THE LEADING OF THE SPIRIT 2
(week 14/10)
OLUBI JOHNSON
Firstly, we wish all our readers a blessed and joyful Easter celebration with the resurrection life and power of the Lord Jesus Christ filling and prospering your souls, bodies and circumstances in Jesus name.
In our article last week, we saw that God leads us by the witness, the Word and works of the Holy Spirit. We saw that to confirm a leading, we must have a word based on the Bible that does not contradict the principles and the character of God revealed in the Bible.
This week, we will see how to further confirm that the leading of the witness and the confirming Word we are receiving is truly from God, especially for destiny-affecting issues.
Many times the confirming Word will be further confirmed through independent prophetic and apostolic prophecy, preaching or teaching that sheds light upon the Word we are reading and studying, causing us to see ‘light’ from the Word in the ‘light’ we get from prophetic and apostolic prophecy, preaching or teaching.
Psalms 119:130 MKJV: The entrance of Your Words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.
Psalms 36:9 MKJV: For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we shall see light.
In fact, in this situation this also acts as a third witness: the supernatural works of the Spirit through independent prophetic or apostolic prophecy, preaching or teaching. We need this third independent witness as a check against any inaccuracies in the witness and confirming Word we have received in our own hearts, since our hearts are not infallible and what we receive can be distorted by our ambitions and emotions.
In particular on critical destiny-affecting issues like marriage, change of physical location because of career or business choices and such like; it is vital to submit whatever confirming Word you receive to spiritual oversight so that you can be sure the leading is truly from God and not Satan trying to deceive you (by distorting the Word like he tried to do to the Lord Jesus during His 40 day fast in the wilderness ( Lk. 4:9-12)) through your inaccurate or distorted reception of the witness and Word that have been coloured by your human emotions and ambitions.
Proverbs 28:26 MKJV: He who trusts in his own heart is a fool; but whoever walks wisely, he shall be delivered.
1 John 3:20 MKJV: that if our heart accuses us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things.
This implies that we should not trust our heart (your spirit, mind and emotions) alone because our heart does not know all things and could be accusing us when in fact God is not accusing us.
So, submit the leading of the witness you have received and the confirming Word to your spiritual leaders; then submit to their counsel concerning the particular issue if they can show you with a basis in the Word of God why your leading is either inaccurate or wrongly timed.
1 Peter 5:5 AMP: Likewise, you who are younger and of lesser rank, be subject to the elders (the ministers and spiritual guides of the church)–[giving them due respect and yielding to their counsel]. Clothe (apron) yourselves, all of you, with humility [as the garb of a servant, so that its covering cannot possibly be stripped from you, with freedom from pride and arrogance] toward one another. For God sets Himself against the proud (the insolent, the overbearing, the disdainful, the presumptuous, the boastful)–[and He opposes, frustrates, and defeats them], but gives grace (favor, blessing) to the humble. [Prov. 3:34.]
Hebrews 13:17 AMP: Obey your spiritual leaders and submit to them [continually recognizing their authority over you], for they are constantly keeping watch over your souls and guarding your spiritual welfare, as men who will have to render an account [of their trust]. [Do your part to] let them do this with gladness and not with sighing and groaning, for that would not be profitable to you [either].
Now, the corresponding supernatural works of the Spirit form a third witness that establishes the timing of the truth that has been established by the witness and the Word: something may be truly from God but the timing may still be afar off:
Daniel 10:1 KJV: In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzer; and the thing was true, but the time appointed was long: and he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision.
As the time of fulfilment approaches, God will confirm this timing by the supernatural works of the Spirit.
So, we are led from the ‘inside’ firstly by the witness and the Word and then secondly this inner leading is confirmed on the ‘outside’ by the works of the Spirit.
As we grow spiritually and have more and more revelation knowledge (2 Cor. 4:6) of God’s Word, we will know God’s mind on even the smallest issues by the witness and the Word so be led by Spirit in all that we do like the Lord Jesus was.
John 5:36-39 ESV: But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. (37) And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, (38) and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. (39) You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
John 14:10-12 NIV: Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. (11) Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. (12) I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
Notice that through the witness of the Spirit and the Word: the scripture, you can ‘hear’ God’s voice, ‘see’ His form or shape and then do His works!
