Learning to be Led by the Holy Spirit - Part I
by Dr. John Tetsola

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Romans 8:14

The importance of being led by the Holy Spirit cannot be over emphasized. It is the inherent right of the believer to hear the voice of God and to be led by the Spirit of God. God wants to lead us by His Spirit so that our lives do not become chaotic. We live in a day and in a season when being accurate in our decision making is very key to our pursuit and survival. As believers there are decisions and directions that we embark upon that must be undertaken by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.

Psalm 18:28

When we got born again, our spirit man was regenerated and recreated. We now have a recreated human spirit. The Bible says that the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. God connects with our recreated human spirit in leading and guiding us. God lights our spirit (our candle) and grants us the wisdom to make right decisions and choices that are based on God’s Word, as He enables us to see the pitfalls and devices of the enemy that lurk in the darkness. We must develop our recreated human spirit because it is one of the ways we receive spiritual insight and prophetic revelation. God leads us through our recreated human spirit by two guides. They are the inward witness and the inward voice.

The Inward Witness versus the Inward Voice
The inward witness is something inside of you that produces a check, a red light instructing you to stop. It is not a voice. It is an inward knowing. It is intuition—knowledge derived by the spirit without analysis. It is a feeling that is produced in our spirit, not in our mind or body. We must respond to the promptings of the inward witness by faith and in complete reliance upon the Holy Spirit’s leading, knowing that God is actually speaking. If the Body of Christ followed the leadings of the inward witness, the church would receive guidance in every area of life and would be able to avoid pitfalls of the enemy.

How much more shall the blood of Christ…purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Hebrews 9:14

The inward voice is the voice of the conscience. It is the voice that echoes out of our conscience. Everyone has a conscience, whether a believer or an unbeliever. It is like a buzzer that sounds inside of us. With our conscience, we can tell if God is leading or speaking to us or not. When the Holy Spirit begins to speak to you, and you disobey Him, you can feel your conscience hurting. Many of us may wonder if our conscience can actually be dependable. Our conscience can indeed be dependable…if our spirit man has become new. Once born again, your conscience is purged from dead works to serve God. It demands conformity to God’s Word, and becomes the faculty which decides upon the moral qualities of your actions. In Romans 9:1, Paul said, “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.” Paul could declare that he was not lying, and the reason he knew he wasn’t lying was because his conscience bore witness to the truth as it was being enlightened and prompted by the Holy Spirit.

Next month we’ll reveal the pitfalls of the inward witness and touch on other sources of prophetic revelation.

by Dr. John A. Tetsola