Being Led By The Spirit of God - Part 3: Sons of God

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. (Romans 8:14 NET)

This is the final part of what I am going to speak on this scripture. In Part 1 I talked about what it means to be led, i.e. we listen (not hear, but listen) and then do. In Part 2 I talked about how to hear the Holy Spirit's voice, that still small whisper of a voice. Today I am going to talk about being sons and daughters of God. What I am about to say is a Kentism so bear with me...a lot of people have interpreted this scripture to mean that if you aren't being led by the Spirit, then you aren't a son or daughter of God. Looking at this scripture that way presents inconsistencies with other scriptures.  I look Romans 8:14 a different way, if you are a son or daughter of God, then you can be led by the Spirit of God. Being a son or daughter of God gives us the priviledge to be led by the Holy Spirit, all we have to do is allow the Holy Spirit to do it. In the next verses that follow verse 14, the Apostle Paul says we are children of God, adopted into His family. That means that if you are saved, a Christian, a born-again believer, then you are a child of God. And if you are a child of God, then you can be led by the Spirit of God! Make the choice today to start being led by the Spirit of God, learn the Holy Spirit's voice and follow His lead.

Take Away: meditate on the fact that you are a child of God, and then ask the Holy Spirit to leading you in every day life. Ask Him to start leading you in the small decisions of life. If you ask, He will do it!

Being Led By the Spirit of God - Part 2: Hearing His Voice

So yesterday I talked about what it means to be led by the Spirit. To paraphrase, being led means listening and doing what you are being told to do. So in Part 2 of being led by the Spirit, I want to talk about hearing the Holy Spirit's voice. A lot of people, including myself at one time, think that when the Holy Spirit speaks, it is this loud thunderous voice that we will have no problem hearing. The book of Kings says the God's voice is a small whisper or a still small voice. I would say that most of the time, if not all the time, when the Holy Spirit speaks, it is a faint whisper in your mind. Sometimes it is just a knowing. Some people have even referred to it as the 6th sense. In order to hear any whisper or small voice, you have to settle down and be quiet. This may mean that in a room full of loud talking people, you have to be able to block all the external noise so you can single out and concentrate on the Holy Spirits voice. This doesn't come overnight. It takes practice. I started doing this by getting in a room by myself and concentrating on hearing the Holy Spirit. Then as I got to know His voice better and better, I would try to single out His voice in a room full of people. Here is something you can practice, the next time you are in a crowd, find someone, not too far away, and try to concentrate on just their voice alone. And yes, it really works. The same with trying to single out the Holy Spirit's voice, you can do it. Once you begin hearing His voice, then you can start listening and doing what He is telling you to do, or in other words, be led by the Spirit.

Take Away: learn to recognize the Holy Spirits voice by first being in a room by yourself, then as you learn His voice, start trying to single out His voice in a crowded room.

Being Led By the Spirit of God - Part 1

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. (Romans 8:14 NET)

A lot of us say we are led by the Spirit of God, but do we really know what that means? First, lets define being led. In order to be led by someone, we must not only listen to what they are saying, but we must do what they say. It is very similar to your supervisor at work. If your supervisor tells you to do something, you have a choice. You either do it, thereby keeping your job and possibly getting rewarded, or you don't do it, thereby suffering the consquences which could mean losing your job or getting a cut in pay. God doesn't make you do anything, but if you want to say you are being led by the Spirit, you better make your mind up to do what He says to do.  Like most of us, however, we may hear what He is saying but don't do it thinking we know better. Then we wonder why things didn't end up the way we wanted. We've got to make our minds up that if we are going to say we are being led by the Spirit, we mean it by listening and doing. 

Take Away: Make your mind up to be led by the Spirit of God, which means listening and doing!

A Listener and not a Hearer

The one who gives an answer before he listens – that is his folly and his shame. (Proverbs 18:13 NET)

There is a term that I have used when I am talking to someone, and then they start talking over me. I call it "over talking." In my office we get many calls from people wanting to know the weather. There is one person, a regular caller, that when he calls, he will ask a question, and then when we are 2 or 3 words into the answer, he starts talking over us.  I was taught by my parents that when someone is speaking, we are to listen and not interrupt. Apparently King Solomon also had this problem with people over talking. Honestly, when you interrupt someone while they are talking or you start talking over them, you are really telling them "what I have to say is more important than what you have to say" and it is a sign of disrespect to the other person. God is telling us in this scripture that we need to be listeners first, not speakers, but listeners. God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason...we need to listen to twice as much as what we say. I'm not talking about hearing. There is a difference between listening and hearing. With hearing you are not absorbing any of the words spoken, you just hear the person talking. Listening involves digesting what is being spoken. You take in their words and what is being said. Then when you have done that, then you can speak. If you want people to listen to you, you have got to show the same respect and listen to them...EVEN if it isn't what you want to hear or EVEN if you don't agree with what is being said.

Take Away: the next time you feel the urge to start talking while someone else is, start making a habit of listening to the other person. You will find that when you do this, you will also be heard when the time comes.

The Snowball Effect

Starting a quarrel is like letting out water; stop it before strife breaks out! (Proverbs 17:14 NET)

We all do things that we are not particularily not proud of. What I mean by that is we all do things wrong and sometimes it involves wronging other people, especially friends. This also means other people do the same, even our friends. So when that happens, what do you do? Do you try to pick a fight, start arguing, run and gossip about it? Or do you make a choice to forgive and drop it? When we make a choice to pick a fight, argue, etc...it doesn't stop there. It has a snowballing effect. Once you start arguing, no matter how right you think you are, even if it is a little thing, strife immediately begins between the two people, and from there "well I've got to tell 'so and so' about this" and then "so and so" tells someone else, and soon a lot of people are involved that should never have been involved. Some of those "shouldn't have been involved" people are now angry at the person who didn't do anything to them. But when we choose to forgive and move on, strife has no opportunity to develop. When we handle things in a Godly manner, nothing but peace can result AND if someone is in the wrong, forgiving that person allows God to deal with the one who was wrong. 

Take Away: choose to forgive and drop it. If you choose to quarrel, it can only end up with more people getting hurt.

Forgive and Shut Up

The one who forgives an offense seeks love, but whoever repeats a matter separates close friends. (Proverbs 17:9 NET)

Most of us have heard that when someone does something wrong to us, we are to forgive, but honestly, it is easier said than done. For some, it is easier to hold a grudge than to forgive someone. Some of us think that forgiving someone means that we are approving of what they did. The truth about forgiveness...you do it for you, not the other person. And when you forgive, it means you pardon them from the offense. It doesn't mean you approve of what they did, you just no longer hold it against them. Here is what I think is the toughest thing to do after you forgive someone...you never bring it up again. That means in conversation you never bring up how that person hurt you, you never bring up what they did to you, and that means you don't tell others about it. True forgiveness means you have pardoned them from the offense and you CHOOSE to no longer discuss what they did with anyone. I know, I know, I am asking the impossible, right? No, this is where you trust God to heal your hurt, take care of the situation and deal with whoever was in the wrong. In this way we can walk in love as we are instructed.

Take Away: when you have the chance to forgive, choose to forgive and ask God to heal your hurt and heal the situation.

Evil Forebodings

All the days of the desponding and afflicted are made evil [by anxious thoughts and forebodings], but he who has a glad heart has a continual feast [regardless of circumstances]. (Proverbs 15:15 AMP)

There was a time when I use to be one of those people who was constantly expecting something bad to happen. Around every corner, with every decision I was expecting the worse. I would drive my car and expect either to get a ticket or be involved in an accident. I would go to work and think if I didn't get my forecast right I would be fired. I would come home and cook and expect to spill hot oil on me, or something like that. Real stupid stuff. And of course when you expect things like that you get very anxious, and if you are anxious all the time, you get into the "woe is me" attitude and you are never able to enjoy life. Finally God got a hold of me and showed me this scripture. I had to make a decision, was I going to continue to expect evil things to happen or was I going to make a choice to be happy? A happy person is not anxious, there is no anxiety in that persons life. A happy person expects GOOD things, not evil things. A happy person is content no matter what is going on around them. If you are like I was, make a choice today...get a new perspective on life, choose to stop expecting evil things to happen, and start teaching yourself to be happy and expect good things to happen. That is the life God wants us to have!

Take Away: Make a choice to expect good, not evil. Make a choice to be happy, regardless of whats going on around you.

Daydreaming

The one who works his field will have plenty of food, but whoever chases daydreams lacks wisdom. (Proverbs 12:11 NET)

When I was a kid, I, along with other kids in the nieghborhood, would go outside and play. We had a forrest behind our house next to a large field, and we would run around the field, hide in the ditches, make trails in the woods, we even built a treehouse. This taught me something. It taught me that there is a whole world outside the doors of my house waiting for me. I chose to step out into that world, I chose to better myself, I chose to follow the course of my life that God wanted me to follow. Unfortunately there are others that stay at home, rarely venture outdoors waiting for something to drop into their lap. Then when it doesn't, they complain about how bad they have it or they make fun of those who did decide to step out the front doors. God gave us a life, and we can choose how we want to live it. This passage of Proverbs says if you choose to do something, you will reap the rewards of it. It also says if you choose to just daydream of what COULD happen and not do anything about it, then you will reap the consquences of that decision.

Take Away: Instead of daydreaming of what could happen and not do anything about it, ask God to guide you to what WILL happen, and then follow His guidance.

I Want It Now

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. (Proverbs 11:2 NET)

One of my faults is wanting to get to the destination as fast as possible. For instance, my wife and I just got back from visiting friends in Germany. We hated to leave them as we have grown very close to them over the years. But when we got on the plane, all we wanted to do is be home...and be home now! Unfortunately 9 1/2 hours doesn't go by very quickly, especially when you are sitting on a plane. I would say most, if not all the time, that is the way we are with God. We want our answers from Him now, and when we don't get what we want when we want, we try to do things our own way in hopes to try to get there faster than what God would get us there. The problem with that...arrogance and pride. We think we know better than God. We think He doesn't know what's going on. There are times when I have said "let me try it my way one more time, and if that doesn't work, then God we will do it your way." Arrogance and pride, that is all that is. When we are able to say "God, although I want what I want when I want it, I know your way is better than mine, so I'll listen to you," then and only then have we become humble.

Take Away: instead of doing it your own way, listen to God, have Him direct you. It may take longer, but the end result is much better.

Instruction and Correction

The one who heeds instruction is on the way to life, but the one who rejects rebuke goes astray. (Proverbs 10:17 NET)

One of my greatest regrets in life is not listening to my parents, teachers, pastors when I was younger. They possessed knowledge, life experience, things that if I would have listened I would not have had to gone through a lot of pain. As I have gotten older I realize that those who are older, or those who may not be older, but possess knowledge I do not have, these people are great instructors. When I was younger I thought I knew it all. I was a college graduate, I got a 4.0 in my last semester of college, I thought I knew it all. Then life happened after college and I realized I didn't know it all. And then when people tried to correct me, I still maintained that know-it-all attitude and their correction went in one ear and out the other. God put people in our lives to help us, to make our lives just a little easier than theirs. Yes, being corrected by others is not the most pleasant experience, but the alternative is much worse. Even today I still get corrected, but I know that through correction I learn! 

Take Away: the next time you get corrected, listen to what is being said and don't reject it. Instead, learn from it.

Repeat Over and Over Again

Keep my commands so that you may live, and obey my instruction as your most prized possession. (Proverbs 7:2 NET)

Years ago I tried teaching. It was my very first time teaching and I was so excited about it. I thought "man, these students are going to love my lesson!" Much to my surprise they didn't, and in fact I really did a horrible job. I thought "well, I guess I'm not suppose to teach." A few years later a good friend told me that the Holy Spirit was grieved at my decision. I tried teaching again and since then I've been teaching quite often. A lot of us are the same way when it comes to God's word. If we try it once and it doesn't work, we give up. But if you look at Proverbs 7:2, it doesn't say keep my commands once and it doesn't say obey my instruction once. It says KEEP my commands. That means you guard them in your mind and anything that comes contrary to it, you don't allow it to overcome Gods command. It says OBEY my instruction, it means you continually do them over and over and over. And when you are done doing it over and over and over, then do it over and over and over again. Like the shampoo bottle instructions say...REPEAT! When we continually, and I would say habitually keep or guard in your mind God's commands and do what He says to do, we will live and we will have an abundant life!

Take Away: don't just do God's word once and give up if it doesn't work. Keep doing and doing and doing, over and over and over!  

Changing A Person

A worthless and wicked person walks around saying perverse things; (Proverbs 6:12 NET)

Mia Angelo had a saying, "If someone shows you who they are, believe them." When I was single I would see a woman who had a behavior that just wouldn't add up. But you know what I would say? "Oh, she will change" or even better, "oh, I can change her." Has anyone else ever said that? I'm sure all of us at some point has said that. People that are in abusive relationships, how many of them say "oh but he/she is a nice person except when they drink" or "he/she doesn't do that unless I don't do what they tell me." That is a bunch of lies that the devil has put in our human brains. Lets get one thing clear, you can't change anyone. No matter how hard you try, you can't change anyone. Only Jesus can change someone, all you can do is pray for that person. For those in abusive relationships, get some help, because that person is not going to change. Again, only Jesus can change that person.

Take Away: if you are trying to change someone, stop it, because you can't. Onlly Jesus can change a person, all you can do is pray for that person.

How Do You See You?

The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his commandments which I am urging you today to be careful to do. (Deuteronomy 28:13 NET)

We need to have God in our lives, and by that I mean on a day to day basis, not just on Sunday and then the rest of the week we forget about Him until the next Sunday...I mean every day. When we do this, He is able to let us see clearly how He sees us. In this scripture He is telling you and I that we have value, we have affirmation of who we are. If we don't have God in our lives, we will never know how He truly sees us, and if we don't see how He truly sees us, we are left to finding out who we are from other people. This is VERY dangerous! This is where low self esteem comes from and a whole host of other problems. That is what happened to me. Until I knew God, I looked to other people to define who I was. Unfortunately I was looking to the wrong people, and by that I mean humans. I developed low self esteem, codependendy, fear of rejection, etc. After I started living how God wanted me to live on a daily basis, I was able to see how He saw me. It took a while for me to get that I am the head and not the tail, I am blessed coming in and going out, I am the pupil of His eye...but I finally got it. 

Take Away: Put God first in your life, every day and you will see who you truly are, a blessed child of God.

A Level Path

Make the path for your feet level, so that all your ways may be established. (Proverbs 4:26 NET)

We have a choice. We can follow God and His ways or we can do our own thing. Have you noticed that when you do your own thing, it doesn't always turn out so good? Have you noticed that when God gives you an answer you don't like, you tell Him "let me try it my way one more time, and then if that doesn't work, I will do it your way?" I'm raising both hands right here! Yes, I have done the above, and every time I did things my way, the end result was either a disaster, OR it was not God's best. Why do we think we know more than God? He tells us to make the path of our feet level. That means we have a choice to follow Him or follow our own desires. If we follow Him our path will be level. That doesn't mean we won't have problems. We are already promised we will have problems, but if we choose His way, those problems won't shake us. When we choose to follow His ways, our paths will be level, no matter what issues of life rise in our lives. 

Take Away: When you have a choice to do your own thing or follow God's ways, choose to make your path level, choose God's ways. It may be tough at first, but it is the first step to a balanced life.

God's Discipline

For the LORD disciplines those he loves, just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights. (Proverbs 3:12 NET)

I don't know how many people I've come across that think that when God disciplines them, they think that lightning is going to strike, or something bad is going to happen to them. They think that the moment they do something wrong, God is going to flatten them with His hand. That is simply not the case! Look at what Proverbs says, He disciplines those He loves. The word "discipline" in the Hebrew means to rebuke, to correct, it doesn't mean to harm. When you correct someone, you are teaching them the right way. You are telling them in a loving way what they did wrong, and what they need to do to be right. This may involve having to bear the consquences of your actions such as saying "I'm sorry" to someone which is painfull for any human to do. But God is not sitting around waiting for you to do something wrong, He is watching you with the love a father has for his child. He wants the best for you, He wants you to do well in life, He thinks the best of you. That is why He corrects you when you do something wrong, but He does it with love, not with an iron whip! 

Take Away: Don't look at God's discipline as something bad, look at His discipline as correction, and correction done in a loving way. 

Which Crowd Do You Choose?

So you will walk in the way of good people, and will keep on the paths of the righteous. (Proverbs 2:20 NET)

Ever heard of the saying "birds of a feather flock together?" The previous verses to todays scripture talk about what happens when you hang around the wrong people. This verse talks about what happens when you hang around the right crowd. When we get around people, our natural tendency is to go along with the flow of the crowd, and even though we may think differently, we will eventually start behaving like them. It starts out slow but it has that snowball effect. First you start thinking like them, then you start talking like them, and if you hang around them long enough, you start behaving like them. If it is the wrong crowd, you start doing wrong things. But, if you hang around the right crowd, then you start thinking, speaking and then behaving like the right crowd, or as Proverbs calls it, the good people. God designed us to need each other, and we need to be around good, righteous people, people that love God and want to follow His ways. This may mean having to say no to a group of people that do the opposite of what God wants. It all comes down to your decision, what do you want your life to look like?

Take Away: make a point to start hanging around Godly people, people who love God and want to follow His ways. If you do, you will start to see a change in your life!

Idols

See if there is any idolatrous tendency in me, and lead me in the reliable ancient path! (Psalms 139:24 NET)

What is "idolatrous tendency" and why do we have to find out if we have it?  Idolatrous tendency is anything that we look to, keep our minds on continously, aim for no matter what the cost, anything that takes the place of God in our lives. It could be wealth, a large home, the perfect job, a wife, a husband, etc. All of these things in and of itself are not bad. However it is when we have these things on our minds so much that we no longer look to the One Who can provide them for us and we end up trying to get these things on our own. That is why Solomon said "lead me in the reliable ancient path!" If we focus on the words "lead me," we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, and when He guides us, we follow what He wants for our lives and not what we want. If this makes you a bit upset, then you might have an idol in your life, something that you are following instead of God. When we totally want what God wants for us, then we are being lead by the Holy Spirit and not by our own "idolatrous tendencies." The first two words of this verse instructs us to "see" if there are any idols in our lives. If you ask God to reveal anything that you are replacing Him with, He will show you and He will lead you onto the right path.

Take Away: Ask God to show you if you have idols in your life, and if He shows you, allow Him to lead you back to where He wants you...with your eyes on Him and not the idol.

Friends

As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. (Proverbs 27:17 NLT)

Most of us have heard this verse, but how many of us have actually allowed this to happen. What I mean is that when a friend confronts us, do we put up our defenses, or do we allow them to speak into our lives? Human nature will want to put up our defenses and say "you don't know what you are talking about" or "no, you are wrong!" Godly nature says, "I'm listening, keep talking." Judging by the previous verses in this chapter, I believe the author of this passage was talking about close friends and not aquaintances. I have a close friend who is definitely not afraid to confront me, and I need that in my life. He has seen things I have done or am doing that I was unaware of. It's kind of like I can't see the forest because of the trees. He, along with a few others, are really the only ones I allow to do this because they know me, they have spent time with me. Of course this goes both ways, they  allow me to speak into their lives as well, it is definitely a 2-way street. We need each other, we need close friends in our lives. If we don't have friends, we are tieing God's hands. You may be one that is a "loner" who says I don't need anyone as long as I got myself. Well, there is no place in scripture that says this, in fact there is plenty of scripture that says we need each other. God uses our friends to minister to us and vice versa! Allow God to cross your path with people whom He wants you to develop a relationship with.

Take Away: if you lack close friends in your life, ask God to start bringing people into your life. If you ask, He will do it! 

The Cover Up

Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and headed to shore. (John 21:7 NLT)

This is one of my favorite verses because it describes how we are in our relationship with God. Peter was in the boat and to get to the boat to Jesus required him swimming, so why did he put his clothes on to go swimming? It doesn't make sense...unless...you are covering something up that you don't want Jesus to see. Again, it doesn't make sense because Jesus already knows everything about you, what you did, etc. We are exactly the same way. We don't want God to see our imperfections, our flaws, the things that we think are wrong with us, so we try to cover them up with "sugar coated" words, good deeds, things we think will distract God from seeing our flaws, our mistakes and our imperfections. When we do this, we are not fooling God, but fooling ourselves AND we are preventing God from working on our imperfections and flaws. It is only when we are truly honest with ourselves and with God that He can work on us, healing us, teaching us. God already knows everything about us, what we think, what we do and what we say, so why do we try to cover up something that He already knows...again, we are only fooling ourselves. Make no mistake...even with our imperfections and mistakes...He still loves us and will always love us. But He wants the best for us, so be honest with Him.

Take Away: A challenge: the next time you are tempted to hide something you did or said that you are ashamed of, make the choice to be honest with God and see the difference!

Unjustly Accused

He was treated harshly and afflicted, but he did not even open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block, like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not even open his mouth. (Isaiah 53:7 NET)

Jesus is a perfect example of what we need to do whenever people do things to us that are unjust. He was mocked, accused of things He didn't do, but if you notice, He never opened His mouth to defend Himself. He kept quiet. He knew that His Father, who is also our Father, would be the One to vindicate Him. Over the years I have been accused of things I never did, rumors have circulated about me that weren't true, and yes, I did the exact opposite of what I was suppose to do, I opened my mouth and defended myself. That actually gave fuel to the fire of those accusing me. Most recently I was accused of doing something that I never did and it was even posted in a public forum...and this person accusing me never even asked me if I did what they were claiming. My first instinct was to fire back at this person, but I knew that was not what I was instructed to do by God. I made the choice to keep my  mouth shut and let God do what He does best...be God. I could have defended myself until I was blue in the face, but it would not have changed things. I decided to let God be the One to defend me. I never knew what happened to that person, but I have a peace of letting God defend me. I know it will not be easy, in fact it will be down right hard, but it is do-able!

Take Away: the next time you are unjustly accused of something, make the choice to keep quiet and let God defend you.