Being Led by the Spirit

By Robert Thompson

Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

How many Christian people look to the Lord continually to guide their daily lives? How many believe that Christ will direct our lives down to the smallest detail if we will look to Him? I know Christian people often say "the Lord told me this or the Lord told me that." It is my opinion that this really happens.

But will Christ really guide us to this extent? I believe He will. However, He guides the believers in many different ways. To some, it is an inner consciousness. To others, He speaks as they read the Word. Yet there may be others who hear a voice, or experience dreams or visions.

Then there are folks who commit their way to the Lord constantly, trusting that He will direct their paths, even though they do not hear from Him very often. He does guide such because of the promise in His Word

My point is that we Christians do not have to go about blindly. Christ will guide us in every decision if we ask Him.

I think I am correct that the adherents of the Muslim religion to a great extent follow the Koran with little or no feeling of the Presence of God. Maybe I am wrong in this. But when we Christians are sternly obedient to Christ and look to Him continually throughout the day and night, we experience His Presence. I doubt seriously that the practitioners of any other religion can experience the Presence of the true and living God as can an obedient, prayerful Christian.

How could they? Are there two Lambs of God that take away the sin of the world? Are there two Trees of Life? Are there two Ways to the Father; two Truths of the Father; two Lives of the Father? I don't think so.

I have been seeking Christ fervently for sixty-five years. I look to Him in all things. He is very real to me. He will be just as real to anyone who looks to Him on a daily basis.

If I am hearing the Spirit of God correctly, terrible times are coming to the world. I do not have to recount here the horrible things being done to people in our day. In this week's issue of Time magazine (August 9, 2010) there is a picture on the cover of a beautiful eighteen year old Afghan girl, Aisha, whose husband cut off her ears and nose because she fled from what she termed "abusive inlaws."

The Bible says, "He who loves his wife loves himself." We seem to have a difference in philosophy here!

We know about the millions of babies aborted (murdered) in the United States alone. 

How long can God refrain from bringing tribulation upon such horrors, as well as upon the abandoned revelries taking place in the so-called Christian nations?

Well, I believe the Spirit is saying that Divine judgment soon is to fall on the world. If we are going to stand in Christ we must be following Him, listening to Him, obeying Him, continually, day and night.

Many Christians think they can be led by the Bible and do not need to hear from the Lord. Such may have a religious spirit. They do not realize that the Bible is the sword of the Spirit, not the sword of the Christian. They are like the Pharisees when Jesus was standing before them. They were looking down at the scroll of the Law when the Author of the Law was there waiting for them to look up to Him.

The new covenant is not of the letter, as was the Law of Moses, but of the Spirit. This means that the words of the New Testament can be guided, applied, and enabled only by the Spirit of God, not by the mind of the Christians.

When the words of the New Testament are guided, applied, and enabled by the good intentions of a Christian leader they kill. They "cut off the ear" of the hearer, just as the disciple of Jesus cut of the ear of one of those who were arresting the Lord Jesus.

I do not know if Jesus has always been as close to us as He is today. I do know that in the case of Laodicea, the last of the seven churches of Revelation, He asked to be admitted into our life. I believe He is knocking at our hearts today. He sees the violent destruction approaching the United States because of our turning away from Christ. He is ready to help each person who will look to Him so he or she is not carried away in the flood of chaos on the horizon.

As I see it, the greatest need we Christians have today is to learn to listen to Jesus. Christ sits as King of the flood and He is more than willing and able to guide and keep each individual in the time of trouble, just as He kept Jeremiah when the Babylonians were destroying Jerusalem.

But is God really willing to speak to us and guide us in a personal manner? Think about the Old Testament. In how many instances did God speak to the Israelites and guide them? Just think about that! And they were not born again. The Spirit of God came upon some of them at times, but the Spirit did not remain in them as He does in us.

How about the New Testament? Did angels speak to people? Were the Christians of those days led by the Spirit of God? We know they were from the many accounts in the New Testament, particularly the Book of Acts.

"But," some maintain, "now that we have the Bible we do not need to hear from God." Well if such wish to live a dry, religious, Christian life, that is their privilege I guess. But I think if they would look up from the text (which the Pharisees were unwilling to do) they would find that the Author of the text is waiting for them to look directly to Him and bring their concerns to Him.

I am writing these words under an unusual compulsion. I do not know how soon disaster is going to strike the United States; but the Spirit is warning that each of us must draw closer to Jesus. We must learn to look to Him as we never did before. He wants to keep us in His Presence at all times so we will not panic and lose our faith when we see the terror soon to be unleashed on our land.

No Christian, man or woman, boy or girl, will be able to stand in the coming days of the United States until he or she has a strong inner relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We must be aware of Him constantly, always being guided and enabled by Him. Otherwise the growing spiritual darkness will overcome us and we will find ourselves thinking, saying, and doing things that are against God's will for us.

Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Romans 8:14)