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6 Things You Need to Understand on ‘being led by the Spirit’
- You are not one of the Apostles of Scripture. Neither am I.
- The prophets and apostles were many times led by God by real, dramatic manifestations of Himself, by visions, etc. You and I are not, ever.
- The complete instructions for the Church – for guidance and growth – God has written down. God speaks through the written pages of Scripture.
- Jude 1:3 tells us that Scripture and the Christian faith which has been put in writing, was delivered once for all time. The Greek word is hapax, once, one time and conclusively.
- What is written in the Bible is sufficient to all that is needed for life and godliness. What more could you need when God has given you all that is necessary?
- There is no situation, at any time in your life, when the written Word of God is not sufficient and addresses whatever challenge or trouble it is you are facing.
Often times I have heard believers, in all sincerity no doubt, speaking such things as The Lord led me to:
- Speak to the way you chew your food
- Be a missionary in Peru
- Start a business in dry cleaning
- Ask you to marry me
- Witness to that guy in the restaurant wearing the plaid shirt
- Rebuke you for wearing white after September
- Start a blog
Whatever. No matter what one has been moved to believe, feels, has an urge to do, it doesn’t matter what emotional inclinations you have, if it is not in accordance with Scripture, I urge you to be very careful.
In other words, it is Biblically impossible and a vain imagination on anyone’s part to think that:
- God told you to go to a specific country as a missionary.
- Marry a certain man or woman.
- Start a particular type of business
- Witness to anyone wearing a particular type of clothing
- Rebuke anyone for how they chew food.
- Venture into a specific realm of entrepreneurship
ETC.
Being led by the Spirit of God is to be led by God’s written word with the motivation of glorifying Him, not justifying your actions by some Biblically unsubstantiated, holy fancy.
You have no need in reality to look beyond the written word of God. You will not receive a “personal word” or “new revelation” whatsoever – not from God. Another spirit perhaps, an unholy one.
The desire of some Christians to have something new, fresh and personal demonstrates a lack of trust in God, His Word and in the faith once for all time delivered to the saints – written down and described – one of the most vital aspects of the Christian faith – the sufficiency of Scripture alone.
5 Pt. Salt 
This being the case, can you answer the why to these issues…
Why you married who you married if you’re married?
Why you work where you work if you work?
Why you blog?
Why you minister?
Thank you for your efforts!
Hypothetically, If I am given knowledge about a person before that person tells me then (according to your words here) that knowledge was given to me by something/someone other than the Holy Spirit. Is that correct?
I agree completely. I was wondering would you consider the pastoral “call” in a similar way?
Discernment would be a good statement. Wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
Peter quoting from Joel in Acts 2:17-18
‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams;
Even upon My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit And they shall prophesy.
Ever since the pouring out of the Holy Spirit we’ve been living in the last days. Are you sayiing we don’t have visions anymore? If so, what time frame does Peter say this is covering?
I believe the answer to your question is found in the preceding verse, verse 16: Act 2:16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
The time frame for the fulfillment was at the Pentecost event to which Peter referred to, and no, I do not believe men see visions from God today.
I see your point if you are saying we are led by the Spirit to the sealing of the Holy Spirit with it’s associated visions or dreams (Acts 2). Once we are sealed with the Holy Spirit then we are no longer be led by the Spirit in the same way perhaps? It’s biblical to receive answered prayers as we are led by the Spirit (as James says). Once we are perfected we press on to the upward call of Lord Jesus. We still receive answers to our prayers when we pray in God’s will to produce the fruit that He prunes us to produce.
So we are led by God to full assurance of faith and then we continue in the faith but it changes in some respects as now we look back on the cross and ahead to the consumation of all things as we continue to die to ourselves and glorify God in the process.