How to be Spirit-led...An Experiment

The Experiment
By December 2007, I was in the midst of what had been a very painful crisis. I’d tried everything I could to get out of it with no success. It was then that I learned about the grace of God and righteousness by faith. According to Andrew Wommack and the scriptures he gave, I was right before God AND blessed by Him independent of my performance. That sounded too good to be true, so I decided to test it.

“OK God. If you’re telling me that the way to receive blessing is by faith in Jesus’ completed work, then I’m not going to read my bible anymore. I’m not going to pray or worship or spend any time with you until I want to. Since you don’t need my work with Jesus’ work, I’m just going to take a break.” I’d never felt this way before. For most of my Christian life, I was in love with the Lord, feelings and everything. But by now my heart was beyond tired. And grace sounded so good, I had to try it. Little did I know, God was setting me up to learn some things that had been a mystery my entire Christian life.

One day went by. I was fine. In fact, I was skipping because I felt so free. Two days go by. I started feeling a little hungry for him. On the morning of the third day, I drew to the Lord out of pure desire and entered into a level of intimacy with him like never before. I stopped asking him what I should read in the bible. Instead, the thought came to me ask, “What do I want to read today Lord?” I’d feel a desire for a certain book, study there, and receive revelation from heaven. I’d ask “Do I want to pray in tongues, or worship, or what Lord?” Then I’d desire to worship to a slow song and be transformed. Our time together is Spirit-led. He knows where my answers are at that time. If I desire to talk with him but I sing instead, there’s no anointing. Needless to say, it’s only gotten sweeter.

How to be Led According to God’s Spoken and Written
Why did I share this? To show off how spiritual I was? No. Months later God connected the dots for me regarding the key to being led accurately and confidently by the Holy Spirit. In the past, I tried to be led by God by listening to my inner voice. I’d pray and then leave a silent time for Him to speak. Nothing. I’d ask a question hoping for an answer. Nada. This was very frustrating especially when the bible says “You [God] have given me the capacity to hear and obey” (Psalm 40:6) In August 2008, he reminded me of my little experiment and said that it was a perfect example of being led. He shared something like this, which I will also show you through scripture:

“Erna, the key to being led by me is to peel back the law. As you do that, all that’s left in you are the desires from me that lead to my good pleasure and purpose. I am always at work in you giving you the desire and ability to do my will (Phil. 2:13). And in every decision, you can either be led by law OR the Spirit of God in you (Gal 5:18). But as long as you think of your inheritance as a wage, you cannot discern my will. ”

That was PROFOUND to me! But I don’t expect you to just take my word for it. Divine instruction is your birthright and God designed it to be way simpler than I ever thought. OK, so here are some scriptures I found to confirm what God said:

1. Check out Galatians 2:19-21 in the New Living Translation. Paul tells us that when he tried to please God by his actions, he failed. But when he gave up and started trusting in Jesus’ actions, he was able to please God. He says, “I died to the law that I may live for God” (v. 19) It seems dying to the law is the key to living for God. He also says that as he died, Christ began to live through him (v. 20). As you rest from your works, Christ begins to work through you. Then he puts it into context by declaring that he will not take God’s grace for granted by putting himself on the cross through his good works. He says Christ died for nothing if our inheritance could be obtained by working for it (v.21).

2. Later in the book of Hebrews, Paul tells us the major difference between the old and new testaments regarding God’s method of leading us. He states that before Jesus, he wrote his instructions on tablets of stone. But today God says he will imprint his instructions on “our minds and upon our innermost thoughts and understanding”, and upon our hearts (Heb. 8:10 AMP, also see 10:6 AMP) His directions will now appear to us as our own thoughts and desires through our understanding. Amen!! That is so much easier than trying to listen for a voice. Sometimes I do hear words, not audibly, but in my spirit. But most of the time, I just feel a prompting or a leading in my belly area.

3. Solomon prophesies that as we roll our works upon him (Jesus), he will cause our thoughts to be agreeable with his will (Prov. 16:3 AMP).

4. Lastly, Galatians is a very strong rebuke from Paul to the Galatian church because they had gone from believing in God’s grace back to legalism. He said that could not have happened without some demonic help (Gal. 3:1). Notice the structure of the book of Galatians. It starts as a strong rebuke for going from grace back to law (1:1-5:12), then instruction is given about how to be led by the Spirit (5:13-5:26), then teaching about sowing and reaping (6:1-10) before Paul concludes his letter. It's a wonderful cycle! If we get the grace part in order, you'll flow in the Spirit, and you don't have to even think about sowing and reaping. The flow of the Spirit will guarantee that you "sow" in the right ways and places. This seems kinda shaky, but I’ve witnessed this in my own life and in the lives of other people who’ve learned what I learned. I believe when we put our works on Jesus, he rests us (Matt. 11:28-30) And all that comes out is the desire and ability to do his good pleasure (Phil. 2:13)

Anybody Can Do This
Being Spirit-led is a natural by-product of grace. I encourage you to look at these scriptures for yourself. See if you have peace about them. Peter tells us that some of Paul’s teachings are “hard to be understood”, and that we should grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus (2 Pet. 3:16-18). There were times when my mind was uncomfortable believing grace, but my heart had already said “Amen”. Jesus said that his burden for us is easy because we basically only do what we want (Matt. 11:28-30). God set it up that way! (“Hmm. How can I make sure that my kids will do what I tell them even if they don’t think it’s a good idea? I know! I’ll create this thing called desire!) And you know you’ve gotten off-track if what you’re doing feels hard, or frustrated, or you find yourself praying for grace to be on it (Prov. 13:15). God speaks directly to us in a language we can understand and he expects us to grow into these things. Even when getting godly counsel, you are still responsible for making sure what you’re told agrees with what you already have inside of you before you obey it. NO ONE takes the seat of the Holy Spirit in directing your life. (Read a good example of this in 1 Kings 13:11-32) If you have peace about these scriptures then follow the curiosity in your heart to learn more about grace. It doesn’t take long to understand it and is very exciting. I’m experiencing the thrills of learning about the Gospel along with several friends.

I’ve heard that Christians can be led by their desires, but never knew that it was based on removing our legalistic thinking. If a believer were to try to be led without first understanding the Gospel, things won’t go well. Grace makes God’s instructions glow in the dark. No kidding. It’s the most remarkable thing! Who knew this treasure was wrapped in an understanding of grace? Beloved, you are saved through faith in God’s grace, not by faith and works. (“Saved” and “salvation” in the Greek means saved from hell, healing, prosperity, protection, and much more. Basically it’s anything you need saving from.) Mixing faith and law has a very damaging outcome (Gal. 3:9-10; 5:1-8). So, you have to protect the Word of God in your heart and not get back into what I call the “should’s”. It is very easy to confuse diligence with the self-effort. Go after grace. And enjoy as God electrifies your relationship with him and answers questions you’ve had for years. I highly recommend reading "Destined to Reign" by Joseph Prince. That book is like Grace 101. I'd also recommend "The Power of the Gospel" from one of Andrew Wommack's series: http://www.awmi.net/extra/audio/1014. Be blessed.

PS – The word “Gospel” is loosely translated “nearly too good to be true news”. His grace certainly is that!