Are you led by the Spirit?

Even if you are a rich man or woman with trillions of dollars, you still cannot buy or bribe God to give you eternal life, healing or any of the other gifts which only God can give. All gifts from God come only by our obedience, which means we are to be exclusively and directly led by the Holy Spirit. Godly things cannot be purchased with money or with any other thing such as diamonds, gold or silver. Jesus says “If any one hears my voice and opens the door (of his heart), I will come in and eat (all spiritual things) with him, and he with Me (meaning He will direct you and I by His spirit) – Revelation 3:20.

Knowledge is nothing if you’re not led by the spirit of God. Knowing the Bible is nothing unless you are led by the Holy Spirit and our life is nothing unless we are led by the Holy Spirit, of the triune God.  We need the spirit to get the right understanding of scripture; it is also the spirit that empowers us to overcome the enemy in his tracks as we prayerfully stand in the Word. Romans 8:14 ‘for as many as are led by the Spirit of God; they are the sons of God’. Being led by the Spirit of God is the ultimate standard whereby we may know someone is a son of God. This raises the question, "If you aren't led by the Spirit of God, are you not born again?" It is true that everyone who is not born again is not led by the Spirit of God and everyone who is born again is led by the Spirit of God but that needs some explanation, being led by the Spirit does not cause us to be a son of God, but being a son of God causes us to be led of the Spirit. Every believer does have the Spirit of God to lead him but that doesn't mean every believer heeds His leading. In context, Paul has just spoken about denying the flesh through the power and leading of the Holy Spirit. Now he is simply pointing out that every Christian has the leading of the Holy Spirit available to accomplish this.

We hear ministers that are excellent speakers, I love that but if the message they bring is not given to them from God through the Holy Spirit, that message is meaningless and does not fully serve for the kingdom of God. Also as ministers of God, we should always watch lest we become men pleasers in our ministries. (1 Corinthians2:4-7) 4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: In a sense, God has communicated His wisdom in code so that no one can perceive it except those to whom the Holy Spirit reveals it. The Holy Spirit offers God's wisdom to every person starting with the revelation of their need for Christ as their Savior. If they receive that truth by putting their faith in Jesus, then they receive the mind of Christ in their heart. They also receive as much revelation of the things of God as they will believe and receive. If a person rejects the revelation the Holy Spirit seeks to give, then God's wisdom remains a mystery. That person is denied access.

BELIEVE NOT EVERY SPIRIT (1 John 4:1)

I’ve written many articles across the internet as well as given some testimonies to people and in churches of experiences called visions. In this article, I want to point out my understanding of visions according to the Bible. So then, what really is a vision? A vision is a supernatural presentation of a visual (and many times audible) message from God to the mind of a person. If a person is asleep when this happens, then it is a dream or what the Bible calls a night vision (Genesis. 46:2; Job 33:15; Daniel. 2:19; Acts 18:9) and is seen not by our physical eyes, but is a mental image.

When a person is awake and sees a vision, it is the Lord showing him something in his mind's eye, even though to the person it may be so real that he actually thought he saw it with his physical eyes. In the case of Ezekiel (Ezekiel. 8:1-11:24), others were present when he had this vision (8:1) but they were not transported "in the visions of God" to Jerusalem (8:3) as he was. Ezekiel's body stayed put while he experienced being transported to Jerusalem in his mind. In Acts 12:9, Peter didn't think that what he was experiencing was real, but thought he saw a vision. This leads us to conclude that a vision is not a physical reality, but a spiritual happening.

A trance and a vision are the same thing according to Numbers 24:4, 16 and Acts 10:10, 19. In a trace or vision a person's physical eyes are open and usually fixed into a stare, but they are not receiving the normal physical images. Instead they receive direct supernatural images from God.

The transfiguration of Jesus is called a vision (Mathew. 17:9), and is therefore possibly something that didn't suddenly happen physically. Instead, the disciples' spiritual eyes were opened to glimpse the glory of Jesus that was always there, but that they had been blinded to when looking through their physical eyes. This would be the same thing that happened to Elisha's servant when the Lord opened his spiritual eyes to see the horses and chariots of fire surrounding them (2 Kings. 6:17).

The scriptures clearly state that Abraham (Genesis. 15:1), Jacob (Genesis. 46:2), Balaam (Numbers. 24:4, 16), Samuel (1 Samuel. 3:1, 15), Nathan (2 Samuel. 7:17; 1 Chr. 17:15), Isaiah (Isa. 1:1), Ezekiel (Ezekiel. 1:1; 7:13; 8:13; 11:24), Daniel (Daniel. 2:19: 8:1-27; 9:21-24), Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel. 2:28), Zacharias (Luke. 1:22), Peter (Acts 10:10, 19), John (Revelation. 9:17), Ananias (Acts 9:10), Cornelius (Acts 10:3), and Paul (Acts 16:9-10; 18:9; 2 Corinthians. 12:1), all had visions. Although the word "vision" is not mentioned, the criteria of a vision was met with Elisha's servant (2 Kings. 6:17) and Micaiah (1 Kings. 22:19-22).

We should also note that the devil with his deceit can bring about fake visions meant to lure the believer from the will of God or to strengthen the unbeliever’s heart in wickedness and give him reason to stray. Many religions are a result of this kind of deceit. One that I’ve so often had, is people who claim that they’ve seen a vision of Mary ‘the mother of Jesus’ Mary did not save any one-it is Jesus that bore the sins of the human race, was smitten and hang on the cross to accomplish the salvation plan of God and not Mary. Yes she did a good work but it is Jesus that ought to be worshiped. Whatever the vision you get , you’ve got to try it with the word – Is it in line with the word of God?  The ‘Bible’ -

1 John 4:1 ‘Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. The Word of God also speaks against false dreams of false prophets (Jeremiah. 23:27-32; 29:8; Zechariah. 10:2).  

Glory to God!