Today’s New Covenant nugget is from Romans 8:14 (TPT)
The mature children of God are those who are moved by the impulses of the Holy Spirit.
Another translation says, ‘The children of God are led by the Spirit’.
The Holy Spirit wants to lead you on a path of miracles, blessing and success. He wants to lead you to your God given destiny in peace, joy and power.
Many times, ‘His ways’ totally contradict ‘the logical path’, and many times ‘His solutions’ do not seem plausible to the ‘natural sense and reason orientated mind’ at all.
The Holy Spirit required Moses to part the water with a stick instead of crossing over with boats, or attempting to go around… He required Joshua and his army to bring down the walls of Jericho with a shout and His battle-plan for Jehoshaphat was to put praise singers on the frontlines as they marched into battle instead of using the most skilled soldiers and relying on logical warfare strategies. Moses, Joshua and Jehoshaphat were all successful and overcame immeasurable odds as they discerned the leading of the Spirit rather than simply following a logical, sensible plan.
How does a believer discern the leading of the Spirit?
Take some time to study 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 - Here are some highlights of Paul’s teaching to the Church in Corinth on discerning the leading of the Spirit… “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” In other words you cannot discern the leading of the Spirit using worldly, sense and circumstance based logic, you cannot see it with your natural eyes and you cannot hear His voice with your natural ears… “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Paul goes on to teach that, ‘God reveals things to us through His Spirit, and that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.’
Paul explains the process of discerning the leading of the Spirit in verses 10-13…
The Holy Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God, because no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Paul goes on to say, “We have received the Holy Spirit ,that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” The Holy Spirit reveals ‘the things of God’ to our spirit man, and our renewed minds… bypassing our fleshly process of reasoning.
You can discern the leading of the Spirit and ‘the things of God’ with the Holy Spirit as your coach. He will teach you to discern what He is saying and where He is leading you as you depend upon Him to do it.
Paul concludes by saying that a believer who has ‘the mind of Christ’ (a renewed, transformed mind) will know the will of God, (be able to discern the things of God and the leading of the Spirit) - In other words, the mind of the flesh cannot and will not be able to understand the will of God, the ways of God, or the leading of the Spirit, but as we renew our minds (Romans 12:2) we will be able to discern the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:12 (AMP) says, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the [Holy] Spirit who is from God, so that we may know and understand the [wonderful] things freely given to us by God.”
In 1 Corinthians 2:16 (TPT) says, “…we possess Christ’s perceptions.” The Amplified bible says, “We have the mind of Christ [to be guided by His thoughts and purposes].”
Friend, as you renew your mind and transform your thinking by the Word, the more that your mind is renewed, the more that you will possess Christ’s perceptions, and with Christ’s perceptions, you will be able to discern the leading of the Spirit… it is a journey, but well worth it!
As you grow in God, make every attempt to be led by the Spirit… His GRACE will carry you in the areas where you have not yet developed… so, even if you make a mistake in attempting to discern the leading of the Spirit, He will carry you and coach you through to victory by GRACE… so, step out in faith, and together with the Lord’s help, you will be able to discern His leading, no matter how ‘spiritually developed’ you are!
In His amazing love, Nick
