John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
There is one final way that our Lord Jesus leads us under the new covenant that we need to discuss, which is His leading through the voice of the Holy Spirit. In the above quoted passage of scripture our Lord Jesus taught us that as His sheep, we will hear His voice, and that when we hear His voice we will follow Him. In other words He also guides us in the affairs of life by speaking directly to us.
John 16:13 “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.”
When our Lord Jesus taught us that we would hear His voice, He was not referring to us hearing His audible voice. But rather He was teaching us that we would hear the voice of His Spirit in our spirits. Notice in the above quoted passage of scripture that our Lord Jesus teaches us that when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us that He will speak to us. In other words when the Holy Spirit speaks to us He speaks in our spirits, for that is where He resides. And so, just as the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God, so He also speaks to our spirits when He does communicate with us.
Acts 8:26-31 “Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, "Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is desert. (27) So, he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, (28) was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. (29) Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and overtake this chariot." (30) So, Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?" (31) And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.”
In the above quoted account we see an example of the Holy Spirit speaking to one of His saints. In this example the Holy Spirit gave Philip the evangelist specific instructions as to what He wanted Philip to do. Philip did not hear an audible voice, but rather the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to him in his spirit.
Acts 10:19-20 “While Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Behold, three men are seeking you. (20) Arise therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them.”
In the next account quoted above we see the Holy Spirit speaking to the apostle Peter after he had received a vision from the Lord. Peter was busy thinking about the vision when the Holy Spirit spoke to him. Again, Peter did not hear an audible voice, but rather the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to him in his spirit. In both examples we have looked at, those individuals were not asking the Holy Spirit to speak to them. He spoke to them of His own accord to give them specific instructions.
2 Corinthians 12:7-9 “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. (8) Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. (9) And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
The Holy Spirit also speaks to us when we pray. In the above quoted account we see the Holy Spirit speaking to the apostle Paul in response to his request. In this example the Holy Spirit spoke to Paul as he was seeking the Lord’s help on a specific issue. But I want you to also notice in this example that it was only when Paul prayed the third time about the same issue that the Holy Spirit eventually spoke to him about it. The other two times when Paul prayed he received no answer from the Lord. This account gives us a bit more insight into how the Lord deals with us as His children. Paul was asking the Lord to remove something that the Lord had put there in the first place. And so the reason that Paul received no answer from the Lord the first two times that he prayed was because God was not going to grant him his request. In other words the angel sent by Satan to buffet Paul was God’s perfect will for Paul’s life. Very often when we are in God’s perfect will He doesn’t speak to us, and the reason He doesn’t speak to us is because He doesn’t need to. You will recall that earlier in this teaching that we said that one aspect of God’s perfect will for our lives, is that we should incur some persecution for being Christians. The angel that was buffeting Paul was causing tremendous persecution against Paul in nearly every place he went. In Paul’s case, when the Holy Spirit eventually did speak to Paul, it was to explain to him why God would not grant him his request. The point remains however, that all believers can and should hear the Holy Spirit speaking to them from time to time. Jesus said He would. I have had the Holy Spirit speak to me both through instruction, and in my prayer closet. I recall on one occasion someone walking past me, and the Holy Spirit telling me specifically to tell them about Jesus. I went after the individual and spoke very briefly to them about Jesus and they immediately gave their hearts to the Lord. Every time the Holy Spirit instructs us to do something we will always see results. His voice is unmistakable and you just know that the Holy Spirit is speaking (John 10:4). On another occasion I was driving while listening to a secular band playing their music. The music volume was rather loud, as I sometimes like to put the volume up when travelling alone. And the Holy Spirit spoke very clearly to me in my spirit, even though the music was so loud. He just said, “You know, we don’t listen to (and He named the music group) in heaven”. That one comment cured me from listening to secular music, and I haven’t done so since.
Michael E.B. Maher
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