being led by the Holy Spirit

Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

I began in Part One of this two-part post to help you understand that God is not a genie who waves his magic wand and makes our problems go away. Some of our problems—most of them, to be straightforward, are self-inflicted. We create a great deal of the problems we experience. But, there are some problems that are not self-inflicted. They are an attack of the devil on your life, and you had nothing to do with creating them. In those instances, we hold fast to God’s promises of help, protection, and deliverance and learn to stand in faith, trusting Him to supernaturally help us out of them. But, for the majority of problems we’ve experienced and helped create, He wants to help us grow and learn so that we may spiritually mature so that we can avoid causing a reoccurrence of those problems in the future.

Let me give you an example by telling on myself. I am sitting here at this moment in pain. I threw my back out. I actually know just how I did it and when I did it. I did the same thing last month. After the first time, I prayed for the Lord to heal me. But I also had to go to the Chiropractor for help. I explained to him what I had done, and after working on it, he told me exactly what I needed to do to avoid this from happening again. In two days, I was back to 100%. Just two days ago, one month after I went through this last time, I repeated the exact same thing and threw my back out again. To be perfectly honest, the Lord was speaking to me and cautioning me to stop just before it happened. I ignored it and caused it again. That will not happen again! Ever! I have learned my lesson. But this is what we go through over and over again in life. Pain causes us to seriously and prayerfully reflect on what is happening. Reflection opens the door for the Lord to help us grow up, listen, obey, and mature, which is what any good parent wants for their child!

In Part One, I told you how God makes a spiritually blameless! 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NIV) says, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul (your mind and emotions,) and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Part of the blameless God wants for us is to grow up and mature in obedience to His word. To do that, we need to understand how God leads us. First, you must understand you are a three-part being (as you see in the above scripture). You are a spirit. You have a soul (your mind and emotions,) and you live in a body. God speaks through the Holy Spirit to our spirit. Our spirit is to lead both our soul (our mind and emotions) and our body. Let me illustrate this: If we were a train, the engine would be the spirit and the one in the lead. Our soul (our mind and emotions) would be attached to the engine leading the way, and our body would be the caboose. The Holy Spirit leads your spirit, which in turn leads your soul (mind and emotions). And your body is the caboose. It doesn’t lead anything. It just follows.

Whenever you make the mistake of letting your soul, your (mind and emotions) lead, you’ll be on a crazy ride of emotions going all over the map. Your soul (your mind and emotions) is not the boss. Your soul was created to follow your spirit led by the Holy Spirit! Your body never gets a say because it always lusts for everything. It desires to be irresponsible and follow its lusts! That’s why it’s the caboose and follows your soul, led by your spirit, led by the Holy Spirit. When you learn to listen and follow what God is telling you, and your mind and emotions get in agreement, you drag your body along and get the job done right. This IS how you spiritually mature over time!

This is how God intends believers to get in line with Him. This is how we learn from our mistakes, make changes, grow and mature, and have a life pointed in the right direction on the right track. This is how you build spiritual strength! Do this, and you will experience life-long continuous growth and blessing with God mercifully helping you during your mistakes (which get fewer and fewer) and supernaturally helping you through demonic attacks. Read and watch how God does that, learning about Hezekiah in 2 Kings 18:13-19:37.

God is compassionate and empathetic. He knows that when we become believers and His children, we are like children growing up. He is extremely merciful. But He also expects us to learn, grow up, and mature. He will help us through every problem and deliver us from every attack of the enemy as we stand in faith. But He has no magic wand to wave to solve our problems. Jesus never used one! He is not your genie. He is your God and the leader of your life! Reverence Him, grow up in Him, and know that He is merciful and always desirous to help you and deliver you from attacks of the enemy. Pray about and learn this and apply it, and you will grow up blameless, spirit, soul, and body, and you will experience maturity, abounding blessing, and far fewer problems in your life. That is God’s long-term will for you!

2 Corinthians 3:18 (NLT) “… And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into His glorious image.”

In His love,
Pastor Tim Burt

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