One of the principal ways through which we can access amazing possibilities and breakthroughs is the leading of the Spirit. When I talk about being led by the Spirit, I am not talking about a presumption or assumption that you are led by the Spirit. Some people think that the fact that they are born again means that they are automatically led by the Spirit. Some people think that the fact that they have the Spirit of God in them means that every step they take is automatically a step by the leading of the Spirit. Nothing could be farther from the truth than this, and such thought is a deception that can easily lead to danger and destruction.
There is a place for seeking and listening to the promptings and leading of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in us, not as a controller, but as a helper. John 15:26 (in the Easy to Read Version of the Bible) says “I will send you the Helper[a] from the Father. The Helper is the Spirit of truth[b] who comes from the Father…..”
Jesus said in John 14:16, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever”
There is a place for seeking and listening to the promptings and leading of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in us, not as a controller, but as a helper.
So the Holy Spirit is clearly a helper and not a controller, or even a possessor. So it is possible to have the Holy Spirit and not do things by the leading of the Holy Spirit….simply because you acted without hearing or following the instructions of the Spirit. The leading of the Holy Spirit cannot be by assumption. You cannot assume that your status as being born again implies that everything you do is by the leading of the Spirit. This is a very dangerous assumption. There are many people who were born again and tongue-talking and still went astray through terrible costly decisions and judgments.
In the account of Phillip and the conversion of the Ethiopian Enoch, the bible records how the Holy Spirit led Phillip with specific instructions. Acts 8:29 says “Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot….” So the instruction and the leading of the Spirit were specific and clear. And this instruction led to the conversion of a very influential man. When you read that account in the living bible, you will see that this Ethiopian eunuch was the treasurer of Ethiopia. This was the man who bible scholars believe to have been the first man to bring the gospel to Africa. In other words, this specific and clear leading of the Spirit to Phillip culminated in the gospel entering Africa. I love this story because Phillip was doing something good: evangelism. But this account was evangelism done by the leading of the Spirit, and we can see the result of that singular leading when we see how far Christianity has come in Africa today. So even in the things of God, it takes the leading of the Spirit to achieve outstanding results.
Another Case and justification for the leading of the Spirit can be seen in Acts 13:2, which says “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” This is another case of a clear and specific leading from the Holy Spirit, which resulted in the separation of Paul into a ministry that has produced over two-thirds of the New Testament we have today. Again, we see that the clear and specific leading of the Spirit resulted in something tremendous in its impact.
Even in the things of God, it takes the leading of the Spirit to achieve outstanding results.
Friend, as we have seen in the cases of Phillip and Paul, where the leading of the Spirit resulted in something great, groundbreaking, and transgenerational in its impact, many people will be breaking records and grounds and entering into uncommon and strange dimensions of miracles by the leading of the Spirit.
So rather than running up and down and racking your head and stressing yourself on how that breakthrough you desire will become a reality, why not settle down and wait on the Spirit of God for His leading?
In Luke 5:1-7, the bible records how Peter toiled all night and caught nothing. But then in vs 5, Jesus gave clear and specific instructions to Peter, and the result he got from following that instruction was beyond his wildest imagination. This is the same way the Holy Spirit will lead you into miracles that will beat your imagination this year.
Very briefly, I just want to share three (3) important things to note about the leading of the Holy Spirit, which we must know and embrace to make the best of the leading of the Spirit.
1. The Leading of the Spirit is the Leading of God
In other words, when you are led by the Spirit, it is God the father speaking to you because the Spirit and the father are one. In 1 Corinthians 2:10, the bible makes us understand that the Spirit searches the deep things of God and reveals them to us. In the Living Bible, that passage says that the Spirit searches out and shows us all of God’s deepest secrets. You cannot know and operate with the secrets of the omniscient God and not be a mystery and wonder. Jesus was a wonder because of the secrets of God that he had access to and operated by. John 5:19 says “Verily, verily I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do; for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”
In John 5:30, Jesus said “As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous” So the mystery that surrounded the ministry of Jesus was a product of the access Jesus had to the heart and the secrets of God. It is these same secrets that the Holy Spirit is here to give us access to, and to lead us by. In the New Living Translation, John 16:13 says “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard.” So whatever the Spirit tells you is what the father is saying. Whatever the Spirit shows you is what the father has in his mind. The secret to your breakthrough is a secret in the heart of God…..and just like you draw water from a well, the Holy Spirit is what you need to draw out those secrets from the depth of God’s heart.
In John 14:26, Jesus said “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name….” So the Holy Spirit is sent by God the father, in the Name of Jesus. So the Holy Spirit is sent by God, with the authority and power of Jesus (to whom all power in heaven and on earth has been given, as we see in Matthew 28:18). This is why the leading of the Holy Spirit can never contradict the father and the son. This is what makes the leading of the Spirit reliable.
2. The Leading of the Spirit may not make sense
Isaiah 55:8-9 says “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
If the ways and thoughts of God are so far above our ways and thoughts, and the Spirit of God is searching the deep secrets of God’s heart and revealing them to us, we should not expect what the Spirit of God will reveal to us will always make sense to us….and the fact that it does not make sense to us does not mean it does not work.
It's like a Professor of Physics explaining aerodynamics to an illiterate. The fact that the illiterate does not understand what the professor is saying, does not mean that what the professor is saying does not work.
Many times, we hold on to the inferior human wisdom and knowledge, which denies us of the superior wisdom and knowledge of God that the leading of the Spirit offers us. In Matthew 14:22-23, we see how Peter walked on Water when Jesus asked him to do so. As long as he focused on what Jesus said, he walked on water. But the moment he began to look at the waves (in light of his human understanding), fear entered his heart and he began to sink. Matthew 14:30 says that when he saw the high waves, he was afraid and he began to sink. The fact is that Peter saw the waves even before Jesus asked him to come. Vs 24 says that the wind had risen and they were fighting the heavy see. So ever before Jesus asked Peter to come, Peter had seen the waves. The moment Peter began to rationalize what Jesus asked him to do (which was to walk on water) with his human understanding, fear entered his heart and he began to sink.
Many times, we hold on to the inferior human wisdom and knowledge, which denies us of the superior wisdom and knowledge of God that the leading of the Spirit offers us.
Many have lost miracles because they have tried to rationalize the leading of God with human understanding. It takes seeing the spiritual with a spiritual lens to experience a miracle. The leading of the Spirit does not have to make sense for it to work. You only need to trust it. Many of us do not understand how an aircraft defies gravity to take us from one place to another. Yet we trust the aircraft to take us to our destination.
Friend, it comes to the leading of the Spirit, you may not understand it, and you do not need to understand it. You only need to trust it.
3. The Leading of the Spirit comes with the Enablement of the Spirit
In other words, whatever the Spirit leads you to do, he empowers you to do. Grace always accompanies divine instructions. In Acts 13:2, we saw how Paul was set aside for ministry by the leading of the Holy Spirit. The same Paul went on to say, in 1 Corinthians 15:10, that I am what I am by the grace of God.
Friends, Grace is the forerunner of divine leading. Some people pray for grace, and that is perfectly fine. After all, Matthew 7:7 says “ask and it shall be given”. But some people operate in unimaginable dimensions of grace without even asking for it, simply because they live by the leading.
We often ask for miracles and breakthroughs…..But for some, miracles and breakthroughs follow them because they follow the Spirit's leading. In the account of Phillip in Acts 8, after he preached to the Ethiopian Enoch, vs. 39-40 says that the Spirit caught away Phillip…the Ethiopian Enoch did not see him again, and Phillip found himself in another town. In other words, he just disappeared from one place and appeared in another place. This is a miracle many of us would wish and pray for….Yet Phillip experienced it without praying and asking for it, just by following the leading of the Spirit.
What I am trying to say here, in a nutshell, is that grace is the forerunner of the leading of the Spirit, while miracles and breakthroughs are the escorts. When you see the motorcade of a President for instance, some vehicles go before the President's vehicle, and then the president's vehicle passes, and then you see other vehicles following the president's vehicle, all in a convoy. This is the same analogy with the leading of the Spirit. Think of the leading of the Spirit like a vehicle….Wherever the leading of the Spirit is taking you, grace has gone ahead of you. And as you move in the direction of the spirit, miracles, and breakthroughs are following you. This is God’s agenda for you.
I decree over your life….that you will not miss the leading of the Spirit in this year in the name of Jesus.