05/04/25

How To Be Led By The Holy Spirit Of God

God will give you the ability to be led by the Holy Spirit for a more abundant life

Eze 36:26–27 (NKJV) — 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

The six steps necessary

• Recognize Your Total Depravity 

  • You are hopelessly lost as a sinful creature

• Recognize Your Need For A Savior

  • You cannot have the Holy Spirit without accepting Jesus as Lord

• Recognize The Importance Of The Holy Spirit

  • The Holy Spirit will give you the power to experience life abundantly

• Seek The Voice Of The Holy Spirit

  • You must study the Word to know his voice

• Submit To The Voice Of The Holy Spirit Inwardly

  • Allow your mind to be renewed and the Holy Spirit will transform your life

• Practice Righteousness And Walk In The Spirit Outwardly

  • You will not come under condemnation

 

• Recognize Your Total Depravity

From the beginning, our disobedience condemned us to death because we took on a nature that was alien to God. We are all hopelessly  lost as sinful creatures

Ge 6:5 (NKJV) — 5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

We are hopelessly lost! There is no such thing as the goodness of mankind. Compared to the three times holiness of God, all of us, like sheep, all have gone our own way. 

We cannot measure up in God’s sight. All of our righteousness is just as filthy rags.

God even tells us no matter what we do we are going to do wrong.

Je 10:23 (NKJV) — 23 O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.

Why are we in this situation?

Je 17:9 (NKJV) — 9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

Even when we try to do the best we can, because of the wickedness of our hearts

Mk 7:21–23 (NKJV) — 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”

We are all born into iniquity.

Ps 51:5 (NKJV) — 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.

As children, we learned to follow our fleshly appetites. We realized there are things of the flesh that give us pleasure, and we learned to pursue them with ever-increasing aggressiveness to find satisfaction from them.

Additionally, we live in a world surrounded by material things. We become increasingly accustomed to them and want to hold on to them, thinking that they provide us with life. But they don’t!

It is our own nature that presses us to do things our way, and not God’s. We were born this way! It is the result of the fall of man.

NIV JER 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? 

Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil. 

Our natural tendency is to conform to the world. 

The ways of the world are not the ways of God, and the world constantly beckons us to follow it through cunning and deceptive means. 

We have developed an appetite for sin. It is in our nature because we are in the world. 

1 Jn 2:16 (NKJV) — 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.

The ways of the world have been bred into us since infancy. No man can shake or get rid of the evilness in his heart.

There are ways that seem right to us, which will entice us, and those ways are the ways of death. 

It is instinctive for us to choose the wrong things naturally. And therefore, we will experience death.

Even when we hear the truth, it is our nature to seek ways to resist it and continue in darkness. We have become so accustomed to doing things our way that we are enslaved to them.

We are inclined to run after things of the flesh rather than things of the Spirit.

So let us remember the first point…

One - Recognize Your Total Depravity

– You Are Hopelessly Lost!

Since we are, we have to come to…

• Recognize Your Need For A Savior

You cannot have the Holy Spirit without accepting Jesus as Lord.

We now examine Christ's words to reveal how to break free from the trap we are in as desperately wicked creatures hopelessly lost as aliens from God.. 

Jn 3:3 (NKJV) — 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 

Jn 3:5–6 (NKJV) — 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

This is regeneration by the new birth by the Spirit, which is activated by submitting to Christ; 

Jn 3:16 (NKJV) — 16 fulfilling God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Understand that when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit begins the process of regeneration and we are born again as a new creation of God fulfilling the prophetic word of Ezekiel

Eze 36:26–27 (NKJV) — 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

• New Heart and New Spirit:

• Give a New Heart: A renewed inner being soul, mind, will, and emotions. This allows us to change our desires, motives, and inclinations toward God and righteousness. It shifts us from spiritual death to spiritual life, from rebellion to submission to God's will.

• Put a New Spirit: A transformed spiritual nature or essence within us. This is the work of the Holy Spirit renewing and empowering us for a spiritual life of obedience.

• Heart of Stone and Heart of Flesh:

  • Take the Heart of Stone: The hard, rebellious, and unresponsive to God heart characterized by stubbornness and lack of spiritual sensitivity. This is of our old fallen nature characterized by sin and disobedience. It is unyielding and resistant to God's influence. 

  • Give a Heart of Flesh: A heart that is tender, responsive, and open to God's leading. It is a heart that is sensitive to God's Word, receptive to His guidance and inclined towards obedience and righteousness. It is a heart that responds to God's grace, is sensitive to His voice, and is willing to obey Him.

As a new creation,  God's power through the Holy Spirit has changed our hearts and empowers us to live according to His will.  

What did Jesus tell them about going to Jerusalem?

Ac 1:8 (NKJV) — 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; 

The Holy Spirit’s power to do the will of God!

and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

We are saved by God's grace. He desires to give us the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

One -Recognize Your Total Depravity 

Two - Recognize You Need A Savior

Then,

• Recognize The Importance Of The Holy Spirit

Now that you have accepted Jesus, you must begin to recognize the importance of the Holy Spirit. 

HE IS GOD!  HE CAN DO ANYTHING GOD CAN DO!

HE IS I AM!

He deserves your attention just as much as you call upon the Father and Jesus!

Just like you can reject Christ you can reject Holy Spirit! Rejecting him, ends your life!

Mark 3:28 “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; 29 but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”—30 because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Jesus considered the Holy Spirit just as important to us as he was.

Jn 14:16–17 (NKJV) — 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

He will give you the power to experience life abundantly.

He will begin doing the work in you that you cannot do for yourself.

Jn 14:26 (NKJV) — 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

He will begin to cause you to see and think things you never could have imagined.

Jn 16:7 (NKJV) — 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.

Jesus could not be with us everywhere but the Holy Spirit can!

We have recognized Jesus, but we must also recognize the importance of the Holy Spirit.

Jn 16:13 (NKJV) — 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

He will guide you in all the ways of righteousness!

Let me read a few scriptures that show what the power of the Holy Spirit will do for you!

Is 30:21 (NKJV) — 21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left.

He will guide us as we go along the way. He is with us everywhere!

Eze 36:27 (NKJV) — 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

He will give us the power to do as he commands us to do. As we respond accordingly to the Holy Spirit he gives us a gift.

Ro 8:14 (NKJV) — 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

It is the Holy Spirit that will lead us and guide us into the ways of all righteousness. As a result of us listening and responding to the Holy Spirit…

Ro 8:1–4 (NKJV) — 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 

All of us need to come to realize the importance of  the Holy Spirit! We should stop taking him for granted. There is so much that he will do for us.

Why don’t you start talking to him? I know you have called on the name of Jesus, but why not call on the Holy Spirit?

Now is we have…

One - Recognized Your Total Depravity

Two - Recognized Your Need For A Savior

Three -Recognized The Importance Of The Holy Spirit

Then, you must learn to

• Seek The Voice Of The Holy Spirit

Call on Him!

Even after we have been born again, after regeneration, and recognize the importance of the Holy Spirit, we must now seek the Holy Spirit's voice for guidance. He will not force himself upon us; we must welcome him into our hearts.

First: How do we come to know his voice?

2 Pe 1:20–21 (NKJV) — 20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit wrote the Scriptures, and as we learn the Scriptures, we learn the Holy Spirit's voice.

If we want to be led by the Holy Spirit God we must know what he sounds like. As we learn him we should search the scriptures daily to determine what we should and should not do!

Second: We ask for His guidance

Ps 119:33–36 (NKJV) — 33 Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, And I shall keep it to the end. 

34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. 35 Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it. 

36 Incline my heart to Your testimonies, And not to covetousness.

See all the requests David asked of the Lord. When you read the scripture, ask the Holy Spirit to give you revelation. He will speak to you as you read what he has said before.

Then, as you get revelation from the word that you read you begin to recognize the sound of his voice.

Ps 25:9 (NKJV) — 9 The humble He guides in justice, And the humble He teaches His way.

David knew that it was not enough to have the desire to do right, he also needed the strength of God to make him do right.

Ask him to help you do right!

Even though we have been born again, we must learn to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit to guide our new life, not the voice of our old man. We must cast off those filthy ways.

The Holy Spirit is the inward voice that is activated by the spark of the word of God. As we read the Scriptures, he begins to alter our thinking to conform to his thinking. The more we read, the more he speaks to us.

 The more we read and study the more we renew our minds and are transformed by the Spirit to progressively operating more and more in the ways of God.

He will speak to the inward man, not the physical man. 

We must allow him to change our heart to one that seeks things of the Spirit and not things of the flesh.

Our preferences have been of things of the flesh, but God will lead us to things of the Spirit.

As we seek the Holy Spirit and incline our ear to his voice, he will speak to our conscious, open our eyes to our understanding, regulate our desires, and help us order our conduct according to God's ways. 

Now we have learned to…

One - Recognized Your Total Depravity

Two - Recognized Your Need For A Savior

Three - Recognized Your Need For The Holy Spirit

Four - Seek The Voice Of The Holy Spirit

Now, it is time to learn to

• Submit To The Voice Of The Holy Spirit As Life

The Holy Spirit begins to reveal himself and the way we should go little by little as we honor him more and more. The more we yield the more he reveals.

There is much greater revelation to be given to us as we are faithful and submitting the voice of the Spirit.

He speaks internally. Satan knows this also. Therefore, Satan seeks to block the communication that continuing to bombard us with things to distract us from hearing the voice of the Spirit.

Since we are not ignorant of his devices, we must continue as…

2 Co 10:5 (NKJV) — 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

Look at this and see it is a faith action

Ro 8:12–13 (NKJV) — 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die;

 but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

We must learn to yield to the Spirit who will speak to us to walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit, to mind the things of the Spirit, and through the Spirit, that is within our minds, to mortify the deeds of the flesh.

We have to start saying to ourselves, I will not do this thing against the Lord my God.

We also have to start singing to ourselves, I will do this thing for the glory of God!

The process of putting to death the deeds of the body begins in the mind. Stop allowing the thoughts that are contrary to the word of God rise up inside of you. Cast them down!

Begin to believe by faith you now have the ability to resist the flesh. The Holy Spirit will help you!

The Spirit guides us by  Restraining and encouraging

• restraining us from sinning. Don’t go here, don’t say, wait, flat tire, lack of money, many ways of holding you back from sin, closing doors

• encouraging us to be holy.  Presenting ideas of what to do, opening doors, using people, opportunities open up, opening doors

Therefore, we must learn to hear and obey the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us inside if we expect to be led by the Holy Spirit. 

As we are faithful in a little, he will be begin to lead us into much more. He will lead us a little and then progressively faster and then to much actions of the word of God.

He guides us by his word. 

Psa 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet, And a light to my path.

The word is a lamp into my feet, and he orders footsteps. Then in his word, he reveals the type of life he wants me to live.

By that quiet small inner voice, He impresses his will upon us to show us the way we should go. We simply need to submit to that voice.  

Remember how often we say to ourselves? “Something told me I should have.”  Often times that something is the Holy Spirit!

Only the Holy Spirit knows the path that leads to heaven. We better listen!

He is already aware of the traps and devices of Satan to destroy us, and he will guide us around them if we will listen to him.

Because we are naturally inclined to evil, and Satan knows the way of God  to speak to us inwardly, we must learn to test the spirits and not just except everything we hear is the Holy Spirit.

Test the spirit, according to the word of God. If the voice we hear, is not in alignment with God’s word, it is not the Spirit of God.

Review

One - Recognized Your Total Depravity

Two - Recognized Your Need For A Savior

Three - Recognized Your Need For The Holy Spirit

Four - Seek The Voice Of The Holy Spirit

Five - Submit To The Voice Of The Holy Spirit As Life

Finally…

• Practice Righteousness And Walk In The Spirit

Once we have determined his voice, and submitted to it in our mind, we must now begin to do it in our lives. We must begin to practice it.

1 Jn 3:7 (NKJV) — 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.

We must be more than just hearers of his word, we must become doers of his word.

Here again, the Holy Spirit will help us. 

Php 2:13 (NKJV) — 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

He works on our mind and assists us in doing his will.

Is 48:17 (NKJV) — 17 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.

Eph 5:8 (NKJV) — 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light

This is a command saying what we now are, not what we use to be. 

At one time, we were helpless and totally depraved, but now we have been changed! We have the ability to walk in the Spirit because he will give us the strength to do it!

This concept of being a child of God must eradicate all thoughts that limit us. We must start to realize that we have the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us and wants us to recognize that we are children of God! We are no longer children of the world!

There is nothing impossible to us. We have been set free!

But, we also must remember that we are still in the flesh, and the flesh wrestles against us. The flesh does not want to die. It wants to live! 

But remember this one thing in all your struggles with the flesh… The flesh is weak compared to the Holy Spirit. 

Submit to the Spirit, and you will not do the will of the flesh!

Therefore, we cry out more for the Holy Spirit as David did…

Ps 119:133 (NKJV) — 133 Direct my steps by Your word, And let no iniquity have dominion over me.

The Holy Spirit will teach us how to apply the word of God to all the things we encounter in our lives. He is how we learn to walk in holiness as he impresses upon us the will and ways of God

3 ways to know you are being led by the Spirit.

• • You turn increasing away from self and worldly things because you see these things as useless 

  • Your focus is more on pleasing Christ and finding your joy in him

  • You practice more and more holiness in your thoughts and actions

Cause you know…

1 Jn 3:7 (NKJV) — 7 …He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.

The six steps necessary

• Recognize Your Total Depravity 

  • You are hopelessly lost as a sinful creature

• Recognize Your Need For A Savior

  • You cannot have the Holy Spirit without accepting Jesus as Lord

• Recognize The Importance Of The Holy Spirit

  • The Holy Spirit will give you the power to experience life abundantly

• Seek The Voice Of The Holy Spirit

  • You must study the Word to know his voice

• Submit To The Voice Of The Holy Spirit Inwardly

  • Allow your mind to be renewed and the Holy Spirit will transform your life

• Practice Righteousness And Walk In The Spirit Outwardly

  • You will not come under condemnation