The prerequisite to being led by the Spirit is your willingness to follow Him. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14 KJV).
A few nights ago, I was at a service and the atmosphere was flowing in the Spirit. I was up on my feet and praying for a greater filling of the Holy Spirit. How much we all need to be continually seeking that greater filling such that the power of God would come upon us more and more.
You need the Holy Spirit in you for the purposes of God to flow from you. “and neither the delivery nor the content of my message relied on compelling words of “wisdom” but on a demonstration of the power of the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:4 CJB).
Be weak for Him to be strong in you. Give up for Him to give over to you. Do the opposite of what the world says to do, and you will be walking in Heavenly wisdom.
As I stood there, I was so completely overwhelmed that I could no longer stand. My arms were stretched out to heaven and I could feel the Spirit flowing down and intertwining with me and holding me up. It was as if I was being held up by spiritual strands from heaven that weaved throughout my body. I don’t understand how everything works from heaven, but I know when I am being touched from heaven.
The same Holy Spirit that dwelt in Peter dwells in you. “…they even carried their sick out into the streets and put them on cots and sleeping pads, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on one of them [with healing power]” (Acts 5:15 AMP).
The struggle we have to grow spiritually is that we try to do so with natural means. Yet, the less we strive the more it will flow. This is because striving is in the natural, and that is the obstacle to the spiritual.
Friends, for many years I had been growing in my faith, deep in the Word, attending services, serving the Lord, and all the while longing for more. It seemed no matter how hard I tried, I was only growing in my natural faith and not in the spiritual.
It would not be so hard for you to move in the spiritual if you were not trying so hard in your natural. “Someone living on an entirely human level rejects the revelations of God’s Spirit, for they make no sense to him. He can’t understand the revelations of the Spirit because they are only discovered by the illumination of the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:14 TPT).
You cannot grow in the Spirit unless the Holy Spirit reigns in you. If you are not growing, be sure that you are the problem in the equation between the Spirit and you.
To die to your natural self, you need the Holy Spirit to help you. “for if you are living according to the [impulses of the] flesh, you are going to die. But if [you are living] by the [power of the Holy] Spirit you are habitually putting to death the sinful deeds of the body, you will [really] live forever.” (Romans 8:13 AMP).
Finally, I crossed into the wonderful secret of heaven for spiritual growth, that we do not have to do a thing, but only surrender. People try to make it more complex or more self-generated.
The greatest deliverance for man is from himself. “Jesus said to all of his followers, ‘If you truly desire to be my disciple, you must disown your life completely, embrace my ‘cross’ as your own, and surrender to my ways’” (Luke 9:23 TPT).
You cannot hear in the spiritual realm with natural ears, and so long as you try to, you will only hinder His ability to speak to you. That is why the most talented and intelligent people often gain the least in the Heavenly realm, as they don’t know how to be weak in the natural realm.
The more selfless you are, the more that the Holy Spirit can fill you. “…understand what the will of the Lord is… [to] be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:17-18 NKJV).
Now it is my purpose on this earth to encourage and draw others into this precious spiritually rich life, soaked in the Spirit, held up by the power of God. I received this phrase a few weeks back, it was a message to me: “Don’t try to impress others with who you are but inspire them with who they can become”.
Our spiritual potential remains buried beneath any of our natural self that we refuse to die to. “Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit” (Romans 8:5 NLT).
Sanctification of a saint is the process whereby the natural is overcome by the spiritual.
Friends, I want you to be filled with the Holy Spirit, that He would help you to break out of your natural, and bring you into a new spiritual life like you never imagined you could have! Surrender to gain the victory.
Blessings to you,
Paul
I love your teaching Paul,I am inspired and blessed as I read .Thank you.God Bless you.
Thank you so much, praying the Lord would bless you mightily!
Thank you Paul. This is confirmation for me to stop thinking about how others might see me and to just let myself go in His Presence.
Oh yes, absolutely! In this blog I wrote about my most blessed experience at the service. I was right next to someone who I could tell was not in the Spirit and probably wary with people who were. That is ok. I never want to miss an encounter with God because what someone might think about it. Let them think what they will, I want more of God!
This is so true. Beautiful. Its the life we were born for. We just have to die to get there. Its just on the other side of our limited inagination. And all of our fears.
It is my hope to draw others into a spiritually rich life, one in which they can experience God like we are supposed to!
Yes, I need, I want to truly experience the presence of the Holy Spirit. Exactly what does that mean to you ? Is there “evidence” of the Holy Spirit ? Is it a “faith” mindset? How does it manifest itself ? When is the “filling” most likely to happen ? Alone, laying on of hands, charismatic church, intercession ? Who can intercede ? Why do some people become “filled” and others who want to do not ? It seems to me that those who are “filled” think it happens just for the asking——if it isn’t happening then the believer must be doing something wrong. Is there a right one wrong way to ask ?
Hello Carolyn, you have such wonderful questions and I find it such a blessing that you are genuinely seeking answers. I think you have a sincere desire to gain the deeper things of God but to do so rightly. That is so honorable. I think it would be so great to take your questions and answer them in a blog unto itself. I think that many wonder, but you are bold enough to ask. I was the same as you for a long time. I pray you are ok to wait until this next Sunday, this will be a most blessed topic to discuss!
Thank you
You are welcome!