Many Christians, in their desire to be led by the Holy Spirit, get led astray for lack of understanding. They truly want to be led by the Spirit, know they should be led by the Spirit, but lack the understanding to identify what is the Holy Spirit and what is not.
In 1 Corinthians 12:1-3 Apostle Paul says, “Now concerning spiritual [gifts,] brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: 2 You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.”
Paul says to the Corinthians, “Before you received Jesus as your Savior, you were led by dumb idols. The word “dumb,” is translated from the Greek word “af'-o-nos.” This word means, “voiceless, i.e. mute (by nature or choice); figuratively, unmeaning:—dumb, without signification.” It is from the root word from which we get “phonics, phonetics”- our system for reading, every letter of the alphabet has specific sounds. We also get “phone, phonograph” a device for transmitting sounds. When the “a” is added at the beginning it places this word in the negative indicating there is NOT a specific sound. Holy Spirit, however, has a very specific and identifiable sound. There are very specific things He will say.
Jesus helps us with this identification. He says in John 15:26, “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.” In other words, He will always talk about Jesus… not your neighbor, not the devil… Jesus.
John 16:8-15 says, “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 “of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 ‘of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 ‘of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. 12 ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear [them] now. 13 ‘However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own [authority,] but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 ‘He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare [it] to you. 15 ‘All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare [it] to you.”
Some might say, “it says right there He will talk about your sin.” Yes, but a very specific sin. Verse 9says, “of sin, because they do not believe in ME.” He will show Jesus to anyone who is trusting in anything or anyone other than Jesus. He will point you away from your own self effort, and point you to Jesus and His finished work. All sin is actually rooted in unbelief in Jesus.
Holy Spirit will convince you of your righteousness which comes by trusting Jesus’ work, not yours. Because Jesus returned to the Father with His own sacrificial blood, you are now declared righteous by believing upon Him. Verse 10, “of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more.”
Holy Spirit will show you that the human race was judged on the person of Jesus, the Son of Man, the Last Adam. Verse 11, “of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” When Jesus was nailed to the cross, the judgment, which was the curse, that belonged to you and to me, came upon Him. Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed [is] everyone who hangs on a tree.”) He will show you Jesus on the cross in your place.
Many Christians are being led about by all kinds of things, things they think are Holy Spirit’s leading. But just as there are rules of phonics that tell you the sound each letter of the alphabet represents, Paul tells us the dumb idols will make all kinds of sounds, but Jesus and Paul both told us very spiritually the sounds Holy Spirit will make, so you can identify His voice.
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