Acts 27:9-13 “Now when much time had been spent, and sailing was now dangerous because the Fast was already over, Paul advised them, (10) saying, "Men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also our lives." (11) Nevertheless, the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by Paul. (12) And because the harbor was not suitable to winter in, the majority advised to set sail from there also, if by any means they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete opening toward the southwest and northwest, and winter there. (13) When the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their desire, putting out to sea, they sailed close by Crete.”
As I have already mentioned, for those saints who are led by the Holy Spirit there should be no major trial that comes into their lives which they have not been forewarned about, so that they could prepare themselves to go through it. Nevertheless there are also some trials that the Lord wants us to avoid, and so the Holy Spirit forewarns us so that we will not continue on the path that we are currently on. In the above quoted account the Holy Spirit warned the apostle Paul to counsel his travel companions not to set sail at that time, because it would result in the loss of their ship, their cargo, and also the loss of their lives. As it turns out, they decided not to follow Paul’s advice (which was actually the Holy Spirit’s advice), and when external circumstances looked right, they followed their natural thinking rather than the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and set sail. We all know the rest of this account. They lost their ship and their cargo, and the only reason that they did not lose their lives, is because Paul interceded to the Lord on their behalf. And so from this account we can see that it certainly pays to listen to the Holy Spirit when He tells us of things to come.
Romans 8:14 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
When Jesus taught us that the Holy Spirit would guide us and show us things to come, He was referring to our personal lives, as evidenced in the example we have just looked at. This truth is confirmed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture, for this passage teaches us that as sons of God, we can expect to be led by the Spirit of God. We are sons of God every moment of every day. And so as sons of God, we can fully expect to be led by the Spirit of God every moment of every day. We saw earlier in this teaching that our Lord Jesus, when He walked on the earth, did exactly that. We also saw that the apostle Paul learnt to walk his Christian walk, being led by the Holy Spirit in every decision that he made. And so this passage of scripture actually gives us the right, to expect to receive the Lord’s guidance by His Holy Spirit. In other words this is a promise of God, and in Jesus all the promises of God are “yes and amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20). As we go through the rest of this teaching we will see that under the new covenant, we have no scriptural grounds to expect the Lord to lead us by any other method, as all other methods only occur as the Lord wills. But every believer has the right to be led this way, and should therefore exercise that right. God has no problem with His children claiming what is rightfully theirs in Christ Jesus. In fact, He delights in His children taking Him at His word and acting on that.
Romans 8:16 “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
So just how does the Holy Spirit lead us in the affairs of life? The apostle Paul gave us a bit of insight into this method when we quoted him earlier (Acts 27:10). In that instance Paul said that he “perceived” what was going to happen. Remember that the Holy Spirit resides in our spirits. So what Paul was saying is that he perceived in his spirit, what the Holy Spirit was showing him. The Holy Spirit hadn’t spoken to Paul on this occasion. All that Paul had was a “perception” in his spirit, of what would happen. In other words he knew on the inside of him, what the Holy Spirit was revealing to him.
Michael E.B. Maher
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