Minister: Princess Onogwu
Date: Friday, 13th January 2023
Topic: Following the Leading of the Holy Spirit
Anchor Scripture: John 15:13
Let us pray.
Dear Holy Spirit, I ask that Your light shines upon every mind that will listen to Your word today, may they see You as You are, and may I not only speak Your mind but I ask also that my words become spirit and life to everyone that will ever come across this teaching. Thank You because You have heard me, You always do. Amen!
Who is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is the spirit of God the Father, He is God Himself and also one of the Trinity. Some people will say He is the third person of the Trinity, but Genesis 1:2 introduces Him to us as the second person before the Word.
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
[Genesis 1:2 NKJV]
Oh well, with God, there’s no positioning and levels, no first person or last person. God is God.
How Do You Follow the Leading of The Holy Spirit?
1. You must be born again.
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
[John 3:3 NKJV]
For a person to be led by the Holy Spirit or follow His leading, that person must be born again.
What does it mean to be born again?
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
[John 3:3-18 NKJV]
This means believing in Jesus who is the Son or the Word of God, a born-again can also be called a believer (believer of the gospel of Christ) or a Christian (follower of Christ).
So, long as you believe in Jesus and you have confessed Him as Lord and Saviour, you are born again.
And by so doing, any believer who has confessed Jesus as Lord and Saviour has the seal unto redemption and that is the Holy Spirit.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
[Ephesians 4:30 NKJV]
It means everyone that has believed Jesus and confessed Him automatically has the Holy Spirit coming upon him just like the day Jesus was baptized and had the Spirit come upon Him immediately.
2. You must believe in the Holy Spirit, in His power and you must also believe that He lives inside of you.
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you
[Romans 8:11 NKJV]
Just like you can not work with someone you do not believe in and you can not work with someone you do not believe exist, the same way you can not work with the power of the Holy Spirit neither can you follow His leading if you do not believe He exists.
You have to believe that He is and is the rewarder of them who diligently seek Him.
Hallelujah!
3. You must know His voice and learn to obey it.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
[John 10:27 NKJV]
I will like to ask you a question, how do you know your Mother’s voice?
Some of you even in deep sleep when your mom speaks, you can tell she is the one when a stranger pretends to be your mom even when blindfolded and that person speaks, you still know the difference.
That’s because you learned your mom’s voice from the womb. Many people speak to their babies from the womb and when the babies are given birth, the babies hear that voice over and over and over again until they get accustomed to it and nothing can make them miss that voice.
That’s how it is with the voice of the Holy Spirit, you learn it, stick to it, and obey it.
How Do You Learn His Voice?
I’ll show you.
4. You must trust Him.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths[Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV]
Truth is, the Holy Spirit is not our regular religious man that can be fitted into a box. Sometimes He makes you do things outside the box and it might seem very different from the ordinary or normal Christian cliché but you must trust Him to never lead you astray and I promise, He never does.
I’ll give you an example. During our Personal Fellowship Time 4 am – 6 am, we were praying in the Holy Ghost and a secular song popped up in my spirit.
Why would a secular love song be popping up instead of a gospel song? I asked myself. Then I pushed it aside.
But the Holy Spirit kept bringing it up and He said “Sing it!”
I had to take permission from everyone I was fellowshipping with to be able to sing it and I did.
It turned out that someone on that fellowship needed it, that was her language, that was the kind of song she understood and, at that moment, He ministered healing to her.
See? If I was in a religious gathering, I would have thought I was out of line and many people might get offended I was bringing the secular into a Christian gathering…
But I knew God can not be fixed in a box and I trusted the Holy Spirit enough to sing it and get that lady healed.
Hallelujah!
5. You must act on that trust that you have in Him.
We all know what the Bible says about faith.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
[Hebrews 11:1 NKJV]
Faith is an action word.
Just like I heard Him and I did as I was told.
If you hear without doing then you are not following His leading.
How Do You Learn The Voice Of The Holy Spirit?
Every human has an inner man.
Therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
[2 Corinthians 4:16 NKJV]
You can call this your conscience or even your intuition, every human being was born with one as it is written in Romans 2:15 and 1 Timothy 1:5.
They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them).
[Romans 2:15 NKJV]
Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith.
[1 Timothy 1:5 NKJV]
When you learn to listen to your inner man or conscience and do as led you automatically know how to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.
I tell you, everyone has the breath of God but not his mind or spirit.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being
[Genesis 2:7 NKJV]
When that breath is taken, the body dies.
As Christians, if you read the word of God and pray in the spirit always, the voice of the Holy Spirit would override your conscience and your inner man in fact it takes it over completely as time goes on.
When the Holy Spirit comes upon You, it is like an exchange happened with your inner man.
It’s like your human spirit was exchanged with the Holy Spirit, so if you were able to listen to your inner man/conscience/mind/ intuition before, then it’s easy for you to listen and be led by the Spirit, it is almost the same thing.
I said almost because a none Christian, does not have the mind of Christ, no renewal whatsoever but a believer? We have the mind of Christ and are renewed by reading the scriptures and praying in the spirit. If you do this constantly, consistently, you’ll get used to His voice.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
[John 3:6 NKJV]
Ways The Holy Spirit Can Speak:
- Through the scriptures
- Through your inner man (let’s call it the inner witness)
- Through His prophets or servants
- Through friends or circumstances
- Through nature.
When we speak next, that’s in part 2, I will elaborate more on the listed items and give more light to all I have said, we may even have practicals so you see that following God’s leading is not so hard.
Let us pray!
Father, I thank You for all You have done in this teaching today, may Your kingdom come through us!
Amen!