I have been sensing the Lord leading me to teach on Listening to the Voice of the Lord.

I.   Turn to ROM 8:14-16; also PRO 20:27.

A. All of God’s children can expect to be lead by God’s Holy Spirit.

1.  The RSV translation of (PRO 20:27) Says, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD.”

2.  What that means is that the Lord’s light will come & enlighten us.

a)  God will enlighten us & He will guide us thru our spirits.

3.  The Spirit Filled Bible has this note in reference to The Lamp of the LORD. “Man’s spirit (more than soul or body) is God’s contact point, through which He illumines man and shows him his own true nature.”[1]

a)  But it doesn’t just stop with our nature, but rather God will enlighten us so that we can see His will for our lives, His guidence.

b)  It’s unfortunate, but many times people seek guidance thru some other means, other than what God said.

(i)  I think we all have a tendency to do that.

c)   Many times, especially when trouble comes, we judge how God is leading by what our physical senses tell us.

(i)  But the Bible doesn’t tell us that God will lead us thru our physical senses.

(ii)                Too often we look at things from a mental standpoint & try to reason things out.

(iii)              But again the Bible does not tell us that God will guide us thru our mentality or reasonings. Sometimes we even pray for doors to be shut & doors to be opened if that’s what the Lord wants. The devil can open & shut doors. The Spirit must lead us.

B. But the Word of God does tell us that the Lord will enlighten us thru our spirits.

1.  Jesus said in (JOHN 9:5) that “He was the light of the world.”

a)  God will guide us or enlighten us, but it will be by His Spirit to our spirit.

II.  In (GEN 1:26 & 27) God said, “Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness, So God created man in his own image.”

A. Jesus said in (JOHN 4:24) that God is a Spirit.

1.  For us to be created in God’s image, man must be a spirit being.

2.  Paul said in (1THES 5:23), “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and {I pray God} your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

a)  The spirit of man is eternal. It will live on forever.

(i)  That doesn’t mean that everyone will be in heaven.

(ii)                Man will continue to exist weather in heaven or Hell.

b) Look at what Paul said in PHIL 1:23-24.

(i)  Here Paul is saying that he is going to live. Whether it is in the body or out of it, life is still going to go on.

(ii)                As a matter of fact, Paul said that it would be better for him to go on to be with the Lord. But he also knew that it would be better for the Church if he stayed.

c)   Paul said in (2COR 4:16) “Our outward man perish, yet the inward {man} is renewed day by day.”

(i)  Keep in mind what we’re talking about, that man is a spirit being & that God will guide us thru our spirits.

3.  Look at 1PET 3:4.

a)  Peter calls the spirit man “The hidden man of the heart.”

b)  In this V, Peter is saying that the spirit man in of most importance, because it’s the spirit that will live forever.

III.   Go over to 1COR 2:9-12.

A. In (V 9) Paul said, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

1.  In other words, Paul is saying, “Before the H.S. was given there was no natural way or spiritual way to know what God had for us.”

2.  Then in (V 10), he said that God reveals things to us by His Spirit.

a)  Then in (V 11) he begins to tell us how God will reveal things to us.

b)  He tells us that only the Spirit of God knows the things of God.

3.  Then in (V 12), he says, “We have received the Spirit of God that we can know the things of God.”

a)  Knowing the things of God covers a large area.

(i)  That could cover knowing about God’s goodness, knowing about heaven, eternity, & it also covers knowing about God’s will & plan for your life, as well as, His direction.

B.          Let’s go back to our text, ROM 8:14.

1.  In this V we can see that the Spirit of God will lead us, but (V 16) gives us some insight into how He will lead us.

a)  The phrase in this V, “Beareth witness” means, “testify to.”

b)  The H.S. speaks to our spirits, & reveals God’s will to us.

c)   We need to listen to our spirit, not just so we can be blessed, by getting God best, but also so that we can know who God wants us to pray for, when he want us to pray for them, & so that we can know what to pray for.

d)  It also goes for witnessing to others; we need to listen to the H.S. so we can know who the witness to & what to say.

(i)  Listen to the guiding of the H.S.; W/out Him we’re just like any other club.

(ii)                Listen to His voice & His guidings.

IV.  An area where many of people miss it is in the area of separating between the soul & spirit.

A.          HEB 4:12.

1.  When I was growing up, I thought that the soul & spirit were the same. But according to this V they are not the same.

a)  They can’t be the same, Paul said by the spirit of God that they can be divided by the Word of God.

(i)  If you can divide or separate something, it cannot be the same thing.

2.  With the physical body you contact the physical realm.

a)  With your spirit you contact the spiritual realm.

b)  That really leaves only 1 area left, the mental realm.

(i)  The Bible has a lot to say on the mind or the mental realm.

c)   It’s with your mind or your soul you contact the mental realm or the intellectual realm.

B.          1COR 14:14.

1.  This is a scripture that we often use for leading someone to the baptism of the H.S.

2.  But there is something that I want you to see here & that is that the spirit and the mind are different.

a)  He’s saying in that V that when you’re praying in the spirit your mind does not understand it.

(i)  They’re 2 separate things.

(ii)                One other thing that I wanted you to see in this V is that it doesn’t say that the soul was doing the praying, it was his spirit.

3.  1 Cor 2:14-16

C.          Now look at JOHN 7:37-39.

1.  Notice that he said, “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit.”

a)  He never mentions anything about the soul just the H.S. & the belly, which is the inner most being, where the your spirit is.

2.  All the leadings that I have ever had came out of my spirit, & the strongest leading that I’ve had came when I was either praying in tongues or in worship.

V. JAMES 1:21.

A. The spirit of man is the part of man that is born again, which receives eternal life.

1.  The soul is not the part of the spirit.

a)  This V says, “Able to save your soul.”

(i)  The saving of the soul is a process.

2.  This book of JAMES was written to Christians.

a)  Christians are already saved.

b)  They were already born-again, but apparently their souls were not saved yet.

3.  But in this V he does tell us what is going to save our souls.

a)  The Word of God!

B.          Look at ROM 12:2.

1.  This V is really telling us the same thing that (JAMES 1:21) is telling us.

a)  Your soul or mind is renewed or saved by the Word of God.

2.  (PSA 23:3) Says, “He restoreth my soul.”

a)  The word “Restore” means “to Renew.”

(i)  God doesn’t renew or even restore our spirits, He recreates them.

b)  (2COR 5:17) Says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

(i)  How are we new creatures? How are old things passed away? How are all things become new?

(ii)                When you got saved you looked just the same. (Yes it’s true that the Lord will change you & clean you up.)

(iii)              But I’m talking about at the moment that a person was born-again, made that New Creation, He still looked the same.

(a)         Where is the new creature?

(b) It’s the spirit of man.

3.  The soul of man or his mind is renewed with the Word of God.

4.  The spirit of man is recreated, brand new, never existed before.

a)  And it's the spirit of man that contacts God.

b)  We need to be more God conscious, to be more God conscious we need to be more spirit conscious.    

TFC Sun AM 1/20/91& WOLCC SUN AM 10/6/91 & 1/5/91 WED PM TFC & 9/29/91 WOLCC SUN AM  & 2-27-93 and WOL Sunday, July 18, 1999 & WOLCC Sunday, October 05, 2003

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[1]Spirit filled life study Bible. 1997, c1991 (electronic ed.) (Pr 20:27). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.