THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT
Brothers and sisters,
One of the most important things you can learn in your life is how to be led by the Holy Spirit. You cannot successfully separate the Word, faith, speaking in tongues or the supernatural from being led by the Holy Spirit. If you’re not led by Him, your life will not move forward. You could even be flowing in the miraculous but there will be something about you that lacks the wisdom of God; something about you that is awkward.
Most people are reasoning-led, feelings-led, money-led, opportunity-led, fleece-led, and other “external physical things” – led. Some are led by prophets – (all prophecy must be judged by the written Word of God and the inward witness of the Spirit within) Brethren, don’t be led externally, be led internally. External things can mislead you! Faith is of the heart. The Spirit within you is there for a reason. Have faith in His ability to lead you. He bears witness with your spirit and not any external part of you.
Romans 8:14.16 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. NKJV
There are three “R’s” to being successfully led by the Holy Spirit:
- Respect or reverence the Holy Spirit,
- Recognize Him and
- Respond to Him.
REVERENCE: The Holy Spirit must be real and more important to each of us more than anybody else in our lives. What He guides us to do supersedes any other direction any one gives you. For example when the Spirit of God is dealing with you, you don’t have to answer the phone when it rings. The more reverence you have for the Spirit of God, the more He can bear witness with your spirit to lead you.
So since our spirit or inner man is what the Holy Spirit will bear witness with, the more we develop our inner man or born again spirit, the better we can recognize the witness of Spirit of God. The word WITNESS means to testify jointly or to collaborate by concurrent evidence. It’s a legal term – witness. A witness is someone who knows or has seen something. You and I are called to be witnesses. You can’t be a witness of Jesus if you haven’t met Him. Jesus Himself is referred to as the faithful and true witness. The Holy Ghost is a co-witness. He witnesses with our spirit. There’s Somebody inside you that co-witnesses with you.
2 Cor.13:1 … “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.” NKJV Always “watch” on the inside for the witness of the Spirit.
Rom 9:1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit NKJV
Conscience is the expression of the spirit. So to be sensitive to God, you must keep a clean conscience. The Blood of Jesus purges our conscience from dead works so we can serve the living God. Hebrews teaches us that we should have no more sin-consciousness but a clear conscience. If your conscience bothers you, it will hinder your being led. But thank God there is repentance and cleansing of your conscience thereby getting you sensitive to the Holy Spirit again!
