Every individual who has a relationship with God has a unique way God leads he or she. Personally, God has led me in different ways but one point is clear in my dealings with God: whenever there is a topic of importance, maybe something am neglecting and God wants my attention on it, He has a way of staying my heart on the topic. For instance, there is an article I perceive I should work on and I have been kind of ignoring it; but despite my trying to ignore it, the topic won't just go away; it looks like the topic has been posted in my heart that no matter what I do I can't just get it off my memory. That is one important way God leads his people: He puts an impression or a kind of sign in your heart. It can also come in form of a burden for you to do something or make moves to correct something that is wrong. However, it is important that prayers be made to get the correct message God wants to pass or to get the correct line of action, because, for God to use this method to talk to someone it could be that the person has grown too busy that the express word of God is no longer being received. Some years past, we were in a fellowship and worship was going on. A dear brother ran to me and said "Oleka, please come outside and join me in prayer, I've lost my peace. I feel something is about to happen." Not knowing what was the problem, we joined hands immediately and prayed in tongues until we felt a release in the Spirit. After fellowship he called home only to discover that about that time he was down with heavy burden that disaster was happening at home, some people died but his family was spared narrowly escaping death. One thing about this kind of leading is that even unbelievers do get it: it is sometimes called "a hunch." The advantage of the believer in Christ is that He can ask the Holy Spirit for clarification in the place of prayer but for the unbeliever who will he ask? Many have had premonitions but because they lacked the Holy Spirit, they couldn't get clarification and ended up becoming victims of what could have been averted.
The Holy Spirit leads us by a witness in our spirit: a kind of whisper inside our spirit man. Every true child of God has this inward witness of the Holy Spirit. However, to enjoy clarity with this inward voice of the Holy Spirit, one must be close to Holy Spirit in worship, study and meditation on the word of God and prompt in obedience to His voice daily. Those who enjoy clarity with the inward witness are those who don't just seek God once in a while but those that abide in God's presence always. Every day as we go about our activities we meet people who have different opinions, different faiths and different ideologies. In our interactions, we pick up wrong voices and if care is not taken, these wrong voices begins to compete with the voice of the Spirit in our hearts but fellowship with the Holy Spirit re-awakens our spirit man and familiarizes us with His voice and to hear it clearly. The book John 10:3-4 says "The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.........and his sheep know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger." It is our responsibility to open to Holy Spirit in communion like the watchman so that we can listen to His voice, know His voice and follow his leading.
Another way the Holy Spirit leads the believer in Christ Jesus is through visions and dreams. Throughout the Bible from the old testament to the new testament, God has always given important messages to His people through dreams and visions. Some people who don't understand fully how this works neglect them completely but the truth is dreams and visions remain an important way to be led by God. For every revelation received in form of a dream or vision is a call to prayer. Their are dreams and visions that come and they are self explanatory and there are some that are hard to explain. When we pray over our revelations we identify those that are to be ignored and those that should be paid attention to. For revelations that are hard to understand, interpretations are received in the place of prayer. Remember how Daniel prayed: Interpretation of thing belongs to God. Some revelations come to draw our attention to God. Also note that some revelations are warnings of things to happen: they cannot be changed but caution can be taken to avert danger or losses when they come to pass. For instance, the dream of Pharaoh that was interpreted by Joseph, was a warning for the people of Egypt to prepare for famine. It also happened in the Acts of Apostles when Prophet Agabus prophesied. Praying did not stop it from coming to pass if they prayed to stop it, but they prepared themselves against famine. Every revelation however should be judged by the word of God.
There are different kinds of dreams and visions. Some dreams are so real that when you have them you feel like it was happening physically. It depends on the urgency of the message God may want to pass through the dream. Dreams happen while people are sleeping. But vision is like picture you see with the eye of the spirit: it could be a motion picture. There are open vision, the ones you can see while you are wide awake and your senses are very alert and your eyes are open. Trance is a kind of incomplete vision; it happens when your consciousness is suddenly suspended in a kind of sleep-wake manner and you are made to see a kind of incomplete motion or motionless picture. There are also higher revelations. In this kind of revelation, people are made to have a deeper encounter and understanding in the things of the Spirit. Higher revelations is depended on the level of your walk with God or based on His mercy. This is the kind Jesus had on the mount; Paul had it; John the beloved had it; Moses had it; Note that whether you remember and understand your dreams or visions does not stop their reality. When your spiritual alertness is low, you can have dreams or visions without remembering or understanding but the reality of it still exists. In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar had a revelation and compelled his magicians to tell him the dream and the interpretation because it was troubling his spirit; but when his magicians asked him to tell them the dream for them to interpret it for him, he said, "the thing is gone from me...." We are admonished in 1Peter 5:8 to be sober and watchful...
There is also a special gift of the Spirit called discernment of spirit. With this gift, you are made to know things about people, about situations or places supernaturally. The way it operates is that even without seeing a vision or hearing a voice, you just know what is happening somehow. Someone with a wrong spirit may come around you and spiritually you are made to perceive it even if the person is forming as angel of light. It is special gift that children of God must have in this end time because of deceptions that have filled the world.
There are different kinds of dreams and visions. Some dreams are so real that when you have them you feel like it was happening physically. It depends on the urgency of the message God may want to pass through the dream. Dreams happen while people are sleeping. But vision is like picture you see with the eye of the spirit: it could be a motion picture. There are open vision, the ones you can see while you are wide awake and your senses are very alert and your eyes are open. Trance is a kind of incomplete vision; it happens when your consciousness is suddenly suspended in a kind of sleep-wake manner and you are made to see a kind of incomplete motion or motionless picture. There are also higher revelations. In this kind of revelation, people are made to have a deeper encounter and understanding in the things of the Spirit. Higher revelations is depended on the level of your walk with God or based on His mercy. This is the kind Jesus had on the mount; Paul had it; John the beloved had it; Moses had it; Note that whether you remember and understand your dreams or visions does not stop their reality. When your spiritual alertness is low, you can have dreams or visions without remembering or understanding but the reality of it still exists. In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar had a revelation and compelled his magicians to tell him the dream and the interpretation because it was troubling his spirit; but when his magicians asked him to tell them the dream for them to interpret it for him, he said, "the thing is gone from me...." We are admonished in 1Peter 5:8 to be sober and watchful...
There is also a special gift of the Spirit called discernment of spirit. With this gift, you are made to know things about people, about situations or places supernaturally. The way it operates is that even without seeing a vision or hearing a voice, you just know what is happening somehow. Someone with a wrong spirit may come around you and spiritually you are made to perceive it even if the person is forming as angel of light. It is special gift that children of God must have in this end time because of deceptions that have filled the world.
God leads through the voice of friends, brothers and sisters. It is said that the voice of the people is the voice of God. In the multitude of counsel there is safety. I've been in cases I didn't know the right cause of action but asking people around me brought clarity. And when I applied what they told me I later found that was the right way. However, this depends on the quality of people around you.
The word of God is the Voice of God. The Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit. So reading the Bible, meditating on it and following the instructions (your findings) is the simplest way to be led by God. The instructions in the Bible are paths for great destinations in God. Every thing centers on the word of God. In any area of our life where we need God's leading, meditating of His words just clarifies issues. I can't explain more than this, it is better tried.
Expect the following topics:
1) Who is the Holy Spirit? and
2) Choicemaking
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