A Holy Spirit Led Life (349)

0:02 Welcome to the Quality Christian Living Podcast. I am your host, David Friend. Today's podcast is entitled, A Holy Spirit -Led Life. And there's a lot of great things we're going to cover today. We're going to talk about how the Holy Spirit brings new life to Christians. And is it possible to be led by the Spirit of God every day? And how do we know the voice of the Holy Spirit and that we also must desire His leading in order to receive the guidance and direction that God wants us to have from the Holy Spirit? So before we get into it, let's just ask the Holy Spirit to lead us. Heavenly Father, I thank you for who you are. I thank you for this podcast and how you've allowed us to have a tool that reaches people quite frankly around the world. I pray now that the Holy Spirit would come in and lead and direct the words that were spoken, guide us in the direction we should go. We surrender to you. We ask for your intervention and all that's said and done today. Thank you for this opportunity. Again, I pray that those who are listening in, that you would bless them, that they would receive what they're tuning in for.

1:01 and I'll give you praise for it. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. There's so much that we need to learn about being led by the Holy Spirit and I think that continues on through our walk with God. I've been a Christian for a long time, but I still need to learn something every day through the word of God and through the leading of the Holy Spirit to help me to follow exactly what God wants when it comes to the Holy Spirit leading my life. Now the Apostle Paul kind of laid the foundation of what the transition was from the law to the new covenant of grace. We read about it in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 6 in the New Living Translation. Remember these are the words of the Apostle Paul. Here's what it says, he has, now that's God has, so God has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant.

1:46 This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. Now that's talking about the Holy Spirit is going to lead us and direct us. The old law said there were strict laws and directions underneath the laws of Moses, but Paul is telling us that now there is a new covenant, a grace covenant, and that's being led by the Holy Spirit. So this is a covenant not of written laws but of the Spirit. And the scripture continues, the old written covenant ends in death, but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life. In his scripture, Paul is telling us that the Holy Spirit changed things. You see, before Jesus left, remember, he told his disciples that he had to go to the Father, but that he would leave Christians the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. Now, Paul is telling us in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 6 that God made Christians capable of ministering the new covenant. the new covenant of grace brought on by the Holy Spirit that Jesus changed the old laws to a new covenant of grace the words the old written covenant that were that I read in scripture basically refer to the law of Moses the words under the new covenant which is greater leads to life they're basically telling us that the Holy Spirit is is the one who brings the new covenant of grace to new believers the new covenant is the Holy Spirit leading the gospel grace. Now I know maybe that's a little technical, maybe it's a little bit more theology than some want, but it's so important to understand that the transition was made because of the Holy Spirit,

3:17 through the Holy Spirit, and He changed the whole pattern of life, the whole mindset of individuals. It's amazing radical change that took place then and that is still taking place to this day. Our lives can be radically changed by the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us. I believe what I just read basically lays the foundation or the groundwork, if you will, for understanding this podcast on a Holy Spirit -led life. Now we cannot understand how to be led by the Holy Spirit without surrendering our thoughts and our actions to the Holy Spirit. There's a step of surrender that we must take. We've got to deny self and move closer to God.

3:58 There are three, I believe, critical ways to be led by the Spirit of God. There's a lot more than three, but here's three basic fundamental things we need to do. First off, we need to seek God first before we make decisions. If we want to be led by the Spirit of God, we must go to God first and seek Him. Rather than just making decisions here and making decisions there and doing what we think is best, we need to stop doing that. We need to just simply say, Holy Spirit, guide me and direct me, lead me. And it's crucial that we do that, otherwise we cannot be led by the Spirit of God. The second step we need to take is to claim that the Word of God is there to cover our life, that we Believe the Word of God is our guide, is our direction, is our instruction manual, if you will, to tell us how to live this life. And the third thing we need to do is to pray about everything. I mean everything. You know, I've said many times before, I don't even want to drive out of my driveway unless I surrender to the Holy Spirit and just ask Him, guide me, direct me. I pray for your hand of protection. And you might think that that's a little heavy, but I don't believe it is at all because I believe that the Lord wants us in all our ways to acknowledge Him and plan our life around Him. So let me repeat very quickly. the three things I think are crucial to understanding how to be led by the Holy Spirit.

5:09 We need to seek the Holy Spirit, we need to pray and ask for guidance and directions, and we must surrender our life to God's Word. The Word of God has instruction for every single thing that will ever take place in our life. There's nothing, whether it be finances, whether it be marriage, whether it be careers, whether it be the church that we should attend, all those things. We have instructions on how to deal with all those issues in our life found in the Word of God, so we've got to get into the Word of God and place at least some of the Word into our heart and mind each and every every day that we live. There's no other way to be led by the Spirit of God. These steps really apply to everything that we need from the Lord. Now, I'm going to kind of change the direction of the podcast, so let's look at the results now of seeking and praying and reading God's word for guidance and direction in our life. Being led by the Holy Spirit brings the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit in our life. It brings everything that's good that needs to take place in our life. It brings it all to us. We receive spiritual insight. We receive wisdom from the Holy Spirit. We receive knowledge from the Holy Spirit. You see, Jesus acknowledged that he needed the Holy Spirit. We read about it in a... amazing story in the book of Luke in chapter 4 verses 1 and 2. Let me read that to you right now. I believe this really shows us how even Jesus needed the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. found in Luke chapter 4, verses 1 -2. We may go a few more verses after that. Found in the New Living Translation. Let me read this to you. Then Jesus, full of the

6:40 Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness. Alright, right there. At the very beginning, Jesus has surrendered his will to God. Remember he did that in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before he was going to be crucified. And he was praying, take this from me, Lord. Oh, just take this cup from me. But then he quickly stopped because the Holy Spirit told him, him to surrender to God. He said, but no, not my will, but thy will be done. That was the Holy Spirit intervening in Jesus to give him direction. So let's look at what Jesus was facing here. It's called the temptation of Jesus. When we read verse one again, then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, okay, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness where he was tempted by the devil for 40 days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry. Obviously he did.

7:31 So then he felt weak there, so then the devil wants to attack him just like the devil wants to attack us in our moment of weakness. Then the devil said to him, if you are the son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread. But Jesus told him, no, the scriptures say people do not live by bread alone. Verse five says, then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. He said, I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them. The devil said, they are mine to give to anyone I please. I will give it all to you if you will worship me." Jesus replied, the scriptures say, remember, look at this, Jesus filled the Holy Spirit, went and used the Word of God to fight his challenge.

8:11 That's what we need to do. When the devil comes to us and tells us this and tells us that and tries to get us to change our thoughts on something or modify our life or compromise on certain things, we need to throw a scripture back at him. That's what Jesus did. He says, the scriptures say, you must worship the Lord your God and serve only him. It says, Jesus, basically, was following the three -step approach that I told you at the beginning of this podcast, was one, we need to seek God, we need to pray, and we need to use the scriptures to guide and direct our lives. So the Holy Spirit will help us and direct us if we do those things. So basically, as we continue to read the story, we find out that Jesus obviously won the battle with the devil, and the Holy Spirit was the one leading Jesus through this battle, and He wants to lead us through every single battle. The Holy Spirit was there for Jesus and he's there for us each and every day. So let me give you an example now of how the Holy Spirit speaks to us to give us direction, give us instructions, and to lead us. I have to refer to something that took place many years ago when I was pastoring our church. Let me make a statement here right now and kind of question you. Have you, think about this, have you ever thought that you needed to call someone and when you called they had a need? they needed prayer or something. Well that happened to me on many occasions and many Christians that I know it will have expressed to me that they've experienced the same type of leading of the Holy Spirit. You see one day I was at church and I was just sitting there making a few phone calls to people just to see how people are doing. I like to check with them on Saturday sometimes just to call them and visit with them for a little bit just be sure they're

9:42 doing okay and is there anything I can pray with them about. It was just something the Lord put up on my heart as I pastored the church to Saturday make contact with the people. Well on one particular Saturday when I called this one couple I called him and when the man answered the phone he said yeah what do you need and I thought oh this isn't starting off very well and I said well this is Pastor David at the church and I just want to just want to know is there anything I can pray with you about and he said yeah I guess you could he says our marriage is over we're splitting up matter of fact we were just leaving the house to go to the attorney's office and to start drawing up the papers for a divorce and I said well I believe that maybe it would be good idea if we talked a little bit before you did that so would you mind swinging by the church on your way to the attorney and maybe we can talk you see what had happened here was the Holy Spirit knew that I was trying to contact the people but he knew what people needed to contact more than others so he placed this person's this couples names in my mind, in my heart, and encouraged me to pick up the phone right then. Now had I waited and delayed and not done what the Holy Spirit wanted me to do, I could have missed the opportunity to help these people. So when I called, they were already heading out the door, planning on going, setting up all the paperwork for a divorce.

10:54 But I asked them, would you please stop by the church so we could just pray a little bit and talk before you move on your way. And he said, yeah, I guess so. I won't do any good, but yeah, we'll do that. So they drove by the church and that was just me. by myself in their church on a Saturday and they came over and we sit and talk and we prayed and we talked and we prayed and we talked and we prayed and within about an hour or so you could tell that the Holy Spirit was moving in a very special way and they said they had thanked me for calling them because they didn't think that God really cared it really didn't matter if they kept their marriage together or not and they were just telling me all of their sadness and grief and everything but see the Holy Spirit intervened and and used me gave me the opportunity to be able to speak by the way they they didn't divorce. They never did. They basically realized that they just needed both of them to get their eyes on Jesus and off of the problems that they were facing. So they were struggling with issues just like you and I struggle with issues. But when the Holy Spirit is there and talking to us and pleading with us and trying to get our attention through something we read in the Word of God or a song that we're singing in church, then let's be sure and submit to Him and yield to Him because He wants to lead us and help us to go in the direction that we should go so we can solve a lot of the problems were faced, you know, in our life. So, I could give you numerous examples of the Holy Spirit, you know, speaking to me, talking to me, not in an audible voice, I've never heard the audible voice of the Holy Spirit, but in that still quiet voice, that voice that says, you need to call this person, or you need to go by and visit this person in the hospital, or you need to do this or do that.

12:26 I always like to write those things down because I don't want to miss out. I want to be sure that I am given the opportunity to minister to someone or reach out and be led by the Spirit. So please don't think that I'm acting like some kind of super spiritual person or whatever, but I'm really not in any shape or form trying to do that. I only want you to know that there are examples that even you know you've had where that quiet voice, that still quiet voice, told you to do something. And we need to surrender to that still quiet voice and allow the Holy Spirit to lead us, to direct us, and help us in the direction that we should go. Okay, well, I hope that helped. I hadn't planned to talk about all that, but I believe the Holy Spirit wanted me to share that story with you. Now, how do I know that it was the Holy Spirit that did that? And as a matter of fact, let me ask you that question.

13:10 How do you know that when you're praying, it's the Holy Spirit's voice that you're hearing or that you're being impressed by the Holy Spirit? Well, there's a way to confirm that and verify whether it's the voice of God or whether it's a self -voice or the devil trying to confuse us, whoever. it might be. I believe that we know it's the Holy Spirit when that still quiet voice gives us something to bless us, to help us, to encourage us. Now this is how my wife and I test a thought or an action that we want to take. First we pray. First we just pray. We find out, Lord help us to be in agreement on something as we want guidance and direction from the Holy Spirit. We know if it's the Holy Spirit that responds to us, if what we are thinking lines up with the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is speaking to us and He will speak to us in the way the Word of God would tell us to go. For example, if we're struggling on whether people care for us or not or thinking about us or that there's anybody out there that cares at all, the Holy Spirit will remind us sometimes of Psalm 46 .1 that God is a very present help in times of trouble.

14:10 That's the Holy Spirit. When He throws a scripture and He gives you a scripture that encourages you and helps you in that situation you're going through, we know that it's the Holy Spirit if we are at peace with the direction that we're hearing. We know it's the Holy Spirit. if it's something that my wife and I are in total agreement and in unity about, and we say, yes, that's right, that's the direction that we should go, that's the decision we should make. So there's so many ways that we can know that it's the Spirit of God, but we need to stop and listen, we need to seek Him, we need to know if what we're hearing lines up with God's Word, know if we're in agreement. Now, if you're not married, you're a single person, then find a good friend to pray with. If you are single and you don't really have that person around you all the time that you can talk to and visit to and whatever, then and have a good Christian friend and say, there's something I need to make a decision on. Would you pray with me? Would you talk with me? Let's have a cup of coffee or something and just get together and seek the Holy Spirit, pray and use God's Word to guide and direct you. how we know that it's the leading of the Holy Spirit that's taking you in that direction. When the Holy Spirit leads us, we understand God's Word better. Let me repeat that. When the Holy Spirit is leading us, we will understand God's Word much better. Now I suggest that we read scriptures frequently, daily at least. half a dozen, three or four or five scriptures a day that we quote. I know in my own particular case, I've had a lot of physical problems, a lot of healings that the Lord has healed me of, and diseases and cancers and things that are just amazing how God did a miracle in my life and healed me. And so I start out every

15:42 day thanking God for scriptures, like Luke 17, 19, where Jesus looked at a man and said, your faith has healed you. and scriptures that tell us that he prayed for the masses and they were healed, and scriptures that tell us they healed every kind of disease and illness. Those are scriptures that I repeat every day and thank him for that, not just in my life, but in the lives of others that we pray for. So I suggest then that we read scriptures daily, then pray that the Holy Spirit helps us understand how that scripture relates to us. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about. One of my all -time favorite scriptures is in Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5 where it says I trust in the Lord with all your heart lead not on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path. Now when I read that scripture it reminds me of so much the help that I received I should say so much from the Holy Spirit because the biggest challenge that I've had in my life is that my understanding gets in the way of God's will or my understanding gets in the way of what the Holy Spirit wants me to do and so that scripture really helps me when I'm in the midst of trying to make a decision on something. And I say, Father, and I pray the scripture, not just read the scripture, but I pray the scripture. I say, Father, I thank you that you want me to come to you and that I should trust you with all of my heart. Thank you for that. And Lord, I thank you that I'm told not to lean on my own understanding. And I pray now.

17:07 that I will not lean on my own understanding, and that in all my ways I'll acknowledge you. And I thank you, Lord, that the scripture tells me that you will then lead my direction, my path, my way. You'll guide me, Father. You see, when we apply that scripture to our lives through prayer, then we really connect with the scripture. It becomes very personal to us. I love to claim the promises of God for the lives of some people, individually, specifically for people, and pray with them and tell them how to pray the scriptures, not just say the scriptures, but to pray the scriptures. Now, that may not help you, but I believe it will if you truly trust it and realize that praying the scriptures is a way to get them deeper into your heart and to enable each and every one of us to allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit of the Living God. Now, when we yield to the Holy Spirit, all of the abilities of the Holy Spirit are available to us. Now, think about that for a second. Let's just take a second to think about that. When we yield, that means surrender, submit to Him. When we yield to the Holy Spirit, all of His abilities, all of His power, all of His authority of the Holy Spirit are available to us. That's just amazing. If that doesn't rock your boat, I don't know what will. It's so important that we understand that that power of the Holy Spirit that dwells inside of us, that He gives us abilities and enables us and gives us the power and the strength that we need to deal with whatever we face in life and we can learn to be led by the Holy Spirit if we understand that. The Holy Spirit has God's

18:40 wisdom. Some people say, well, the Holy Spirit isn't God. Well, no, He is God. It's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It's the Trinity. We believe in that. If you don't, Then you might say, well, I don't believe in that because I don't believe in three gods. Well, I don't believe in three gods either. I serve one God. But there's three persons of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, the Son of God, and God, the Father. And that's the Trinity. And that's the Triune Godhead, the powerful Triune Godhead. And each one has purposes throughout the scriptures that change the lives, change directions of kings, change directions of leaders, of pastors, of non -believers to become believers, of people like The Apostle Paul hated Christians, wanted to kill Christians, and when the power of the Holy Spirit came upon him on the road to Damascus, his life was radically changed and just made him completely a different person, a 180 degree change in his life. The Holy Spirit has God's wisdom, so therefore we can have God's wisdom.

19:37 He understands spiritual truth and evil spirits, so therefore we... can understand spiritual truth and see and identify evil spirits. He counsels us, so therefore we can counsel others. He gives us strength, so therefore we can help others to receive strength. He has all knowledge. He has God's love. So therefore we can have God's love. We can have God's knowledge. These are things the Holy Spirit has for us. He wants to lead us into them, through them, and direct us. So I pray now that all of us will surrender to the Holy Spirit. Jesus relied on the Holy Spirit. So must we. When Jesus went into the temptation, into the desert, into the temptation, The devil came after him, but he relied on the Holy Spirit to give him strength. The Holy Spirit gave him the scriptures to speak. The Holy Spirit told him how to address the evil one, the devil who was harassing Jesus. And so therefore, Jesus relied on the Holy Spirit, so we believers must obviously also rely on. the Spirit of the Living God. Jesus needed the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

20:43 So do we. Jesus needed the anointing of the Holy Spirit to even start his ministry. So do we. We must live in the Spirit daily, not occasionally. In order to be led by the Spirit of God, it's a 24 -7. That's 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We need to be led by the Holy Spirit. Now that doesn't mean we won't make mistakes. It doesn't mean that we might go off in the wrong direction somewhere, but the Holy Spirit in us will direct us. See, I've talked so much about how the Holy Spirit blesses us and helps us and He's there and He comforts us and all that, and He really does. But He also admonishes us. He also corrects us. He also becomes stern with us. I believe when When we do something stupid and we say something to someone that's not correct, the Holy Spirit quickens us and tells us, now that wasn't right. You should not have said that.

21:31 You need to go back and apologize for that. I remember playing golf with a Christian guy once. We were playing golf and having just a great time and just really just having a great time and my buddy was getting ready to hit the ball and just before he went to hit the ball, one of the golf, they called them golf rangers, he was in a golf cart and he drove around just to be sure that things were going smooth and going well. So he didn't pay any attention that my buddy was getting ready to hit the ball off the tee. And as my buddy drew the club back, this guy drove up and said, hey, how you guys doing? And it caused my friend to shank the ball. So my friend got really mad, and he ran over to this guy and said, how can you do that? How can you do that? You should know better than that. You work for the golf course. And he just ripped into the guy. And the guy said, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything. He just wants you to have a good time. So my buddy was really upset. So the guy apologized, and he drove away.

22:18 Well, we got in the cart, and my friend and I were driving down. the cart and all of a sudden he stopped and he said, I should have never done that. That was wrong. You see, that was the Holy Spirit helping him. And he said, just a second. Could you wait right here? I need to do something. So I got out of the cart. We were up by the green. I got out of the cart. And he took off in the cart. And I thought, where in the world is he going? Well, he spotted the guy, the golf ranger, if you will, driving around. And he drove over to the guy, got out. And he spoke to them and talked to him for a little while. And he came back. And he said, I just had to apologize to him. I see. I thought that was so, I was so impressed by that. I thought, Lord, this fellow, this friend of mine is a great man. Yeah, he could have easily just carried that with him the rest of the day. But the Holy Spirit said, no, you can't do that.

23:00 And so the Holy Spirit interrupted him, his golf game, and sent him off to apologize to someone after he yelled and screamed at the guy. So anyways, that's a story that some of you might think kind of silly, but it's not silly at all. I wish all of us would be led by the Holy Spirit to know when we need to call someone and apologize, or just do something nice for someone else. We should pray that the Holy Spirit helps us to have that type of sensitivity to Him. The Holy Spirit helps us to surrender to God's will and to help us have the desires of God's desires in our life. Galatians 5 -16 says, live in the Spirit. Well, we can do that. So I'm going to pray now. I'm going to close this podcast in prayer and just pray for you that the Holy Spirit would help and direct whatever you're going through in life.

23:44 Heavenly Father, I thank you for this lesson. I thank you Lord that you want us to be led by the Spirit. I thank you for the scriptures you gave us and I pray now Lord that those who are listening in, if they truly truly want a stronger relationship with the Holy Spirit, want to be led by him every day, that you would help them, that you would direct them, that they would pray and seek you and use your word, Father, to help them through life. I thank you for this opportunity. I thank you for this teaching, Lord. It may be pretty basic to some people, but to some of us, we need to hear this type of word, Lord, to keep us on track, to be led by the Spirit of the living God. And I'll thank you for it now. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Well, I hope this has been interesting to you. I have thoroughly enjoyed this podcast. And I hope that you will continue to listen to these podcasts. The next one we're going to do is called The Holy Spirit in Us.

24:30 And it's going to be another way to look at how the Holy Spirit operates in our life. And so I hope that you'll tune into that one and listen to it. If you would like to know more about the Quality Christian Living podcast that we have, I would invite you to go to my webpage at davidcfriendauthor .com. And when you get there and pull up the front page, there's a link to all the podcasts that we've done. So we're in 340. the last four years that we've done, and the Lord has blessed them, and I thank the Lord for those, and you'll find various topics on finance, topics on the Holy Spirit, topics on faith and healing and miracles, and there'll be series like this one on the Holy Spirit that will bless you, so you can scroll down and take a look at those. In addition to that, if you would like to subscribe to my podcast, you can do that by going to cpnshows .com, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

25:21 With that, I'm going to start to close out this particular podcast. But first of all, I want to thank you for listening. You could listen to a lot of different podcasts, but you chose to be a part of this one, and I thank you for that. I'd like to ask you, though, that if you enjoyed this podcast, that you would just take a moment and give us a rating and review the podcast. It really is helpful in the direction that we're going and to help us to reach out to more people. You can leave a review on Apple Podcasts, on Amazon Music, on Charisma Podcast Network, or give us a star rating. on Spotify. However you choose to support us, we certainly appreciate that and thank you for taking the time to do that. I mentioned earlier that my next podcast is going to be called Holy Spirit in Us and there's some things that I really feel we couldn't get into this podcast that it needs to kind of carry over into the next one. We're going to talk about what does the Holy Spirit bring to us and the Holy Spirit in us is that it's really Jesus in us. The Holy Spirit may interrupt what we plan to say and that's only if he's in us and lives and dwells in us and directs our life and that the Holy Spirit can adjust our thoughts, our words, our actions.

26:29 Think about that for a second. So I'm looking forward to that podcast and I hope that you'll be a part of that. So let me just close by giving you a blessing and praying for you. I pray now that the Lord will bless you and keep you and that his face will shine upon you and that he will be gracious to you and give you peace. I pray that you'll prosper and that you'll be in good health even as your soul prospers. So until next time, may God richly bless you. May you be filled with the power and the strength of the Holy Spirit. May you be led of the Holy Spirit, may the Holy Spirit help each and every one of us to be closer to Him than we have ever been in our entire lives. Thank you, Father, for putting this together, that we've had an opportunity to share what you placed upon my heart, that you would bless it and multiply it. And I'll be careful to give you praise and glory for what's taken place today. For ask these things in Jesus' name. Well, thank you again for listening to Quality Christian Living. I am your host, David Friend. I pray that you'll come back and listen to our continuation of the topics dealing with the Holy Spirit in us.