God says,
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
Proverbs 3:5,6
And,
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
Romans 8:14
There is a great need, in the Body of Christ, to know how to be “led” by God’s Spirit. In fact, being led the Holy Ghost may literally make the difference between heaven and hell for many in these last days. In this time of “Strong Delusion”, we must rely upon His Holy Spirit to know the truth.
God says,
“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”
Matthew 24:24
The first step in learning to be led by the Spirit is trust. Trust is the firm belief in the reliability, truth, and ability of someone. Thus, we must first “trust” God’s voice before we can “hear” God’s voice.
Although God is fully trustworthy, trust in Him must be learned through experience. In this world, we learn to trust our five senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Likewise, we must learn to trust our spiritual senses too. Don’t be discouraged if it is difficult to switch from the natural to the spirit, it takes time for most people.
God’s understanding is perfect
God is omniscient. Therefore, God makes decisions based upon perfect understanding. We, on the other hand, make our decisions upon imperfect knowledge. The truth is, we don’t really know what is going on. Therefore, when God asks us to do something it often runs contrary to our limited understanding. We see things one way, but God, who knows all, sees things clearly. We must trust the Holy Spirit to be successful believers. When we do this, we find God is always right, however impossible it may seem.
Another challenge we face is that we constantly try to figure out the “why. It is the old “hath God said” scenario. God says to do such and such and we immediately try to fit what He is doing into our limited world view. We use the knowledge of good and evil to decide whether what God said makes sense. Thus, when God does not do what we assumed, it shakes our faith.
You can’t figure God out, you just have to trust
Trying to figure things out with our natural minds, we often jump to conclusions. God wanted to do nothing like what we wrongly assumed He wanted to accomplish. Our disappointment arises from our failure to understand God’s motives and methods. Unfortunately, when God doesn’t fit our preconceived notions, we blame Him and lose faith.
Again, this is where “trust” comes into play. Our trust in God should not be “outcome dependent”. We are like individual chess pieces on a vast chessboard, moved by His unseen Spirit. It is impossible to see, from our perspective, why he moves the way He does.
Don’t lean upon your own understanding
On the shores of the Red Sea, five minutes before Moses raised his staff, everything looked hopeless. The children of Israel said,
“And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?”
Exodus 14:10,11
Moses had, to all appearances, led the children of Israel to disaster. Yet, what looked one way to the natural man was, in fact, God’s divine plan for total salvation. Likewise, when the Holy Spirit goads us to do something that looks foolish, we must trust His voice.
In conclusion, trust God and lean not upon our own understanding. Show confidence in what our Father says because we know who He is. If we do, what seems impossible will turn out to be no real danger. Everything we think cannot happen is, in fact, a mirage that simply disappears as we reach it. God’s word, whether written or revealed by His Spirit is real and is what will never change.