How To Be Led By The Holy Spirit - Part 5

Welcome to the Low Start Church podcast.

Pastor CF and Nicole Ray are here to share the Word of God with you each week, helping you grasp the fullness of God's plan for your life.

We hope you'll be blessed by this week's message.

If you live in Northwest Missouri or Southern Iowa, we invite you to join us in person on a Sunday morning.

For more information about us, visit our website at poststartch.org or find us on Facebook, Instagram, or talking about how to be led by the Spirit of God.

It is one of the most important things you can ever learn after you get born again because God wants to lead you, guide you, direct you.

And you have to know how that happens.

How many of you think God will make a better decision than you can in your life?

Anyone think God can make better decisions than you can in your life?

Anyone ever make a bad decision?

Right?

You ever you ever you ever buy like you go and you're like, man, I'm gonna buy that shirt.

Man, that's a good looking shirt.

You buy it and you put it on, it doesn't fit right, and it doesn't, and you spent too much money and you cut the tags off because you're stupid and right, and you you you didn't try it on, and you're just like, man, I'm an idiot.

What was I doing?

Or you you you're watching a show and you're like, this is mainly for the ladies, guys don't do this.

Uh, I'm gonna get my hair done like that.

Boy, she's got beautiful, and you take the picture in.

Number one, you're going to like you're going to a hairdresser, not talented enough to do it, or you don't have the same shape of face or anything else, and you get it, and you're like, You go home and your husband's like, what happened?

Like, you don't like this?

You're like, no, do you?

And she's like, no.

You're like, how much do you spend?

She goes,$125.

Right?

The Holy Spirit knows things that you don't.

God knows things.

Uh, here's the amazing thing about God, He will never make a mistake.

We make mistakes all the time.

You you ever make uh even a what you thought was a well-thought-out choice?

I am a uh I I I love my wife, and I I love uh at times the fact that we are very different.

Neither one of us probably loves all the time that we are different, because sometimes uh difference causes friction.

But friction sharpens a knife, right?

You gotta have a little friction.

Iron sharpens iron.

How many no iron doesn't come together and be real nice to each other, talk real nice all the time.

Now we're always kind and cordial, but you understand there are times, and so what I found in our relationship is this that Nicole is a jump first, ask questions later type of person.

I'm a ask a million questions and jump in a year type of person.

I know neither one of those is right all the time.

There's a balance to it.

And so if you'll realize that many times the the saying is true that opposites attract, the reason God brought the two of you together isn't so you'd be alike all the time.

You'd be like each other, it's so you could balance each other.

There's a balance to life.

Uh it it's uh Brother Hagin used to put it this way uh keeping it between the ditches.

Right?

There's a ditch on either side of the road, and and neither ditch is a good one to end up in.

And so Nicole has helped me uh to learn how not to just uh drag my feet on everything.

There have been some things here at church uh over 23 years that we've been pastoring uh that I I dragged my feet on.

And then once we did it, boy, I'm like, boy, that works real well.

And she's like, I've been telling you that for two years.

I was like, don't rub it in.

So there's balance.

But know this when you hear from the Holy Spirit, you need to always be quick to obey, quick to, quick to step into that decision.

And so we're gonna look here and uh finish up talking about how to be led by the Spirit of God because He wants to lead God and direct you, and He will never make a mistake, even when it looks like it may not be the correct way to go, He knows better.

Why?

Because He knows the future, He knows the future.

Meaning sometimes the Holy Spirit's gonna tell you to take a turn down a road, and you're gonna look at it and be like, that doesn't look like a good road to go down.

Well, what's he know?

He knows what you don't, he knows what's at the end of that road.

He he knows not just what's in the first mile of that road, not just what's in the first 10 miles of that road, he knows what's at the the 100-mile marker.

You you don't know those things.

That's why you just take every good road you see.

Because you're like, well, that looks good.

You ever do that?

You know, when I was young, uh no one does anymore because gas is too expensive.

But me and my friends, when we were like Lucy's age, we would play on Sunday afternoons.

I'd I'd uh my mom dragged me to church, so I'd start dragging my two best friends to church with me.

Now, praise God, both those guys got born again here in this church.

See what dragging someone to church might do?

Change their life.

And so after church, we'd go home, mom would fix dinner, and then we would go play a game which we called right left.

And so what we would do, we'd get my 1988 Dodge Dakota pickup, and we would go out on a gravel road.

And the first right we had, we would take.

You had to take the first road on your right.

Then as you drove on that road, you had to take the first road on your left.

So on and so forth, and you're just right left and all the way through.

We ended up in places I didn't even know existed before.

But when gas is 60 cents a gallon, right?

You just drive all day, you don't care.

We did up placing one time we ended up and we we got, and there was a road, and and uh one of my friends like, that's the next right.

And I'm like, I'm not sure that's a road.

He goes, No, no, I'm pretty sure that's a road.

It was more a path.

But when you're 16 and you got a four-wheel drive pickup, that's not a path, that's a road, baby.

Right?

Shifter down in four, we're going.

And we took it, and then we got to the end, and he, another guy goes, I think that's a road to the left.

And I go, that is surely not a road.

But we took it.

We ended up way back in the sticks, found this house way back there that I bet no one had been in that house for a hundred years.

Pretty.

Down by this little bend in the Grand River, beautiful little area, little meadow back here.

Well, you look at roads and you either think they look good or they look bad, and you make a decision on whether you're going down it.

Well, the Holy Spirit knows what's at the end of that road.

So when he tells you to go, just go.

Just jump in.

Amen.

Just jump in.

Romans chapter 8 and verse 14.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

We've looked at these scriptures a number of times.

Paul talking about the uh Holy Spirit.

Look at what he says here, Romans 8, verse 14.

Romans 8:14

It says, For as many as are led by what?

The Spirit of God, these are the sons of God, the children of God.

Who?

Those who are led by his spirit.

Doesn't say led by outward signs, doesn't say led by open doors, doesn't say led by closed doors, doesn't say led by fleeces.

We talked about those last week, where you pray, God, if you want me to do this, then you do this.

Right?

Gideon did that.

Gideon wasn't even born again.

So why people that pray that way and say, well, it's in the Bible, that is true.

It is in the Bible, but not everything in the Bible means you should do it.

You know, you know a verse in the Bible that says, Judas went out and hung himself.

Go and do ye likewise.

No, we right, we don't just do that just because something's in the Bible.

Well, Gideon was operating in the dark.

We operate in the light because we're born again.

The Holy Spirit only was upon priests, prophets, and kings in the Old Testament.

As a believer in the New Testament, New Covenant, the Holy Spirit not just is upon me, he's in me.

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

Verse 16 takes it a little deeper.

This is what we've been talking about.

It says, the Holy Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

Brother Hagin said it this way in the book that if you're uh going to connect groups, you'll be studying out of.

The number one way that God wants to lead the born-again New Testament believer is by the inward witness.

The inward witness, right?

You are a spirit.

You possess a soul, your mind will and emotions, you live in a body.

The Holy Spirit, when you get born again, comes to live on the number one, when you get born again, you get a brand new recreated spirit created in the image of God that's on the inside of you.

That's the real you.

Uh Paul calls it the inner man.

Uh Peter calls it the hidden man of the heart, right?

But it's the real you.

The you that is going to live forever, the you that's eternal is a spirit.

This body is going to return to the earth from which it was made.

But your spirit will live forever in one of two places.

You're born again, it'll live forever in heaven.

If you're not born again, you're you're not regenerated, not born again spirit, will live forever with the God whom it served in hell.

But you, the real you, is a spirit.

You possess soul, mind, well, emotions, live in a body.

So the Holy Spirit, when you get born again, comes and lives in your spirit, not in your mind, not in your flesh, but in your spirit.

And I liken it this way to the inward witness.

It is uh, it's not, you're not hearing words.

It I liken it to a uh a stop light.

Sometimes that inward witness, you just get a green light.

You're just like, well, I just got peace.

I'm just going to continue down this road.

Sometimes you get a yellow.

Now I know some of you think yellow means speed up.

If you take your driver's test, that is not what, right?

If you're on your driver's test and they say, What does yellow mean?

Speed up.

That's not what it means.

It means caution.

Right?

Be careful.

When I was in college down at Mizzou, uh, I was with uh uh a friend, a couple guys.

I was not driving, and uh we were we uh ran a light right down at uh what was it?

It was down at uh college and stadium, right right there at that stoplight.

Ran a light, it's kind of late at night.

The cop probably thought we were up to no good.

We weren't, we were just out driving around.

And he stopped us.

This is this old cop, and he comes up to the window.

He goes, You boys know why I stopped you?

We go, no, sir.

He goes, Well, you ran that light.

My friend who was driving says, Sir, it was yellow.

He goes, Boys, let me tell you something.

He goes, You got four seconds on them yellows.

You were about two seconds too late.

We're like, oh boy.

Then he goes, he looks at my friend's driver's license, he goes, Albany, Missouri.

Yeah.

We're like, we're all from Albany.

He goes, Y'all know Joe Christensen, state patrolman up there.

Oh, we know Joe.

Went to school with his son, played football, right?

Oh, we know Joe.

He goes, You ever go fishing up there?

Oh, we man, we've been up there.

He goes, tell you what, you boys, let me run your license through.

If you're not wanting five or six states, I'll let you go.

I remember that conversation like it happened yesterday.

Yellow light, though.

Right?

Yellow means caution.

Red light means what?

Stop.

Look around, check things out.

Sometimes the inward witness, it's a green light.

I'm just going to proceed the way I feel like I'm supposed to go.

Right?

I heard from God, now I'm proceeding.

I'm going to keep proceeding until I get what?

Yellow.

Now I get a yellow.

What am I going to do?

I'm on pause for a second.

I'm on look to my left and my right.

Am I going in the right direction?

Then sometimes the inward witness is just a red light.

It's just, there's just not, it's unsettled on the inside.

So we we looked at it last week.

We're not going to go back, but but just if you want to uh know the scripture reference in Acts chapter 15, Acts 15, 25 and 28.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

We're not going to read them, but Acts 15, 25 and 28, we see the uh disciples, and they say the, they use these phrases.

It seemed good to us.

The next verse says, It seemed good to us and the Holy Spirit to do this.

It seemed good.

Right?

They didn't say we heard a voice.

They didn't say we had a vision.

They said, Why are you doing that?

Boy, it just seems good.

How did I end up in Bible college?

Man, it just seemed good.

Let me tell you a story.

You want a story?

How many of you like stories?

How many know Jesus taught a lot in stories?

We call them parables, but they're stories.

I know a lot of what Brother Hagin taught was in stories.

You know what you can learn?

You can learn a lot from a story.

You say, why are you telling this story?

Because I believe this is going to help some people here.

So here's my story.

I graduate high school, and uh I'm gonna go, and I did go to the University of Missouri.

Uh I went there because I had uh I felt like that's what was expected of me.

Uh my brother Kent had gone to the University of Missouri.

My sister Ramona was currently a senior, going to be a senior the next year at the University of Missouri.

Kevin had gone to northwest Missouri.

Uh I had nine classmates from Albany all going to the University of Missouri.

And I just thought, well, that's just, I'm supposed to go to college.

That's what I'm going to do.

So I went and I was unsettled the entire time I was there.

It's a good place, right?

You can get a good education.

You you can learn things.

I was unsettled the whole time I was there.

I could have taken better advantage of being unsettled there.

I didn't.

But I was just unsettled.

And I got to the point finally I took a semester off and went and did things and came back.

Took another semester off, went and did things, came back.

Why'd I keep coming back?

Not because I heard from God, not because I had any inward witness.

It was because I just thought that's what was expected of me.

I also didn't want to disappoint my mother.

My dad had passed away when I was a junior in high school.

And I thought, boy, my mom needs me to uh go get a college degree and be successful, successful, help her, whatever.

And right, we'd already spent all this money.

I don't, I don't want to, I mean, that'd be a waste just to leave if we've already spent all this money.

I know God's not worried about the money.

He's worried about your obedience.

He's worried about you being in his will.

And so uh I ended up, I left a semester short of graduation.

I was like, boy, I just can't go back.

Something on the inside, I'm like, I just can't go back.

So I went and worked, and I'm working, and uh I'm working, traveling, making more money than a 20-year-old knows what to do with.

And uh I'm back at my mom's house for the weekend.

And uh she's upstairs praying with a bunch of ladies, and I'm like, oh, those ladies need to be quiet.

I'm watching TV down this basement.

And I hear someone come down the steps, and uh I get a knock on my door.

And so uh I get that knock on on my my bedroom door and I open it.

It's one of the ladies she's praying with.

She goes, CF, we've been praying about, we've been praying about you, and we think you're supposed to go to school here.

And she hand me a pamphlet for Rhema before the internet or anything.

She didn't give me a website, she hands me a pamphlet for Rhema, and I look at her, and I'm nice because my mom raised me right.

And so I look at her and I say, uh, I say, thank you.

I appreciate it.

I smile, and then we shut the door, and I think, oh, well, she know what I'm supposed to do.

I'm like, I don't even know that lady.

She's crazy.

Cuckoo.

And I take that pamphlet from Raymond, I put it in my black bicycle messenger bag that I carry with me on the road when I'm flying and traveling, and I'm in a days in in Sumter, South Carolina.

And I get that pamphlet out of my book one evening in my hotel room, and I look at it and I start to read it, and I don't hear a voice from God.

I don't have a vision, an angel didn't come into that hotel room.

But something on the inside of me, I didn't hear a voice, but something on the inside of me is like, I think I'm supposed to go to school here.

I'd never heard of Kenneth Hagen.

I didn't know anything about the school.

I didn't know, I I couldn't have pointed out Broken Arrow, Oklahoma on a map if you'd asked me to.

But something on the inside is like, you're supposed to go to school there.

For the first time in my life, in my adult life, right?

Those where we think we're an adult, but we're not fully, right?

In that period, I'm like, I think I know what I'm supposed to do with my life.

So I applied, got accepted, and a few months later, I'd packed up my 88 Dodge to go to pickup, like the Beverly Hillbillies with wooden rails on the side and everything I own in the back of it.

And I moved myself to Oklahoma.

I didn't know anyone there.

I didn't know anything about the school.

But I'm like, for the first time in life, there's a piece about where my future is that I'd never had before.

How did I get that?

I had never been taught the things I'm teaching you right now.

I didn't know how to be led by the Spirit of God, but I was being led by the Spirit of God, even though I didn't even know how.

I look back now and I look at every step, the inward witness, I was being led.

There were times in my mind, I'm like, why am I doing this?

Is crazy to move to Oklahoma to go to a school I've never heard of.

But something on the inside was like, go ahead and do it.

If for one of the first times in my life, I didn't overthink it.

I just did it.

And all of a sudden, that was uh 96.

Now it's 2026, and I've been pastoring for 23 years.

Why?

Because there was always a call of God in my life.

There's some people sitting in here.

How many know?

Thank you, Lord.

Let me let me put it this way there's a call of God on everyone's life in here.

There's a call of God on your life, but some people you have a call to ministry, and you've struggled with finding other things in your life.

Some people, it's a call to do something other than you're currently doing.

You know why a lot of people stay in the same job?

Because they figure, well, I've got 30 years invested in this.

What am I gonna do now?

Well, you can just keep trudging along, or you can decide to see God hear from Him.

You think God has success in your future?

It may be a different path than what you're on.

But you've got to learn how to hear that inward witness.

Right?

It's on the inside.

Right?

There there were there were glimpses of it in my life.

There were glimpses of it the night, and I've told you this story.

I'm walking across campus.

I'm walking across campus and I hear a faint cry for help, and there's a man who had fallen.

He was walking with crutches, he was crippled.

I helped him up, and something on the inside means like you're supposed to help people.

But I didn't know.

I'm like, what am I supposed to do with that?

Let's go over to Romans chapter 9.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

I'm not gonna keep you much longer here.

Romans 9 and verse 1.

Because I want you to see this as we close.

We've been talking about these same things.

And I would encourage you, uh, go back and watch some of these online.

I think this is the fifth and and final one, talking about being led by the Spirit of God.

Go back and watch some of these, read these scriptures over, see what God's speaking to you.

But here, Paul says, I tell the truth in Christ, I'm not lying.

My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit.

Anyone ever heard about a person having a conscience?

Everyone's like, I know who you're talking about.

Jiminy Cricket.

Right?

That was the conscience in Old Disney stuff, right?

Well, your conscience, get this, and and and I shared this, and this blew my mind the first time I heard it.

Your conscience is the voice of your spirit.

It's not the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Your conscience is the voice of your spirit.

Now, if you're born again and the Holy Spirit's living in your spirit, speaking to your spirit, you can trust that voice on the inside.

You ever have your your you hear that voice on the inside?

Don't do that.

Anyone ever had that?

Don't do that.

Your conscious.

It's it's it's the voice, your conscious is the voice of your spirit.

And if you're born again, you've got a recreated spirit, and the Holy Spirit lives in there, you can trust that voice.

But I'm gonna finish with this.

Uh real quick, let me give you the scripture.

1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 2.

1 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

Thank you, Lord.

I believe the Holy Spirit is speaking to people as I've been talking this whole time, giving you direction, letting you know it's okay.

I'm gonna tell you, and and this is mainly to young people.

Uh your parents won't be disappointed in you if you tell them the Holy Spirit's telling you to do something.

Bo, when he was little, I mean like 10, 11.

I took him to a movie and it wasn't it wasn't a bad movie.

It was it was right, a movie you would normally take a kid his age to.

We sat down in the theater and he goes, Dad, I feel like the Holy Spirit's telling me there's some things in this movie I shouldn't see.

A year or so later, we're at a children's church camp, and he goes, Dad, the Holy Spirit wants me to share some things with you.

And he told me some things, some ministry things, right?

10, 11-year-old telling his 30-some-year-old dad some things.

God wants him to tell me.

I remind myself of that often because he's my oldest, and so he's really more out on his own than the the other two.

I say, Bo, remember those two times?

I said, I know there's been more than that in your life, but I want to remind you of this.

You hear from God.

You hear from God.

Jesus said, My sheep know my voice.

Said, you hear from God.

But here, right, Paul says, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.

So your conscience is the voice of your spirit.

If you're born again, re you have a brand new spirit with the Holy Spirit living, you can trust that voice, but you can sear your conscience.

So I'm on finish with this.

And I was telling someone in between services because they we were talking about this.

I said, I didn't share this scripture.

And you say, How do you sear your conscience?

Here's how you sear your conscience.

You don't listen to it, you're not quick to obey it.

When the Holy Spirit, right, speaks to your spirit, and your spirit tells you to do something, you don't do it.

You drag your feet, all of a sudden, what happens?

You start to sear that.

All of a sudden, you're not hearing as clearly anymore.

Why?

Because you're searing it.

You're telling it no.

You're saying, I don't need to hear you, I don't need to listen to you.

I've got a brain, I have my own decisions.

You don't want to sear your conscience.

You can, if you're born again and you're seeking God, you can trust the voice of your conscience.

It will not lead you astray.

Your brain, your mind, your emotions, your flesh could be screaming something else, but you can always trust the leading of that inward witness.

You can always trust the Holy Spirit speaking to your spirit, guiding and directing you.

Thank you for tuning in to the Lone Star Church podcast.

We hope this week's message strengthen your faith in God's word.

Remember, if you live in northwest Missouri or southern Iowa, we invite you to join us in person on a Sunday morning.

For more information about us, visit our website at Lone StarCurch.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.