REVIEW
 
So, last week, we began a new series on the Holy Spirit entitled “The Leading of the Holy Spirit.” In it, I explained that as we have most recently been covering the various types of the Holy Spirit, I came across another type of Him that “led” me to change gears and have us camp on this other important aspect of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So, we are “dovetailing” (pun intended) our most recent series with this new and very practical one on the Holy Spirit.
 
I explained last week that, in my opinion, being led by the Holy Spirit is one of the most important truths we can ever learn. Yes, it is an extremely practical and absolutely essential lesson that every believer should have a working knowledge of in their life. The reason is because the Holy Spirit lives in us to (among other things) lead and guide us into all truth—and this includes our daily walk. He will guide us into where to go, when to go there, etc., and I am persuaded that if we will learn to discern how He leads us, we will always be led into the perfect and complete will of God for our lives.
 
Church, far too many Christians walk like the world walks—and as a result are blindly groping around, trying to figure things out. But for a Spirit-filled believer, we don’t have to lean to our own understanding. We can trust in the Holy Spirit to direct our paths, hallelujah!  
 
So, we began studying the leading of the Holy Spirit last week by looking at another type of the Holy Spirit that is less known in the Scriptures—the Cloud.
 
We began by looking at Number 9:15-18 and saw how the cloud was a source of direction for the children of Israel. Again, these verses read— “Now on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the Testimony; from evening until morning it was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire. So it was always: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents. At the command of the Lord the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped.”
 
First of all, we noticed how on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, that the cloud covered it. One could read this as to say, that after Jesus—the One who came and tabernacled among us (see John 1:14)—was raised up from the dead, the Holy Spirit was now made available to all who would be born again and become the Lord’s Tabernacles. But this can also show us the permanence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As Jesus said, He will abide with us forever! We see this in this passage—because verse 16 says, “So it was always…” So, no longer should we be praying “Take not your Holy Spirit away from me!” as David did. No, if He is there, He will remain there! As it is always! Glory to God!
 
However, we also saw that— “Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents. At the command of the Lord the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped.”
 
So, while the cloud remained present, sometimes it moved. And when it moved, the children of Israel moved. In other words, the children of Israel—a type of God’s people today—were led by the cloud, following it wherever it went. Therefore, since the Holy Spirit is the cloud to us today, we must learn to follow His lead—going where He tells us to go and staying where He tells us to stay.
 
And here is another important point to take away from this passage—as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle, they remained encamped: You see, while we certainly want to be led by the Spirit, sometimes He will tell us to camp somewhere for a period of time. In other words, while He is always leading us, that does not mean He is always moving us. Therefore, it is imperative that we learn to discern when He’s moving us to something new and when He’s wanting us to “camp” in the last place He moved us to.   
 
Speaking of “camping,” last week, we “camped” on a point that I consider to be extremely important as it pertains to being led by the Spirit: Even though the children of Israel were being led by the cloud, this did not mean that they did not need “Moses.” No, Moses was an extremely important part of Israel’s direction and guidance in the wilderness. In fact, the vast majority of their generation did not enter into the promised land because of their lack of willingness to hear their leader, Moses. We have no record that they rebelled against following the cloud, but we certainly do see them rejecting the Word God delivered to them through His servant.
 
So, we saw that Moses was a a type of the Word of God—being the one who both received God’s Word for Israel and delivered it to them. He was also the one who delivered to them God’s law—His commandments, statutes, precepts, etc. And we saw that Moses wrote significantly more of the Bible than any other person did (The apostle Paul writing more books of the Bible, but much less words & verses).
 
So, the lesson we learned is this: Just as the cloud gave Israel direction of where to go and when to go there, they also needed God’s mouthpiece to keep them within the parameters of God’s will for their lives. And the fact is, because they had such a hard time receiving God’s directions through Moses, they were unable to possess their Promised Land. This teaches me that while the Holy Spirit dwells within us to lead and guide us, we do not need to make the mistake of putting Moses outside of our proverbial camp and only being “Spirit-led.” Why? Because the Spirit of God never will operate contrary to the Word of God. They always agree! Amen?
 
We looked at Second Peter 1:16-21 and saw how the Apostle Peter called the Scriptures “the more sure word of prophecy.” Yes, even over the supernatural experiences he had on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter said the “more sure” thing is the written Word of God. And why? It is because the devil operates in the supernatural too. Therefore, some seemingly supernatural experience we have could easily be the devil masquerading as an angel of light. 
 
This is such a huge point, my friends! If Peter said that his experience with the Lord Jesus Himself was subordinate to what is written in the Holy Scriptures, and if Peter said that the prophecies recorded in the Word of God are more of a sure thing than this particular experience, then we had better not let any experience we ever have or any “prophecy” we might receive be more convincing to us than what is written in God’s Word.
 
Now again, I am certainly not trying to downplay the importance of hearing from God in other spiritual ways. His supernatural methods of leading and guiding us still are extremely relevant and necessary today, but my point is that we are never to just blindly follow a spectacular experience just because it was supernatural. No, we should always measure every experience we have by the Word because the Spirit of God will never contradict the Word of God.
 
Likewise, this does not mean that being led by the Spirit is less important than the Holy Scriptures. Both the Word of God and the Holy Spirit are extremely important and work together to lead us into all truth. Yes, we have the Holy Spirit living within us—the voice of God—to lead us and guide us, but we also have the “map”—God’s Holy Word—that spells out to us the direction we are to take. We have the map (i.e. the Word) and we have the One who drew the map to interpret it for us (i.e. the Spirit). This, my friends, is a fail proof method! There is no excuse for us not always being led out of harm’s way and always into triumph!     
 
So last week, in regards to hearing from God and being led by the Holy Spirit, I made the point that just as the Holy Spirit helps us to understand what God’s Word is saying, God’s Word is how we can more accurately discern the leading of the Holy Spirit on the inside of us. We learned this by looking at Hebrews 4:12 which reads— “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
 
So, we learned that His Word is living and life-giving. It is not just any old book. It is alive and, therefore, is able to give life! It is also active and working. Therefore, the Word works. Amen? So, I likened the Bible to a diamond or prism—because when the Holy Spirit shines His light on a Scripture, it can be a beautiful thing in our sight. However, if the Word of God is looked upon with no “light” (i.e. no faith and no Holy Spirit), its beauty will not be fully realized.
 
But the truth we took away from Hebrews 4:12 is that His Word also has the power to divide between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and discern between the thoughts and intents of the heart. Friends, this is so huge!
 
How many of you have ever said either— “I am not sure if what I am hearing is God or if it’s just me!” or “I am confused as to whether this is God leading me to do this or if it is just my own desires.”? If we were all honest, we’ve all had these thoughts. Well, we learned last week how to better know the answer to this: The Word of God is the thing that helps divide between those thoughts of “Was that just me and my emotions or was that a Spirit-inspired idea?” In other words, like Moses was there to show the children of Israel how to discern all of these supernatural experiences like the cloud, the Word of God is able to discern between what is just our own thoughts and what is a spirit-inspired intention. What I mean by that is, when we put God’s Word at a place of importance in our heart, it will help us distinguish between when what we are hearing on the inside is God’s voice or another voice.
 
We looked at Psalm 119:11 where David said, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You”? We saw that just as “sin” literally means to “miss the mark,” the Holy Spirit was telling us that when we hide God’s Word in our hearts, we can keep ourselves from missing it!
In other words, God’s Word abiding in our hearts gives the Holy Spirit so much more to work with! As we hide His Word in our hearts through reading, studying, and meditating it, we are loading our heart with various truths to remind us of when we need direction and guidance from Him.  
 
Church, God’s Word—the Lord Jesus Christ, whom Moses is a type of, says to you and I today, “Follow Me!” This is the first step into a Spirit-led life where that Holy Spirit cloud leads us into our Promised Land. Amen, and Hallelujah!
 
LED FROM WITHIN, NOT WITHOUT
 
So now that we have established ourselves in the fact that God’s Word is both what keeps us in the parameters of being guided by the cloud and what helps us to better be guided into all truth, let’s move on to seeing the other predominant way that the Holy Spirit leads you and I today.
 
Let’s look over at another description of the cloud found in the Book of Exodus: Exodus 13:21-22, says this regarding the cloud: “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.”
 
Notice that this pillar of cloud & fire (that God never took away, mind you) served the purpose of “leading” the way in the day and giving them “light” in the night. I don’t know about you, but this sounds like some New Testament Scriptures to me—verses that teach us how the son and daughter of God are to be led by the Spirit of God.
 
So, there is a point that is important for us to understand—even though the children of Israel were being led externally through a supernatural method, this is not the primary way that God leads His children today. No, if we are being led by the Holy Spirit then our direction is not coming from without; it comes from within! Therefore, no longer is the Lord primarily directing by the clouds in the heavens; today, the cloud is inside of us, leading us from within. Amen!
 
This is very important to understand because if we are waiting on the Lord to lead & guide us in external ways, we might be waiting a while. Why? Because they are few and far between. However, if we learn to look within, and discern the leading of the cloud within us, we can consistently hear from the Holy Spirit and be led on a daily basis by Him.   
 
Let’s look at one of our primary examples of this in Romans chapter 8: Romans 8:14-17 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”
 
 
THE KEY QUALIFIER
 
Now, first of all, notice the context of these verses: It is the relationship between a son and his father. So herein lays a very good foundation to being Spirit-led. You see, when we start talking about being led by the Spirit, it is imperative that you and I are walking in personal relationship with God. Why? Because, as we will learn, the leadings of the Holy Spirit are very subtle and one can think that they are being “led” when in reality it is just their flesh, emotions, etc.
 
So, having a personal relationship with God is extremely important to being led by the Holy Spirit because if you are walking in the flesh, you probably don’t want to trust how you’re being led. Why? It is because you can very easily mistake one of these promptings as being the Lord when it is just your flesh or emotions.
 
We will get into this later, but when we are delighting ourselves in Him, it is easier to trust our desires as being from the Lord. That is why the Lord said in John chapter 15 that when we abide in Him and His Words abide in us, we can ask whatever and it will be done for us. This is because as we are whole-heartedly inclined towards the Lord, our desires will be more in line with His and we are thereby, praying according to His will. In other words, if we are not delighting ourselves in the things of God and are lukewarm in our relationship with Him, the desires of our heart will probably be the exact opposite of God’s will for us.
 
You see, we absolutely must be walking closely with the Lord and seeking Him for these divine guidance principles of the inward witness to work. But the bottom line is that we should always seek to be in a good relationship with the Lord above anything else regardless if this was a benefit or not. Having this close relationship with the Lord is the foundation from which all success comes in the Christian life, and this includes being led by the Spirit. If we try and build our Christian lives without this foundation, we are doomed for failure and will live extremely frustrated lives.
 
So, I would encourage all of us to pursue this communion with the Lord above all because a byproduct of seeking first the kingdom of God is that all these things will be added to us, including the ability to hear from God and be led by the Spirit—for it has everything to do with what we are talking about over the next couple of weeks.
 
HIS SHEEP HEAR HIS VOICE
 
But let’s go back to verse 14 and notice how the apostle Paul says that as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God: So, if this statement is true then what should never be words that come out of our mouth? “I have such a hard time being led by the Spirit … I wish I was led by the Spirit like so and so … etc.” No, this verse says that sons and daughters of God are led by the Spirit of God. 
 
I have heard this time and time again from Christians—how they didn’t feel like they could hear from God and how they wished they could be more led by the Holy Spirit. When I hear this, what I want to tell these Christians is—If you are a “follower” of Jesus Christ, you are indeed “led” by Him! Yes, you do hear from God! How do I know this? From two passages of Scripture in John chapter 10:
 
Let’s look at John 10:3-4 where Jesus said, “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”
 
Notice the repetitive references to the Lord’s sheep hearing His voice and the sheep following Him. In these verses, Jesus is affirmatively saying that His own hear His voice and are led by Him. So, if Jesus—the Lord our God—says that we hear His voice, shouldn’t we come into agreement with Him and start believing that we hear His voice? Of course, we should!
 
But you will hear believers cite their own experiences saying, “But I don’t hear His voice! I have asked and sought to hear from God, but I just don’t hear anything.” This is when we must base our belief system upon the foundation of His Word. As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 3:4— “Indeed, let God be true and every man a liar.” In other words, if our experiences and testimonies conflict with what God said in His Word, then those things are a lie in comparison. Saints, God’s Word is absolute truth. So, if He says here that we hear His voice, then we hear His voice whether we feel like we do or not. This is one of the cornerstones of hearing from God and being led by Him—faith that we do and are!
 
You see, we get what we expect from God (based on what He has spoken and promised to us). Things that God has provided are only going to be fully manifested in our lives as we actively put our hope in those promises and mix our faith with them. Everything from our initial salvation to hearing His voice is fully realized through our faith and hope—our confidence and expectation of them. So, we need to start believing and confessing that we do hear from God, for He has said that His sheep hear and know His voice!
 
But someone might say, “Well, maybe I do hear something, but my big problem is that I do not know when what I am hearing is God or the devil, the Lord or myself.” I am glad you made that point because notice again what our Lord said: He said in verse 3 that His sheep hear His voice, but at the end of verse 4 He said that we know His voice! That means that not only do we hear from God, but we know when what we are hearing is God. And verse 5 of John 10 goes on to say, “they will by no means follow a stranger” because “they do not know the voice of strangers.”
 
But the general problem here is us. It is not that God is not speaking; it is us who are not hearing correctly: A good example of all of this is that just as there are signals being transmitted in the air all around us right now—radio frequencies and television signals—there are also spiritual messages being transmitted in the atmosphere around us right now. But how many of you know that it would be ridiculous for one to say that they don’t believe that there are these signals and frequencies in the room with us right now just because they don’t see or hear them?
 
So, regarding this example, you can tell some people this and they might counter by saying— “I don’t hear spiritual frequencies and I don’t see these spiritual signals.” Well, it might not be that it is the transmitter that is broken. It might be that the problem is with their receiver!
 
You see, all of these unseen programs are being constantly broadcast, but if you do not have a receiver of some sort, you will be oblivious to them and won’t see or hear anything. And it is like that with all of those spiritual realities we are promised exist. Friends, there is a spiritual world around us right now that actually is more real than this natural world we live in. Why? Because the spiritual world parented this natural world. All things were made by the things unseen (see Hebrews 11:3).
 
That’s what faith does: It believes that the things that are made were created by unseen things. This verse teaches us an incredible lesson—that the Word of God was the parenting force that created all the things which are seen. And, bless God, you can bet the bank that it still works this way today! God’s Word can bring to reality in the natural realm things that are already a reality in the spiritual realm. The mirror of God’s Word reflects what is seen in God’s world.
 
So, you see, it’s already there and we are not trying to get God to do something that He has not already done. No, we are simply positioning our receiver to hear and see what He has already done. Amen! And this certainly pertains to this promise of hearing God’s voice. But I personally believe that the reason that many people’s hearing of God’s voice is so fuzzy is because they simply have not learned how He is communicating to us.
 
So, as Romans 8:14 says, a son or daughter of God can expect to be led by the Spirit of God. But many will read this verse and say something like— “Oh, well, I better start being led by the Spirit of God so that I can become a child of God.” No, it is actually saying the opposite: It is saying that the by-product of being a child of God is that you are led by the Spirit of God.
 
Now I have heard some try to make a distinction here saying that being led by the Spirit requires great maturity—thus the reason Paul refers to the phrase “sons of God” like these believers are the grown up ones, but I disagree with this mainly because Paul uses the terminology “children of God” and “sons of God” interchangeably. In fact, you can look down at verse 16 and see where he uses the term “children” and in Galatians 3:26 says, “For we are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”
 
No, I see all of this as an excuse of why more people are not led by the Spirit. And whether you were just saved yesterday or 50 years ago, you can be led by the Spirit of God just the same.
 
In fact, I believe many baby Christians are able to be led better than Christians who have been saved for a long time because their hearts are more soft, pliable and sensitive to His direction—not being hardened by the constant friction of not walking in the light that they have. 
 
But notice again that the Bible tells us that the sons (or daughters) of God are led by the Spirit of God—not can be led, not should be led, but are led!
 
This verse is basically equating “as many” who are led by the Spirit to “as many” are the sons and daughters of God. Therefore, if we are God’s children we are led just as if we are God’s sheep, we follow the Shepherd. So, again, we need to get into agreement with God and start believing and expecting to be led by the Spirit of God.
 
THE INWARD WITNESS
 
But let’s look back at our passage of Scripture in Romans chapter 8 and let me prove to you that you do hear from God and you are led by the Spirit (and this will also illustrate to you how God speaks to us and leads us today):
 
First of all, skip down a verse in Romans 8:16: It says that the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Well, how do you know that you are saved and a child of God? If someone were to ask us how we know we are born again, our response would generally be something like— “I just know.” It is just a “knowing” that we have on the inside of us. This “knowing” is the Holy Spirit communicating with our spirit that we are the children of God. We just know it in our knower—and this “knowing” is manifested in different ways (which we will get into shortly).
 
Well, it stands that the same way He communicates to us that we are saved is the same way He will communicate to us to turn left, stop, go there, etc., right? He will communicate to our spirit— our inner man—and this is evident by just knowing something in our knower. Therefore, He will bear witness with our spirit on other things as well and these situations will be recognized as well by that same “knower.”
 
For example, after you got saved and received the Spirit of God, what happened when you did something wrong or were about to do something wrong (i.e. hurting someone)? You had no problem knowing/discerning that what you did was wrong, did you? Of course not! That was God speaking to you/ leading you. You just knew that you were wrong and did not necessarily need to know what the Bible said about it. Something just irked you when you did it.
 
This is something God just showed me: how is it that we can hear from God so clearly and precisely when we miss it, but yet it seems so much harder to hear Him when it comes to seeking direction? In other words, why is it we know God is telling us we are doing something wrong and it is so hard to hear from Him when we need to know what to do?   
 
I believe this is the case because God’s desire is for us to look into His Word and find the general direction that we should be going. And once we begin to move in that direction, the Lord will keep us on our assigned path by correcting us when we are beginning to get off that path.
 
But my point is that you have no problem hearing from God when you miss it, so you do indeed hear His voice and are led by His Spirit. Therefore, His sheep do hear His voice and those who are sons of God are led by the Spirit of God.
 
So, how does the Holy Spirit lead us? Again, Paul answers this question in verse 16 when he says, “the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Now the following is an important point to understand: It is not just the Holy Spirit who is testifying to the fact that we are saved; our spirit is also witnessing to us that we are a child of God.
 
Romans 9:1 says, “I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit…” Have you ever told someone something that was not exactly the truth and then you just knew it on the inside of you after you said it? Man, often when I have done this, my conscience just smote me. Well again, that is how both our spirit and the Holy Spirit are bearing witness in us!
 
Now here in Romans 9:1, we have the same Greek word and it is indicating that Paul’s conscience was bearing witness along with the Holy Spirit. So, what Paul was saying in Romans 8:16 is that the Holy Spirit is bearing witness along with our spirit—indicating that our spirit is also testifying to the fact that we are God’s children.
 
So, we have a co-witness on the inside of us that will testify concerning what the Lord is saying to us—our own spirit & the Holy Spirit. Saints, this is a fail proof method for hearing from God because if you have two witnesses speaking up on the inside of you, you have a conviction. Doesn’t the Bible say that in the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established? Well, this is how we know the truth of what God is leading us to do—by these two witnesses.
 
Now, this week, I want to give you a few examples from the Scriptures how this inward witness manifests in us. In my experience, it is different for everybody. One person might describe this inward witness one way while another would describe it another way. I have heard people describe it as a thought, impression, and an idea. I have heard others describe it as a peace or an excitement they get. So, suffice it to say, this inward witness is manifested in a variety of ways—depending on the personality of the person and how they sense this kind of leading.
 
So, in conclusion, as promised, let me give you a couple of ways that this inward witness can be manifested in one’s life:
 
THE KNOWER
 
The first one (as we have briefly mentioned already) is a simple “knowing”:
 
Now, again, how do you know you are saved? You just know! You just know God is real! You just know heaven is real! You just know the Bible is true. You just know. You just know. You just know.
So, if the Holy Spirit is bearing witness with your spirit that you are God’s child, do you suppose He will bear witness with your spirit on anything else? You can bet your bottom dollar He can, and you can bet that He AM! Yes, the Holy Spirit communicates everything from your position as a son of God to what job you are to take. Amen! In other words, this is how He is communicating to you everything you need to know—through this inward witness. And this is totally Scriptural too …
 
First John 2:20 says, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.”
 
Now I know we like to make reference to the anointing as some separate grace associated with our gifting and callings, but the truth is the anointing is the Holy Spirit. Just as Joel prophesied concerning the Holy Spirit—He has poured out His Spirit on all flesh. What was God pouring? He was pouring out what was symbolized through anointing oil—the Holy Spirit who would come upon us! So now today, we all have the Anointing poured upon us—which enables these gifts to manifest in the Body of Christ.
 
But here, we see that the Anointing, the Holy Spirit, causes us to know all things and communicates those things to our spirit. Therefore, when direction comes, you will know it!
 
Did you ever wonder how in all of these testimonies of heavenly experiences how they just knew everyone’s name without being told? It was as if they would see someone and just know who that person was. Well, why is that? It knows! So, when these individuals visited heaven, they were not in the body. So, they were operating solely from their spirit—which knows everything.
 
So, if you are like, “Ehhh, I don’t know about that” or “Ehhh, I’m not sure why, but there is something not right about that.” Those “Ehhh’s” are oftentimes how the Holy Spirit is co-witnessing with our spirit to not do a certain thing. So, learn to obey those checks in your spirit promptly because oftentimes they are the Holy Spirit leading you not to do something.            
 
Again, how many times have we all known we were supposed to do something or knew we were not supposed to do something, and we went against that “unction” and regretted it later? We have all done that. But this is where we need to learn to heed that “knowing” (i.e. those promptings and impressions).
 
However, those uneasy feelings can also just be your head trying to talk you out of what your heart is telling you to do. That is why we must first be honest with ourselves and humbly accept the correction and then practice being led through trial and error. We should do this on the small things like asking for direction on what route to take home from work or asking Him to help you find something that you misplaced. You ask the Holy Spirit things such as this and then wait till He bears witness with your spirit. Then when something just pops into your heart or you just “know” something, act on it! Sometimes you’ll miss it and sometimes you’ll hit it right on the head. Just learn from your mistakes and from your successes (even journaling everything down to the minutest detail like how you were feeling, the fears, etc. This would be wisdom) and you will grow in your ability to be led by your “KNOWER.”
 
You see, we don’t have to know everything; We just need to know the One Who does know everything! And when we learn to detect the “KNOWER” we will know everything we need to know.
 
THE DESIRES OF OUR HEART
 
But there are other ways that this inward witness is identified too. Let’s look at another way that it can be described—our desires.
 
You see, one of the ways which a born-again child of God might know they are saved is by their desire, hunger and thirst for the things of God. I mean, that is one of the ways many of us identified the baptism of the Holy Spirit, amen? When we were filled with the Holy Spirit, a zeal entered us and we desired the things of God much more than we did before. So, I see the desires of our heart as one way that the inward witness manifests in us. And again, this is Scriptural: Let’s look over at the 37th Psalm:
 
Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Now this verse can be interpreted in a couple of ways. The most common way is that as we delight ourselves in the Lord—seeking and desiring Him—He will give us the things we desire in our hearts. But there is another way to interpret this verse: It could be saying that as we delight ourselves in the Lord, we can trust that the desires that are in our heart are given to us by God. In other words, those desires that we have are God-given desires and are, therefore, His plan and direction for our lives.
 
Let’s compare that latter interpretation to John 15:7— “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” Here we see the New Testament counterpart to this promise in Psalm 37:4.
 
You see, Jesus was not teaching that if we just abide in Him and His words in us that we can ask for any flaky thing we desire and it will be ours. When we abide in the Lord and His Words abide in us there will be a transformation of our desires to where they conform with His desires, and when that takes place our prayers become effective, for they are in line with His will and will be prayed genuinely and fervently.
 
But the point is that as we are genuinely seeking first the kingdom of God—abiding in and delighting ourselves in our Lord—He will give us newly inspired desires that are in line with His will for our lives. Therefore, we can trust those desires as being from Him and follow them as being God’s direction.
 
SAFE OR OUT!
 
Finally, let’s move on to one final manifestation of the inward witness—Peace:
 
Colossians 3:15 says, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts…” It says in the Amplified Bible— “And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as an umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] …”
 
As evidenced by the Amplified Bible’s translation, the word “rule” that Paul used here literally describes a referee or umpire that is officiating something. Paul was saying that we are to let the fruit of peace be the umpire of our hearts, which means that it should call the shots in all of the decisions of our life. In other words, if there is not any peace in a decision we are going to make, then God is not in it. The Holy Spirit will let us know whether it is “safe” to proceed, or you are “out” of God’s will.
 
Someone might ask, “What does peace feel like?” I would say it makes you feel “at ease” on the inside. When you are in peace about something, you will know it! There will be an absence of confusion and frustration and you will just be at peace about a decision. Along these lines, keep strife and confusion out of your house at all costs. These can keep you from hearing clearly from God. When the Spirit of Peace has left, and the devil's confusion has entered, all manner of evil will come with it.
 
In fact, I would go as far as saying that all of the fruit of the Spirit are indicators of our spirit and the Holy Spirit bearing witness together on something. For example, not only will peace be calling the shots, but we will have joy (i.e. an excitement on the inside). Do you remember when Mary came to visit her sister, Elizabeth? And her baby, John the Baptist, leaped on the inside of her. That’s kind of what it feels like: you feel like leaping on the inside. Also, love is in an indicator that you are supposed to do a certain thing. Like Jesus was constantly moved with compassion, the love of Christ compels us to do certain things. So, follow after love, and it will be hard to miss it.
 
All of these things—that knowing, those godly desires, and the fruit of the Spirit—are good indicators that the Spirit of God is directing us. You never know what God’s people might do, but we always know what God will do - it’s written in the Word, and His Spirit bears witness to it. So, again, believe God’s Word which says you are led by the Spirit and pursue that good relationship of God. Then you can trust that as you are moving forward, doing what He has already told us to do in His Word, that He will guide you in every decision you make, and you will stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Amen!  

INTRODUCTION
Now as we have most recently been covering the various types of the Holy Spirit that are used throughout the Scriptures, I came across another type of Him that “led” me to change gears and have us camp on another important aspect of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So, allow me to “dovetail” (pun intended) our most recent series with a new and very practical one on the Holy Spirit—The Leading of the Holy Spirit.
 
You know, in my opinion, being led by the Holy Spirit is one of the most important truths we can ever learn. Yes, it is an extremely practical and absolutely essential lesson that every believer should have a working knowledge of in their life. The reason is because the Holy Spirit lives in us to (among other things) lead and guide us into all truth—and this includes our daily walk. He will guide us into where to go, when to go there, etc. and I am persuaded that if we will learn to discern how He leads us, we will always be led into triumph. Far too many Christians walk like the world walks—and as a result are blindly groping around, trying to figure things out. But for a Spirit-filled believer, we don’t have to lean to our own understanding. We can trust in the Holy Spirit to direct our paths, hallelujah!  
 
So, today, we will begin studying the leading of the Holy Spirit by looking at another type of the Holy Spirit that is less known in the Scriptures—the Cloud. You see, a Cloud was used a couple of times in the Old Testament to describe the manifest presence of God.
 
First of all, we see a cloud covering the tent of meeting and the glory of God filling the Tabernacle (see Exodus 40:34-35), and then later in Second Chronicles chapter 5, we see how Solomon’s temple was filled with a cloud after the sacrifices had been offered and the people worshipped God (see Second Chronicles 5:14).
 
Many in the church today read these accounts and say, “Wow! I sure would like to experience that today!” Do you know what I would like? I desire for the church to know that this is what every born-again, Spirit-filled believer has already experienced today. You see, we the church, are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we stay filled with the cloud of God’s glory in our New and Better Covenant. Amen? 
 
So, the good news that makes the Gospel even “gooder” is that the glory dwells in us. It is not like it was first with the Tabernacle and then with the Temple, where the cloud of glory filled it once in a blue moon. No, the cloud of glory abides in us forever! Amen!     
 
Now in Number 9:15-18, we see this when it says, “Now on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the Testimony; from evening until morning it was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire. So it was always: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents. At the command of the Lord the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped.”
 
First of all, notice how on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, that the cloud covered it. One could read this as to say, that after Jesus—the One who came and tabernacled among us (see John 1:14)—was raised up from the dead, the Holy Spirit was now made available to all who would be born again and become the Lord’s Tabernacles. But this can also show us the permanence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As Jesus said, He will abide with us forever! We see this in this passage—because verse 16 says, “So it was always…” So, no longer should we be praying “Take not your Holy Spirit away from me!” as David did. No, if He is there, He will remain there! As it is always! Glory to God!
 
However, we are then told that— “Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents. At the command of the Lord the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped.”
 
So, while the cloud remained present, sometimes it moved. And when it moved, the children of Israel moved. In other words, the children of Israel—a type of God’s people today—were led by the cloud, following it wherever it went. Therefore, since the Holy Spirit is the cloud to us today, we must learn to follow His lead—going where He tells us to go and staying where He tells us to stay.
 
Now before we go any further talking about following the cloud, it is important to make a point here: Even though the children of Israel were being led by the cloud, this did not mean that they did not need “Moses.” No, Moses was an extremely important part of Israel’s direction and guidance in the wilderness. In fact, the vast majority of their generation did not enter into the promised land because of their lack of willingness to hear their leader, Moses. We have no record that they rebelled against following the cloud, but we certainly do see them rejecting the Word God delivered to them through His servant.
 
So, who or what is Moses a type of? Many see Moses as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ—which certainly fits in many ways—but I also see Moses as a type of the Word of God (and, of course, Jesus is the Word. So there is no difference.).
 
You see, Moses was the one who received the Words of their God and delivered them to the children of Israel. He was also the one who delivered to them God’s law—His commandments, statutes, precepts, etc. And, of course, we know that Moses wrote significantly more of the Bible than any other person did (The apostle Paul writing more books of the Bible, but much less words & verses). Therefore, I believe it is true to say Moses was a type of God’s Word here.
 
So, here is my point: Just as the cloud gave Israel direction of where to go and when to go there, they also needed God’s mouthpiece to keep them within the parameters of God’s will for their lives. And the fact is, because they had such a hard time receiving God’s directions through Moses, they were unable to possess their Promised Land. This teaches me that while the Holy Spirit dwells within us to lead and guide us, we do not need to make the mistake of putting Moses outside of your proverbial camp and only being “Spirit-led.” Why? Because the Spirit of God never will operate contrary to the Word of God. They always agree! Amen?
 
THE MORE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY
 
Let’s look over at Second Peter 1:16-21 and take a look at the Apostle Peter’s views on this matter:
 
In verses 16-18 the apostle Peter recounted to his readers a very spectacular experience he had during Jesus’ earthly ministry. It was of his experience at what we call “The Mount of Transfiguration.” When Jesus spoke with Moses and Elijah, His face shown like the sun, and His garments became white as the light (Matthew chapter 17).
 
This was an incredible experience for Peter, I’m sure—to see Jesus displayed in all of His glory! This had to be enough to convince him of the deity of this Man that he had committed his life to follow, right? On top of that, not only did Peter say that he was an eyewitness of Jesus’ majesty (Second Peter 1:16), but he also said that he heard the audible voice of God saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased. Hear Him” (vs. 17&18). Nothing could be more convincing than this, right? I mean, to see what he saw and then to hear what he heard. Surely, Peter had to be sure that this was the Son of God now, right?
 
Many think this: There are many who travel in our circles who would take a miraculous event that they saw with their eyes like this (i.e. a vision or dream) as automatically “thus saith the Lord.” Others would, for certain, take something they heard with their ears like an audible voice being from God. But Peter did not say that these two forms of God’s communication were a sure thing.
 
Notice what he goes on to say in verse 19 is a more sure form of communication from God: He said that we have a more sure word of prophecy! Now we know that this “more sure word of prophecy” is a reference to God’s Word because verse 20 goes on to say, “knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation…” Therefore, the Apostle Peter is referring to what is written in the Holy Scriptures as this more sure word of prophecy.
 
Well, why does he refer to it as the “word of prophecy”? It is because, as other translations put it, he is referring to the prophecies made concerning Jesus in the Old Testament Scriptures. This is why the apostle Peter goes on to say what he does— “which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
 
But back to our example—we know that the children of Israel did not “heed” Moses, did they? No, they did not have ears to hear his words and commandments. Which again was the reason they could not enter into the Promised Land.
 
So, the apostle Peter was saying that as we take “heed” to the truth, this will lead to the day dawning and the morning star rising in our hearts. And the Book of Revelation reveals Jesus as the Bright and Morning Star, right? Hallelujah, our revelation of Jesus can grow to the point where we see our Bright and Morning Star brighter than we ever had before! 
 
So, there are two very important lessons to learn from this:

1. Supernatural experiences will only confirm what is already written: Just as this experience that Peter had where he saw Jesus in His glory and heard the audible voice of God recognizing Jesus as the Son of God simply confirmed what the prophets in the Old Testament had already proclaimed, likewise any prophecy, dream, vision, etc. that is of God will never contradict the Word of God.
2. God’s Word is more sure than any of these supernatural experiences—no matter how legitimate they seem. Nothing surpasses the strength and soundness of God’s Holy Word when it comes to direction and guidance. 

 
This is such a huge point, my friends! If Peter said that his experience with the Lord Jesus Himself was subordinate to what is written in the Holy Scriptures, and if Peter said that the prophecies recorded in the Word of God are more of a sure thing than this particular experience, then we had better not let any experience we ever have or any “prophecy” we might receive be more convincing to us than what is written in God’s Word.
 
MANY VOICES = ONE AUTHORITY
 
You see, the danger is that there are many voices in the world and it would be easy to have one of these spectacular experiences and it not be God at all. Not everything that is spiritual is of God. There have been many false religions begun through supernatural experiences that individuals claim to have had. Now I do not doubt that some of these individuals have indeed had the spectacular experiences that they say that they have had. What I do doubt, however, is that these experiences were actually God-inspired.
 
We need to understand that Satan also lives in the spiritual realm and can perform many of these supernatural things too. Yes, he can speak to you as well. We know that in the last days that his antichrist and false prophet will perform many lying signs and wonders that will deceive many. You see, Satan loves to counterfeit the things of God. As Paul said in Second Corinthians 11:14, he likes to masquerade as an angel of light and lead well-meaning people (even God’s children) into error through this deception. This is why we need to always make sure what we are hearing or seeing is substantiated by the Scriptures. If our experiences are not backed up by the Bible, then we better think twice about embracing them as being from God—even if they seem to be blessing people.
 
For example, say I was sitting in my room and all of the sudden it was filled with a “cloud” of glory and then three glorious beings entered my room claiming to be the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then they told me that they had some new revelation to share with me and that I had been chosen to carry this new teaching to the world. My first question would be— “Where is this revelation found in the Bible because I need at least two or three verses to let this word be established?” Then, if they were to say to me, “Son, this is a new revelation just for you!” My reaction then would be— “Well, this visit has not been as nice as I hoped it would; I will have to ask you to leave.”
 
You see, God has given us His Word so that we will not be deceived like this. Satan most certainly can counterfeit the things of God. Therefore, it would behoove us to know the truth so that we are not swayed by just any spectacular experience.         
 
THE SPIRIT AND THE WORD AGREE
 
Now I am certainly not trying to downplay the importance of hearing from God in other spiritual ways. His supernatural methods of leading and guiding us still are extremely relevant and necessary today, but my point is that we are never to just blindly follow a spectacular experience just because it was supernatural. No, we should always measure every experience we have by the Word because the Spirit of God will never contradict the Word of God.
 
But again, this does not mean that being led by the Spirit is less important. Both the Word of God and the Holy Spirit are extremely important and work together to lead us into all truth. Let me share with you an experience I once heard a lady had: There was a Christian lady who the Lord gave a dream to. In this dream she found herself on a beach, and on this beach, there were landmines buried all across it. As she stood there pondering how she was going to cross over this beach, the Lord spoke to her saying, “Would you rather I speak to you telling you where to take each step or would you rather I give you a map that tells you where every landmine is located?” The point the Lord was making through this dream was that she did not have to choose between those two options because God has already given them both to us.
 
You see, we have the Holy Spirit living within us—the voice of God—to lead us and guide us, but we also have the “map”—God’s Holy Word—that spells out to us the direction we are to take. We have the map (i.e. the Word) and we have the One who drew the map to interpret it for us (i.e. the Spirit). This, my friends, is a fail proof method! There is no excuse for us not always being led out of harm’s way and always into triumph!     
 
Therefore, just as the cloud that led the children of Israel by day and Moses who communicated God’s Word to them operated in conjunction with one another, the ministry of the Holy Spirit compliments the Word of God in our lives. One is not more important than the other. Rather, they both work hand in hand to lead us on the path of life that shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day (Proverbs 4:18)! The Spirit and the Word agree and will never contradict each other.
 
So, in regards to hearing from God and being led by the Holy Spirit, what is the primary way God speaks to us under this new and better covenant? Certainly, He communicates to us through different avenues, but I am convinced that the most regular and clear way that He speaks to us is through the Bible. In fact, I believe that both of these two things help us to discern the direction given to us by the other. In other words, just as the Holy Spirit helps us to understand what God’s Word is saying, I personally believe that God’s Word is how we can more accurately discern the leading of the Holy Spirit on the inside of us. Let me explain:
 
LIVING AND POWERFUL
 
Hebrews 4:12 reads— “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
 
Now it’s important to note that the Greek word used for “Word of God” here is the word logos. This word logos is a reference to the truth contained in God’s written word. It describes a transmission of thought, a statement, or a word of explanation just as God’s Written Word is a compilation of God’s thoughts in written form.
 
And notice the first two words that the writer of Hebrews uses to describe the “Logos of God”—He says it is living and powerful. We must always remember that God’s Written Word is not just any book; it is a living and energetic book. Some of our translations say “quick” here but this is just an old English translation that describes something living. For instance, it was also used in Romans 4:17 when the Apostle Paul described God as the One who “quickens the dead.” So, this obviously describes giving life to the dead, and in this case being the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
 
So, His Word is living and it is life-giving. It is not just any old book. This Book is alive and, therefore, is able to give life! The moment one begins reading the Bible through spiritually dead eyes, they will never fully realize the life found in God’s Word. This is simply reading the “letter” and the Apostle Paul said that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. The Holy Spirit will quicken the Word of God to us to where it’s not boring or hard to understand. He will quicken our senses to glean the life of God’s Word and resurrect the words off of the page and into our hearts! Hallelujah!
 
I have often heard from Christians how they have a hard time reading the Bible because they do not understand it. If that is one’s experience, then they are doing it all wrong. When we get full of the Holy Spirit and begin reading it through His lens, then this Book will become alive to us! Amen!
 
The second word Hebrews 4:12 used to describe the Word of God is “powerful.” This word is also a mistranslation. It comes from the Greek word energeo and is where we get our words “energy” or “energetic” from. So, this describes God’s Word as working, active, and effective—the opposite of being idle, inactive, and ineffective. Therefore, God’s Word has the ability to work its results in your life as you take heed to it.
 
First Thessalonians 2:13 says, “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.” The Amplified Bible adds the following at the end of the verse— "[exercising its superhuman power in those who adhere to and trust in and rely on it].”
 
So, with these two words, we see God’s Word as a living, breathing organism! (For doesn’t the Bible speak of itself as being God breathed?) It is actually alive and able to give life to those who let it enter their heart. It is full of energy—always active and working—and able to provide energy to those who have ears to hear.
 
THE DIAMOND & THE PRISM
 
You see, when we consider these two descriptions of God’s Word, one mistake we need to avoid making when reading it, is reading it like it is just any other book. It is easy to slip into this because of the weakness of our flesh, but the Bible is not meant to be read like we would, say, a history book. The Bible is more than just a compilation of facts and historical information. The Word of God is God-breathed! It is living and powerful! It is a Living Book, containing the power of Almighty God—power to transform you and the things which concern you. Therefore, we should not study it like it is a textbook. We should read it in faith—believing that it is God’s personal letter to us and that its Words are more than just letters on pages.
 
I like to compare the Word of God to a diamond: If you look at a diamond where there is little light, it can look just like any other rock—dead and uninteresting. But if you put that same diamond where there is a bright light, it will refract that light into many different, beautiful colors—like snow crystals appear on a clear and sunny day. This is exactly what reading the Bible is like.
 
If the Word of God is looked upon with no “light” (i.e. no faith and no Holy Spirit), its beauty will not be fully realized. But if “light” is present when it is read, nothing could appear more precious and valuable. On top of that, when the Bible is read with no light and like just any other book, each Scripture will be seen as having only one meaning—which would be the obvious interpretation based on the context. While considering the context that each verse was written in is a good and safe way to build our core-beliefs, we would also do good to read these same verses with an open heart, where the Holy Spirit can communicate directly to us on a personal level.
 
You see, every Scripture in the Bible is also like a prism: The angle at which the light hits a prism will determine the color that the prism will refract. Likewise, every verse of the Bible is capable of refracting a different meaning and personal application depending on the angle the Holy Spirit shines His light on it. I could give you example after example of this from my own life; but I can assure you that there is nothing like having God speak directly to you, like how Moses spoke to the children of Israel.
 
This is what makes the Bible alive and different from any other book. The Word contains all the infinite and inexhaustible treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). He, the Word, is the manifold (i.e. many faceted) wisdom of God, containing many shades, tints, hues, and colorful expressions. And when we see the Word of God like this, it becomes the most beautiful thing we ever laid our eyes on! Hallelujah! 
 
SHARPER THAN ANY TWO-EDGED SWORD
 
Now notice how he goes on to describe the Word of God by the reference of it being “sharper than any two-edged sword.” This speaks of the ability of God’s Word to pierce and cut through anything! Glory! In fact, the Word of God being likened to a sword is referred to multiple times in the Word of God: The Book of Revelation speaks of Jesus having a sharp two-edged sword coming out of His mouth (Revelation 1:16 & 19:15). Also, the Apostle Paul refers to this self-same sword in Ephesians 6:17 when referring to what he called “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”
 
But I want you to notice what this sharp two-edged sword does according to Hebrews 4:12. “…piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
 
You see, the whole point of this passage is to show us how God’s Word has the power to pierce or divide between something, and what is this? Soul and spirit! Friends, this is so huge!
 
How many of you have ever said either— “I am not sure if what I am hearing is God or if it’s just me!” or “I am confused as to whether this is God leading me to do this or if it is just my own desires.”??? If we were all honest, we’ve all had these thoughts.
 
Well, allow me to show you how to better know the answer to this: You know, one of the hardest things to find a distinction between in all of the Word of God is the soul and the spirit. In fact, some of the authors of Scripture use these two terms synonymously—giving the impression that they are one and the same. But this is not true—for First Thessalonians 5:23 reveals to us that there is a difference between the spirit of man and the soul of man.
 
The spirit is the immaterial and eternal part of man. It is the part of us that is born again and has the life of God abiding within it. It is the part that was made a new creation—completely righteous and holy. It is the part that produces the fruit of the spirit—love, joy, peace, etc. The soul is also an immaterial part of us—but it includes our mind, will, emotions, intellect and personality.
 
You see, the difference between the soul and spirit is further illustrated by the writer of Hebrews by going on to describe the bone joint and the bone marrow. The marrow is contained within the bone—being the core of the bone itself. It is where blood cells are formed. This is an illustration of our spirit—our inner most core of our being and it is the part of us that the blood of Jesus has touched. Bone joints are what “join” the bones together. Likewise, the soul is what connects the spirit and the body. The Bible speaks of how we are transformed by the renewing of our mind. Other Scriptures reveal to us how the soul is part of us that causes our body to experience what has already transpired in our spirit.
 
Now the regenerated spirit of man is where the Mind of Christ abides (i.e. the Holy Spirit). In other words, our born-again spirit is the part of us that knows all things. The soul, on the other hand, is just in the process of knowing all things. It is not linked up to God yet and is in the ever-going process of being renewed. 
 
And, last but not least, Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is the “discerner” or “capable of judging between” the thoughts and intents of the heart. Now we know that the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things. It can deceive one very easily. BUT (I said BUT)… But the Word of God is capable of judging between the “thoughts” of the heart and the “intentions” of the heart. The “thoughts of the heart” is a reference to the soul where our mind is located. The “intentions of our heart” is a reference to the spirit of man. How do I know this? Do you remember where Jesus said, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”? The Apostle Paul said in Second Corinthians chapter 9 that we are to give as we purpose in our heart. Here, he is referencing spirit-inspired giving. Romans chapter 7 says a lot about the spirit of man desiring, willing, and wanting to follow after God’s law. So, the spirit has good intentions. It is willing and desirous to follow God’s will. It purposes to do the right thing. In short, being Spirit-led is intentional, not emotional. It is acting on what you believe. It is hiding His Word in your heart and listening to it when it rises up in you. It's being faithful to the Word you know is true when the going gets tough. Many of us are so used to being led by our emotions that we are going to need to renew our minds and become more intentional and deliberate in our decision-making process. Remember that Jesus “was perfected through the things He suffered.” (See Hebrews 2:10) We need to be ready to do the same.
 
So, my point is that the problem most of us have is distinguishing between what is of the spirit and what is of the soul when it comes to God’s direction. This is where the Word of God comes in! It is the thing that helps divide between those thoughts of “Was that just me and my emotions or was that a Spirit-inspired idea?” In other words, the Word of God is able to discern between what is just our own thoughts and what is a spirit-inspired intention. Yes, it is God’s Word that is capable of discerning or dividing between God’s Words. What I mean by that is, when we put God’s Word at a place of importance in our heart, it will help us distinguish between when what we are hearing on the inside is God’s voice or another voice.
 
Did David not say in Psalm 119:11—“Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You”? Well, I want to challenge you to consider this verse in this light we are talking about. The word “sin” literally means to “miss the mark”, right? So what King David was saying was that when we hide God’s Word in our hearts, we can keep ourselves from missing it!
 
You see, God’s Word abiding in our hearts gives the Holy Spirit so much more to work with! As we hide His Word in our hearts through reading, studying, and meditating it, we are loading our heart with various truths to remind us of when we need direction and guidance from Him.  
 
Now it is true that to know just a little bit of Scripture can actually be harmful in that the devil is a master at using the Bible to condemn and deceive God’s children. He tried to do this to Jesus in the wilderness when he quoted a passage from the 91st Psalm in an attempt to deceive Jesus. So, yes, it is of the utmost importance to have an honest and balanced understanding of God’s Word to keep one from being deceived by a Scripture that is taken out of context.
 
But the bottom line is, hearing God speak to you His Word is the safest way of hearing from Him. Why? Because He will never conflict with His Word. He has exalted His Word even above His name and He changes not. So, all Scripture—which is given by inspiration of God—is profitable for teaching, reproving, correcting, and instructing us.
 
God’s Word—the Lord Jesus Christ, whom Moses is a type of, says to you and I today, “Follow Me!” This is the first step into a Spirit-led life where that Holy Spirit cloud leads us into our Promised Land. Amen, and Hallelujah! 

​REVIEW
 
So, let’s continue our series this week entitled— “The Types of the Holy Spirit.” Now what we are doing in this series is looking at the various descriptions used of the Holy Spirit throughout God’s Word, understanding that there are many of these physical examples and analogies used in the Bible to describe Him.
 
Thus far, we have looked at the most popular picture we have of the Holy Spirit—the Dove. And we learned from this a lot about the Holy Spirit’s gentle and peaceful nature. We then looked at what is likely the most common type of the Holy Spirit used in the Scriptures—Oil.  And we saw that just as various people and things were “anointed” with oil in the Old Testament, likewise we have been anointed in this New & Better Covenant. Then, we looked at another type of the Holy Spirit—how He is described in the Scriptures like Water. And we saw that as one is baptized in water for repentance, we can also be baptized in the water of the Holy Spirit. Amen! And we learned that the Holy Spirit, like water, is our source of life—refreshing, cleansing, and satisfying us. Yes, just as water is a necessity for our physical life, the Holy Spirit is a necessity for our spiritual life. Yes, the difference between us merely being saved, and the Holy Spirit being upon us, is like the difference between a spring or well of water, versus rivers of living water. Then we turned from water to wine and began to look at another aspect of the Holy Spirit that we can drink of—New Wine. And what we learned is that living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit is what causes us to enjoy life and live free.
 
Then, we looked at how the Holy Spirit is also described as Wind. And we learned that, as Jesus said regarding the wind that, although we can’t see Him, the Holy Spirit blows where He wishes, and we can certainly see the effects of it. In other words, He does things according to how He wills to do them—dispersing His gifts and graces as He wills.
 
But we learned how we can “set our sails” and let him take us in whatever direction He wants to.  We saw in Matthew 4:1 how, when Jesus was being led by the Spirit to go into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, the word “led” there also is used to describe “setting sail.” This word “led” was used to describe how navigators would launch out to sea by setting sail. So, we learned that there is cooperation needed on our part! Our sails must be set to catch the wind and to be led into His plan and purpose for our lives.
 
This is when we looked at both Second Timothy 3:16-17 & Second Peter 1:20-21, where the apostle’s give us insight into how we set our sails—and we learned that it is through the Word of God. In fact, we learned that the Scriptures themselves were written as these holy men allowed the Holy Spirit to blow in their sails. So, we learned from examples like Luke chapter one how the Holy Spirit’s leading is like a soft, gentle breeze.     
 
But we also saw how the Holy Spirit is described as a rushing “mighty” wind in Acts 2:2. Yes, wind can be powerful too! We saw that this word for “mighty” is only used this one time in the Scriptures, and it describes a violent and forceful wind. Therefore, if the Holy Spirit is described as “wind,” then we can see that when He comes, “power” comes to! And we saw that this is why Jesus said that we would be “endued” with power from on high, speaking of the Holy Spirit.
 
THE FIRE
 
And last week, we looked in Acts chapter 2, where we see the Holy Spirit described as something other than the sound of a rushing mighty wind:
 
In Acts 2:3 we are told— “Then there appeared on them divided tongues, as of fire.” Therefore, like the Holy Spirit has appeared to be like a dove and also operates like oil, water, wine and wind, here we see Him described as FIRE—more specifically, divided tongues of fire that rested on each one. This means that the way the Holy Spirit manifested in that upper room was in the form that looked like fiery physical tongues. It is rather obvious to me that they were grasping to describe this supernatural experience and were using the best examples they could think of to describe what they saw on that day.
 
So, it was as if the disciples who were in that upper room on that day were the candles (i.e. candlesticks, lampstands, etc.) and the Holy Spirit was that flame on the wick. Which should teach us how important we are in this equation. You see, if there is nothing to burn, a fire does no good and will cease. So, just as we need the fire to burn bright, the fire (i.e. the Holy Spirit) needs the church to burn bright through. Amen? Saints, we need to understand just how valuable we are to the Lord: While we certainly need Him (There’s no questioning that!), He needs us too.
 
This is why He has done everything He has done for us by His grace. Sure, He did it because He loves us, but He has covenanted Himself with us because He desires to work together with us. This is how much He respects us as well as loves us. Therefore, He made His Church “golden candlesticks” (see Revelation 1:20). No, we are not dollar store candles here; we are the richest of the rich, the swankiest of the swanky; yes, we are the top shelf GOLDEN lampstands. So, you ought to remind yourself of this— You’re golden! 
 
But my point is that the manifestation of the Holy Spirit looked like little flames of fire. And the Holy Spirit appearing to be like fire in Acts 2:2 should not be foreign to us—for can you recall what John the Baptist said in Luke 3:16-17, in speaking of Jesus? In this passage he said, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” So, what accompanies the Holy Spirit when we are baptized is also a baptism into fire. And in the next verse he explains what this fire’s purpose is— “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” This describes to us what this baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire does in our lives. This “fire” of the Holy Ghost will burn away the sin and everything else that doesn’t need to be there. We see that God is called an “all-consuming fire” in Hebrews 12:29 and this is one of the many benefits of fire—to burn things, particularly things that need to be burned up.
 
Do you remember when the Bible says that God sat on the mountain after the Exodus, and that “the mountain melted like wax at the presence of the Lord”? This is found in the 97th Psalm, which says, “The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are round about him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries round about. His lightnings lighten the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory.” (Psalm 97:1-6).
 
In fact, we see this in Exodus chapter 19 when the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai—the Bible says that mountain began to smoke because of the fire of the Lord that sat upon it (see verse 18).
So, in this example, when God sits on the mountain, the natural could not stand the supernatural. Likewise, when God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, sits upon you, those carnal things that are contrary to Him will melt away at the presence of the Lord. All impurities are burned out of us through His fiery presence. Amen!
 
You see, fire changes everything it encounters. Nothing goes away from fire unchanged. Either is it consumed or purified. But nothing goes away from fire unchanged. Likewise, having the Holy Spirit will change us, and the more we allow Him to burn in our hearts, the less the things that are carnal and sinful will be allowed to remain in us. Church, the Holy Spirit is a purifier! It has the power to take the hidden impurities that are in precious gold and cause it to rise to the surface that it may be removed once and for all. But we must ask ourselves the question, “Am I letting the Lord reign in every area of my life?” We must invite Him in, deeper and deeper into our lives. We can do this directly, and we can also do this indirectly through praising and worshipping Him, as He inhabits the praises of His people (see Psalm 22:3). His reigning in my life pushes out all that doesn’t belong - sin, disease, sickness, lack, etc.
 
On that note, we hear many in the church today preaching that the fire that tries us are the trials and tribulations that come into our lives. And while there is some truth to that, I submit to you that the best way to be refined is through the indwelling presence of the FIRE Himself! Yes, the Holy Ghost—like fire—works in us like a consuming fire, burning up all the chaff in our life. Amen.
 
So, as we’ve seen, we have already been made golden, but the fire of the Holy Spirit can make that gold purer & more precious. And hopefully this is all of our desire—to have the Holy Spirit refine us and make us more into a living reflection of the Lord Jesus Christ in our choices, behavior and life in general. Amen?  And one of the ways we can keep this fire burning brightly is by praying in the Spirit, which edifies or builds us up in the Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 14:4, Jude, verse 20).
                           
Now this “fire” can also refer to as the zeal and charisma that the Holy Spirit gives us. Romans 12:11 says, “not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”  The Amplified says, “never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit…” So, notice that the Holy Spirit is who makes us glow. The world today will tell you that you need this or that to be more attractive. I’m of the persuasion that the most vital ingredient to looking good is the presence of the Holy Spirit. Yes, He will give you joy and a light in your eyes that money cannot buy. Amen?
 
So, as we learned earlier, the Holy Spirit is the fire that makes our light burn bright for the Lord. Therefore, as First Thessalonians 5:19-20 encourages us, we need to avoid “quenching the Spirit.” The word “quench” carries the idea of dampening the flame of the Holy Spirit fire. So, this shows us that we have a responsibility to keep that fire of the Holy Spirit burning bright in our lives and not putting the fire out. One quenches the Spirit by not esteeming the moving of the Spirit or rejecting the gifts or the fruit of the Spirit (verse 20). So, we need to make sure we esteem the things of the Spirit.
 
So, the fire that the Holy Spirit imparts into us gives us a burning passion and a zeal for God’s service as well as burns away the impurities that are unpleasing to God. In other words, He lives in us to cleanse and purify these golden lampstands that we might be that spotless bride on the Day of Jesus’ Second Coming. May the Fire of the Holy Spirit be with us all, amen!
 
So now, let’s move on to another couple of types of the Holy Spirit that we see in the New Testament that are connected in some ways—the Seal and the Earnest. We see both of these used in Second Corinthians 1:21-22 where the apostle Paul says, “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”
 
So, we see here in verse 21 that it is God who both “confirms” (def. establishes) and “consecrates” (i.e. anoints) us. Now we have learned that the Holy Spirit is the anointing that God has given us, but in verse 22, Paul goes on to say that God has also sealed us through His Spirit as well as given us Him as a guarantee (or, earnest). And this is what I want to spend some time talking to you about—how the Holy Spirit both seals us and serves as our guarantee.  
 
THE EARNEST
 
So, first of all, notice how the Holy Spirit is called our “Guarantee.” If you are using the older King James version, you will see how the word “earnest” is used. Now when we talk about the Holy Spirit being our “Earnest,” we are not talking about Ernest from TV & the movies. Know what I mean, Vern? No, this word “earnest” is not a name but is where we get the term “earnest money” from. It describes a “deposit or down payment that is a pledge of giving more.” Thus the reason, we see it translated by the New King James translators as “guarantee.” 
 
We see this same word used in both Second Corinthians 5:(1-)5 & Ephesians 1:(13-)14:
 
Now in Second Corinthians 5:1-4, the apostle Paul describes our present life in these physical bodies versus the eternal life that we will have in our resurrected bodies. He uses the examples of dwelling in a tent versus dwelling in a home, as well as being naked versus being clothed. So, understanding that, when Paul says what he does in verse 5— “Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”—we can see that it is God who has made all things ready for us to be both fully clothed with our glorified bodies and to have our permanent residence of resurrected bodies on that Great and Glorious Day. And what He did in the meantime was give us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of what lies ahead. 
 
In Ephesians 1:14, Paul describes the Holy Spirit as “the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession…” Again, this is obviously talking about our inheritance of receiving the glorification of our physical bodies which were bought with a price.  
 
Therefore, when the Holy Spirit is described as being our “guarantee,” Paul is saying in both of these passages that He is our “down payment or deposit.” Therefore, we can clearly see that He is God’s pledge that more of the same is on the way. This would be similar to how when a buyer of a house pays the deposit, it is understood that he intends to pay the balance. Therefore, the Holy Spirit gives us a little foretaste and a guarantee of the good things to come—that is, when we experience the fullness of our salvation and are glorified. In other words, the Holy Spirit gives us a little heaven on earth—a little taste of the glory; a sample of the resurrection power that is to come! Hallelujah!
 
Therefore, when we experience Him in fullness, we can get a little intoxicated, a little free, and a little happy. Those experiences are just God’s pledge of the ecstasy that awaits us in heaven. Amen? So, just imagine the most you have experienced God’s glorious presence in this life. Well, that was just a small “deposit” of what we are going to experience in the kingdom of God. This is why it is called (a future) redemption: the inheritance is already ours but still needs to be “redeemed,” like a check you have already received, but is only redeemed when it is presented to the bank.
 
But He not only is our guarantee of the bliss of heaven but He is also our promise of the marriage between Jesus and His Bride. In fact, the Greek word that is translated “earnest” can also be used to describe “an engagement ring.” Now what is an engagement ring? It is the pledge of the man to not only marry the woman, but to give her his life and share with her all that he possesses. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is the engagement ring that the Bride of Christ has now until the marriage takes place at Jesus’ second coming when we will become joint-heirs of everything our Husband owns! Glory and praise to God!
 
THE SEAL
 
Now speaking of rings, another title that the Holy Spirit is given that is used alongside of the term “Earnest” is the word “Seal.” We have already seen this term used in both Ephesians 1:13 & Second Corinthians 1:22 and we can also see it used in Ephesians 4:30 that when we believed the gospel of our salvation, we were “sealed” with the Holy Spirit. And notice that in all three of these passages of Scripture, this “sealing” of the Holy Spirit is spoken of as having already taken place. This is important as it pertains to what this term means.
 
So, what does this mean to be “sealed”? In their days, a “seal” was made by the signet ring of a king or any kind of authority figure when they had important documents or contracts. After wax was poured on the crest of the rolled-up paper, the authority would stamp the spot of wax with his signet ring to “seal” it and to leave his symbol on it.
 
Therefore, this “sealing” describes four important things:

1. Identification— Generally, the signet ring had on it the image or symbol of the owner. Likewise, when God impressed the Holy Spirit into our spirits, He impressed the image of Jesus into our spirits. Just as Jesus was spoken of to be the “express image” of His Father’s person (see Hebrews 1:3) and said Himself that His Father had set His seal upon Him (see John 6:27), likewise, the Holy Spirit has set His seal on us! Therefore, when God looks at our spirit, He sees the exact image of His Son. Yes, we are the brightness of Jesus’ glory and the express image of His person! Amen. So, number one, by being sealed by the Holy Spirit, we have our identification by this mark.
2. Ownership— Oftentimes in their days, all of a person’s significant possessions were marked with the impression of a seal. The owner marked even slaves and livestock. Likewise, God has sealed us, not with a physical mark, but with the Holy Spirit, who bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children (Romans 8:16). We see this echoed in Second Timothy 2:19 when the apostle Paul said, “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.’” So, when God sets His seal on us, it states “God knows His possessions” and now “let His possessions act like they are His.” So, secondly, being sealed by the Holy Spirit marks us as God’s property. 
3. Security— In their day, a seal also represented “a finished transaction” (see Jeremiah 32:6-15). You see, when a seal was placed on a contract or decree it was binding (Compare Esther 8:8, Daniel 6:17, & Matthew 27:66). Therefore, we can have security in the fact that we know that we have been redeemed through both the wisdom and absolute justice of God. This means that we have eternal security where no devil in hell can pluck us out of God’s unchanging hand (John 10:28). Amen. So, thirdly, our being sealed by the Holy Spirit shows us that our salvation is secure.
4. Completion— But a seal was not just the signature on a contract; in those days, it was also the mark that a product was fully inspected and approved. You see, a product was placed in a package but before it was sealed, it was thoroughly inspected to make sure there were no defects. After the product passed through the entire inspection process and was found to have “nothing missing and nothing broken,” it was sealed and delivered. Likewise, when we were born again, we (our spirits) were made complete in Christ (see Colossians 2:10) with nothing missing and nothing broken (definition of Hebrew word shalom), and then God sealed us with His Holy Spirit to validate His approval. Yes, we have passed the thorough inspection process of the Almighty (see Colossians 1:21-22). So, we can sing the old Stevie Wonder song to God— “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours!” Therefore, the fourth and final thing that our sealing by the Holy Spirit illustrates is that our salvation, redemption, righteousness, etc. is complete. It’s a done deal!

 
Therefore, the “seal” represents our identity and security, and it also teaches us of God’s ownership and promises. This is why our hope will not disappoint—because God has poured out the Holy Spirit in our lives, thereby confirming His love for us (Romans 5:5). His Spirit’s witness in us not only lets us know we are God’s children (see Romans 8:15-16), it also gives us little tastes of our eternal inheritance—that is, the redemption of our bodies (see Ephesians 1:13-14). Glory!
 
So, the Holy Spirit certainly is the mark of God’s grace in our lives—for He shows us that God has set His seal on us as He did with His Beloved Son, Jesus. He is our foretaste of God’s goodness that is to come as well. Praise God, that we have been baptized in the fire of the Holy Ghost and He is here to make these golden lampstands burn bright for God’s glory! Amen.