Wednesday // 7th August 2024
Is the Holy Spirit leading you in this way?
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
John 10:27
Living a life that loves and honors God is very personal; it’s about our relationship with the living God. God has put his Spirit within every genuine follower of Jesus and the Spirit leads and guides us in making decisions. Some have tried to separate the Scriptures and the Spirit but this is both harmful and senseless. Scripture is an expression of his very Person or Spirit, just like your words are an expression of you. God’s Spirit is never in contrast with Scripture. The Holy Spirit guides us through a variety of life circumstances, including decision-making. The Spirit’s leading helps us make choices that are consistent with God’s Word, especially when the Bible does not address the issue specifically or directly.
Learning to discern the voice of the Spirit is a process. It can be easy when you are a new believer to mistake a worship high or a caffeine rush or a hormonal phase to be the Spirit’s leading. Statements like “God told me to . . . ” can be very misguided. Once a Christian boy said to a group of people in the church that God had told him that he would marry either this girl or that girl. And can you guess?: he married neither. Over time we learn to distinguish between the Spirit’s voice and competing voices, and we can more confidently say at times, “No, that’s not the Spirit” or “I think the Spirit is leading me to . . .” Still, we have to be careful here since our own desires can play a role in how we feel the Spirit is leading us. One thing is always helpful to remember that the Spirit’s voice leads us to love and serve God and others, it tells us to be other-focused. Therefore any voice suggesting you to act selfishly, no matter how much it may be wrapped in religious language, is not the Spirit’s voice.
Your brother in Christ,
Apostle Ashok Martin
