June 11, 2025 • 38 mins
Ever felt a gut feeling to double-check a locked door or an unexplainable peace about a tough decision? That’s not just instinct—it’s often the Holy Spirit leading you. Based on Romans 8:14, this inspiring teaching reveals that being Spirit-led isn’t for the spiritually elite—it’s your right as a believer. You’ll learn how God guides through gentle promptings, internal checks, and supernatural perception, all grounded in Scripture and strengthened by church community. With real-life stories—including one that saved a life—you’ll gain practical tools to recognize God’s voice and make decisions with clarity and confidence.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're just going to start out tonight by lifting up
our Bibles, if you brought them,and we're just going to say
these words.
Say, heavenly Father, thank youfor your Word.
Holy Spirit, breathe on theWord that I'm going to hear,
make it come alive to me and,heavenly Father, I'm going to be
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a doer of the word that comesalive in my spirit in Jesus name
.
All right, so we're going tojump into the word tonight.
You know, I was tempted to dosomething for me.
It's fun to study God's wordand to and to find new things
and to discover what words meanand and how that scripture was,
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was applied or what the contextof it was then, and I like
discovering new things, and whenI discover new things, I like
to share new things.
But one of the mandates or theinstructions that God gave
pastor for this church was toteach what you take for granted.
One of the mandates was that hewould send a hot, dry wind and
that people would beuncomfortable where they are and
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they'd get up where they areand they'd leave there and
they'd come here, and our job isto make sure that they find
water when they get here.
Another warning that Pastor hadalong the way was that he said
the Holy Spirit warned him thatyour children not meaning his
kids, but the next generationdoesn't know what you know, and
so, therefore, teach what youtake for granted.
And so I'm going to fall inline and obey that instruction
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and teach what we take forgranted.
And so the title of tonight'smessage tonight is Spirit-Led.
So we're going to talk aboutbeing Spirit-Led and hopefully
I'm going to bring somepractical examples and some
practical things that will helpyou be led by the Spirit in your
life in all kinds of ways andhelp you be successful.
So in Romans 8, verse 14, we'regoing to have a lot of
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scripture tonight.
I'm going to quote some of thisstuff.
I'm going to read through someof this stuff briefly.
You can follow along, takenotes.
But in Romans, chapter 8, verse14, it says for as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, theseare the sons of God.
As many as are led by theSpirit of God, these are the
sons of God.
Another way to say that is thatthe sons of God are led by the
Spirit of God.
So if you're a born againbeliever, you're a son of God,
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you're a child of God.
You're entitled to be led bythe Spirit of God.
In verse 16, it says that theSpirit himself bears witness,
and it's talking about theinward witness here.
The Spirit of self bearswitness, with our spirit, that
we are the children of God.
So that's really the very firstinward witness that you have is
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when you become a born-againbeliever.
Your reborn spirit on theinside bears witness, with the
Holy Spirit, that you are now achild of God.
That is the first inwardwitness that you get is when
you're born again, and from thenon you're entitled to have the
inward witness and to be led bythat on a daily basis.
Notice, he does not bearwitness with our brain, which is
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the voice of our reason or ourlogic, and he doesn't bear
witness with our physical sensesand with our emotion.
He bears witness with ourspirit.
And so let's just talk quicklybefore we get too far into this.
Where does he lead?
Where is he leading us?
Well, 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14says Now, thanks be to God, who
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always leads us in triumph inChrist.
So there's a place.
He's always leading us.
He's always leading us intriumph in Christ and through us
diffuses a fragrance of hisknowledge in every place.
So what I see there is thathe's leading us not to victory
it would be great to be led tovictory but what he did is he's
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leading us through victory tothis celebration on the other
side of victory.
So victory is expected.
You're going to the celebrationall the way on the other side
of victory.
So victory is expected.
You're going to the celebrationall the way on the other side
of that.
And a triumph is the ultimatecelebration.
It is spiking the football inthe end zone.
It is rubbing your enemy's facein their loss.
It is the triumph in the Romandays was you just defeated your
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adversary and you're leadingthem in a parade, disarmed,
naked, bleeding, bruised, inchains behind you, and showing
off the wind to the entire city,the entire region.
It is put on display.
So that's where God is leadingus in Christ is not to the
victory, but to the ultimatecelebration on the other side of
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that victory.
So I heard a recent example.
We've got, you know, you've gotCarol Renee Dyer-Kuntz, as we
affectionately call her, aroundhere.
She plays the keyboard up here.
She was invited to, I think, ademonstration, a taekwondo
demonstration or karatedemonstration, or something of
one of the students at herschool and so she went to this
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and she was invited up there.
They were, the kids were upthere, you know karate, chopping
and breaking boards and so shewas up there, invited to punch
through a board, and she hadnever done this before and I
think some of the other parentsalso got to get up there.
And so some of the parents, youknow the moms are up there and
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they aim for that board andthey're aiming for the board and
they come down and they hit theboard and it doesn't break and
it hurts really bad when thatboard stops you.
Thankfully, carol, being theathletic person that she is, she
aimed through the board to apoint on the other side of it
and she came down hard and wentthrough the board and it was not
nearly as bad as those whostopped short at the board.
And so let's not stop short atvictory.
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The goal is not victory, it isthe celebration on the other
side of that.
And that's where we're beingled on a continual basis.
Psalm 23, another example ofwhere he's leading you the Lord
is my shepherd.
If he's your shepherd, he isleading you someplace.
Where is he leading you?
It says the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
So he's leading you into acondition where you don't want
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for anything.
That word there, want means Iwill not lack or decrease or
fail.
So he's leading you into thatcondition.
Verse two he makes me to liedown in green pastures, all
right.
He's leading you to a placewhere there's provision, where
there's calm, where there'speace.
He leads me beside the stillwaters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths ofrighteousness.
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For his name's sake, that'swhere he's leading you to if we
follow Notice.
It doesn't say he's draggingyou there.
He doesn't have a hook in yoursnout and just pulling you along
.
He's leading you there.
So you can have that and youcan go there if you follow where
he's leading.
Verse 4 there says Yea, though Iwalk through the valley of the
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shadow of death, he didn't leadyou there.
That was you wandering offsomewhere where he didn't lead.
Good news, he didn't leave you.
Yea, though I walk through thevalley of the shadow of death, I
will fear no evil, for you arewith me, your rod, which is a
corrective thing, and your staff, which is a guiding thing.
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They comfort me.
And we could go on and read therest of it, but I just wanted
you to see a picture of wherehe's leading you and where he's
not leading you.
He is not leading you into thevalley of shadow of death.
He's leading you into acondition of not lacking,
decreasing or failing.
He's leading you into greenpastures, still waters.
He's restoring your soul, leadsyou in paths of righteousness.
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That's where he's taking you ifyou're going to follow, and so
I've got some numbered pointsthrough here.
There's kind of a lot of them.
The numbers really aren'timportant, but the first one I
have is to, if you're going tobe led by the Spirit, by the
inward witness, you've got tofirst understand that one God is
smarter than you and that hehas a good plan.
I don't think that's too muchof a stretch for most of us to
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recognize that God is smarter.
But sometimes we question likewhat's the best thing?
And we understand God wantswhat's best for us.
But I really want that and thatisn't always what God wants for
you and you kind of know that.
But that's how you end up inthe valley of the shadow of
death, not alone, but introubled places.
And so let's recognize that Godis smarter and that he has a
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good plan.
Isaiah 55, verse 8,.
My thoughts are not yourthoughts.
This should sound real familiarto you.
Nor are your ways, my ways,says the Lord, for as the
heavens are higher than theearth, so are my ways higher
than your ways and my thoughtsthan your thoughts.
You know he has a good plan foryou.
If you've been in church anylength of time, you would have
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heard Jeremiah 29, 11.
For I know the thoughts that Ithink towards you, says the Lord
Thoughts of peace, not evil, togive you a future and a hope.
And so we got to recognize thatGod is smarter and that he's
got a great plan for your life.
And so that's the first step inbeginning to hear from the
Spirit, or being led by theSpirit, something to do on your
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side.
One of the first things to do onyour side is to always put God
first.
Everything in God's Word, allthe promises, are conditional
Things that he puts out there.
There's always our side tocooperate with His blessing for
our life and His plan for ourlife.
And so Matthew 6, 33 says seekfirst the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and then allthose things that you know you
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need and you want and you desire, all those things.
He knows you need those andhe's a good father.
All those things will be addedto you if you just seek first
the kingdom of God and so puthim first.
Another one out of the OldTestament Proverbs 3, verse 5,
trust in the Lord with all yourheart.
Lean not into your ownunderstanding.
In all your ways, acknowledgehim and he will direct your
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paths.
He will direct your steps.
He'll order the direction ofyour travel.
If you'll not lean on your ownbrain and your own understanding
, but lean on him and in allyour ways, always acknowledge
him, put him first, always toacknowledge him.
You might just be consideringwhat would God have me do in
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this moment, right now?
You kind of pause at everycrossroads, at every decision,
every point in life, the majorthings I'm talking about.
Just pause and just consider.
What does the word say aboutthis?
What is the Spirit trying totell me in this situation?
Just pause and just consider.
What does the word say aboutthis?
What is the spirit trying totell me in this situation?
Just pause and consider.
If you'll do that, he'll befaithful on his side.
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Number three, and I think thiscould be the next t-shirt that
we produce around here don't dodumb things.
Understand God's will.
Don't do dumb things.
Understand God's will, andbelieve it or not, there's a
scripture for that.
Ephesians 5, verse 15 says see,then, that you walk
circumspectly, not as fools, butas wise.
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So that's why I got the don'tdo dumb things.
To walk circumspectly isintentional.
Do things deliberately andthoughtfully.
Seek heaven's wisdom.
There's two kinds of wisdom.
There's the earthly, sensualwisdom, and then there's
heaven's wisdom, and we wantheaven's wisdom.
You know, if you want to haveGod's wisdom, the first thing to
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do, just to make yourselfeligible for it, is to fear God,
which means to put Him first,which is kind of where we just
came from.
The fear of the Lord is thebeginning of wisdom.
You can't even begin to have alittle bit of heaven's wisdom if
you haven't first put him firstand have a fear of God, a
concern of what he thinks inthat situation.
So see, then, that you walkcircumspectly, not as fools, but
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as wise, redeeming the timebecause the days are evil.
Verse 17 says therefore, do notbe unwise, but understand what
the will of the Lord is.
Okay, I can understand that.
I need to understand what thewill of the Lord is, but how do?
I do that.
He gives some more instructionhere, verse 18, don't be drunk
with wine where it is excess ordispensation, but be filled with
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the Spirit.
So there's the solution Befilled.
In fact, in the Greek it'sreally be being filled.
It's a continual filling of theHoly Spirit, speaking to
yourselves or one another inpsalms and hymns, spiritual
songs, singing and making melodyin your hearts to the Lord and
giving thanks always, in allkinds of conditions, in every
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situation, to God, the Father,in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, submitting to oneanother in the fear of God.
So those are some instructionsright there that'll help you be
in a position where you canunderstand what the will of God
is.
So the next thing in thissequence that I have here is to
read his word.
If you want to understand hiswill, read his word.
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His will is filled throughoutthis book.
That's the beginning right here.
If you want to understand whatthe will of God is, read his
word God's will, for your lifewill never violate this word and
you can call out for help allday long, but he will never help
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you do anything that violatesthis word.
So if you're in a bad spot, atight spot and you're calling
out for help and God, pleasehelp me do this and you don't
feel like you're getting God'shelp on it.
You might consider am I doinghis will?
As soon as you shift over andget in line with his will, the
help is right there.
He is a very present help inneed.
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He will help you get out ofthat situation very quickly, but
he won't help you violate hisword.
And so we've got to be faithfulstewards of this word.
Read his word, put it in yourheart.
Thy word have I hid in my heartthat I might not sin against
you.
Next, one number five come tochurch as often as you can.
Again, we're taking I'm sayingthings that I take for granted.
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These are things that we hearoften around here.
The reason you hear it often isbecause it's critically
important to success.
It's the basics, but the basicswill get you success.
Come to church as often as youcan.
The psalmist wrote in Psalm 73,he said and it was during a
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trying time.
He said, until I went into thesanctuary of God.
Then I understood, and what heunderstood was the end of his
enemies, the end of his trouble.
In that moment.
But he didn't begin tounderstand.
He saw circumstances that wereshouting one thing, and it
wasn't until he came into thesanctuary of God that he
understood, and so I can't tellyou the number of times I've
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been in this sanctuary, duringpraise and worship, during
pastor's ministry, thatsomething came alive to me on
the inside.
It might have been revelation,knowledge about his word,
something I needed to know, butvery specific things about life
and about things that Claire andI were facing decisions we had
to make, things that werecritical to our life.
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We got an answer right here inthe sanctuary and it wasn't
pastor saying the spirit of theLord comes upon me and tells me
thou shalt do this and go thereand buy this and don't do that.
It wasn't that he's preachingon something entirely unrelated.
It could be during praise andworship, with words that are
absolutely unrelated to what wewere facing.
I'll tell you, we didn't closethe real estate deal, but we
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accepted.
We made an offer on a piece ofreal estate and it was accepted
all during praise and worship,right here in this sanctuary,
and we had a witness about it inthat moment and as soon as we
had the witness and we agreed, Iwas on the phone in praise and
worship, and here's the offerand there's the acceptance, and
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we have a great home because ofit.
And it happened during praiseand worship and because there
was a witness of the Holy Spiritright here.
And so until I came into thesanctuary of God, then I
understood you're going to misssome things that you can
understand if you don't evercome to church.
So come as often as you can.
You know.
Besides, that it's obedience toGod's Word.
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Again, he'll help you whenyou're in line with His words.
Hebrews 10, 25 says to notforsake the assembling of
yourselves together as themanner of some, but exhorting
one another so much more as yousee the day approaching.
The reason for that comes inthe preceding verse, which is to
consider and to provoke oneanother unto love and good works
.
We should be an encouragementand provoking each other in the
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right direction.
And so if you're facingsomething, you may have somebody
that you're coming to churchwith that is there.
That's an encouragement to youthat will provoke you in the
right direction.
That will encourage you aboutsomething.
They may say something to you.
That is just a confirmation ofwhat the Spirit's already
talking.
The Holy Spirit's talking toyour spirit and you think you
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know.
And then there's a confirmation.
And then you know like God'sbacking you up, saying you
already knew this, but I'm goingto help you out.
Here's somebody else and it'sunrelated and it's going to
witness with you even more.
And then you're just confident,you know you're on the right
trail.
Now when you're born again.
People are fond of saying Ihave Jesus in my heart.
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Well, we don't really haveJesus in our heart because he's
seated at the right hand of theHeavenly Father in heavenly
places far above.
Now we are seated together withhim in the spirit realm.
But what he did is he sent theHoly Spirit to be with us and to
dwell on the inside of us.
So we are the temple of theHoly Spirit and so we carry the
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spirit wherever we go.
Every born-again believer hasthe Holy Spirit on the inside,
and so you've got to beSpirit-filled if you want the
Holy Spirit to witness with yourspirit.
So that begins with really beingborn again, but more than that,
be being filled with the HolySpirit.
So there's continual fillings.
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There's the baptism of the HolySpirit with the evidence of
speaking in other tongues.
That's just another level above, and so some people go through
life with just having being thetemple of the Holy Spirit, and
that's good.
But there's more, and when youfind out that there's more, you
won't ever be talked out of themore.
The people that don't know andtry to talk you out of it are
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the people that don't have theoverflowing filling of the Holy
Spirit and they don't know.
And here they are trying totalk you about it, people who
haven't experienced that.
They can't really explain it toyou any more than they can come
back from somewhere theyhaven't been.
And so don't be talked out ofthe more let's have, the more
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you know.
Jesus was the really.
He was the first spirit-filledperson on the earth.
He was the first spirit-filled,and I believe it doesn't say
this, so I'm going to go out ona limb here, but I'll give you
some evidence to think about.
I believe, if he wasspirit-filled, that he had the
evidence to speak in othertongues, and I believe that he
did this often.
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And so in Luke, chapter 4,jesus.
It said then, jesus beingfilled with the Spirit, the Holy
Spirit returned to the Jordanand was led by the Spirit.
He was filled with first, sothat he could be led by the
Spirit into the wilderness,where then he went through the
temptations, overcame thetemptations and the tempter, and
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then began his ministry when hepreached about himself the
Spirit of the Lord has come uponme because he's anointed me too
, and he began his ministry.
So he began his ministry beingfilled with the Spirit and being
led by the Spirit.
So I told you I was going tomake the case that Jesus was a
Spirit-filled believer, with theevidence of speaking in other
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tongues, with the evidence ofspeaking in other tongues.
So in John, chapter 16, he'sprepping his disciples begins
about verse 5, but he's preppinghis disciples that he's going
to be leaving and it's necessaryfor you that I go, but when I
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go, I'm going to send anotherand he's going to be a comforter
to you.
He's going to be the helper,and he won't come until I go and
send him.
And so I have to go to get himthere to you.
But you need him.
And so in verse 12, he says Istill have many things to say to
you, but you can't bear them.
They had come a long way andtheir heads were about to
explode with everything I mean.
He'd already talked to themabout drinking his blood and
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eating his flesh and he'sblowing their minds with all
this stuff.
And he says I've got all thesethings I want to say to you, but
you can't bear them, and soyou're going to need the spirit
of truth.
So in verse 13, however, whenhe, the spirit of truth, has
come, he will guide you into alltruth, for he will not speak on
his own authority, but whateverhe hears, he will speak and he
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will tell you things to come,and so that's the Spirit that's
coming in.
So here's the case for Jesusbeing a tongue talker.
He just warned his disciples Iwish I could tell you all these
things, but I can't becauseyou're not ready to hear them.
You're going to have to havethe Holy Spirit to help you with
these things before you canknow anything else.
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Did you ever notice how oftenJesus went away to pray?
And he did it by himself.
He went away from, he left hisdisciples to go pray.
And if the instructions to usis to be being filled with the
Holy Spirit and to speak intongues, paul boasted I speak in
tongues more than you all, andthat it's not for the benefit of
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everybody who hears it, butit's your spirit speaking
mysteries to God.
So in 1 Corinthians 14, 2, itsays for he who speaks in a
tongue does not speak to men butto God, for no one understands
him.
However, in the Spirit hespeaks mysteries, and so that is
a way to bypass the brain andjust to have your spirit praying
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things that you don't know howto utter, things that you don't
understand.
It's mysteries, things yourspirit knows, and it's a
communication directly with God,between you and God.
And so Jesus went away, and ifhe was spirit-filled and the
evidence of that is speaking inother tongues, he was spirit
filled and spirit led then hehad to have had evidence.
He didn't present the evidenceto his disciples because he
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warned them I got a lot to tellyou, but I can't, and you're
just gonna have to wait for theholy spirit to come.
And when the holy spirit came,he came upon them in a mighty
rushing wind and filled them up,and then they all spoke in
tongues.
So jesus isn't going to ask himto do something that he hasn't
already done and lived.
And so that's the case.
Jesus was a spirit-filledbeliever, he was led by the
Spirit and he spoke in tongues.
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So take that, you religiouspeople, all right.
So some practical applicationhere.
There's different kinds of beingled by the Spirit and I'll just
describe these in these ways.
There's a prompting of the HolySpirit, the Holy Spirit on the
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inside.
You kind of know something.
It's a gentle nudge, it's maybelike a fleeting thought,
something that comes to mind.
A what if that kind of drawsyour attention one direction and
it's really easy to overrideand disregard it and walk away
from it.
Example for me is I could bewalking through the church at
the end of a church service andI'm locking up the building and
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I know I've checked those doorsand I'm starting to walk the
other direction and I think whatif it's not locked?
And I turn and I make myself goback to those doors and sure
enough, it's not locked.
And that was the Holy Spirithelping me.
Just a little nudge.
Would it have been acatastrophe?
Well, maybe, maybe not.
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The gentle nudge is somethingthat's just so easy to override
and you just have to get towhere you recognize that and
don't dismiss it.
Don't dismiss those littlethings.
If I had walked all the way tothe doors and checked them, they
were locked.
Good, but so many times enoughthat I believe it's a prompting
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of the Holy Ghost.
There's been a prompting and Ifollow through and I'm like wow,
I almost missed that.
Like wow, I almost missed that.
The next level of the inwardwitness we're going to call like
a check and you heard it calleda check in your spirit it's
really a hesitancy, it's aninternal feeling of restraint or
uneasiness, something's kind ofgnawing at your guts, just oh,
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it's not comfortable,something's not right, and
really that's the brakes.
You're about to do somethingand the Holy Spirit is talking
to your spirit and your spiritis trying to put the brakes on
something.
And that's also relatively easyto override.
Don't go past your brakes.
Those brakes are very important.
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It's not the same as a feelingof fear.
Fear has a physical response toit and it's based on
circumstances around you.
So I'm concerned.
I've seen some circumstances.
I'm making a mental predictionof the outcome if I go through
with this and that outcome ismaking me nervous.
That's anxiety, that's fear.
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God did not give you a spirit offear.
He gave you one, a power, loveand a sound mind.
So if it's fear, you canidentify that fear is faith in
the wrong direction.
God is not the author of fear.
If God's not, then it must havecome from the devil.
Don't ever do things or don'tdo things out of fear.
This is different.
This is an internal feeling ofresistance.
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That's a check in your spirit.
It's a warning from the HolyGhost and you better just pause
for a minute and understand whatthat is.
You'll find peace in the rightdirection If you make an
adjustment.
If you hit pause here and youmake an adjustment and then
suddenly things feel right andeasy again.
He'll give you peace in theright direction.
If you follow peace, you'llnever Remember where he's
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leading you.
He's not leading you intoanxious anxiety, fearful,
terrifying.
He's leading you into greenpastures, still waters.
He's restoring you.
He's leading you into acondition of peace.
So follow peace.
You will never miss the inwardwitness if you follow peace, the
inward witness if you followpeace.
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An internal check can besomething relatively minor, but
it can also.
It will also ramp up and bestronger and stronger and
stronger the closer you get tomaking that bad decision.
It will just gnaw on yourinside and you'll know, oh,
something's not right.
You'll know Paul had a perceivedwarning in Acts when he was on
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board that prison ship and hiswarning was he verbalized it.
He said men, I perceive thisvoyage will end in disaster and
much loss, I perceive.
So he didn't get up there andprophesy.
And for this says the Lord God,blah, blah, blah.
It wasn't that, he justperceived something.
So you can perceive, and I wantyou to recognize that
perceiving is really the HolyGhost showing you something.
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It's futuristic.
What was the promise of theHoly Ghost?
He'll tell you things to come.
He'll show you things to come.
It's a perceiving.
You might not know all thedetails, but you'll know enough
to not go through with something.
An example from this out of ourlife our daughter, thea, was on
her way home from school oneafternoon and she had a thought,
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a fleeting thought, pop in herbrain what if I got into an
accident?
And she prayed and asked Godfor help and kind of got rid of
the thought and kept drivingdown the road.
And she did pray, she knewenough to pray, but then that
thought and that feeling wasstronger the more she got down
the road.
She didn't know what to do withthis.
She's 18 years old, she'sdriving down the road, and so
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she felt uncomfortable on theinside.
Now it's like a gnawing feeling.
The closer she gets tosomething, the worse she felt
about it, and so she feltuncomfortable on the inside.
Now it's like a gnawing feeling.
The closer she gets tosomething, the worse she felt
about it.
And so then she did what sheneeded to do.
She put on praise music andsang along.
She sang praises and worship inthe car.
While she's driving down theroad she gets into a turn lane.
There was a line of cars thatwere stopped and she would have
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had to cross through that lineof cars.
Somebody made a gap for her,opened up the line and let her
go through, waved her through,and on the other side was a
truck coming through that shenever saw, going 50 miles an
hour, plowed into her passengerside of her car, and she was
found unconscious at the scene.
In her mind she said I saw thetruck coming.
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This was after the event.
I saw the truck coming and Iwas fine.
I drove through the gate and Igot into our neighborhood and
everything was fine.
And it was really weird, dad,she said I woke up and there
were people messing with me.
That was the paramedics, as shewas coming to.
She was unconscious until theparamedics arrived and Claire
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and I got the call that she hadall the signs and symptoms of
traumatic brain injury at thescene and that they were air
flighting her from that scene todowntown Houston to a level one
trauma unit.
Claire and I on the road weturned around right there.
All the feelings of fear andthe circumstances were
overwhelming in that moment.
But you can't let yourselfspeak fear.
You have to answer that withGod's Word.
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And so that's what we did.
She will live and not die andshe'll declare the works of the
Lord With long life.
He'll satisfy her and He'llshow her salvation.
And so we're quoting the Wordall the way down there.
We're getting on 290.
I'm driving about 100 miles anhour and there's the helicopter
flying over 290.
And we knew our daughter was onthe inside of that helicopter.
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And we got to the hospital andthere she is laying on the bed
and she had a neck brace on andshe had some blood on the side
of her face and she rolled overand she said I'm fine, mom, and
they gave her a shot and aBand-Aid.
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It was a tetanus shot and aBand-Aid.
And we went home that eveningand she had no signs or symptoms
of traumatic brain injury.
They called it a mildconcussion, if there is such a
thing, and we had to sit on herat home to keep her from doing
anything because we wanted tomake sure that she's really okay
before she goes back to school.
But all was well.
She had an internal warning ofthe Holy Spirit that caused her
to have a response, a spiritualresponse.
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She prayed and asked God forhelp.
Well, he's a very present helpin time of need.
Maybe she missed and she missedher exit and she went too far
down that pathway and she didwhat she needed to do.
I'm going to bring the presenceof God in the car with me.
And so she put on praise andworship music and just worshiped
in the car.
She was protected not only fromthe impact but the lasting
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effects of any injury, but alsothe mental side of that.
She didn't have the memory of acrash.
She didn't have the sound inher brain.
She didn't rel the memory of acrash.
She didn't have the sound inher brain.
She didn't relive that moment.
She had a memory of I gotthrough the intersection and
everything was just fine.
That was her memory.
That's what God gave her.
And so when she had anothervehicle, she got back in that
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car and it was no big deal, andshe drives.
She learned something from that.
But there's an internal check,a hesitancy, something that's
not right and you don't want tobypass.
You don't want to blow pastthat.
I'll give you one out of mylife.
When I was in college, somefriends and I planned a ski trip
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.
I bought a plane ticket, Ibought the ski passes, I bought
the paid for the hotel inadvance.
It was a package deal.
You had to pay for it inadvance, and the closer I got to
that date, the worse I felt,and I didn't really even know
why until it was the nightbefore and my guts were in knots
about this.
Everything looked normal andfine.
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It wasn't a circumstance thatsaid I shouldn't go.
Everything was fine, but Istill felt just out of place.
It was wrong, something's notright.
And finally I just wrote a noteon my door, left it out on the
outside of my door and I knew myfriends were going to come by
and pick me up the next morning.
We're all going to the airporttogether and I couldn't bring
myself to do it, and so Iremoved all possibility that I
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might accidentally go andoverride that warning.
I went and got a very cheaphotel room and I pulled the
shades too.
I unplugged the alarm clock, Ilocked the door, I turned my
phone off and I went to sleepuntil I was certain I had slept
past my flight and I woke up.
You know where I found myself?
In green pastures, by the stillwaters, where my soul was
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restored.
That's where he led me.
He led me.
I don't even know what I missed.
I don't need to know.
I missed something that wasn'tgood and instead I found myself
in a great place with peace.
And so don't override thosewarnings.
Also, the converse of that is,when you have a decision to make
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and it's the right one, you'regoing to have peace about it.
So another anecdotal story frommy life.
I'm going to wrap this up here.
But I was working for a marineconstruction company.
I was in the project managementposition.
I had worked my way to a veryhigh level in this company.
I had a very nice six-figuresalary.
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I was in a 30% bonus bracket.
I was at the top of my game inthis industry.
I had the biggest jobs in thecompany.
Last project was like $46million project, very successful
.
Everything's going great, andClaire's dad asked me to come to
work for the church.
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Nothing in the natural said thatwas a good idea.
Come work for the familyprobably not a good idea.
Leave this high-paying jobwhere I'm just.
The only way to go is up, leavethat job and go to work for a
church.
What's that going to do to mysalary?
What's that going to do to mylife?
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I went to school to study this.
I'm doing everything right.
It should in the natural.
Everything didn't make sensefor me to make that choice and
come to work for the church.
As I pondered that and thoughtabout that and tried that on, I
had peace and it was anoverwhelming sense of peace.
It was a big decision to make.
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You know you don't really getbig indicators unless there's a
really big decision or impactfulthing.
The bigger the indicator,probably the more trouble that's
going to come with it.
Unless there's a really bigdecision or impactful thing, the
bigger the indicator, probablythe more trouble that's gonna
come with it and the bigger theindicator you have is gonna give
you something to hold on to inthe future, to let you know, to
remind yourself nope, I can'tdeny it.
God gave me the answer.
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I'm on the right course.
I know that I know because Ihave that.
So don't look for bigindicators, but when he gives
them to you, just know you'regoing to have that to hold on to
in the future.
Bottom line is I gave my notice.
My boss didn't talk to me forthree days.
Then, at the end of the thirdday, he came to me and took me
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to lunch, had a nice steak lunchand he said there are two
things I can't compete withchurch and family.
He said you're doing a greatthing.
I'm proud of you for makingthis decision.
Of course you ever want to comeback.
There's always an open door,but you're probably not.
And I left and it just felt sopeaceful and easy driving out of
there.
I remember the feeling in thedriveway we paused at the sign,
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got a picture with the sign andthat would have been the last
time I was ever there and it wasjust right.
And now, looking back, it wasright.
I didn't have it set out that Iwanted to be a public speaker,
that I ever wanted to go intoministry.
I don't like funerals, I don'treally want to do weddings, I
don't like large groups ofpeople, like nothing fit for me,
naturally.
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But this was God's course, andit was right and it was peaceful
to make that decision.
Finally, about the inwardwitness in Psalm 37, it talks
about committing your way, orrolling your way off, onto Him
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and He'll direct your paths.
In fact, let's just turn therereal quick.
This will be the last one here.
So Psalm 37, that whole chapter, is really really good.
In verse 3, it says trust inthe Lord and do good, dwell in
the land.
Where's the land?
The land, the place that he'sassigned you to be, feed on his
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faithfulness, remember how he'snever let you down.
Delight yourself also in theLord, take time with him,
delight yourself, get happy toread his word and to pray and to
commune with him.
And it says and he will giveyou the desires of your heart.
In verse four He'll give youthe desires.
That does not mean that whateveryou desired in the
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pre-condition He'll give you.
What it means is your desiresbegin to align with His purpose
and will for your life.
When you trust Him, you do good, you dwell in the land, you
feed on His faithfulness, youdelight yourself in Him, you
read His Word, you spend timewith Him.
All of a sudden, you're takingon the desires that he has for
you, and now you're desiring thethings that he has for you, and
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now you're desiring the thingsthat he has for you.
Your desires line up with him,and so when you have these
decisions, the more you walkwith him, the more you stay
close with him, the more youread his word, the more you come
to church, the better yourprayer life.
The things you desire and chaseafter will be the things that
are in alignment with his willand his word, and then it'll
just be an easy path You're notgoing to miss.
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You're being led by His desiresfor your life because you
adopted those desires.
It wasn't a mental thing, itwasn't a deliberate thing.
It just happens when you stayclose, and so you'll end up
being led in the green pasturesand by the still waters, your
soul will be restored and youget all the benefits of not
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missing the Holy Ghost.
And so, hopefully, those aresome practical things that'll
help you following the HolyGhost, being Spirit-led.
You're entitled to it that ifyou have a life decision, a big
thing to make, I would encourageyou to not make that decision
all in one big step, becauseyou're committed when you make
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the one big step and it might beright and you might miss it.
What's easier and what's betteris to take steps.
He'll order your steps.
You'll have a witness to takeanother step.
If you need to make anadjustment, the Holy Spirit can
adjust you on the move.
You're never going to miss bybreaking it up into small steps.
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Small steps are easy to adjustand before you know it, you're
going to find yourself in theplan, in the place, in the
purpose of God, taking thosesteps one step at a time.
As an engineer, I just I wish Ihad the whole plan out in front
of me.
I want to see that drawing, Iwant to make all the edits and
the corrections to it.
But he has never shown me thatwe that just, shall live by
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faith, and every one of thesesteps is a step of faith, and so
we just have to go one step ata time and trust and check and
follow peace.
We're just going to start out tonight by lifting up
our Bibles, if you brought them,and we're just going to say
these words.
Say, heavenly Father, thank youfor your Word.
Holy Spirit, breathe on theWord that I'm going to hear,
make it come alive to me and,heavenly Father, I'm going to be
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a doer of the word that comesalive in my spirit in Jesus name
.
All right, so we're going tojump into the word tonight.
You know, I was tempted to dosomething for me.
It's fun to study God's wordand to and to find new things
and to discover what words meanand and how that scripture was,
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was applied or what the contextof it was then, and I like
discovering new things, and whenI discover new things, I like
to share new things.
But one of the mandates or theinstructions that God gave
pastor for this church was toteach what you take for granted.
One of the mandates was that hewould send a hot, dry wind and
that people would beuncomfortable where they are and
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they'd get up where they areand they'd leave there and
they'd come here, and our job isto make sure that they find
water when they get here.
Another warning that Pastor hadalong the way was that he said
the Holy Spirit warned him thatyour children not meaning his
kids, but the next generationdoesn't know what you know, and
so, therefore, teach what youtake for granted.
And so I'm going to fall inline and obey that instruction
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and teach what we take forgranted.
And so the title of tonight'smessage tonight is Spirit-Led.
So we're going to talk aboutbeing Spirit-Led and hopefully
I'm going to bring somepractical examples and some
practical things that will helpyou be led by the Spirit in your
life in all kinds of ways andhelp you be successful.
So in Romans 8, verse 14, we'regoing to have a lot of
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scripture tonight.
I'm going to quote some of thisstuff.
I'm going to read through someof this stuff briefly.
You can follow along, takenotes.
But in Romans, chapter 8, verse14, it says for as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, theseare the sons of God.
As many as are led by theSpirit of God, these are the
sons of God.
Another way to say that is thatthe sons of God are led by the
Spirit of God.
So if you're a born againbeliever, you're a son of God,
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you're a child of God.
You're entitled to be led bythe Spirit of God.
In verse 16, it says that theSpirit himself bears witness,
and it's talking about theinward witness here.
The Spirit of self bearswitness, with our spirit, that
we are the children of God.
So that's really the very firstinward witness that you have is
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when you become a born-againbeliever.
Your reborn spirit on theinside bears witness, with the
Holy Spirit, that you are now achild of God.
That is the first inwardwitness that you get is when
you're born again, and from thenon you're entitled to have the
inward witness and to be led bythat on a daily basis.
Notice, he does not bearwitness with our brain, which is
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the voice of our reason or ourlogic, and he doesn't bear
witness with our physical sensesand with our emotion.
He bears witness with ourspirit.
And so let's just talk quicklybefore we get too far into this.
Where does he lead?
Where is he leading us?
Well, 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14says Now, thanks be to God, who
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always leads us in triumph inChrist.
So there's a place.
He's always leading us.
He's always leading us intriumph in Christ and through us
diffuses a fragrance of hisknowledge in every place.
So what I see there is thathe's leading us not to victory
it would be great to be led tovictory but what he did is he's
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leading us through victory tothis celebration on the other
side of victory.
So victory is expected.
You're going to the celebrationall the way on the other side
of victory.
So victory is expected.
You're going to the celebrationall the way on the other side
of that.
And a triumph is the ultimatecelebration.
It is spiking the football inthe end zone.
It is rubbing your enemy's facein their loss.
It is the triumph in the Romandays was you just defeated your
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adversary and you're leadingthem in a parade, disarmed,
naked, bleeding, bruised, inchains behind you, and showing
off the wind to the entire city,the entire region.
It is put on display.
So that's where God is leadingus in Christ is not to the
victory, but to the ultimatecelebration on the other side of
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that victory.
So I heard a recent example.
We've got, you know, you've gotCarol Renee Dyer-Kuntz, as we
affectionately call her, aroundhere.
She plays the keyboard up here.
She was invited to, I think, ademonstration, a taekwondo
demonstration or karatedemonstration, or something of
one of the students at herschool and so she went to this
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and she was invited up there.
They were, the kids were upthere, you know karate, chopping
and breaking boards and so shewas up there, invited to punch
through a board, and she hadnever done this before and I
think some of the other parentsalso got to get up there.
And so some of the parents, youknow the moms are up there and
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they aim for that board andthey're aiming for the board and
they come down and they hit theboard and it doesn't break and
it hurts really bad when thatboard stops you.
Thankfully, carol, being theathletic person that she is, she
aimed through the board to apoint on the other side of it
and she came down hard and wentthrough the board and it was not
nearly as bad as those whostopped short at the board.
And so let's not stop short atvictory.
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The goal is not victory, it isthe celebration on the other
side of that.
And that's where we're beingled on a continual basis.
Psalm 23, another example ofwhere he's leading you the Lord
is my shepherd.
If he's your shepherd, he isleading you someplace.
Where is he leading you?
It says the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
So he's leading you into acondition where you don't want
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for anything.
That word there, want means Iwill not lack or decrease or
fail.
So he's leading you into thatcondition.
Verse two he makes me to liedown in green pastures, all
right.
He's leading you to a placewhere there's provision, where
there's calm, where there'speace.
He leads me beside the stillwaters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths ofrighteousness.
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For his name's sake, that'swhere he's leading you to if we
follow Notice.
It doesn't say he's draggingyou there.
He doesn't have a hook in yoursnout and just pulling you along
.
He's leading you there.
So you can have that and youcan go there if you follow where
he's leading.
Verse 4 there says Yea, though Iwalk through the valley of the
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shadow of death, he didn't leadyou there.
That was you wandering offsomewhere where he didn't lead.
Good news, he didn't leave you.
Yea, though I walk through thevalley of the shadow of death, I
will fear no evil, for you arewith me, your rod, which is a
corrective thing, and your staff, which is a guiding thing.
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They comfort me.
And we could go on and read therest of it, but I just wanted
you to see a picture of wherehe's leading you and where he's
not leading you.
He is not leading you into thevalley of shadow of death.
He's leading you into acondition of not lacking,
decreasing or failing.
He's leading you into greenpastures, still waters.
He's restoring your soul, leadsyou in paths of righteousness.
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That's where he's taking you ifyou're going to follow, and so
I've got some numbered pointsthrough here.
There's kind of a lot of them.
The numbers really aren'timportant, but the first one I
have is to, if you're going tobe led by the Spirit, by the
inward witness, you've got tofirst understand that one God is
smarter than you and that hehas a good plan.
I don't think that's too muchof a stretch for most of us to
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recognize that God is smarter.
But sometimes we question likewhat's the best thing?
And we understand God wantswhat's best for us.
But I really want that and thatisn't always what God wants for
you and you kind of know that.
But that's how you end up inthe valley of the shadow of
death, not alone, but introubled places.
And so let's recognize that Godis smarter and that he has a
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good plan.
Isaiah 55, verse 8,.
My thoughts are not yourthoughts.
This should sound real familiarto you.
Nor are your ways, my ways,says the Lord, for as the
heavens are higher than theearth, so are my ways higher
than your ways and my thoughtsthan your thoughts.
You know he has a good plan foryou.
If you've been in church anylength of time, you would have
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heard Jeremiah 29, 11.
For I know the thoughts that Ithink towards you, says the Lord
Thoughts of peace, not evil, togive you a future and a hope.
And so we got to recognize thatGod is smarter and that he's
got a great plan for your life.
And so that's the first step inbeginning to hear from the
Spirit, or being led by theSpirit, something to do on your
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side.
One of the first things to do onyour side is to always put God
first.
Everything in God's Word, allthe promises, are conditional
Things that he puts out there.
There's always our side tocooperate with His blessing for
our life and His plan for ourlife.
And so Matthew 6, 33 says seekfirst the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and then allthose things that you know you
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need and you want and you desire, all those things.
He knows you need those andhe's a good father.
All those things will be addedto you if you just seek first
the kingdom of God and so puthim first.
Another one out of the OldTestament Proverbs 3, verse 5,
trust in the Lord with all yourheart.
Lean not into your ownunderstanding.
In all your ways, acknowledgehim and he will direct your
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paths.
He will direct your steps.
He'll order the direction ofyour travel.
If you'll not lean on your ownbrain and your own understanding
, but lean on him and in allyour ways, always acknowledge
him, put him first, always toacknowledge him.
You might just be consideringwhat would God have me do in
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this moment, right now?
You kind of pause at everycrossroads, at every decision,
every point in life, the majorthings I'm talking about.
Just pause and just consider.
What does the word say aboutthis?
What is the Spirit trying totell me in this situation?
Just pause and just consider.
What does the word say aboutthis?
What is the spirit trying totell me in this situation?
Just pause and consider.
If you'll do that, he'll befaithful on his side.
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Number three, and I think thiscould be the next t-shirt that
we produce around here don't dodumb things.
Understand God's will.
Don't do dumb things.
Understand God's will, andbelieve it or not, there's a
scripture for that.
Ephesians 5, verse 15 says see,then, that you walk
circumspectly, not as fools, butas wise.
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So that's why I got the don'tdo dumb things.
To walk circumspectly isintentional.
Do things deliberately andthoughtfully.
Seek heaven's wisdom.
There's two kinds of wisdom.
There's the earthly, sensualwisdom, and then there's
heaven's wisdom, and we wantheaven's wisdom.
You know, if you want to haveGod's wisdom, the first thing to
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do, just to make yourselfeligible for it, is to fear God,
which means to put Him first,which is kind of where we just
came from.
The fear of the Lord is thebeginning of wisdom.
You can't even begin to have alittle bit of heaven's wisdom if
you haven't first put him firstand have a fear of God, a
concern of what he thinks inthat situation.
So see, then, that you walkcircumspectly, not as fools, but
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as wise, redeeming the timebecause the days are evil.
Verse 17 says therefore, do notbe unwise, but understand what
the will of the Lord is.
Okay, I can understand that.
I need to understand what thewill of the Lord is, but how do?
I do that.
He gives some more instructionhere, verse 18, don't be drunk
with wine where it is excess ordispensation, but be filled with
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the Spirit.
So there's the solution Befilled.
In fact, in the Greek it'sreally be being filled.
It's a continual filling of theHoly Spirit, speaking to
yourselves or one another inpsalms and hymns, spiritual
songs, singing and making melodyin your hearts to the Lord and
giving thanks always, in allkinds of conditions, in every
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situation, to God, the Father,in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, submitting to oneanother in the fear of God.
So those are some instructionsright there that'll help you be
in a position where you canunderstand what the will of God
is.
So the next thing in thissequence that I have here is to
read his word.
If you want to understand hiswill, read his word.
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His will is filled throughoutthis book.
That's the beginning right here.
If you want to understand whatthe will of God is, read his
word God's will, for your lifewill never violate this word and
you can call out for help allday long, but he will never help
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you do anything that violatesthis word.
So if you're in a bad spot, atight spot and you're calling
out for help and God, pleasehelp me do this and you don't
feel like you're getting God'shelp on it.
You might consider am I doinghis will?
As soon as you shift over andget in line with his will, the
help is right there.
He is a very present help inneed.
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He will help you get out ofthat situation very quickly, but
he won't help you violate hisword.
And so we've got to be faithfulstewards of this word.
Read his word, put it in yourheart.
Thy word have I hid in my heartthat I might not sin against
you.
Next, one number five come tochurch as often as you can.
Again, we're taking I'm sayingthings that I take for granted.
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These are things that we hearoften around here.
The reason you hear it often isbecause it's critically
important to success.
It's the basics, but the basicswill get you success.
Come to church as often as youcan.
The psalmist wrote in Psalm 73,he said and it was during a
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trying time.
He said, until I went into thesanctuary of God.
Then I understood, and what heunderstood was the end of his
enemies, the end of his trouble.
In that moment.
But he didn't begin tounderstand.
He saw circumstances that wereshouting one thing, and it
wasn't until he came into thesanctuary of God that he
understood, and so I can't tellyou the number of times I've
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been in this sanctuary, duringpraise and worship, during
pastor's ministry, thatsomething came alive to me on
the inside.
It might have been revelation,knowledge about his word,
something I needed to know, butvery specific things about life
and about things that Claire andI were facing decisions we had
to make, things that werecritical to our life.
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We got an answer right here inthe sanctuary and it wasn't
pastor saying the spirit of theLord comes upon me and tells me
thou shalt do this and go thereand buy this and don't do that.
It wasn't that he's preachingon something entirely unrelated.
It could be during praise andworship, with words that are
absolutely unrelated to what wewere facing.
I'll tell you, we didn't closethe real estate deal, but we
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accepted.
We made an offer on a piece ofreal estate and it was accepted
all during praise and worship,right here in this sanctuary,
and we had a witness about it inthat moment and as soon as we
had the witness and we agreed, Iwas on the phone in praise and
worship, and here's the offerand there's the acceptance, and
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we have a great home because ofit.
And it happened during praiseand worship and because there
was a witness of the Holy Spiritright here.
And so until I came into thesanctuary of God, then I
understood you're going to misssome things that you can
understand if you don't evercome to church.
So come as often as you can.
You know.
Besides, that it's obedience toGod's Word.
(15:47):
Again, he'll help you whenyou're in line with His words.
Hebrews 10, 25 says to notforsake the assembling of
yourselves together as themanner of some, but exhorting
one another so much more as yousee the day approaching.
The reason for that comes inthe preceding verse, which is to
consider and to provoke oneanother unto love and good works
.
We should be an encouragementand provoking each other in the
(16:11):
right direction.
And so if you're facingsomething, you may have somebody
that you're coming to churchwith that is there.
That's an encouragement to youthat will provoke you in the
right direction.
That will encourage you aboutsomething.
They may say something to you.
That is just a confirmation ofwhat the Spirit's already
talking.
The Holy Spirit's talking toyour spirit and you think you
(16:32):
know.
And then there's a confirmation.
And then you know like God'sbacking you up, saying you
already knew this, but I'm goingto help you out.
Here's somebody else and it'sunrelated and it's going to
witness with you even more.
And then you're just confident,you know you're on the right
trail.
Now when you're born again.
People are fond of saying Ihave Jesus in my heart.
(16:55):
Well, we don't really haveJesus in our heart because he's
seated at the right hand of theHeavenly Father in heavenly
places far above.
Now we are seated together withhim in the spirit realm.
But what he did is he sent theHoly Spirit to be with us and to
dwell on the inside of us.
So we are the temple of theHoly Spirit and so we carry the
(17:16):
spirit wherever we go.
Every born-again believer hasthe Holy Spirit on the inside,
and so you've got to beSpirit-filled if you want the
Holy Spirit to witness with yourspirit.
So that begins with really beingborn again, but more than that,
be being filled with the HolySpirit.
So there's continual fillings.
(17:37):
There's the baptism of the HolySpirit with the evidence of
speaking in other tongues.
That's just another level above, and so some people go through
life with just having being thetemple of the Holy Spirit, and
that's good.
But there's more, and when youfind out that there's more, you
won't ever be talked out of themore.
The people that don't know andtry to talk you out of it are
(17:58):
the people that don't have theoverflowing filling of the Holy
Spirit and they don't know.
And here they are trying totalk you about it, people who
haven't experienced that.
They can't really explain it toyou any more than they can come
back from somewhere theyhaven't been.
And so don't be talked out ofthe more let's have, the more
(18:19):
you know.
Jesus was the really.
He was the first spirit-filledperson on the earth.
He was the first spirit-filled,and I believe it doesn't say
this, so I'm going to go out ona limb here, but I'll give you
some evidence to think about.
I believe, if he wasspirit-filled, that he had the
evidence to speak in othertongues, and I believe that he
did this often.
(18:40):
And so in Luke, chapter 4,jesus.
It said then, jesus beingfilled with the Spirit, the Holy
Spirit returned to the Jordanand was led by the Spirit.
He was filled with first, sothat he could be led by the
Spirit into the wilderness,where then he went through the
temptations, overcame thetemptations and the tempter, and
(19:00):
then began his ministry when hepreached about himself the
Spirit of the Lord has come uponme because he's anointed me too
, and he began his ministry.
So he began his ministry beingfilled with the Spirit and being
led by the Spirit.
So I told you I was going tomake the case that Jesus was a
Spirit-filled believer, with theevidence of speaking in other
(19:21):
tongues, with the evidence ofspeaking in other tongues.
So in John, chapter 16, he'sprepping his disciples begins
about verse 5, but he's preppinghis disciples that he's going
to be leaving and it's necessaryfor you that I go, but when I
(19:43):
go, I'm going to send anotherand he's going to be a comforter
to you.
He's going to be the helper,and he won't come until I go and
send him.
And so I have to go to get himthere to you.
But you need him.
And so in verse 12, he says Istill have many things to say to
you, but you can't bear them.
They had come a long way andtheir heads were about to
explode with everything I mean.
He'd already talked to themabout drinking his blood and
(20:04):
eating his flesh and he'sblowing their minds with all
this stuff.
And he says I've got all thesethings I want to say to you, but
you can't bear them, and soyou're going to need the spirit
of truth.
So in verse 13, however, whenhe, the spirit of truth, has
come, he will guide you into alltruth, for he will not speak on
his own authority, but whateverhe hears, he will speak and he
(20:25):
will tell you things to come,and so that's the Spirit that's
coming in.
So here's the case for Jesusbeing a tongue talker.
He just warned his disciples Iwish I could tell you all these
things, but I can't becauseyou're not ready to hear them.
You're going to have to havethe Holy Spirit to help you with
these things before you canknow anything else.
(20:47):
Did you ever notice how oftenJesus went away to pray?
And he did it by himself.
He went away from, he left hisdisciples to go pray.
And if the instructions to usis to be being filled with the
Holy Spirit and to speak intongues, paul boasted I speak in
tongues more than you all, andthat it's not for the benefit of
(21:09):
everybody who hears it, butit's your spirit speaking
mysteries to God.
So in 1 Corinthians 14, 2, itsays for he who speaks in a
tongue does not speak to men butto God, for no one understands
him.
However, in the Spirit hespeaks mysteries, and so that is
a way to bypass the brain andjust to have your spirit praying
(21:30):
things that you don't know howto utter, things that you don't
understand.
It's mysteries, things yourspirit knows, and it's a
communication directly with God,between you and God.
And so Jesus went away, and ifhe was spirit-filled and the
evidence of that is speaking inother tongues, he was spirit
filled and spirit led then hehad to have had evidence.
He didn't present the evidenceto his disciples because he
(21:50):
warned them I got a lot to tellyou, but I can't, and you're
just gonna have to wait for theholy spirit to come.
And when the holy spirit came,he came upon them in a mighty
rushing wind and filled them up,and then they all spoke in
tongues.
So jesus isn't going to ask himto do something that he hasn't
already done and lived.
And so that's the case.
Jesus was a spirit-filledbeliever, he was led by the
Spirit and he spoke in tongues.
(22:12):
So take that, you religiouspeople, all right.
So some practical applicationhere.
There's different kinds of beingled by the Spirit and I'll just
describe these in these ways.
There's a prompting of the HolySpirit, the Holy Spirit on the
(22:33):
inside.
You kind of know something.
It's a gentle nudge, it's maybelike a fleeting thought,
something that comes to mind.
A what if that kind of drawsyour attention one direction and
it's really easy to overrideand disregard it and walk away
from it.
Example for me is I could bewalking through the church at
the end of a church service andI'm locking up the building and
(22:54):
I know I've checked those doorsand I'm starting to walk the
other direction and I think whatif it's not locked?
And I turn and I make myself goback to those doors and sure
enough, it's not locked.
And that was the Holy Spirithelping me.
Just a little nudge.
Would it have been acatastrophe?
Well, maybe, maybe not.
(23:15):
The gentle nudge is somethingthat's just so easy to override
and you just have to get towhere you recognize that and
don't dismiss it.
Don't dismiss those littlethings.
If I had walked all the way tothe doors and checked them, they
were locked.
Good, but so many times enoughthat I believe it's a prompting
(23:37):
of the Holy Ghost.
There's been a prompting and Ifollow through and I'm like wow,
I almost missed that.
Like wow, I almost missed that.
The next level of the inwardwitness we're going to call like
a check and you heard it calleda check in your spirit it's
really a hesitancy, it's aninternal feeling of restraint or
uneasiness, something's kind ofgnawing at your guts, just oh,
(24:00):
it's not comfortable,something's not right, and
really that's the brakes.
You're about to do somethingand the Holy Spirit is talking
to your spirit and your spiritis trying to put the brakes on
something.
And that's also relatively easyto override.
Don't go past your brakes.
Those brakes are very important.
(24:21):
It's not the same as a feelingof fear.
Fear has a physical response toit and it's based on
circumstances around you.
So I'm concerned.
I've seen some circumstances.
I'm making a mental predictionof the outcome if I go through
with this and that outcome ismaking me nervous.
That's anxiety, that's fear.
(24:44):
God did not give you a spirit offear.
He gave you one, a power, loveand a sound mind.
So if it's fear, you canidentify that fear is faith in
the wrong direction.
God is not the author of fear.
If God's not, then it must havecome from the devil.
Don't ever do things or don'tdo things out of fear.
This is different.
This is an internal feeling ofresistance.
(25:06):
That's a check in your spirit.
It's a warning from the HolyGhost and you better just pause
for a minute and understand whatthat is.
You'll find peace in the rightdirection If you make an
adjustment.
If you hit pause here and youmake an adjustment and then
suddenly things feel right andeasy again.
He'll give you peace in theright direction.
If you follow peace, you'llnever Remember where he's
(25:29):
leading you.
He's not leading you intoanxious anxiety, fearful,
terrifying.
He's leading you into greenpastures, still waters.
He's restoring you.
He's leading you into acondition of peace.
So follow peace.
You will never miss the inwardwitness if you follow peace, the
inward witness if you followpeace.
(25:50):
An internal check can besomething relatively minor, but
it can also.
It will also ramp up and bestronger and stronger and
stronger the closer you get tomaking that bad decision.
It will just gnaw on yourinside and you'll know, oh,
something's not right.
You'll know Paul had a perceivedwarning in Acts when he was on
(26:14):
board that prison ship and hiswarning was he verbalized it.
He said men, I perceive thisvoyage will end in disaster and
much loss, I perceive.
So he didn't get up there andprophesy.
And for this says the Lord God,blah, blah, blah.
It wasn't that, he justperceived something.
So you can perceive, and I wantyou to recognize that
perceiving is really the HolyGhost showing you something.
(26:36):
It's futuristic.
What was the promise of theHoly Ghost?
He'll tell you things to come.
He'll show you things to come.
It's a perceiving.
You might not know all thedetails, but you'll know enough
to not go through with something.
An example from this out of ourlife our daughter, thea, was on
her way home from school oneafternoon and she had a thought,
(27:00):
a fleeting thought, pop in herbrain what if I got into an
accident?
And she prayed and asked Godfor help and kind of got rid of
the thought and kept drivingdown the road.
And she did pray, she knewenough to pray, but then that
thought and that feeling wasstronger the more she got down
the road.
She didn't know what to do withthis.
She's 18 years old, she'sdriving down the road, and so
(27:24):
she felt uncomfortable on theinside.
Now it's like a gnawing feeling.
The closer she gets tosomething, the worse she felt
about it, and so she feltuncomfortable on the inside.
Now it's like a gnawing feeling.
The closer she gets tosomething, the worse she felt
about it.
And so then she did what sheneeded to do.
She put on praise music andsang along.
She sang praises and worship inthe car.
While she's driving down theroad she gets into a turn lane.
There was a line of cars thatwere stopped and she would have
(27:45):
had to cross through that lineof cars.
Somebody made a gap for her,opened up the line and let her
go through, waved her through,and on the other side was a
truck coming through that shenever saw, going 50 miles an
hour, plowed into her passengerside of her car, and she was
found unconscious at the scene.
In her mind she said I saw thetruck coming.
(28:08):
This was after the event.
I saw the truck coming and Iwas fine.
I drove through the gate and Igot into our neighborhood and
everything was fine.
And it was really weird, dad,she said I woke up and there
were people messing with me.
That was the paramedics, as shewas coming to.
She was unconscious until theparamedics arrived and Claire
(28:30):
and I got the call that she hadall the signs and symptoms of
traumatic brain injury at thescene and that they were air
flighting her from that scene todowntown Houston to a level one
trauma unit.
Claire and I on the road weturned around right there.
All the feelings of fear andthe circumstances were
overwhelming in that moment.
But you can't let yourselfspeak fear.
You have to answer that withGod's Word.
(28:51):
And so that's what we did.
She will live and not die andshe'll declare the works of the
Lord With long life.
He'll satisfy her and He'llshow her salvation.
And so we're quoting the Wordall the way down there.
We're getting on 290.
I'm driving about 100 miles anhour and there's the helicopter
flying over 290.
And we knew our daughter was onthe inside of that helicopter.
(29:14):
And we got to the hospital andthere she is laying on the bed
and she had a neck brace on andshe had some blood on the side
of her face and she rolled overand she said I'm fine, mom, and
they gave her a shot and aBand-Aid.
(29:34):
It was a tetanus shot and aBand-Aid.
And we went home that eveningand she had no signs or symptoms
of traumatic brain injury.
They called it a mildconcussion, if there is such a
thing, and we had to sit on herat home to keep her from doing
anything because we wanted tomake sure that she's really okay
before she goes back to school.
But all was well.
She had an internal warning ofthe Holy Spirit that caused her
to have a response, a spiritualresponse.
(29:57):
She prayed and asked God forhelp.
Well, he's a very present helpin time of need.
Maybe she missed and she missedher exit and she went too far
down that pathway and she didwhat she needed to do.
I'm going to bring the presenceof God in the car with me.
And so she put on praise andworship music and just worshiped
in the car.
She was protected not only fromthe impact but the lasting
(30:20):
effects of any injury, but alsothe mental side of that.
She didn't have the memory of acrash.
She didn't have the sound inher brain.
She didn't rel the memory of acrash.
She didn't have the sound inher brain.
She didn't relive that moment.
She had a memory of I gotthrough the intersection and
everything was just fine.
That was her memory.
That's what God gave her.
And so when she had anothervehicle, she got back in that
(30:40):
car and it was no big deal, andshe drives.
She learned something from that.
But there's an internal check,a hesitancy, something that's
not right and you don't want tobypass.
You don't want to blow pastthat.
I'll give you one out of mylife.
When I was in college, somefriends and I planned a ski trip
(31:04):
.
I bought a plane ticket, Ibought the ski passes, I bought
the paid for the hotel inadvance.
It was a package deal.
You had to pay for it inadvance, and the closer I got to
that date, the worse I felt,and I didn't really even know
why until it was the nightbefore and my guts were in knots
about this.
Everything looked normal andfine.
(31:24):
It wasn't a circumstance thatsaid I shouldn't go.
Everything was fine, but Istill felt just out of place.
It was wrong, something's notright.
And finally I just wrote a noteon my door, left it out on the
outside of my door and I knew myfriends were going to come by
and pick me up the next morning.
We're all going to the airporttogether and I couldn't bring
myself to do it, and so Iremoved all possibility that I
(31:48):
might accidentally go andoverride that warning.
I went and got a very cheaphotel room and I pulled the
shades too.
I unplugged the alarm clock, Ilocked the door, I turned my
phone off and I went to sleepuntil I was certain I had slept
past my flight and I woke up.
You know where I found myself?
In green pastures, by the stillwaters, where my soul was
(32:11):
restored.
That's where he led me.
He led me.
I don't even know what I missed.
I don't need to know.
I missed something that wasn'tgood and instead I found myself
in a great place with peace.
And so don't override thosewarnings.
Also, the converse of that is,when you have a decision to make
(32:34):
and it's the right one, you'regoing to have peace about it.
So another anecdotal story frommy life.
I'm going to wrap this up here.
But I was working for a marineconstruction company.
I was in the project managementposition.
I had worked my way to a veryhigh level in this company.
I had a very nice six-figuresalary.
(32:57):
I was in a 30% bonus bracket.
I was at the top of my game inthis industry.
I had the biggest jobs in thecompany.
Last project was like $46million project, very successful
.
Everything's going great, andClaire's dad asked me to come to
work for the church.
(33:20):
Nothing in the natural said thatwas a good idea.
Come work for the familyprobably not a good idea.
Leave this high-paying jobwhere I'm just.
The only way to go is up, leavethat job and go to work for a
church.
What's that going to do to mysalary?
What's that going to do to mylife?
(33:40):
I went to school to study this.
I'm doing everything right.
It should in the natural.
Everything didn't make sensefor me to make that choice and
come to work for the church.
As I pondered that and thoughtabout that and tried that on, I
had peace and it was anoverwhelming sense of peace.
It was a big decision to make.
(34:01):
You know you don't really getbig indicators unless there's a
really big decision or impactfulthing.
The bigger the indicator,probably the more trouble that's
going to come with it.
Unless there's a really bigdecision or impactful thing, the
bigger the indicator, probablythe more trouble that's gonna
come with it and the bigger theindicator you have is gonna give
you something to hold on to inthe future, to let you know, to
remind yourself nope, I can'tdeny it.
God gave me the answer.
(34:21):
I'm on the right course.
I know that I know because Ihave that.
So don't look for bigindicators, but when he gives
them to you, just know you'regoing to have that to hold on to
in the future.
Bottom line is I gave my notice.
My boss didn't talk to me forthree days.
Then, at the end of the thirdday, he came to me and took me
(34:42):
to lunch, had a nice steak lunchand he said there are two
things I can't compete withchurch and family.
He said you're doing a greatthing.
I'm proud of you for makingthis decision.
Of course you ever want to comeback.
There's always an open door,but you're probably not.
And I left and it just felt sopeaceful and easy driving out of
there.
I remember the feeling in thedriveway we paused at the sign,
(35:05):
got a picture with the sign andthat would have been the last
time I was ever there and it wasjust right.
And now, looking back, it wasright.
I didn't have it set out that Iwanted to be a public speaker,
that I ever wanted to go intoministry.
I don't like funerals, I don'treally want to do weddings, I
don't like large groups ofpeople, like nothing fit for me,
naturally.
(35:25):
But this was God's course, andit was right and it was peaceful
to make that decision.
Finally, about the inwardwitness in Psalm 37, it talks
about committing your way, orrolling your way off, onto Him
(35:45):
and He'll direct your paths.
In fact, let's just turn therereal quick.
This will be the last one here.
So Psalm 37, that whole chapter, is really really good.
In verse 3, it says trust inthe Lord and do good, dwell in
the land.
Where's the land?
The land, the place that he'sassigned you to be, feed on his
(36:07):
faithfulness, remember how he'snever let you down.
Delight yourself also in theLord, take time with him,
delight yourself, get happy toread his word and to pray and to
commune with him.
And it says and he will giveyou the desires of your heart.
In verse four He'll give youthe desires.
That does not mean that whateveryou desired in the
(36:27):
pre-condition He'll give you.
What it means is your desiresbegin to align with His purpose
and will for your life.
When you trust Him, you do good, you dwell in the land, you
feed on His faithfulness, youdelight yourself in Him, you
read His Word, you spend timewith Him.
All of a sudden, you're takingon the desires that he has for
you, and now you're desiring thethings that he has for you, and
(36:49):
now you're desiring the thingsthat he has for you.
Your desires line up with him,and so when you have these
decisions, the more you walkwith him, the more you stay
close with him, the more youread his word, the more you come
to church, the better yourprayer life.
The things you desire and chaseafter will be the things that
are in alignment with his willand his word, and then it'll
just be an easy path You're notgoing to miss.
(37:11):
You're being led by His desiresfor your life because you
adopted those desires.
It wasn't a mental thing, itwasn't a deliberate thing.
It just happens when you stayclose, and so you'll end up
being led in the green pasturesand by the still waters, your
soul will be restored and youget all the benefits of not
(37:33):
missing the Holy Ghost.
And so, hopefully, those aresome practical things that'll
help you following the HolyGhost, being Spirit-led.
You're entitled to it that ifyou have a life decision, a big
thing to make, I would encourageyou to not make that decision
all in one big step, becauseyou're committed when you make
(37:57):
the one big step and it might beright and you might miss it.
What's easier and what's betteris to take steps.
He'll order your steps.
You'll have a witness to takeanother step.
If you need to make anadjustment, the Holy Spirit can
adjust you on the move.
You're never going to miss bybreaking it up into small steps.
(38:20):
Small steps are easy to adjustand before you know it, you're
going to find yourself in theplan, in the place, in the
purpose of God, taking thosesteps one step at a time.
As an engineer, I just I wish Ihad the whole plan out in front
of me.
I want to see that drawing, Iwant to make all the edits and
the corrections to it.
But he has never shown me thatwe that just, shall live by
(38:42):
faith, and every one of thesesteps is a step of faith, and so
we just have to go one step ata time and trust and check and
follow peace.
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