Welcome to The Line of Fire.
This is Michael Brown. Class is now in session. As we continue this week talking about getting to know the Holy Spirit, I want to wrap things up in the next five days or so. As we are doing our best to look at the Word, to look at our own spiritual experience, and to understand who the Holy Spirit is, how we relate to Him, how we can be led by the Holy Spirit, how we can deepen our walk with the Holy Spirit, and more effectively, by the Holy Spirit. If you are not getting my frontline newsletter, it comes out once a month. It is digital. It is beautifully produced.
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Start with class one if you missed it. This is all our free digital school of the Word and Spirit. We know that Jesus said in John 10 that the sheep hear his voice and follow him. This is continuous.
The Greek is continuous. It is not just at salvation, but in an ongoing way. Why is it we have not plunged into all kinds of darkness as believers? Because we have such strong wills?
No. Because the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives. Why is it that we still believe God and His Word? Is it because we are such tenacious believers?
No. It is because the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives. Why is it that we have not destroyed our lives a hundred times over since we have been believers and we are still here today? Is it because we are so wise and savvy?
No. It is because the Lord is our shepherd. Psalm 23, perhaps the most famous Psalm in the Bible, David declared, David himself a shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd. And then Jesus says of himself, Yeshua says in John 10, I am the good shepherd.
And then in Hebrews 13, he is called the great shepherd. The shepherd knows how to lead his sheep. The shepherd knows how to lead his sheep. The shepherd knows how to protect his sheep. It is our job to seek to walk closely with the shepherd. It is our job to follow his voice. I have said it before, but I will say it again. Many a time I remind the Lord, I am just a dumb sheep.
I really do not know anything. I am depending on you to lead, to guide, to direct. That is God's job to do the leading and directing. We are going to follow the shepherd, the good shepherd, the great shepherd who is determined to keep us on track as we say, Lord help, I want to serve you, I want to honor you. So we are going to talk a little bit later in the week about different operations of the Spirit.
But I want to finish up some things we have been discussing. Building up our inner being. Building up our spiritual being so that we better know God and relate to God. We do not want to be so strong in the flesh with our stuff.
Our stomach is our God that we become carnal. We do not want to be so caught up just in the mind and emotions that we are not in harmony with God spiritually through his word and prayer. We want to be people of the Spirit. So I want to give you some principles. I have a long list here, but I am going to go through them quickly. About 25 items on how to be led by the Spirit. I want to be practical. This is where we live. I do not want to be so theoretical that you are like, okay, it is nice, but how do I get it?
What do I do? I remember hearing a radio broadcast when I was in college and the guy was talking about how he wakes up in the morning, it is not him, it is Christ living in him. I remember saying, I know that is theoretically true, but when I wake up in the morning it feels like me. It does not feel like Christ, it feels like me. So how do we grasp these things? As many as are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God, they are the children of God, Romans 8. How are we led by the Spirit?
How is God working in our lives? Number one, let us start here. Recognize that you are one of Jesus' sheep and that he does lead his flock.
Let us start there. This is point number one on how to be led by the Spirit. Recognize that you are one of his sheep. Now I know I am speaking to very seasoned believers and I am speaking to new believers, so wherever you are just remind yourself it is not up to you to figure out everything.
It is not up to you to know how to live in light of the future that you do not even know. It is up to you, it is up to me to recognize we are sheep. Yes, we are also called warriors, we are also called soldiers, we are also called servants, there are many different images and metaphors, but we are sheep. And that means that we belong to Jesus, Yeshua, and he leads his flock. Can you simply make that confession of faith? Lord, I believe that I am one of your sheep and that you lead your flock and that I can trust you. Can you make that profession?
I believe you can. Number two, all believers are being led by the Spirit to crucify the flesh and to walk in obedience to God. The New Covenant, the very essence of the New Covenant, according to Ezekiel 36, is that God puts his Spirit in us.
According to Jeremiah 31, he writes his laws on our hearts, he writes his Torah, his teaching on our hearts. He has changed us so that now we are not just fleshly, earthly, carnal creatures, we are children of God, yes, still living in this body, in this world, still with a mind that needs to be renewed, hence the battle. But every day of our lives, the Holy Spirit is working within us to say no to sin and yes to God. Again, that is the primary reason we all don't fall headlong into sin overnight. It is not primarily the strength of our will, it is primarily the strength of the Spirit working in us. And as we yield ourselves to God, our heart, our mind becomes in harmony with the Spirit.
And with all of our being, we say, Lord, we want to serve you, we want to honor you, we want to love you. So recognize, even when you are not conscious of it, it is the Holy Spirit leading you to say no to sin and yes to God. When we fall short, it is the Holy Spirit convicting us, not condemning us, not condemning us. Condemnation is you are guilty, away from me. Conviction is you have sinned, come near me. That is God speaking to us by conviction, by the Spirit. And yes, the Greek word for convict, used in John 16, that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of righteousness and sin and judgment. That same word convict, alenko in the Greek, is used in other places in the New Testament for God speaking to his people. It is rebuke, it is correction. Revelation 3.19 uses that same word as Jesus says, as many as I love, I rebuke, therefore be zealous and repent. So, for sure, for sure, the Holy Spirit is leading you and me every day to say no to sin and yes to God. Let me give you an example again. I have had people over the years come to me, a student in the ministry school, weeping, wanting to confess something.
They fell back into something, they are so embarrassed by it and they are weeping over it. I said, hey, here is the good news. Before you knew the Lord, you sinned like that all the time and it did not bother you at all.
We will get you help to work these things through in your life, but here is the good news. In the old days, you used to sin like that and you even boasted about it. You did not even care about it. You were indifferent to it. Now, you start to fall into it and you are grieving.
Why? Because the Holy Spirit is at work in you. Sometimes we give ourselves an easy pass, but other times we are harder on ourselves than God is. God is at work in you to change you. So, number one, recognize that you are one of the Lord's sheep and that he does lead his flock.
Number two, recognize that the Holy Spirit is at work in you every day to help you to say no to sin and yes to God. We are constantly being led by the Spirit in that way. Number three, all believers are being led into God's plan and purpose for their lives.
Meaning, if you are yielding your life to God daily, if you are coming before him in prayer, if you are stopping to take in his word, if you are consciously saying, Lord, I am your son, I am your daughter, I am your servant, I want to glorify you, I want you to work through me, which is what most of us are doing as his children, some more than others, then God is at work in you. He has a plan. He has a purpose. He has a destiny.
Your life is going somewhere. It is not just random. We are not the outcome of a random unguided evolutionary process and our minds are just neurons firing. No, there is a purpose. There is a plan. There is a destiny. I have been moved by a destiny and calling from God for decades. I have been moved by the sense of purpose. Yes, my ultimate calling is to be a child of God and to delight in him and to enjoy his presence, to know him and make him known. But I am moved with that sense of destiny and purpose. You say, Mike, I do not have a calling like you do. I am not a public person. Dr. Brown, I am a businessman.
I am busy homeschooling five kids. Please, all of us in Jesus have a purpose. All of us in Jesus have a destiny. All of us in Jesus have a calling, some more public than others. But often the most important callings are the ones that nobody sees.
The most important callings are the things done behind closed doors in private, alone with God, or when he is just watching your faithfulness at work to walk ethically. He sees that and you have a witness. You have no idea how he is using you. Do not measure the way the world measures. Do not measure the way the internet measures. Do not measure the way our own minds measure. Measure the way God measures.
What he esteems is the inner beauty of the life set apart to him and obedience in the little things when no one is looking. But hear me, friend, if you are a child of God, you have a purpose. You have a destiny. You are not just saved, you are called. And you are called for a purpose.
You are here in this very confused generation. You are here for such a time as this. Let that be kind of a spiritual bedrock, a spiritual bedrock in your own life.
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Thank you for your generosity towards us, for your great wellness products. We're going to continue on our list. Number four, the most fundamental way God will lead us is through his written word.
So we're recapping some of the things we've been teaching. The most fundamental way God will lead us is through his written word. Whether you speak in tongues, whether you prophesy, whether you've had dreams or visions, we should all agree on this. This is the bedrock.
This is the foundation. And in fact, the more we have the word in our hearts and our minds, the more clearly we'll recognize the Spirit's voice. The more we have the word in our hearts and minds dominating our thinking, the more our spiritual being will be built up based on the truth of God's word and the more supernatural fruit we will see. So, primary way that God will speak the most fundamental way is through his written word. Number five, yes, he can speak through dreams and visions, but we should not rely on those means. Six, he can speak through prophetic words, but we should not seek them out. Seven, he can speak through an audible voice, but this is rare and it still has to be recognized as divine. Eight, he can speak through human counsel, but human counsel is fallible. Nine, he can speak through outward signs, but we should not expect them or blindly follow them. Ten, he can speak through fleeces, but this is a secondary means and presupposes the rightness of our fleece.
You say, what's a fleece? So, in the book of Judges, God calls Gideon to do battle against the enemy of the day. And he is overwhelmed by the odds and it seems very difficult. So, he says, okay God, if you are really, really calling me.
I mean, he has an angel of the Lord appeared and that should have been enough. If you are really, really calling me to go into battle when we are outmanned and outgunned, then, okay, I am going to do two different things. I am going to lay a fleece, so literal, a fleece. I am going to lay it on the grass and overnight when I get up, because you are going to have the dew, the morning dew, if the fleece is dry and everything around it is wet, then I will know it is you.
And I may have the order wrong, I apologize. So, okay, if the fleece is dry, everything around it is wet, then I will know you are really calling me. So, God does it. Actually, Lord, I could use one more sign.
How about tomorrow morning we do the same thing, I will leave it out overnight. If the fleece is wet with dew and everything around it is dry, then I will know it is God. So, God does it twice.
And then God says, okay, because I have spoken to you so supernaturally, I am going to really test your faith. But, look, I remember one time I was asking God about something, I was a new believer, and I said, okay, I am going to put this fleece before you. It is now a metaphor, it is not a physical fleece like made from goat skin or with goat's hair, whatever. It is not a literal fleece, but it is a term that is used in a lot of circles. We put a fleece before the Lord. I said, all right, I am going to put this fleece before you, Lord. There is this card, this birthday card, I don't know, it was in my bedroom.
Teenager living at home. I said, all right, Lord, when I wake up in the morning, because the thing could barely stand, when I wake up in the morning, if it has fallen to the right, that means this. If it has fallen to the left, it means this. And I woke up in the morning and it was still standing. I mean, just the slightest breath, how did it make it through the night?
It didn't move. Another time, I thought I am going to play Bible roulette. Now, I know some people in desperate times in an absolute desperate situation where they had to hear from God saying, I don't know what to do, you got to help me, open the Bible at random and point it and it was a divine word.
I know some pretty supernatural examples of that, really. But I said, okay, I am going to do it. I am going to play Bible roulette. I had my Bible with me.
I open it up and I point it and it was the blank page between the Old and the New Testaments. So, you can speak through fleeces in supernatural ways like that. But we may not even be praying the right prayer about our fleeces, this or that. So, God does use those things. And the Bible roulette thing, I have seen him use it supernaturally.
But, of course, you can't rely on that. And, of course, that is not the way that the word was intended to speak to us. So, his primary way, this is number 11, his primary way of internal leading will be through the inner witness or the inner voice. We are summing up a lot of what we taught. His primary way of internal leading will be through the inner witness or inner voice. The same way you internally witnessed your salvation is the same way you internally witnessed God's leading.
That know that you know on the inside. This inner witness or voice can be supernaturally confirmed through preaching, through other words, through warnings from God. It can also endure when others do not confirm it. Meaning, you might know that you know on the inside and then it is confirmed through outward signs. It is confirmed through prophetic words. It is confirmed in other ways. Or, other people may oppose you, but you know that you know.
It is deep seated. Now, this only works if you are walking in harmony with God. If you are living in rebellion and sin, what you feel in your heart is going to be rebellion and sin. But, if you say, Lord, I want to serve you and honor you, the inner witness can be very, very important. Number 14, walk in the direction of the light that you have. It will get brighter and clearer as you do.
Did you ever play that game, you know, you are hot, you are hot, you are getting hotter, now you are cold, you are cold, you are really cold. What I find is if I feel the Lord is leading me to do something and I lean into it, I start to walk into it, I start to step into it, it becomes clearer and clearer. Yes, yes, yes, this is God, I know it. And conversely, conversely, if it is not God, the more I step into it, no, there is no witness.
Many of you can relate to exactly what I am saying. Number 15, never sin against revealed life. In other words, if God has made plain to you that you are never to do a specific thing, that it was sinful, grievous, ugly in his sight, that you are not to touch it under any circumstances, don't go there.
If you do, repent and he will cleanse you and wash you. But if you sin against revealed light, it will really quench the witness within. Number 16, keep your life free from sin, meaning don't walk in it willfully. Every one of us, every day, whether we know it or not, we fall short of God's glory and standards.
But the key is that we are quick to repent and receive cleansing and seek to walk in the light. Number 17, cultivate intimacy with the Lord. Build up your inner being. Let me say it again, cultivate intimacy with the Lord. Build up your inner being.
Number 18, be accountable and submit it. Mavericks often mix flesh with spirit. So, when we are out from under authority, when there is no leadership over us in any way, and we just do whatever we feel like doing, I would not trust the inner witness of that person because they are in rebellion. Number 19, learn to recognize God's voice and to respond immediately to his leading. Learn to recognize God's voice and to respond immediately to his leading. When you do sense the spirit, obey, step out, and then you will see, wow, that was God. And then confirmation comes.
Number 20, grow in confidence and sensitivity through your experience. Journal it. Wow, that was the Lord.
He did leave. I did hear his voice. Journal it and grow in sensitivity. You will become more and more able to follow that inner voice. Number 21, remember the principle of Proverbs 16.3. Proverbs 16.3, do God's will today and tomorrow will fall into place automatically. Do God's will today and tomorrow will fall into place automatically.
22, learn to ride the wave. Recognize when you are on a roll, when the Lord is really moving, when supernatural faith is released, sometimes those seasons you can gain tremendous ground in a short period of time. Number 23, beware of emotionally charged circumstances that can filter your hearing. If you are physically exhausted, if you are under tremendous financial pressure, if you really desperately want something to be true, that is when you step back.
That is when you step back and say, let me get some rest, let me pray and not make a rash decision. Number four, don't rely on fortune cookies. Okay, I had to throw that in, although there is a funny fortune cookie story.
Maybe I will tell you one day, but don't rely on fortune cookies. And number 25, believe that as one of Yeshua's sheep, as a lamb in the flock of Jesus, you can hear the shepherd's voice. He said, he said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. You as one of his sheep, you hear his voice. Just say, Lord, help me to be more sensitive to your voice, be more sensitive to your spirit. And as you walk with him, it is not just some game that we are playing.
It becomes a deep relational thing. We ground our whole lives in what is written in the word of God and follow accordingly. And then through the maze of this life, he leads us and guides us. All right, we covered a lot of ground. So remember, just go to the Courage in the Line of Fire podcast, wherever you get your podcasts, or go to the Line of Fire on our YouTube channel.
Go to either of those and you can review the notes, the 25 practical points, summing up a lot of what we have been teaching about the Holy Spirit. And remember to be sure to be getting our frontline newsletter, as I mentioned at the beginning of the broadcast. Go to thelineoffire.org, click subscribe. Back with you tomorrow.
This is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for tuning in. Just a reminder that we are listener supported. If we have been a blessing to you, if you're being enriched in the word, in prayer, in your own walk with God through this broadcast, then stand with us so that we can reach many, many more and bless many, many more. Together, friends, we're making a difference. So go to thelineoffire.org, thelineoffire.org and click donate.
