Romans 8:14-16 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. … (16) The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
Unlike unbelievers, God uses the spirits of believers to influence the decisions of their wills. In fact the spirit of the believer is the primary method that God uses to influence the decisions of His saints. So why is that? The reason is because believers are born-again, which means that their spirits have the nature of God and can only be motivated by righteousness. Under the Old Covenant God could not use this method to guide His saints, because their spirits were not yet born-again. And so because the spirit of the born-again believer is created in righteousness the Holy Spirit now resides in our spirits. And one of the reasons God has given us His Spirit is to guide us in the decisions that we make in life. This truth is revealed to us in passage of scripture quoted above, for God says that we are to be led by the Spirit of God. In other words we should never make any major decision in life without seeking the counsel of the Holy Spirit first. So how does God do that? This passage declares that the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirits as to what God’s will is for our lives. This is one of the reasons why the apostle Paul keeps encouraging the saints to walk in the spirit, because God always leads us in the affairs of life through our spirits (Galatians 5:25).
Acts 9:10-12 “Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and to him the Lord said in a vision, "Ananias." And he said, "Here I am, Lord." (11) So the Lord said to him, "Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. (12) And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.”
God also speaks directly into the minds of the believers to influence their decision making. However God seldom uses this method as far as the believer is concerned, because as we have already discussed, His primary method is through the spirit of the believer. In the passage of scripture quoted above we see the account of our Lord appearing to Ananias instructing him what He wanted him to do. Although this was a spiritual vision, nevertheless the Lord spoke directly to Ananias so that he clearly understood what the Lord’s will was. There are very few accounts similar to this one in the New Testament, which just reinforces the truth to us that very seldom does God, use this method to influence our wills. God does use our minds to influence our wills through the teaching of His word however. Nevertheless that form of influence impacts more on the lifestyle of the believer, rather than specific guidance to walk in God’s plan for their lives.
Acts 24:16 “This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.”
Our consciences are given to us by God to always guide us to do good and reject evil. Because of this truth God always uses the conscience of believers to influence their wills to act in accordance with His will for their lives. In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul confirms this truth for us, for in this passage he teaches us that he had learnt to always be obedient to his conscience. Paul stated that the reason he obeyed his conscience was so that he would not offend the Lord. When we walk outside of God’s perfect will for our lives then we offend Him, and so believers who walk according to the counsel of their conscience can be assured that they will always walk according to God’s will for their lives.
James 1:13 “Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.”
We have already looked at the above quoted passage of scripture to demonstrate why God does not use the bodies of unbelievers to influence their wills. That same truth is applicable for believers however, because as we have already discussed earlier, the bodies of believers are also contaminated with the sin virus, which means that the only thing that motivates them is sin. Therefore for obvious reasons God does not use the body of believers in influencing their wills.
Michael E.B. Maher
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