For the last 2 Sundays we’ve been talking about God’s Will in our lives—God’s Will vs. our Will and God’s Will and the Bible. Today I want to talk about the Holy Spirit’s role in us knowing the Will of God.
You might remember last time when I mentioned the statement, “let your conscience be your guide.” And many times that is good advice. But not every time. It’s often easy to be led by our feelings or emotions. It just feels right. I think most of us know that we can’t always trust our feelings.
But there are times when that “inner voice” is right? Today I want to stress that there is a difference between our conscience and God’s Holy Spirit. Our conscience comes from our experience with dealings in our lives. We just have a feeling we need to do or not do something. But God’s Will for us is revealed by the Holy Spirit. I am going to use Paul’s writings in 1 Corinthians 2 to help us to understand this more.
But first let me tell you the true story of a pastor and his wife.
This pastor and wife team once led a marriage enrichment weekend. Here’s how he tells the story. “As we walked to the podium to speak on the first evening, I wiped my nose with a tissue. Somehow, a piece of tissue came loose and stuck to the end of my nose. Mortified, my wife tried to tell me how ridiculous I looked. She muttered under her breath, “Wipe your nose.” But I didn’t hear her. She scribbled on my notes, “Wipe your nose.” But I didn’t notice.
The irony is that we were teaching on communication in marriage. Standing beside me was someone who knew and loved me more than anyone, yet she couldn’t get my attention. It was the last marriage enrichment weekend we ever led.”
Well, I’m here to tell you that to a far greater degree, the Holy Spirit loves us unlike anyone else. He knows all of God’s plans and purposes for our lives, and He wants us to know God’s will. Since we can’t see Him, how does He communicate God’s plan? In the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul spoke on the role of the Holy Spirit in helping us know God’s Will.
Today, I’ll be using a portion of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 2. For Christians, our thinking ought to be different from the way unbelievers think. In our passage today, it tells us that God’s wisdom is a hidden wisdom. That means that God’s truth can’t be understood unless the Holy Spirit opens our hearts and minds to be able to receive it and understand it.
That’s precisely why an atheist can read the Bible a thousand times and be unmoved by it. They can analyze the Greek and Hebrew text and debate with the most brilliant of Bible scholars, but unless the Holy Spirit opens their understanding to the truths of God’s Word, it all seems like foolishness to them.
READ 1 Corinthians 2: 6-8. Paul says that he was speaking words of wisdom to those who were spiritually mature. But those in the world, those who think like the world would be unable to understand what he was saying. You see, the more mature we are in Christ, the more God’s Word makes sense to us.
The writer of the book of Hebrews compared the difference between drinking milk and eating meat. In Hebrews 5:1-14, listen how he explains it, “Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food. 13 Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. 14 But solid food is for the mature—for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil.”
That passage opened my eyes to the reason why people respond differently to the same sermon. It has to do with where we are in our spiritual growth. When we first come to Christ, we’re spiritual infants. We can only digest “milk” truths. But those who grow in spiritual maturity will be able to grasp the “meaty” of the word and their soul will be nourished. So, don’t get discouraged because other Christians may seem to understand more about the bible than you. That just means you are at different stages of your spiritual growth. As we grow in our knowledge of God’s Word, in prayer, and in faith, God’s wisdom becomes clearer each day.
Some religions think of God as a distant, unknowable guy who can’t be approached. They don’t think of God as someone who you can have a conversation with. When was the last time you sat still and had a heart-to-heart conversation with God? Others see God as a mysterious god who remains hidden.
Acts 17:27 says, "God is not far from each of us." A little boy and his sister were playing outside. The boy said something ugly to his sister. She said, "God hears what you say." The boy said, "No, God didn’t hear me He is too far away."
That’s how many people think of God. So, we rely upon our own strength and wisdom when things run smoothly. But in life things don’t always go along smoothly. When such times come it doesn’t matter how self-reliant we have been we realize that our strength and wisdom are not enough. Having placed God "way off" from us we may feel He is too far away to call on for Help. So, what do we do? To avoid this, we have to cultivate a sense of God’s nearness and live every day in His presence.
You see, it’s only Christianity that understands God as a Trinity. What do I mean by that—TRINITY?
? God the Father plans and purposes His Will for all creation. He tells us that He knows the plans He has for each one of us.
? God the Son carries out that will and came down to us so we can see and know what God is like.
? God the Holy Spirit reveals God’s will and implements into our lives all that the Father intends and the Son has shown us first-hand.
You see, the Holy Spirit knows what God thinks and plans for His creation (that’s us). When we accept Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells within us, and the Holy Spirit is Someone who knows what God intends to happen for us.
READ 1 Corinthians 2:9. I love this verse. I heard a story of a 6 year old boy whose birthday was coming up. His dad decided that it was time for this young lad to have his own bicycle. So, dad goes to the bicycle store and buys a brand new bled Schwinn Stingray bicycle. He hid it so that the boy wouldn’t see it.
Then every day dad tried to convince his son that he what he wanted more than anything else in the world was a blue, Schwinn Stingray bike. By the time his birthday rolled around, guess what the boy was dying for? You guessed it. And boy was he happy when he got exactly what he wanted.
Many times, we struggle with what to ask God for. And of all the things that we could ask from God, what is best for us? And then to top it all off, of all the things we ask God for, what does God actually want to give us?
Verse 9 makes it very clear that God’s ways are beyond our ways. Whatever we ask God for, it pales in comparison to what God can give us. We can’t begin to imagine what God’s plans are for us. Nothing on this earth can we imagine that compares to what God has in store for us who love Him.
READ 1 Corinthians 2: 10-11. Unfortunately, many Christians don’t really know what to do with the Holy Spirit that lives within them. Yet Jesus says that the Holy Spirit would work in our lives in the same way the Holy Spirit related to His 12 disciples. Here’s how Jesus said it in John 14: 16-17. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. 17 He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.” Jesus was speaking of the Holy Spirit.
We need to learn to recognize the Holy Spirit’s guidance in our lives and make any adjustments that He calls for. For example:
? The Spirit might draw your attention to a certain Bible verse He wants to work into your life. We talked about that last week where in our daily Bible reading, a certain verse or passage of Scripture speaks to our heart we know we need to adjust ourselves to incorporated it into our lives.
? The Spirit might lead you to a promise mad in the Bible that He wants to use to strengthen and encourage you. How many times has that happened where we are encouraged by something we read in the Bible?
? The Spirit might place a burden on your heart for someone He wants you to minister to. I can’t count the times that suddenly the Holy Spirit will place someone on my heart and I’ve learned to call them or text them that I am praying for them. Every time that happens, that person was going through something that they needed to talk about.
? The Spirit might convict you of a sin that God wants to set you free from.
It boils down to this simple truth: THE SPIRIT OF GOD REVEALS THE WILL OF GOD AND SEEKS TO WORK IN OUR LIVES.
READ 1 Corinthians 2: 12-13. I have been at gatherings at a restaurant with a group of church members. We get to talking and sometimes get louder and louder. Then something might be said and the whole group burst out in loud laughter. Then the guy at the next table tells the waitress, “I’ll have what they’re drinking!” It is assumed that the only way a group of people can have that much fun is they are intoxicated.
In that same mind set, there may be times when the Holy Spirit will lead you to do something that bewilders unbelievers. For instance, the Spirit might convict you to start tithing your income to your church. Giving away 10% of your hard-earned money will make no sense to most unbelievers.
Or the Spirit might lead you to spend a significant amount of money to support a mission trip or to help pay for much-needed upkeep on the church complex. Your non-Christian colleagues at work might wonder why you would spend your vacation time helping to mend someone’s home that was damaged in a storm. Or why you would spend that time helping the homeless.
Don’t be surprised when your obedience to God’s call causes others to question or maybe even oppose you. God calls us, who are His, to simply place our full faith in Him and His ability to lead us perfectly and take that next step of obedience. Has the Holy Spirit been after you to do something and you keep putting it off? That’s what this message is about.
If the Holy Spirit has revealed to you that it is God’s Will for you to do something, then He is doing his job. Now it’s up to you to follow through and do yours.
READ 1 Corinthians 2: 14-16. Did you pay attention to how Paul ended this chapter? He says, “But we have the mind of Christ.” That is what the Holy Spirit is striving to lead us to, to have the mind of Christ.
We’re to think the same way Christ does, to view problems the same way Christ does, to view success as well as suffering, from Christ’s perspective. Now, take note, this doesn’t just automatically happen the moment you become a Christian. As we grow in our ability to think from Jesus’ perspective, we begin to realize more and more how the Holy Spirit speaks to us. You’ll catch yourself saying more and more, “I hear you God.”
As we grow in our understanding of God’s Word and His ways, we find that we can more easily hear the Spirit’s leading. So, here’s what we do:
? As you read the Bible, the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to His truth and point out how He Wants you to live and how to really apply His Word. The Psalmist prayed that in Ps 119:18, “Open my eyes so that I may contemplate
wondrous things from your instruction.”
? Then, when the Holy Spirit prompts you to take a certain action, you can be certain that HE will never direct you to do something contrary to God’s Word.
NEVER.
Yes, the Holy Spirit will lead you in God’s Will for your life. Just listen to Him. Then, confirm it in His Word. Trust Him. Obey Him because He knows where He is taking you. God has such good things in store for us. But I think sometimes God doesn’t tell us all of His plan for us because we wouldn’t believe it anyway.
“What no eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no human heart has conceived—
God has prepared these things for those who love him.” 1 Cor. 2:9
It was Henty Blackaby that said, “When the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we have access to Someone who knows all of God’s intentions.”
And so, I close with God’s reminder from Jeremiah 29:11
11 For I know the plans I have for you”—declares the Lord---“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Listen for God’s plan when the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart,
