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Ministry Articles>
Being Led By The Spirit
Part 1
Perhaps one of the most misunderstood and maligned subjects in the Bible is the topic of being led by the Spirit. This article will not be complete at this time but we will cover certain aspects of being led and come back to it from time to time. First, let me say that I believe in being led by the Spirit of God. Because our teachings are heavily proactive, many think that I believe we should just do anything we think of without consulting God, or they believe that I do not believe that the Spirit of God can (or does) lead individuals to do certain things at certain times. This could not be further from the truth. In this series of articles I will attempt to clarify our position on "being led".
There are many ways in which God leads us. Following are just a few of them: Dreams, visions, circumstances, prophecies, inward witness, and scripture. We will look at each of these separately and in depth. Today you get an overview. Dreams have been a way God has led His people since the beginning of time. Dreams are a well-known method of God contacting His people. We all know of Joseph's dream (and what it cost him). We also know of Joseph's ability to interpret dreams (and what it cost him). We also know that Joseph's dream saved an entire nation of people from starvation, as well as his own family. We know of Daniel's dreams and his ability to interpret them.
Today there are books by authors, (Both Christian and pagan) about dreams, what they mean, and how to interpret them. We also know that dreams were prophesied to be a normal occurrence for believers according to Joel and the Book of Acts. The thing to remember about dreams is that every dream might not be God trying to tell you something. It might be the pizza you had earlier trying to tell you something. Without going too deep into this today, suffice to say that usually a dream that is important, will stick with you. Even then, it doesn't mean the dream is from God. Satan and even your own mind can produce strong dreams. The Bible refers to pillow prophets that received their (false) prophecies and dreams while they slept. (More on this later.)
One way that God led people in the Old Testament was by a "fleece". The word "fleece" is only used 9 times in all of Scripture and 7 of those are in the Book of Judges referring to Gideon.
Judges 6:36-40
36 And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said,
37 Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.
38 And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.
39 And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.
40 And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground. KJV
I have heard a lot of people preach about this, both pro and con. The thing to remember is this: Gideon is listed in Heb. 11 as a man of faith. So apparently Gideon's actions here did not constitute doubting or wavering. The most important thing to remember is that YOU ARE NOT GIDEON. Gideon was not born-again and he was not a new creation. He did not have the Spirit indwelling him like you or I do today, which gives us the inner nature of God. God dealt with people in the Old Testament in a sensory way to a large degree.
Visions:
Visions are of several types.
1) Open Visions.
Open visions are when you are going about your daily business or perhaps spending time in prayer and fasting, and everything around you is suspended and it appears as though you are somewhere else. All of a sudden it is as if you have been placed into a movie scene where you are either a part of the action or you watch the action take place before you. After the part you are supposed to see happens, you will then "return" to your previous situation.
This has even been known to occur while a person was driving, and when they "came to" they were miles down the road and had apparently obeyed the driving laws and had driven appropriately. This is the type of vision that "John the Revelator" had as Jesus showed him the future.
2) Flash Visions.
There are visions that are sometimes called "flash visions", where you see something in a "flash" like the flash of a picture being taken by a camera. Usually when this happens, the vision lasts a fraction of a second but you know everything about what you saw as if you watched a 2 hour movie in a nano second.
Again, an important thing to remember about visions is that the enemy can give visions also. It is possible that when Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, he actually gave Him a vision. It is also notable that Satan said he could give them all to Jesus if He would just bow and worship him. This shows that Satan was in charge of every earthly kingdom and could give them away if he desired. If an earthly kingdom is involved in operating along with the world's system of doing things, it is influenced by Satan. (Perhaps this is why we are told to pray for leaders and not abdicate our authority by forfeiture.)
Visions are another form of heavenly communication God will use increasingly in these last days according to Joel and the Book of Acts. Don't shun them, just don't automatically believe everything that is passed off as spiritual.
Circumstances.
Another method of determining God's guidance is through circumstances. Admittedly, this is a very subjective method. A "go" circumstance to one person, might be a "whoa" circumstance to another. God is a personal God. He knows what things means to each of us. If He is dealing with you, He will usually use something that means something very specific to you. That is why you should not always go around asking everyone what they think about your circumstances. You should have good, godly counsel.
You need people that you know are godly to give you counsel. These people should also be trustworthy to keep their mouth shut about what you discuss with them. If you have a certain group around you, God will sometimes give you specific words or circumstances that means something specific to them. (God once used Bill Hamon to speak into my life in a very specific way that meant something to me. God gave him the following words "God is bringing to you a Josiah Generation", what he did not know was that my son had just informed me that he was going to have a son and his name was going to be Josiah. This along with other specifics greatly encouraged me at an important juncture in my life.)
George Mueller, the great man of faith, feeding over 2000 orphans per day by faith alone, without asking for anything or telling anyone what he needed, said this in regards to determining God's will and thus His leading… "After I have determined that I have no preference, I then look at circumstances as the providence of God has provided."
Prophecies.
We live in a peculiar time in history. We have more preaching going on today than in any time in history. We even have preaching going on after the preachers stop preaching, by way of audio tape, CD, DVD, etc. We even have men of God that have died, and yet we hear them on TV, or by book or radio, etc. Yet we always seem to think that the old days were better. We seem to think that people "back then" were much more spiritual than we could ever be. One thing is certain. Humans have not changed. If there is a difference it is in their consecration and discipline.
Throughout history prophecy has been a way for God to lead His people. Most think that if they had a powerful, specific prophecy, nothing would stop them, and they would never doubt again. Let me tell you, that is not true. One thing to remember about prophecy is this: the greater the prophecy, the more specific it is, the harder the job will be for the person that the prophecy points to. The toughest job on earth was Jesus' mission as the suffering messiah. That is why he had over 300 prophecies to fulfill on the day of His crucifixion alone.
Everything He said about Himself, He first read as a prophecy in the Old Testament. When He said He only did what He saw His Father do, He was not referring to actually witnessing it happening. He was referring to seeing His Father's desire for it to be done in the Scriptures.
In Mark 16:15-20, Jesus gave a prophecy that believers would lay hands on the sick and the sick would recover. In John 14:12, Jesus gave a prophecy that believers would do the works He did and greater. These were not just promises, they were prophecies. Remember, prophecies are not meant to be a primary way of leading. The purpose of prophecy is to exhort, edify, and comfort.
1 Corinthians 14:3 “But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.” KJV
Another purpose of prophecy is to provide the push you need to keep going on when the warfare gets tough. 1 Timothy 1:18-19 “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck” KJV
Notice that even with a personal prophecy (even one from the great Apostle Paul) it would require faith to walk out what was prophesied. A believer should never rely on prophecy (from another person) alone. Generally we are told that prophecy should confirm what God has already told you, but to be honest, I do not believe that it is always the case in every situation.
A very strong sort of leading is to apply all the above methods together when possible. The more that are in operation, the more sure you can be. Remember, the more details you get, the tougher the job is going to be and the more resistance you will receive. I cannot tell you the times I have had to go back and read the prophecy Dr. Lake gave that caused Wilford Reidt to name me as the General Overseer of John G. Lake Ministries. Even then I still have to choose to believe that it was referring to me. Because the prophecy was as specific as it was, you can imagine the resistance I have received.
The Inward Witness.
The Inward Witness is another form of leading that can be very strong, yet very subjective. when someone says, "The inward witness is when you know that you know that you know." Only you can know if you know that strongly. Usually, you will think that other people feel it stronger than you do. Normally, everyone is just guessing when they begin. They only get more sure when they have proven it to be true over a period of time and through several situations. The problem is, the more you prove it out in the sense realm, the less faith you are walking in because you have more evidence to lean on. The inward witness must be developed and usually women are more adept at this than men. It is sometimes called, "women's intuition".
A major point to remember is this:
None of the above methods will violate this next method, and they must align with the next method to be considered as a way of God's leading.
Scripture.
With all of the prophetic activity in these last few years, Scripture as a method of God's leading has almost disappeared. We have been taught a lot about leadings and a lot about the prophetic, but we still don't usually see the results that the early Pentecostals had. The reason for this is simple: We don't have a regard for the Word of God that they did. If the Word said it, they did it. They didn't need further leading. A few years ago, God gave me this saying… "The greatest faith is to be able to apply a general command to a specific situation in your life."
When you can believe and act as if Mark 16:15-20 was written specifically for you to obey every time you see a sick person, you will be walking in the greatest faith. We will be looking at this aspect in greater detail at a later date.
God bless you,
Curry Blake
Curry R. Blake
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John G. Lake Ministries P.O. Box 742947 Dallas, TX 75374 - Copyright (C) 2007 John G. Lake Ministries
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