
My Prayerfor Today
Lord, I want to be led by the Holy Spirit in all that I sayand do. When the
Spirit “tugs” at my heart, trying to lead me in a new direction, please stir in
me the courage I need to go whereverHe leads me without being fearful,
nervous, or concerned. I know the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth and would
therefore never misleadme. Help me become fearless to obey whateverHe

tells me and to go whereverHe leads me. I know He has my victory in mind as
I follow Him where He leads. Thank You for helping me to be bold to follow!
I pray this in Jesus’name!
My Confessionfor Today
I confess thatI am led by the Spirit of God! The Holy Spirit “tugs” and
“pulls” on my heart, and I cooperate by following Him as He gently leads me
where He wants me to go. He prompts me, tugs at my heart, and pulls on my
spirit to get my attention. Because Iam sensitive to Him, the Holy Spirit leads
me one step at a time to exactly where He wants me to go with my life. He sees
and knows whatI cannot see. He is leading me exactly where I need to be in
order to reach my maximum potential in life.
I declare this by faith in Jesus’name!
Questions to Answer
1. Are you aware when the Holy Spirit is tugging on your heart to leadyou in
a specific direction? If so, how would you describe that “tugging” to another
believer who has never experiencedit?
2. Have you everstarted a Spirit-led project without having the entire picture
before you got started? As you got started, did the Holy Spirit keepdirecting
you step by step to where He wanted you to be?
3. Although it was challenging to be led in this way, were you afterwards glad
that you obeyedthe prompting of the Holy Spirit?''
https://renner.org/

Following the Promptings of the Holy Spirit
whateverHe hears He will speak;and He will show you things to come.”
Additionally, 1 John 2:27 tells us that one of the main jobs of the Holy Spirit is
to teachus how to “abide in Christ” – that is, to live in fellowship with Him,
trust Him, and depend on Him. I can remember when I first acceptedChrist
in High School. At that time, I didn’t know much about the Holy Spirit. All I
knew was what we saideachSunday in the PresbyterianChurch that my
parents attended. We always said, “We believe in God the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit.” It never occurredto me that the Holy Spirit was, in fact,
God’s very presence that wanted to live in me, speak to me, and guide me.
But all that changedonce I acceptedChrist and began to study the Bible on
my own. I became aware ofHis presence. One ofthe very first things that the
Holy Spirit did in my life as a teenagerwas to begin a “charactermakeover!”
I suddenly I had a desire to cleanup my life. My language was one of the first
things that began to change. I also startedbeing convictedabout areas in my
life that were impure. I began having desires to live in a way that would
honor God. Things that I use to do without a thought began to make me
uncomfortable. Godwas changing me. As I look back, it was the Holy Spirit
working in me. One of the most noticeable things (at leastto me) was that I
had an increasing desire to find God’s plan for my life. I became more and
more aware that Christ wanted to be the Lord of my life – not just my Savior,
but my master. Eventhough these desires beganto emerge, I was still not
very knowledgeable aboutthe Holy Spirit. In retrospect, I can clearlysee that
the Spirit of God was the one prompting me, urging me, leading me, and
helping me get on the right path. I imagine that if you reflectback over your
life, you too canrecallhow the Holy Spirit workedin you and helped you.
Was I “perfect” whenI started changing? Absolutely not! I wasn’tperfect
then and I’m certainly not perfect now. As long as we are in this world, there
will be a battle betweenyour flesh and the Spirit. Galatians 5:18 says, “For
the flesh wars againstthe Spirit, and the Spirit againstthe flesh.” But God
can help us win this battle. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says that he changes us little by
little – “from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord.” Philippians 2:13 says,
“Forit is God who works in you both to will and to do of His goodpleasure.”

So dear friend, once you wake up to the factthat the Holy Spirit is in you,
make it your goalto become more and more sensitive to Him. Learn to follow
His leadings, promptings, and guidance. And, not only sensitive to His
promptings -- but OBEDIENTto what He shows you. Obedience is very
important if you want to make progress in the will of God. The moment you
disobey something that the Holy Spirit shows you, it slows you down in your
Christian walk. It’s like trying to run a race with a ball and chain tied to your
ankle! Hebrews 12:1 says, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so
greata cloud of witnesses, letus lay aside every weight and sin which so easily
ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” All
of us have “sins” and “weights” thatwe must deal with and lay aside. A
weight is not necessarilya sin. There are some things that the Holy Spirit may
ask you to lay aside that are not necessarilywrong – but, for you, it will slow
you down in God’s will if you hold on to it. Relationships canbe like that.
For example, someone who previously was your best buddy may not want to
follow Christ like you do. You may have to lay it down like a “weight.”
Through the years, I’ve seengoodChristians at times disobeythings that the
Holy Spirit specificallytold them – and they suffered for it. No, it wasn’t God
who punished them – it was the consequences oftheir ownwrong choices (Gal
6:7-9). God tried to warn them but they thought they knew better. Thank
God, when we
mess up, the Lord is right there to help us recover -- but it’s best to obey from
the start! Friend, when the Holy Spirit prompts you in certain areas, thenit’s
only because He has your best interests in mind. He wants you to succeedin
life. At the time, you may not be able to see or understand the reasons – but
obey Him anyway. I’ve learned (and, yes, I admit sometimes the hard way)
that it’s much better to trust Him and follow His promptings. God longs for
you to have the joy that only comes whenyou abide in Him and follow and His
will (Jn 15:11). Miracles That I Almost Missed
Many years ago, I almostmissed God’s prompting to start our
MISSIONARYAGENCY. I mentioned some of these details in a previous
Study Guide entitled “The SecretofDesire” – but here’s how close I came to
missing it. At the time, I was in the southern part of the Philippines on the

island of Bohol. I was conducting crusades and a leadership conference for
pastors throughout the region. One evening, betweenmeetings, Godsent a
missionary couple to me that desperatelyneeded a “home office.” They
explained that a church in Texas had been helping them with their support
letters, tax receipts, deposits, etc. However, the church just informed them
that they would no longerbe able to help them because ofproblems within the
church. As they shared their plight, they made an appealfor my office to
begin handling all those details for them. Now, here are some details of the
story that I did not coverin the other study guide. The Holy Spirit had, in
fact, been dealing with me about starting a MissionaryAgency. At the time, it
was rather vague in my mind as to what this would entail, but the idea had
been formulating in my mind. For months, I had been thinking about it and
praying about it. Yet, when God sent the first couple, I didn’t put two and
two together, so to speak. My“knee-jerk” reactionwas to say no. I said“no”
to them right on the spot. Wow! How could I have been so blind? Well, dear
friend, I think all of us are rather blind without the light of the Holy Spirit to
help us. I nearly missed a HUGE miracle in God’s plan for my life. Now, let’s
talk about those “weights and sins” that we mentioned earlier – you know, the
ones that Hebrews 12:1 says that we are to lay down. You see, at
the time, I was perfectly happy doing crusades around the world and
conducting leadership conferences. Evento this day, I think it’s a powerful
combination. We would teachpastors and leaders during the daytime, and
then in the evenings we would hold crusades in villages. I can’t tell you how
many thousands we brought to Christ through the years. And, in some cases,
we started new church-plants right on the heels of the crusades. Remember,
we were teaching pastors during the daytime so it was relatively easyto take
the new converts and assigna young pastor to them. And, voila! – new
churches were born! Sometimes, a pastorand his wife would relocate great
distances to adopt the new group of converts that we had. It was like the book
of Acts and the apostle Paul. And, right in the middle of my wonderful plans,
God sent a missionary couple asking us to be there home office. The point of
this story is that I nearly missed a miracle by not obeying the prompting of the
Holy Spirit. Are crusades bad? No. Are conferencesbad? No. But God was
trying to take me into a new phase of ministry. If I had held on to “my” plans

it would have been like a weight. Late that evening, the Holy Spirit prompted
me againand basicallysaid, “Jason, getwith the program!” So I did. The
next day I told the couple that God had changedmy mind and we would be
glad to help them. Fora season, Icontinued with the crusades when we first
started the MissionaryAgency. But in time, God told me to shift my focus to
the MissionaryAgency. God has a race for me to run and a course laid out.
My job is to comply with His guidance. Today, we serve hundreds of
missionaries all over the world and help over 1,000 native workers each
month with our study materials. And, the best is yet to come! God has put a
clearplan in my heart to do even more to help reachthe world for Christ.
Once we are able, we plan on installing a video studio to create a Resource
Library for missionaries. We’llstart with the orientation sessions forour
MissionaryAgency. These will be extremely helpful for the new missionaries
who affiliate with us. Then, we’re going to start interviewing key missionaries
on “how” they do it. We’ll have videos on how to do crusades, Bible schools,
medical clinics, children’s shelters, feeding programs, waterwells, and on and
on and on. It’s really unlimited because we have such a diversity of
outreaches that our missionaries are involved in. We already have hundreds
of missionaries to choose from, so you can see the potential.
This ongoing Resource Library will be available via our website and help
missionaries learn“how” to launch new outreaches. So folks, I’m excited
about the future! The vision He’s given us will take the rest of my life. Yet,
none of it would be possible if I had not followedthe prompting of the Holy
Spirit on that little island in the Philippines. Let me share one more story of a
near miss. It concerns an AIRPLANE MIRACLE. One of the airplanes that
we owned through the years was a Cessna 421GoldenEagle. Itwas an
awesome airplane that I personally flew for many years to ministry
engagements andconferences. Butwe would have never owned that airplane
if I had not been sensitive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. One day, I had
a business man from Florida contactme about our financial statements.
Normally, we do not randomly send out our reports for obvious reasons. At
first, I thought to myself, “Why in the world would he need to know that
information?” To tell you the truth, I thought to myself, “Who does he think
he is? I don’t think I’ll do that.” As those thoughts were going through my

mind, I also heard a little voice (which I’ve come to recognize as the Holy
Spirit) saying, “Sendhim the information and you will be glad you did. I have
a miracle for you.” Well, I obeyed that little prompting on the inside and boy
was I glad that I did! A few weekslaterthat businessmandelivered a Cessna
421 GoldenEagle to the airport near my home. He knew that I was a pilot
and he handed me the keys with no strings attached. It was signedover to our
ministry. Now, for you folks who don’t know much about airplanes, let me
tell you that a Cessna 421 is one sweetairplane! Forme, it was like moving up
from an old car to a new Mercedes! That’s how big of a jump it was for us.
The Cessna 421 flies up high, goes fast, has two big engines, and has eight
seats. It was one of those WOW moments! But, as I sharedearlier, I nearly
missed the miracle that God had for us. Thank God, I was sensitive to follow
the prompting of the Holy Spirit in my heart. The businessman’s wife later
told me that he had contactedseveralother ministries with the same request,
but that not one of them responded to him. Dearfriend, may I put it this
way? “It pays to obey God!” Neverforget it -- it pays to obey God.
I am convinced that Godhas all types of miracles for us. Some are
relationship miracles, where He may prompt us to call someone that we’ve
been at odds with. If we obey, there will be a miracle. Some are character
miracles where we overcome destructive habits and save our lives. Some are
marriage miracles, where we see a new love spring up when we thought the
marriage was over. And, yes, some are financial miracles and business
miracles. The point is that you must learn to be sensitive to the promptings of
the Holy Spirit and follow them. [By the way, I want to be a goodBible
teacherhere. There have been times in my life that I’ve missedGod. I’ve
discoveredthat when we do, the only way back is to repent, recommit, and get
back on track. God will restore you and help you get on His path once again
(1 Jn 1:9). Just ask David, Jonah, Peter, and nearly all the heroes in the
Bible!]. Developa Listening Ear
One of the favorite sayings of Jesus was, “He that has ears to hear, let him
hear.” That phrase is repeated throughout the Gospels and even in the book
of Revelation. Godwants us to learn how to “tune-in” to Him. For me, the

way that you tune-in is to keep doing the simple things that you know to do in
order to walk with God. Keep praying. Readand study the Bible. Spend
time singing to the Lord in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph 5:16-21).
When others offend you, be quick to forgive and let it go. In other words,
abide in the vine! As you do, your mind and heart will be more attuned to His
promptings. Psalm 32:8 says, “I will instruct you and teachyou in the way
you should go; I will guide you with mine eye.” As you walk with Him, expect
His guidance. Becomesensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Romans
8:14 says, “Foras many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the children
of God.”
Dearfriend, may you grow more and more in your communion with Christ
and sensitivity to the Spirit. JasonPeebles
Key Memory Verse:
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you
with My eye.” Psalm32:8 Prayer to Obey the Promptings of the Holy Spirit
“Father, thank you for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for
my sins. I acceptHis sacrifice and commit my life to Him. I desire to be more
sensitive and obedient to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Give me a
listening ear and an obedient heart. I want your will above my own. Thank
you for your greatlove. In Jesus Name – Amen.”
www.WorldOutreach.org
Holy Spirit Prompt You
Ever had the Holy Spirit to prompt you? How does the Holy Spirit prompt
you or push you into action? Canyou give an example?

Moderator- Frequently. Usually either for something specific for ministry,
helping others or even myself. Frequently during prayer and fasting the Holy
Spirit speaks.
The thing is, if He speaks to me, how well am I able to understand and do
what He means???
The Holy Spirit "makes intercessionfor us with groanings which cannotbe
uttered," we have in Romans 8:26. So, in communicating with our Father, in
intercession, the Holy Spirit prays "with groanings which cannot be uttered".
So, I considerthis means the Holy Spirit's prayer is deeper than words, very
personaland intimate in love's groanings.
So, if we have deeperconnectionwith the Holy Spirit, deeperthan words, we
have the bestcommunication, in His love. "But he who is joined to the Lord is
one spirit with Him." 1 Corinthians 6:17) We canfeel what He is feeling, as
well as hear whateverHe says.
---Bill_bila5659 on 7/10/10
Very often, it is just a knowing inside of you. Also, God loves to speak through
your intellect....Ihave only had that still, small, voice, only once. I believe only
once.
---catherine on 7/10/10
"rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty
of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God." (1
Peter3:4)

In the "gentle and quiet spirit" of God's love, we have God guiding us
reliably, according to His own level of intelligence and knowledge.Plus, He
has us coordinatedwith all the others in the Body of Jesus.
And we have Your Example, of how You are in love, so we sample how we
need to be in loving every person. Personal, caring, sensitive, sweet. . . in this
love we have Your "knowledge andall discernment" (Philippians 1:9) for
what to do do love eachand any person. "It is deeper than words."
---Bill_bila5659 on 7/8/10
One bitter cold wintry night a fellow missionary in China was woke up by the
Holy Spirit and told him to take a certain amount of money to a missionary
couple who were leaving for the states the next morning. The temperature
outside was 30 below zero. Neverthelesshe traveled across townto the
missionary couples door and handed them the money. Oh praise the Lord,
praise the Lord they said, this is the exactamount that we need to finish
buying our plane tickets. Manwho was woke up was named Carl Mumfort.
This man also fastedfor 40 days only taking water during that time. The
above is true I was there.
---mima on 7/6/10
This question was prompted by my most recent prompting by the Holy Spirit.
In a restaurant with my grandsonmy attention was drawn to a waitress.
From past experience I realized that the Holy Spirit was pushing me to
witness to her. However I did not witness to her. Later as we got in our car she
came out the door and lookedaround, againI relies the Holy Spirit was
prompting me to witness to her and so I said the following, okayLord if she
comes out that door againI will getout and witness to her. Before my
grandsongot settledin the car she came out again.

Now I gotout and witnessedto her my grandsonwas standing right with me.
She acceptedthe Lord Jesus Christas her personalsavior right there.
---mima on 7/5/10
Yes. He speaks to me and tells me to do various things, mostly in service to
others. It could be feeding the hungry, like buying groceries anddonating
them to the mission, or evangelizing, or placing my hand on a personand
praying for them, or leading a person in prayer to acceptJesus.
---Eloy on 7/4/10
One way the Holy Spirit prompts me is to continually have something in front
of me to remind me of what he is desiring of me. Recently I was struggling
with forgiveness, andit seemedthat everything that I heard or picked up was
dealing with forgiveness. Godkeptit before me, until I agreedwith him, that
it was a requirement. I confessedit as sin, and askedfor his help in that area,
and was able to give it overto him, to work with, asking for his help, and his
peace, whenI did that, he quit bringing it before me. I am greatful for his help
in keeping me on the right path, and it feels really good to be in agreement
with him, rather than in opposition. Thank you Jesus for your help thru the
person of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
---Gayla on 7/4/10
"Everhad the Holy Spirit to prompt you?
Yes, of course. It was the Father's Spirit that prompted me to Acknowledge,
confess and embrace Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
"How does the Holy Spirit prompt you or push you into action?"
With a whisper. A calm and gentle voice that clearly, through His Word,
identifies in me, and separatesfrom me, that which is self centeredand carnal,

while continually revealing and enabling that which inspired and influenced
of Him.
Can you give an example?
Only in the life that I am inspired and empoweredto live. There is no boasting
in that statement. The life that I live, I live by the love, faith, and grace of the
Son.
---Josefon 7/4/10
It can be a long time impression for a big project, or sometimes very 'abrupt'.
It is an inner conviction that doesn't go againstthe Bible or reality of life,
though a lot of time it is quite unexpected. The longestone is calling into full-
time ministry. The shortestis bump into a Filipino service, then go to
Philippines for a short missiontrip, all things happen within 2 months. All is
about obedience and quiet hearing.
---SL on 7/3/10
Sometimes it is gentle. Sometimes a push or a nudge. Usually a greatdesire,
too. You can depend on His powerto help. Jobs are not easy. I have yet to
receiveda job from the Lord that was easy. However, here we are not talking
of promptings. There are jobs and then there are prompting you into action
spur of the moment type thing.
---catherine on 7/1/10
The Holy Ghostprompts me in about every aspect.
The flesh some times don't want to getcleanedup go to Church, the same with
witnessing, leadsong service, Praise service, Bible study, prayer even fasting,
helping some one or one's in need, outreachChurch services etc.
---Lawrence on 7/1/10

The Holy Spirit's #1 way to prompt people is through the inward witness.
That feeling that you have deep in your gut. Some call it intuition or a 6th
sense, but it is really the Holy Spirit prompting you.
---Leslie on 7/1/10
Yes. Examples are: 1) When you have the word storedinside of you, He
brings to rememberence scriptures that I need for the situation I'm going
through. All the ways of the Lord are Loving and Faithful (Ps. 25) "My God
in Him will I trust" (Ps 91).Ineeded those for a trial I was going through in
my life.
2)He prompts me to not do something or to do something. He prompted me
not to war with a managerI had years ago. She was being unfair to me. I kept
silent like the HS told me to and ended up getting a nice severance package
out of it.
The HS Prompted me and said, "You take him" when my father called to say
he needed to go to the hospital.
Holy Spirit leads and guides us, He's never pushy or demanding.
---Donna5535 on7/1/10
Copyright© 2017 ChristiaNet®. All Rights Reserved.
The Ministry of the Spirit in Discerning the Will of God
The Holy Spirit is given to all Christians to transform them by his teaching,
making them into God-focusedthinkers and equipping them to discern his
will and make decisions accordingly. They do this by rational reflection on

their life-situation, helped by wise and godly advice, within the parameters
that the Word of God establishes. The idea that the superior path in matters
of guidance is to wait passivelybefore Godfor direct promptings to actionto
come into one’s mind is a mistake. So is the superstitious notion that failure to
discern the specifics of God’s vocationalguidance sentences one irrevocablyto
a second-bestlife, with no restorationpossible.
In the English-speaking Westernevangelicalworldthe words “guidance” and
“will of God” have become labels for a pastoralproblem that has come to
loom large in public discussion, becausefor many believers it has been a
source of intense personal anxiety. This problem has the shape of an ellipse
with two foci. Focus one is the question of the God-pleasing wayto make
decisions, particularly about such major matters as whom to marry, where to
live, what careerto follow, how many children to plan for, what church to
join, and so on. There is agreementthat God’s guidance should be sought in
making decisions, but uncertainty as to how one does this. Focus two is the
question of how we should deal with inward impressions, suggestions,
promptings and urges that come to us unbidden, sometimes as we try to work
our way through problems of decision, sometimes, it seems, as we try to evade
them, and sometimes, as we say, out of the blue. Evangelicalsare aware that
these impressions might be the voice of God, and also that they might not; so
how may we tell whether promptings we feel are products of our own
disordered imagination (wishful thinking or obsessive fear), or Satanic
proposal, like the ideas put into Jesus’mind in the wilderness temptation, or
monitions from God on which we should act? On this two-prongedproblem of
discerning the will of God at leastthree dozen books1 have been written at a
popular level during the past half-century, and the fact that they have all
found buyers shows how widespreadconcernabout this matter has become.
The present essayaims to explore the ministry of God’s Holy Spirit in relation
to this problem. In light of all that has been written on it already I do not
think I shall be found saying anything notably new. But I shall attempt to
demonstrate that the problem is regularly discussedin too narrow terms,
isolating it from God’s total ministry to his Church on earth in a way that is
biblically improper, and that makes it both more difficult in itself, and more

threatening to sensitive souls, than ever it ought to be. If I canshow this, the
labor of composition will be wellworthwhile.
I open my argument with some generalobservations on the transforming and
enlarging of personalconsciousness andindividual experience that the
ministry of the Holy Spirit in the human heart brings about. This is basic to
every mode of spiritual discernment, and every quest for it.
The terrorist demolition of the World Trade Center on the morning of
September 11, 2001, has led many to speak of it, with good reason, as a day
that changedthe world. But there was another day that changedthe world, in
a much deeper and more far-reaching way: that was Pentecostmorning in the
year 30 or thereabouts, when shortly before nine o’clock Jesus ofNazareth,
God’s glorified and enthroned Christ and the world’s cosmic Lord, poured
out the Holy Spirit on his disciples gatheredin Jerusalem(Acts 2:1–41). Forit
was then that the new covenantministry of the divine Spirit was initiated, and
that ministry—maybe I should say, the Church in the powerof that
ministry—has done more to change the world than any other force since
history began.
Jesus, as recordedin John’s Gospel, had already declaredwhat this new
ministry would involve. It would not be the world’s first acquaintance with
the Spirit of God, who had already (so the Old Testamenttells us) been active
in creation, providence, revelation, gifting for leadership, and renewing of
hearts. But this would be the opening of a new era, all the same, with the
Spirit adding a new role to the work he was doing already. Jesus wouldsend
the Spirit as “anotherParaclete”(Helper, Supporter, Counselor, Comforter,
Encourager, Advocate—paravklhto" [parakletos]has a wider range of
meaning than any one Englishword cancover), to be not just “with” but “in”
his disciples for ever (14:16–17). Throughhis coming Jesus himself, now
absent in body, and his Fatherwith him, would come and reveal themselves to
disciples in a personal and permanent way, in a communion of love (14:18–
23). As teacher, the Spirit would enable the apostles to recalland graspwhat
they had heard from Jesus, and would add more to it (14:26; 15:26; 16:13).
Thus the apostles wouldcome to see the full truth about Jesus’glory(16:14)
and so be qualified to bear faithful witness to him (15:27). Then through that

witness the Spirit would convince people everywhere of the Christian facts
(16:8–11;17:20) and bring them through new birth to the living faith in
Christ that marks entry here and now into God’s kingdom (3:1–15). Hereby
the Spirit would engender in life after life the joy and influence that Jesus
pictured as “living water” in flow out of the believer as a temple of God (7:37-
39, cf. 4:10–14;Ezek 47:1–5).
In this is foreshadowedallof Paul’s presentationof the Spirit’s ministry to
individuals (illumination, incorporation into Christ, certification, jubilation,
moral transformation, final glorification:see 2 Cor 3:14–4:6, cf. 1 Cor 2:9–15;
1 Cor 12:13, cf. Rom 8:9–13;Rom 8:14–17, cf. Gal 4:4–6;Eph 1:13–14;Rom
14:17, cf. 15:13;Gal 5:22–25;2 Cor 3:18). And what is said here also
anticipates both Paul’s further teaching about the Spirit’s ministry to the
Church (incorporating and indwelling, gifting and upbuilding: see 1 Cor 3:16;
12:6–31;Eph 2:19–22;4:4–16), and Luke’s fascinating and fascinated
narrative in Acts of the Spirit’s initiating and empowering activities in the
Church’s first generation. The New Testamentview, first to last, is that since
Pentecostthe Holy Spirit, as the executive of the Trinity and Jesus’personal
agent, has been constantlyat work forming the new human family, which is
the Church, by re-making sinners in and through Christ in the manner
described. Ministry of the gospelis new covenantministry, and new covenant
ministry communicates the life-giving Spirit to this effect(2 Cor3:6).
Now all that has been said above has experiential implications that
revolutionize the workings of our minds. Paul signals this when he writes:
[Christ] died for all so that those who live should no longerlive for themselves
but for him who died for them and was raised. So then from now on we
acknowledge no one from an outward human point of view. Even though we
have known Christ from such a human point of view, now we do not know
him in that way any longer. So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation;what is old has passedaway—look,whatis new has come!(2 Cor
5:15–17)
We hear much today of altered states of consciousness inducedby new age
techniques of meditation; it would be well if more attention were paid to the

altered state of mind into which new creationby the Spirit brings believers.
This new consciousness begins as a permanent pervasive awarenessofthe
inescapable reality, heart-searching presence, andsaving love of our holy
sovereignGod, with a sense that we ought to pray to him, live to him, and seek
to please him in all that we do, and at every turn of the road. Then, within this
basic framework, Paul speaks directlyof “the renewalof your mind.” He does
this in a truly foundational statement about discerning the will of God. That
statementruns as follows.
Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present
your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God—which is your
reasonable service.Do not be conformedto this present world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve
what is the will of God—whatis goodand well-pleasing and perfect. (Rom
12:1-2)
“The mercies of God,” in this passage, are the blessings to previously lost
sinners that Rom 1–11 has beenspelling out. “Bodies”are the readers’whole
selves. “Holy” means dedicated by man and acceptedby God. “Spiritual
worship” (so rsv, esv; net, kjv, etc. have “reasonable service”here)is the life
of God-glorifying homage that we owe to our divine Rescuer,history’s mighty
Lord, the God of the doxologyof Rom 11:33–36. “Conformedto” means
shaped by, and “this presentworld” means the existing order of things
(culture, heritage, conventions, assumptions, expectations).“Transformed,”
the verb from which comes our word “metamorphosis,” means changedin
both outward style and inward character;it is the verb Paul used in 2 Cor
3:18, where the KJV’s “changedform glory to glory” renders exactly what he
wrote. “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but
let God re-mould your minds from within,” was J. B. Phillips’ luminous
rendering of what verse 2 is saying. “Mind” (nou'", nous) here signifies all
that the Bible means by “heart”: namely, the dynamic core of our personhood
out of which flow the desires, instincts, tastes, loves, andfears that determine
our goals, purposes, mindsets, plans, attitudes, aversions, schemes,
excitements, boredoms, and so forth. This is mind, not just as a power of
reasoning, but as an index of character. “Testand approve” precisely
translates a Greek verb for which English has no one-wordequivalent. The

“will of God” is what will please him for eachperson to do in eachsituation
(that is the thought that the words “good” and“wellpleasing” and “perfect”
are underlining). We are to discern God’s will for our actions by testing (that
is, thinking through and comparing) the options and alternatives that are
open to us. What Paul sees,and tells us, is that only those whose minds have
been re-made by the Holy Spirit thorough one-time regenerationleading to
ongoing sanctificationwill be able to make this discernment adequately. The
verbs in verse 2 are in the present tense, signifying continuous or repeated
action: the renewalof our mind is to be a continuous process, andthe
discerning of God’s will is a task to be repeatedwheneverfresh choices need
to be made.
But without this renewal, no matter how much thinking we do, and however
correctour theologicalformulations, personaldiscernment of the will of God
will not take place. For the will of God covers not only what we do outwardly
as performers, but also how and why we do it from the standpoint of our
motives and purposes. If these inner aspects ofactionare not as they should
be we fall short of the perfect (that is, in the Greek, the fully-fashioned and
complete)will of God, as did the Pharisees in Jesus’day. Those who are not
yet new-createdin Christ and indwelt by his Spirit can neither conceive nor
achieve the attitudinal rightness (love to God and neighbor: Matt 22:34–40)
and the motivational rightness (the “glory,” that is, the display and praise of
God: 1 Cor 10:31)that make behavior acceptable in God’s sight. This is
because, to cite Phillips’ paraphrase again,
the unspiritual man simply cannot acceptthe matters which the Spirit deals
with—they don’t make sense to him, for, after all, you must be spiritual to see
spiritual things. The spiritual man, on the other hand, has an insight into the
meaning of everything, though his insight may baffle the man of the
world…we who are spiritual have the very thoughts of Christ! (1 Cor 2:14–
16).
“Thoughts” there is mind in the Greek, the same word as in Rom 12:2,
meaning thoughts shaped and driven by desires of the heart. When in
regenerationthe Holy Spirit unites us to the risen Christ, our hearts are
remade in the image of his, so that we too, like him in the divine-human unity

of his personhood, constantlydesire to love and obey and please and honor
and exalt and glorify the Father. Accordingly, in our Christian lives we will be
dominated and driven (and if we misbehave, accused)by this overmastering,
ineradicable desire, that the Spirit has planted within us. And our thoughts,
like Jesus’own, will embody and express this purpose, and enlist all our
creativity and power of imagination and relationalcapacities in its service. So
to live is now our nature. Our blind eyes have been opened, our deaf ears
unstopped, and we have tastedthe goodword of God; our hard hearts have
been softened, and our hostility to God’s law (that is, his across-the-board
instruction on how to please him) has been turned into a love of it. We are
conscious ofbeing people who now know God and are knownby him in a life-
giving relationship. We are new and different creatures, responding to God
and reacting to people and things in a new way that was not part of our lives
before. In a word, our experience has been changed. And it is out of this
decisive experiential transformation, through the present help of the
indwelling Holy Spirit, that discernment of the will of Godin eachspecific
case is born.
The Holy Spirit and the Path of Discernment
The gnawing evangelicalanxieties aboutguidance that the three-dozen books
mentioned above are addressing did not enter into the practice of discernment
for decision-making among evangelicalsofthe older school. Informed by
biblical theologyand narrative, soakedin the biblical text itself, aiming always
at the best for God’s cause and others’good, and confident in God’s promise
of guidance to the humble and prayerful (see Pss 5:8; 23:2–3;25:8–9;32:8–9;
Jas 1:6), they sought to be made wise, prudent, and judicious, men and women
of goodjudgment. They askedthat God would thus enable them to see each
time the course of action for which there was most to be said as they reviewed
facts, took advice, measuredtheir personalresources, surveyed
circumstances, andcalculatedthe consequencesofpossible choices. Bruce
Waltke models this older practice when he writes:
When I wonder about which job offer to take, I don’t go through a divination
process to discoverthe hidden message ofGod. Instead I examine how God
has calledme to live my life; what my motives are; what He has given me a

heart for; where I am in my walk with Christ; and what God is saying to me
through Hs word and His people.2
There are in this, to be sure, pitfalls, all the direct result of being the sin-
spoiled creatures that we are, immature, prejudiced, out-of-shape, and as yet
imperfectly sanctified. We need to be aware of how choices maygo wrong.
Our understanding of scripture can be incomplete and twisted, particularly
when we live in anti-theologicalandpagan cultures and belong to churches
that, for whateverreason, do not preachand teachthe entire Bible.
What we think of as our godly desires, which may indeed have their roots in
the prompting of the Holy Spirit, can nonetheless be self-centered, self-
serving, and self-indulgent to a far greaterextent than in our naïve self-
ignorance we suspect. Zealfor God, however intense, is no substitute for self-
knowledge, andlack of self-knowledge canleadinto fanaticalcraziness.
Our ability to measure our own gifts and potential constantly proves deficient,
the more so the younger and more inexperiencedwe are. Either we
undervalue what we can do, feeling that something is beyond us when in fact
we could handle it well, or we overvalue our powers, assuming (for example)
that because we cantalk steadily for long periods we must have a teaching or
preaching gift. (Let it clearlybe said: no one has a teaching gift unless people
actually learn something from him, nor has anyone a preaching gift unless
people actually meet Godunder his ministry.) And it is regularly beyond the
powerof consciouslygifted people to tell whether they have the character
qualities needed to sustain their gifts in useful exercise.
Awareness ofthe reality of these pitfalls burns into the mind the need to
distrust emotionally-chargedimpressions and to take advice from those we
recognize as wise, tough-minded, and godly, and most importantly from
persons who know us well. The Holy Spirit regularly guides us in discernment
for decision-making via the judgments of others.
A case study of decision-making in the life of a greatevangelicalofthe old
school, the Englishman John Charles Ryle (1816–1900), expositorypreacher

and writer, evangelicalleader, and first bishop of the diocese ofLiverpool, will
bring some of this into focus.3
Ryle’s father’s bank suddenly went bankrupt in 1841, whenRyle was 25,
headed for public life, and a convertedChristian of four years’standing.
Rearedin the lap of luxury, he now found himself virtually penniless. He
sought ordination, not because he wanted to be a clergyman (he didn’t) or felt
an inner constraintto become one (he felt none), but because it was the only
professionopen to him that would give him an immediate salary. The
evangelicalbishopwho was willing to ordain him saw his Oxford degree and
lively Christian experience as adequatelyqualifying him for the clergyman’s
role. (This, then, was a decisionbasedon Ryle’s circumstances anda bishop’s
judgment of his fitness.) Having won his spurs as a minister in two brief
underpaid posts, Ryle acceptedan invitation to a rural pastorate with a
stipend sufficient for a married man, and there wooedthe first, followedafter
her death by the second, ofhis three wives. His guiding light here was to
choose as a spouse someone he could thoroughly respect:“the greatthing I
always desiredto find was a woman who was a realChristian, who was a real
lady, and who was not a fool.”4 His actual discernment, as he applied this
principle of wisdom, did not fail him, but the bad health of both his first and
secondwives drained his resources, andfifteen years after his first marriage
he found himself a widowerwith five children, and a poor man once more.
(Gooddecisions do not always bring the goodconsequences that we hope for.)
A move to a larger, better paying parish and a third marriage led to nineteen
years of happy and fruitful ministry there. This howeverwas eventually
interrupted, early in 1880, by the invitation to become dean of the cathedralat
Salisbury, presumably as a light and honorific job for his old age (he was
almost 64), and so a new decisionhad to be made.
He did not want to go.
Fleshand blood were utterly againstit [he wrote to a friend]. But almostevery
one of 16 men I consulted said, “You ought certainly to go for the sake of
Christ’s cause in the Ch(urch) of E(ngland).”—So who was I that I could
withstand? I had prayed for light and signs of God’s will, and this was all I
got. If three men had said “Refuse,”I would have refused…But…I am a

soldier. The Captain of my salvationseems to say, “these are your marching
orders.” I have nothing to do but to obey. Pray for me. My heart is very
heavy.5
So, discerning from advice receivedwhat he ought to do, though againsthis
own desire, he told his people he was leaving them, and gotready to move. But
then, within weeks, outof the blue, and requiring immediate decisionfor
political reasons, came the call to Liverpool. To that callRyle, having already
adjusted to leaving the place he liked most, was able to saya responsible “yes”
on the spot—actually, on the platform where he had just dismounted from the
train and been confronted for the first time with the offer. (This appears as
two-stage circumstantialguidance:had God not first led Ryle to commit
himself to leave his comfortable pastorate, he would have been in no position
to utter that instant “yes.” Butas it was, he neededonly a split-second
comparing the depressing prospectof Salisbury with this new challenge, and
his mind was made up.) Ryle thus, it would seem, concludedhimself called by
God to be Liverpool’s first bishop. And overa period of twenty years, despite
his age, he proved himself to be the man for the job, giving the diocese an
infrastructure and personnelthat made it the most evangelicalin doctrine,
and evangelistic in practice, anywhere in the Church of England.
Was Ryle led by the Holy Spirit in his discernments of the will of God? Surely
he was. Were these discernments the product of inner voices orimpressions,
freak coincidences,private revelations, or any such thing? No; they were the
rational fruit of having a biblical value-systemand a heart for God, for his
gospeland for his glory; and of seeking wisdom, noting circumstances,taking
advice, and not letting the merely goodelbow out the best. By these means the
Holy Spirit gave Ryle discernment for his decisions, andwe should expect that
he will use the same means with the rest of us.
This is the moment for pointing out that God in the Old Testament, and
Christ specificallyin the New, are set forth as shepherding the holy flock and
eachindividual within it (see Pss 23;77:20; 78:52;80:1; John 10:11–16, 25–
30; Heb 13:20; 1 Pet5:4). Shepherding means caring for, watching over,
protecting and preserving, guarding and guiding the sheep as they feed and
travel to their many places of pasture. Giving us discernment of his will is only

part of the Shepherd’s work ordering our lives as he leads us home to glory.
The Father, the Son, and the Spirit shape our circumstances, overrule our
advisers, and sustain our overall sense ofspiritual realities and theological
truths, as well as prompting the brainwork that processesthe factors that
yield the discernments needed for decisions. The idea that at some point in the
decision-making we are left to fend for ourselves is a mistake, and a
troublesome one, as we shall shortly see.
The Holy Spirit and Defects in Discernment
How is it then that in this matter of discerning the will of God errors get
made? Well, how in God’s world do human mistakes everget made? Here we
face, as so often, the mystery of createdfreedomin a world governedby its
sovereignMakerand Master. This is a both…and, a state of things in which
two seeming incompatibles coexistand it is beyond us to know how what is the
case canbe. It is a situation best labeled, in echo of Kant, an antinomy. The
fact that we can and do err and sin does not overthrow God’s controlling
lordship, any more than that controlling lordship turns us into robots,
destroying our self-determining individuality so that we are no longermoral
agents answerable to God. This is how things are. So in every part of life
intellectual and behaviorallapses actually occur;and we must not be
surprised to meet them. We now examine two common mistakes relating to
our Spirit-given discernment of the will of God: the first, about man’s
passivity, and the second, about God’s plan.
(1) The error about man’s passivity.
In the movement led by the magnetic Frank Buchman through the middle
decades ofthe lastcentury, which at various times was calledBuchmanism,
First Century Christian Fellowship, the Oxford Group, and Moral Re-
Armament, it was the rule to have a daily “quiet time” in which one practiced
what is nowadays calledlistening prayer. That is, one reviewedone’s ongoing
life before one’s divine Watcherand noted what practicalideas about things
to do and not to do, people to deal with, tasks to tackle and so forth, broke
surface in one’s mind. These thoughts, writes Garth Lean, “became known, in
the verbal shorthand of Buchman and his friends, as ‘guidance,’ though

neither he nor they consideredthat all such thoughts came from God.”6 To
avoid potentially vicious self-deception, these thoughts were always to be
testedby whether they embodied absolute honesty, purity, unselfishness, and
love, whether they squared with the Church’s teaching and experience and
the mind of others seeking guidance this same way, and whether they were
actually practicable. So far, so good; none of this is off center. But in the
world of simplistic and somewhatloosey-gooseypietism where this practice
was developedthe thought-processescomparing alternatives that discernment
ordinarily requires were not stressed. Expectations ofimmediacy in guidance
became unhealthily high, while the mental passivity that was cultivated—the
fallowness ofthe mind, as we might call it—led inevitably to an increasingly
narrow and undoctrinal mindset, the outcome of which was MoralRe-
Armament’s drift into multifaith moralism to further its political agenda. This
was not a fruitful way to go. Small wonderthat Buchmanism is now a thing of
the past.
But the legacyof this once influential movement seems to be fourfold:
First, it has given the word “guidance” universal label status among
evangelicalsfor all that is involved in discerning the will of God. This
continues.
Second, it has reinforced already widespreadexpectations ofbeing
admonished for actionby a direct “wordfrom the Lord,” either through what
Pentecostals describe as prophecy, or through a contrived sign (“putting out a
fleece”), orthrough some striking factualcoincidence or new notion springing
from words of scripture, or through some private inner revelation by dream,
voice, or intrusive thought. This also continues.
Third, it has encourageda murky pride, elitism, and sense of superiority
among those who have thought they were receiving, or had received, divine
guidance in the supra-rational way that has just been outlined. This still
appears.
Fourth, it has generated, and continues to generate, anxiety, depression, and
paralysis of action in some who have sought guidance this way without
receiving it, and now are either marking time as still they waitfor it, or are

blaming themselves for not seeking it seriouslyenough and viewing
themselves as relegatedto the ranks of second-classChristians—a form of
anxiety and inner bleakness thatlinks up with a further condition at which we
shall look in a moment.
In saying this, and calling for appropriate brainwork to discern God’s will, I
do not mean to imply that only persons of high intelligence, trained minds,
and academic excellencecanhope to discernthe will of God. Paul prays that
God would fill the Colossians
with the knowledge ofhis will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so
that you may live worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects:bearing
fruit in every gooddeed, growing in the knowledge ofGod (Col 1:9-10).
“Spiritual,” the qualifier of wisdomand understanding, means precisely
“given by the Holy Spirit,” and the Spirit is no respecterof persons when it
comes to educationor brain power. In similar vein, Paul prays that the
Philippians’ love
may abound even more and more in knowledge and every kind of insight so
that you candecide what is best, and thus be sincere and blameless for the day
of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus
Christ to the glory and praise of God (Phil 1:9-11).
“Decide” here is the same word as “testand approve” in Rom 12:2. All
Christians have minds, and they are not to be left lying fallow; all are to put
the minds they have to work in the discernment process.
The nature of the brainwork involved is clearfrom James Petty’s analysis of
the Spirit’s role in divine guidance.
1. The Spirit illuminates the connectionbetweenGod’s word and our lives.
2. He does this by personalizing and particularizing (applying) the will of God
for us…
3. The result of the Spirit’s work is not so much a “message fromGod” as it is
a provision of “discernmentand wisdom” granted for specific situations and
progressivelybuilt into Christians as a charactertrait.

4. Though it is wisdom from God, it also becomes our wisdom…FromGod’s
perspective it is a direct gift, supernaturally given by the Spirit. From our
perspective, it is our renewed mind enabled by God to see as Christ sees.It is
our wisdom, yet it is God’s. It is Christ’s mind, yet it is given to us as ours.
Scripture sees it both ways and so should we.7
Christians may not make rules for God. It is clearthat on occasionGodhas
bypassedreason, giving discernment of his will in a direct and immediate way,
just as has been claimed, and it is not for us to deny that he may do so again.
But God makes rules for Christians, and it is equally clearthat we have no
business expecting to discernhis will save by Spirit-led reasoning in the
manner described. The exceptionshould not be mistakenfor the rule. “Let
your mind alone” (the title of one of James Thurber’s extravaganzas)is not
the wayof wisdom for discerning God’s will. Passivityof mind, valued and
cherished, will keepus from spiritual discernment rather than lead us to it.
(2) The error about God’s plan.8
That God has a comprehensive, foreordainedpurpose and plan for all of
world history, form the greatestevents to the smallest, and that this includes a
specific, detailedintention for the life of every human being, is to my mind
beyond doubt: the Bible is clear on it. That his intention, once you become a
Christian, is comparable to an itinerary drawn up for you by a travel agent,
where everything depends on you being in the right place at the right time to
board the plane or train or bus or boat or whateverand where the itinerary is
ruined once you miss one of the preplanned connections, is, by contrast, a sad
misconception. It is, however, a common view, and has bitter implications. If,
on this view, your discernment fails and you get your guidance wrong on some
key matter, a substandard, second-bestspiritual life is all that is open to you.
Though not perhaps on the scrapheap, you are certainly on the shelf, having
lost forevermuch of your usefulness to God. Your mistake sentencesyou to
live and serve your Lord as a second-rate Christian.
What is wrong with this idea? Three things, at least.
First, it is a speculation—inplain English, a guess, a fancy, indeed a fantasy,
and a morbid one at that. There is nothing in scripture to support it.

Second, it assumes that God lacks the wisdom or the will or the goodness or
the powerto put us back on track when we have slipped. But this is false, and
to think otherwise is unbelief. The grain of truth in this view is that bad
choices have bad consequences, from which we cannotexpect to be totally
shielded and with which, therefore, we may now have to live, as Jacobhad to
live with the limp he gotfighting God at Jabbok and David had to live with
the family troubles he brought on himself by his marital rovings. But the idea
that God cannotor will not forgive and restore when transgressorsand
wanderers confess theirfollies and repent of them, flies in the face of
scripture. Ponder the implications of Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kgs 8:27–53, and
2 Chr 6:18–40, andthe testimonies in Pss 32 and 85:1–3, the promise in 1 John
1:9, if you doubt that.
Third, this idea ignores clearlessonsfrom Bible biography. Scripture shows
us servants of God making great and grievous mistakes in seeking to discern
God’s will for their actions—Jacobbeggaring his brother and fooling his
father; Moseskilling the Egyptian; David numbering the people;Peter
boycotting Gentile Christians at the meal table, for instance—yetnone was
thereafterdemoted to second-classstatus. And if God restoredDavid after his
adultery with Bathsheba and taking out of Uriah, and Peterafter his threefold
denial of Christ, we should not doubt his readiness to restore Christians who
acknowledge thatthey failed badly in their endeavor, or perhaps by their
reluctance, to discernthe will of God.
The source of this mistake about God’s plan appears to be a streak of
legalism, linked it seems with classicdispensationaltheology, thatfound its
way into evangelicalteaching onthe Christian life at the turn of the
nineteenth century when dispensationalismwas riding high and the older
evangelicaltheologywas ata discount. This was the era in which life-
occupations were gradedon a strict scale of value and desirability (first and
best, overseasmissionary;second, ordainedpastor; third, physician and
nurse; fourth, schoolteacher;fifth, money-maker to support evangelical
enterprises, and so on), and holiness teachers proclaimeda double standard,
urging that it was better, though not necessary, to choose to be a spiritual
Christian rather than remain a carnalone. And much was made of Paul’s
warning that the “wood, hay, stubble” of the carelessChristian’s life would be

incinerated in a “judgment of works”—“Ifanyone’s work is burned up, he
will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but only as through fire” (1 Cor
3:15). Mostof this legalismis now defunct, and it is to be hoped that the
frightening and really blasphemous mistake about the plan of God that we
have been looking at will perish with it.
Last Word
Finally, it needs to be said that the ultimate purpose of God for every
Christian is character-transformationand growth into the full image of Jesus
Christ; and therefore that the Holy Spirit’s work of imparting wisdom for the
discerning of God’s will, case by case, is part of that largerenterprise for
which our sanctificationis the usual name. What God wants for us is not
simply a flow of correctdiscernments in the choices we make, but that we
become discerning persons in ourselves, as Christwas a discerning person
before us. “Wisdom in the Old Testament” writes Bruce Waltke, and in the
New Testamentthis is equally the case, “is a charactertrait, not simply
thinking soberly. People with wisdom have the characterwherebythey can
make gooddecisions.”9But the people with wisdom are those in whom the
word of Christ dwells richly (see Col3:16), and these are the people who heed
the summons: “just as you receivedChrist Jesus as Lord, continue to live your
lives in him, rootedand built up in him” (Col 2:6-7). He is the wisdom of God,
the Lord of glory, the goodshepherd, and his people’s life and hope. So
studying the Spirit’s works in our discerning of God’s will should bring us to
the place where with Charles Wesleywe sing:
Captain of Israel’s host, and Guide
Of all who seek the land above,
Beneaththy shadow we abide,
The cloud of thy protecting love;
Our strength, thy grace;our rule, thy word;
Our end, the glory of the Lord.
By thine unerring Spirit led,

We shall not in the desert stray,
We shall not full direction need,
Nor miss our providential way;
As far from danger as from fear,
While love, almighty love, is near.
Let Wesley’s lyric be the bottom line, and the last word, and the constantsong
of all our hearts.
1 . “There are about thirty-five evangelicalbooksin print on this subject (this
one makes thirty-six)” (James C. Petty, Step by Step [Phillipsburg, NJ:
Presbyterian& Reformed, 1999], 9). Among the more useful of these are
Petty’s own book;Oliver R. Barclay, Guidance (London: IVP, 1956);
ElisabethEliot, A Slow and Certain Light (Waco:Word, 1973);Garry Friesen
with J. Robin Maxson, DecisionMaking and the Will of God (Portland OR:
Multnomah, 1980);M. Blaine Smith, Knowing God’s Will (Downers Grove,
IL: IVP, 1979);SinclairB. Ferguson, Discovering God’s Will (Edinburgh:
Banner of Truth, 1981);Bruce Waltke, Finding the Will of God (Gresham
OR: Vision House, 1995);Phillip D. Jensenand Tony Payne, The Last Word
on Guidance (Homebush WestNSW:Anzea [St. Matthias Press], 1991);
Dallas Willard, Hearing God (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1999 [originally, In
Searchof Guidance (Ventura CA: Regal, 1984)]).
2 . Waltke, Finding the Will of God, 35.
3 . For a fuller treatment, see J. I. Packer, Faithfulness and Holiness:the
Witness of J. C. Ryle (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2002)21-26and 51-52.
4 . Ibid.
5 . Ibid., 251.
6 . Garth Lean, On the Tail of a Comet: The Life of Frank Buchman
(Colorado Springs: Helmers & Howard, 1988)75-76.

7 . Petty, Step by Step, 165.
8 . I echo here some things in my chapter, “Guidance,” in God’s Plans for You
(Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001)91.
9 . Waltke, Finding the Will of God, 360. https://bible.org/
The Prompting of the Holy Spirit
The passagesbelow are takenfrom Charles Stanley’s book, “Walking
Wisely,” published in 2002.
The very first prompting of the Holy Spirit that any person experiences is to
acceptJesus Christas one’s personalSavior, and then to follow Jesus Christ
as the Lord of one’s life.
After we have receivedJesus as our Savior, the Holy Spirit dwells within us to
guide us in the way we should walk—--the choices and decisions we should
make, the work we should undertake, and the new attitudes and opinions we
should adopt. Jesus saidthat one of the primary roles of the Holy Spirit is to
guide us into all truth (John 16: 13).
When God wants to clarify the next move He has for us, or to move us in a
new direction, He very often creates whatI call a “prompting” in a person’s
spirit. A prompting is like a flash of lightning in a person’s spirit that creates
an almost immediate knowing of which way to turn, what to do, what to say,
how to respond. The prompting comes with a deep assurance andconfidence
that the choice or decisionis right.
Anytime you have a prompting of the Holy Spirit, you can be assuredthat our
all-wise God—--the omniscient Holy Spirit—--is saying to you, “I love you
enough to tell you what to do in this situation.”

Much of what the Holy Spirit prompts us to do involve a potential loss or gain
of something important or valuable. At times the Holy Spirit prompts us to
take an action that could result in a loss or gain in the life of another person.
There are certain things we should avoid . . . should discard. . .should ignore. .
. should put away. There are other things that we should reachout and
receive . . . should pay attention to . . . or should act upon.
As much as the Holy Spirit prompts us to do or to saycertain things, He also
prompts us not to act or to speak. There have been times when I have clearly
felt the Holy Spirit prompting me, “Sit down and don’t saya word.” There
have been times when I have felt the Holy Spirit telling me to do nothing in a
particular situation, even though everything in me was boiling and eagerto
take action.
How do you develop this sensitivity? Ask God to make you sensitive to the
prompting of the Holy Spirit. The work of imparting sensitivity to you is His
work. However, if you fail to act on the prompting that the Holy Spirit gives
you, you will never learn how to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading. When you
experience what you believe to be a prompting, act on it immediately. Don’t
second—guesswhatGod tells you to do.
You will quickly discern if you have heard correctly. If you have not heard
correctly, you will feel unrest in your spirit; you will not have peace. On the
other hand, if you have heard correctly, you will feela growing peace and
confidence at the actionyou have taken.
As in most things in life, we learn by trial and error.
A few months ago, I flew home from a pastors’conference I had addressedin
another state, and as I stoodup to leave my air plane seat, I had a strong
prompting of just one word, “Look!”
I glancedaround as I prepared to leave the plane, and I didn’t notice
anything. The truth is, I didn’t seriouslyheed that prompting. After I had
walkedawayfrom that plane and was about halfway down the concourse,I
thought, I should call to make

certain the person who is picking me up is on his way. I reachedfor my
cellular phone and discoveredthat it wasn’twhere I usually keepit. I
searchedmy briefcase and pockets . . . no phone. Suddenly I remembered that
I had used the phone on the plane before takeoff, so I concluded it must still
be there. I walkedback to the gate only to discoverthat the doors to the
aircraft had been locked. It took a few minutes, but I finally found someone
who would let me back onto the aircraft. And sure enough, when I searched
more diligently, I found my cellular phone tucked into the space betweenthe
seatand the armrest. A simple glance hadn’t been enough, but that wasn’t
what the Holy Spirit had prompted. He had said, “Look!”
That was a simple matter, but my failure to heed this prompting wasteda
goodhalf hour of my time, and about the same amount of time in the life of
the personwho was waiting at the curb to pick me up—time in both of our
lives that could have been used in more productive ways.
You may be asking, “Doesthe Holy Spirit really lead us in such practical,
simple matters?” Yes, He does. He leads us in matters greatand small—--
nothing is beyond the knowing of the Holy Spirit. The closerwe follow Him
and the quicker we are to heed His prompting, the more detailed and
practicalit seems the Holy Spirit functions in our lives.
Let me give you another example that I heard about just recently. A young
woman was facing a decisionabout where to go to college. She and her
parents had narrowedthe choice to four Christian colleges, andher parents
left the final choice to her. They encouragedher to pray and ask the Lord
where He wanted her to go.
The first two colleges she visitedresulted in a clear“no” from the Holy Spirit.
She felt uncomfortable or ill at ease before she had spent two hours on either
of the first two campuses. Although these were goodschools with excellent
reputations, she knew in her spirit that they were not right for her. It wasn’t
anything a specific person said or did; she just felt restless in her heart.
The lasttwo colleges, however, seemedalmostequal as she weighedthem in
her mind and heart after visits to the campuses and conversations with others
who attended the colleges.She finally decided one evening to attend the

college thatwas closestto her home. She announced to her family that she had
made her choice, and she went to bed. She later recountedwhat happened: “I
was awake mostof the night. I tossedand turned and felt miserable. I had a
nagging feeling that I was making a mistake and that feeling just wouldn’t
leave me.”
The next morning, this young womanannounced to her mother, “I think I
made the wrong choice. I am changing my decision.” She later told her
parents and grandparents, “I felt peace allday. By the end of the day, I knew
without a shadow of a doubt that I had finally made the right choice.” The
issue had been settleddefinitively as far as she was concerned.
As the days and weeksbefore she left for college unfolded, she came to the
point where she said, “I can’t imagine ever having had a problem in deciding.
My choice seems so right that it’s difficult to believe I ever even considered
the other three schools.”After one semesteratthe college, she wrote to her
parents, “I couldn’t be happier. I’m gladI learned to hear God for myself and
that I did what He led me to do.”
This young woman had experienceda series of promptings that led her to the
final decisionthat was God’s best plan for her. Now let me ask you: Do you
believe this young woman has a much clearerunderstanding about how the
Holy Spirit speaks in the human heart and prompts a personto move into
right actions or decisions? Absolutely. She has learneda tremendous lesson
about what it means to hear from God and to walk wisely.
You may be saying, “Well, this sounds like intuition.” I encourage youto
change your vocabulary. If you are a believer in Christ Jesus, you have the
Holy Spirit living inside you, and He desires to leadyou step-by-step into the
fullness of God’s plan and provision for you. Intuition for the believer has a
name: Holy Spirit.
WHEN WE FAIL TO HEED GOD’S PROMPTING
What should you do if you fail to heed a prompting of the Holy Spirit? First,
confess that you have made a mistake or a sin againstGod. Receive His

forgiveness. Butthen, take a secondstep. Ask yourself, “Why did I fail to heed
this prompting? Why didn’t I act immediately on what I felt the Holy Spirit
was telling me to do? How canI keepthis from happening again?” Don’tjust
confess your error—--learn something from it!
I learned from that incident in my life not to lay my cellular phone down after
I’ve completeda call. Instead, I put it back in its case andin the place I have
designatedfor it in my briefcase or luggage.
Now a cellular phone is a fairly minor thing to almost lose. There are far more
important things that we are in danger of losing if we don’t heed the Holy
Spirit. Not only canwe lose possessions,but also we can lose our health, a
relationship we deeply value, an opportunity that won’t come our wayagain,
or an encounterthat could make a significantdifference in our lives.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you heed His promptings in the future. And then. .
. heed them! (90-96)
Charles Stanley: Tips for Being Led by the Holy Spirit
Published
6 years ago
Author
Charles F. Stanley
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Spiritual Growth
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(Charles F. Stanley)
One of the world’ s most beloved Baptistpastors shares how to walk in step
with the Holy Spirit’ s promptings
Severalyears ago during a photographic trip, my group had been traveling up
a trail for almost three hours, and I beganto have a funny feeling that we
were going in the wrong direction. I askedthe guide about it, and he assured
me that everything was fine. Not wanting to be presumptuous, I kept walking.
After a few minutes, I noticed that my sense ofuneasiness persisted;in fact, it
was growing stronger. I pulled out my compass and lookedat the map. Sure
enough, we were headed awayfrom our intended destination.
It took us close to an hour and a half to return to where we had taken the
incorrectturn off the trail. Sadly, this meant that by the time we got to the
site, our window for taking photographs was cut short.
The event helped me to realize two valuable lessons.First, when we sense an
internal witness encouraging us to take a certain course of action, we should
listen. Second, when you and I choose people to guide us, we must be certain
they know the path aheadbetter than we do.
Have you ever felt something alerting you to pay attention or pulling you in a
particular direction? Perhaps you were listening to a sermon and you sensed
God telling you to follow Him in obedience. Or maybe you walkedinto a
restaurant and were filled with dread, as if you should leave quickly.

If you are a believer, then most likely these feelings were the prompting of the
Holy Spirit, who always guides you to understand and acceptthe Father’ s
will. He is the One speaking to your heart, warning you about danger and
encouraging you to submit to God’ s purposes.
Unlike the fellow who accompaniedus on that photographic trip, the Holy
Spirit is a trustworthy guide who will never lead us astrayand knows the path
aheadmuch better than we do. Apart from Him, you and I cannot live a godly
life. Galatians 5:16 instructs, “ Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out
the desire of the flesh” (NASB). The Holy Spirit empowers us to resistsin and
obey God. But He does so much more: He also helps us to understand
Scripture and enables us to fellowshipwith the Lord. He will never advise us
to do anything that contradicts Scripture.
In fact, of all the professors Ihad in college, none ever matched the personal
instruction I have receivedfrom God through the Holy Spirit. In John 14:26,
Jesus promised the disciples: “ The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in My name, He will teachyou all things, and bring to your
remembrance all that I said to you.”
I remember how powerfully the Lord communicated this to me one night on
my knees whenI was in graduate school. I was about halfway through the
three-year program at SouthwesternBaptistTheologicalSeminaryin Fort
Worth, Texas, and I was beginning to think about my future. I wasn’ tcertain
yet what I would do and deeply wanted advice.
It was one of those nights when I longedto pick up the phone and callthe
father I never knew (he passedawaywhen I was 9 months old) and tell him
what I was thinking. Little did I know how Godwould use that void in my
heart for a father over and over againto draw me to Himself.
That night as I knelt to pray, I had a very strong sense ofthe Lord’ s
presence. I did not hear His voice audibly, but His messageto me could not
have been clearer. He said: “ Whateveryou accomplishin life will not depend

upon your education, your talent or your skill. I have a plan for you, but you
will only accomplishit on your knees in complete surrender to Me.”
I have never forgotten that night. And throughout my 55 years of ministry, I
have started and ended my days on my knees before God to talk to Him and
to listen to what else He has to say.
Our Helper’ s Role
What the Fathercommunicated to me that night was the same messagethat
we read in Zechariah4:6: “ ‘ Notby might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’
says the Lord of hosts.” The Holy Spirit’ s presence with us is especially
important as we engage in the ultimate conversationofprayer with the Father
because He is God’ s ownSpirit. He teaches us the Lord’ s will, how to listen
to Him, how to discern His truth and how to have an intimate relationship
with Him. He also trains and empowers us to fulfill God’ s plans for our lives
with the “ wisdomfrom above” (see James 3:17;also 1 Cor. 2:9-13, 16).
The Helper is like an ambassadorwho unswervingly represents the policies of
His homeland and also serves the host nation by translating its messagesinto
the appropriate language. The Holy Spirit faithfully conveys to us the
Father’ s will in a way we understand, and He represents us before God in a
manner worthy of His righteous name.
The apostle Paulwrote, “ The Spirit also helps our weakness;for we do not
know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with
groanings too deep for words;and He who searches the hearts knows whatthe
mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will
of God” (Rom. 8:26-27, NASB).
What is our weaknessin prayer? At times we do not know how to express the
full depth of our desires or feelings;nor do we realize what we need.
Sometimes we are so exhausted—in spirit, mind and body—that we can
hardly muster the energyto open our mouth. There are instances when
discouragementhas takensuch a strong hold of our heart that we cannot

imagine a way out of our painful circumstances, andall we can ask is for the
Father to help us.
Perhaps this is where Paul found himself. In 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 he confesses:
“ We do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came
to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyondour strength, so that
we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence ofdeath within
ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the
dead.”
With the lashes, imprisonments and dangers Paul experienced, it is not
surprising that he would feel this way (2 Cor. 11:23-29). The apostle faced
terrible difficulties during his missionaryjourneys, including being stoned
almost to death at Lystra (Acts 14:19), finding himself at the center of a riot in
Ephesus (Acts 19:23-41), and having to leave the belovedchurches he had
planted to suffer in Jerusalem(Acts 20:17-24). In constantperil, separated
from his loved ones, threatenedon every side and buffeted by innumerable
trials, he had goodreasonto be disheartened.
Have you ever felt this way? Have you ever been so encumbered by troubles
that hopelessnesstakes over? Youstruggle to find a reasonto keepfighting,
but you are so tired and overwhelmed that you just want to give up?
Despite all his adversity, the apostle Paul continued to trust God, and you
should too. Be assuredthat the Helper sees the depths of your difficulties. He
translates your feelings more accuratelythan you can articulate them
yourself. And He comforts you with the knowledge thatHe understands what
you need. He also guarantees thatyour tribulations are not in vain but will
build you up in the faith if you respond to Him in obedience.
Obeying His Promptings
Do not miss this truth: Responding to the Holy Spirit in obedience is key. This
part of the conversationis yours—your willing submission to what the Holy
Spirit tells you. He teaches you how to listen to the Father, communicating the
truth in a way you can receive. According to your spiritual maturity, He

shows you how to apply biblical principles to your life. Your part is to obey
Him, and as you do, He strengthens you (1 Pet. 5:10).
It is not a mystery how Paul was able to endure such heartache and
persecution. The apostle had learned to listen closelyto the Holy Spirit and
had drawn the encouragementhe needed from His constantpresence. How
did Paul do so? He learned to walk by the Spirit (as he described in Galatians
5:16-25).
Paul learned to deal with his troubles in God’ s way, rather than the ways of
the world. When we experience difficulty, our human nature tries to express
or quench it in ungodly ways: through possessions, addictions, immorality or
other ways. However, Paul realized that if he listened to the Spirit—handling
his adversity as Christ would—he would be liberated from the worries and
discouragements ofthis life.
You can be freed, too. You can crucify the desires of the flesh—those things
that are subtly destroying you and causing you heartache day by day—by
learning to walk by the Spirit.
Perhaps you are wondering what the phrase “ walk by the Spirit” means for
your life. How do you do that? How can you live eachmoment in dependence
on the Holy Spirit, sensitive to His voice and obedient to Him?
To walk in the Spirit means obeying His initial promptings. You do it by going
through eachday aware ofthe Holy Spirit’ s presence with you. You submit
to Him as you feel Him pulling you in a certain direction or tugging at your
heart to take a particular course of action, even if you don’ t quite understand
why.
For example, you may be convicted to drop a conversation, turn awayquickly
from a televisionprogram or leave a place that is questionable. Whatever it is,
do so immediately—the Spirit is warning you about a temptation to sin that
you may be unable to resistunless you obey Him instantly.

Perhaps there is someone who comes to your mind during the day. You know
he or she has been going through a difficult time and could use some support.
Call or write that person. The Spirit will give you the right words to
encourage him or her. He wants to minister to that person through you and is
sure to bless you as you do so.
The Holy Spirit may guide you to pursue a route or a risk that you never
imagined you would take. The wisestthing to do is to submit to His plan
regardless ofwhether it makes sense to you. The Spirit of the living God
knows all things, including the future, and His direction is always for your
benefit.
The Ultimate Conversation
This is the waythe ultimate conversationbecomes realin your life—you obey
the initial promptings of the Holy Spirit. And as you do, the voice of God
becomes strongerand more prevalent in your life. Eventually, you begin to see
spiritual realities that only a personwho is in constantcommunion with the
Father canperceive (Ps. 25:14).
Elisha was just such an individual (2 Kings 6:8-19). When the Arameans
gatheredagainstIsrael and surrounded the city of Dothan, the prophet was
unafraid and unmoved. His servant, on the other hand, saw the multitude of
soldiers, horses and chariots and was terrified. He cried: “ Alas, my master!
What shall we do?” (v. 15).
Elisha remained calm. “ ‘ Do not fear,’ ” he replied, “ ‘ for those who are
with us are more than those who are with them.’ Then Elisha prayed and
said, ‘ O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.’ And the Lord opened
the servant’ s eyes and he saw;and behold, the mountain was full of horses
and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (vv. 16-17).
While the servant saw that the enemy had encamped around the city, Elisha
perceivedthe greaterspiritual reality: that God was fighting the battle for
them. Becauseofthis, he remained confident and secure. Likewise, the more

you obey the Spirit and the closeryou grow to the Father, the strongeryour
faith and assurance.
You can see this truth demonstrated throughout Scripture:
“ ThoughI walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for
You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4).
“ The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the
defense of my life; whom shall I dread? ...Thougha host encamp againstme,
my heart will not fear; though war arise againstme, in spiteofthis I shall be
confident” (Ps. 27:1, 3).
“ Godis our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we
will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip
into the heart of the sea” (Ps. 46:1-2).
“ Blessedis the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord. For
he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream
and will not fear when the heat comes;but its leaves will be green, and it will
not be anxious in a year of drought nor ceaseto yield fruit” (Jer. 17:7-8).
This does not mean that if you walk by the Spirit you’ ll never be afraid. Nor
does it signify that you will automatically see the Lord’ s angelic host, as
Elisha and his servant did. The point is, when you engage in the ultimate
conversationof prayer with the Fatherin a realand living way, you begin to
know and understand things that are apparent only to those who understand
the deep truths of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:6-16).
As God Himself says, “ Callto me and I will answeryou and tell you great
and unsearchable things you do not know” (Jer. 33:3, NIV). You experience
more of the Father’ s faultless characterand grow more confident in His
provision for you.
Therefore, I challenge you to begin eachmorning with a prayer that goes
something like this: “ Father, I want You to guide me and lead me today.
Speak to my heart. Make me sensitive to Your promptings and to what is
happening around me in the lives of those I meet. Fill me with Your

supernatural joy, and use me today for Your purposes. I surrender fully to
You.”
If you yield to the Holy Spirit and depend on His ability rather than your own,
He will enable you not only to live a life that is pleasing to Christ but also to
experience God in ways you never thought possible."
BOB DEFFINBAUGH
Siding With the Spirit (Romans 8:1-17)
Introduction
Our family was on vacationduring the fuel crisis a number of years ago when
we ran short of fuel in a remote westernpart of the United States. In the small
town where we found it necessaryto spend the night, only one motel was
available, and my children still laugh about the night we spent in the Alpine
Lodge. Our room had no private bath; the bathroom down the hall had
saloon-type doors one could see over and under. The flashing red neon sign
outside our windows illuminated our room all through the night. Downstairs
we checkedin at the bar of a tavern. At that bar sat a man well under the
influence of already-consumedliquor. I could not help but overhearthe man’s
conversationwith the bartender. This drunken man was actually witnessing to
the bartender about his need to trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. Imagine a
drunk telling a soberbartender he needed to get saved!

A radical change is expectedand required when a person comes to faith in
Jesus Christ. When no change becomes apparent, we begin to wonder if there
has been a genuine conversionor if the one who was truly savedunderstands
God’s Word concerning sanctificationand discipleship. Charles Colson, in his
excellentbook, Loving God, entitles one of his chapters, “A Christian
Gangster?”GangsterMickeyCohenhad made a professionof faith, and it
was hoped that he had sincerelycome to faith in Jesus Christ. Time evidenced
that Mr. Cohen wantedto continue to live as a gangsterwith the assurance
that he would go to heaven when he died. For a man like Cohen, genuine
conversionto Christianity would require some radicalchanges in his mindset,
motivation, and methods.
That change is both necessaryand radical for anyone who comes to faith in
Jesus Christ. The libertine extreme seeks to minimize the change which is
required, wanting to avoid any rules or commands. They want to speak only
of grace and not of righteousness orGod’s Law. They want to continue to live
in sin just as they did as unbelievers. This view is described and rejectedin
Romans 6. The legalist, onthe other hand, wants to bury the convert to Christ
with rules and regulations. He does speak ofrighteousness and holiness, but of
the kind men define which is accomplishedby human effort and not divine
enablement. Paul discussesthis point of view in Romans 7, showing legalism
to be both sinful and impossible.
In Romans 6, Paul tells us that righteousness is required of those who have
been justified by faith. Those who have died to sin must no longercontinue to
live in sin. They must no longerpresent their bodies to sin, but must present
their bodies to God as instruments of righteousness. Paulshares in Romans 7
from his ownexperience as he shows that living a righteous life is humanly
impossible. The Law is not the problem, for the “Law is holy, righteous, and
good.” The problem is the weaknessofour flesh. Unaided by God, the best a
Christian can do is to serve God with his mind but to serve sin with his flesh.
Greatagony over this condition causes the Christian to cry out to God who
alone can deliver him from the body which is dead with respectto achieving
righteousness.

Chapter 7 ends with a very desperate cry for deliverance and a brief summary
of the nature of that deliverance: “Wretchedman that I am! Who will setme
free from the body of this death? Thanks be to Godthrough Jesus Christ our
Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of
God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:24-25).
Paul will explain in Romans 8 the nature of God’s provision for our
deliverance. The words of our text in verses 1-17, along with those which
follow in chapter 8, are some of the most encouraging words in all of the Bible.
“Spenneris reported to have said that if holy Scripture was a ring, and the
Epistle to the Romans its precious stone, chap. viii. would be the sparkling
point of the jewel!”171
Those who can identify with the agony of Paul in Romans 7 will rejoice with
him in the ecstasyof Romans 8. Do you desire to serve God and to obey His
commands and yet find it impossible to do so? If not, then you should go back
to the beginning of Romans and start reading again. Either you are not a
believer in Jesus Christ, you fail to understand what God requires, or you do
not see the futility and inadequacy of merely human effort. But if you have
come to that point of despairof which Paul speaks, thenyou have come to the
point of dependence upon God. Readon, my friend. There is more goodnews
for you. The solution to your problem is now the topic under discussionin
Romans 8.
Let us look to the Holy Spirit, of whom theses verses speak, to enlighten our
minds concerning those things which we would never graspapart from His
divine illumination (see 1 Corinthians 2:6-16).
An Overview of Romans 8
Romans 8 may be seenas falling into three distinct but closelyrelated
segments. Verses 1-27 describe the ministry of the Holy Spirit in relationship
to the believer. The sovereigntyof God is stressedin verses 28-30.Verses 31-
39 contain Paul’s spontaneous outburst of praise in response to the security of
the saint and the certainty of God’s purposes and promises.
The Structure of Our Text

In our text the following structure can be observed:
Verses 1-4
The Holy Spirit, God’s Provision for (1) escapefrom condemnation, and (2)
enablement to fulfill the Law
Verses 5-11
The necessityofwalking in the Spirit, rather than walking in the flesh
Verses 5-8
Why walking in the flesh cannot please God
Verses 9-11
Why walking in the Spirit will please God
Verses 12-17
Paul’s words of application
Preliminary Observations
To better understand our text in Romans 8:1-17, it may prove helpful to make
a few overallobservations concerning the Book ofRomans, this chapter, and
its larger context.
(1) Romans is a logical, systematic treatmentof the gospel. In this epistle, Paul
deals with the gospelin terms of its necessity, its basis, its nature, and its
outworkings. Paulis not writing to a church he has founded or visited, but to
a church he hopes to visit in the future. He is not writing to address and
correctspecific problems but to provide this group with a solid foundation, a
foundation for their Christian lives and for his future ministry among them.
(2) Romans is the most systematic treatment of the doctrine of the spiritual
life in all of the New Testament. Thus, what Paul includes and what he omits

in this epistle must be taken very seriouslyin terms of what is important to the
Christian life.
(3) Paul’s teaching is basedon the assurance ofthe salvationof the saint, their
possessionofthe Spirit and the certainty of their sanctification. Pauldoes not
try to motivate the Christian to trust and obey out of doubt or fear but out of
confidence, assuranceand gratitude for what God has done and will do. The
mood throughout is that of the certainty of the saint basedon the sovereignty
of God (see 8:1, 9, 11, 15-17, 28-39).
(4) The Holy Spirit is the prominent subject and the most prominent person of
the Godheadin this chapter.172 While there has alreadybeen considerable
attention given to the flesh prior to chapter 8, there have been very few
references to the Holy Spirit. This chapter is, by far, the most concentrated
teaching on the Holy Spirit in the Book of Romans. The term “spirit,” which
can refer either to man’s spirit or to the Holy Spirit, occurs only four times in
Romans before chapter8 (1:4; 2:29; 5:5; 7:6). Of these four previous
occurrencesofthe term “spirit” in Romans 1-7, one instance is a clear
reference to a man’s human spirit (Romans 1:4). The secondreference (2:29)
is debatable. The third reference (5:5) is a rather clearreference to the Holy
Spirit. The use of “Spirit” in Romans 7:6 is somewhatdebatable as well
(capitalized in the NASB, but with a footnote with the alternative rendering,
“spirit”).
In Romans 8, the term “spirit” occurs 18 times in the NASB and 19 times in
the King James Version(see the translation of Romans 8:1 in the King James
Version for an additional use of the term). This term occurs but 7 more times
in Romans 9-16 (9:1; 11:8; 14:17; 15:13, 16, 19, 30). Thus, the term “Spirit” or
“spirit” occurs in chapter 8 over60% of the time when it is used by Paul in
Romans.
(5) The Holy Spirit is God’s provision for holy living in the life of the
Christian. The Holy Spirit is the answerto the problem of the Christian’s
“body of death,” a body dominated by sin and dead with respectto producing
any work which is righteous, according to the definition of the Law of God.
Romans 8 deals with the ministry of the Holy Spirit pertaining to the salvation

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