Passage
[Romans 8:12-16]
“So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh [13] for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. [14] For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. [15] For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” [16] The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.”
Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
From the settlement of the sons of Israel in the Canaan Land until the time they had a king, they were in a period of confusion for some hundreds of years.
After the second generation of the Exodus all died, they forgot the word of God.
The last verse of the book of Judges, Judges 21:25 explains about the time of the judges as follows:
“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” That is to say, each person just lived according to what they thought to be righteous and proper.
Then, did they feel free and comfortable because they lived as they wanted? By no means!
They had to suffer from many pains because they were invaded by so many neighboring enemies such as Mesopotamians, Midianites, Moabites, Philistines, and Amalekites.
They caused many hardships for themselves because they did not keep the Law and commandments of God. They even worshiped the idols that the Gentiles worshiped.
During the time of judges, some filthy sins were committed that were only possible in places like Sodom and Gomorrah.
In wars that were not with the foreign enemies but among the tribes of Israel some tens of thousands of lives were lost.
But when the people cried out in their suffering, God appointed the judges and saved them from the difficulties.
But not all the judges understood the will of God clearly.
To the extent that the judges did not follow the will of God, the people again fell into hardships.
Brothers and sisters, as explained, if the children of God do not have the word of God namely the truth, they cannot have peace or comfort.
Their lives will just be a continuation of sufferings.
God the Father has sent to each of us the Helper the Holy Spirit.
The Helper the Holy Spirit knows the will of God so clearly to the extent that He cannot be compared with any Judges of the Old Testament.
If we can just hear the voice and receive the urging and guidance of the Holy Spirit clearly, we can understand the will of God very well.
Then we can live by the word of God and go the way of peace and blessings.
This is the third session on hearing the voice, the urging, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
From now, I will explain to you in detail as to what we have to do to hear the voice and receive the urging and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will always enjoy peace and go the way of life by living according to the will of God, the word of truth through the guidance of the Helper the Holy Spirit.
[Main]
Brothers and sisters, in the last session, I explained what it is to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and what it is to receive the urging of the Holy Spirit.
Now, what is to receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit?
To receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit is for us to obey when we hear the voice or receive the urging of the Holy Spirit.
For example, while you are listening to the message or in your ardent prayers or praises, you might receive the urging to do a certain thing.
Or, when you have to choose between one of two options, you pray about it to know the will of God.
Then, you feel a strong urge towards one side.
So, you realize it is the urging of the Holy Spirit and obey it.
Likewise, if you obey the voice or the urging of the Holy Spirit you received, this is to be guided by the Holy Spirit.
Even though the Holy Spirit gives you the voice or urges you to do a certain thing, you cannot be said to be guided by Him if you just do not obey.
Even though the Holy Spirit offers us His hands first, we cannot by guided by Him unless we take those hands.
Or, even though we obey, we cannot be guided by the Holy Spirit if we change our attitude mid-way.
For example, suppose you want to receive an answer to a problem, and you feel the urging of the Holy Spirit that you can receive the answer if you offer up a vowed prayer in Daniel prayer meeting.
So, you follow the urging and attend the Daniel prayer meeting diligently.
But even though the vowed period is almost up, you don’t see any sign of the answer.
You come to have many thoughts like, “Was it really the voice of the Holy Spirit, or just my thought?”
If you change your mind about the vowed prayer at this point you will not receive the answer. So, what kind of voice does the Holy Spirit give to us?
He will remind us of the word in Luke 18:1 that says that at all times we ought to pray and not lose heart.”
Namely, He will move our heart to continue and finish our vowed prayer.
If you have more of the word of God in you, you will be reminded of the passage in the Bible where Daniel received the answer after praying for 21 days.
When Daniel prayed to God to receive something great, God gave him the answer on the first day itself.
Archangel Gabriel was bringing the answer but was blocked by the evil spirits, and it took 21 days to get the answer to Daniel by the help of the Archangel Michael.
Likewise, we can be said to be guided by the Holy Spirit only when we follow the urging of the Holy Spirit.
But in some cases, although you don’t really change your mind along the way, you may fall away from the guidance of the Holy Spirit because you do not have enough truth in your heart.
While you follow the voice and urging of the Holy Spirit, you suddenly begin to follow your own thoughts from one moment to the next.
For example, by the urging of the Holy Spirit a person vows to give to God a certain amount of offering.
He vowed to give to God a certain amount of church construction offering.
Soon, the land which hadn’t been sold for a long time was sold, so he wanted to give the vowed offering with that money.
As he obeyed the urging of the Holy Spirit, God gave him the amount that he wanted to offer.
But soon, another way opened for a greater blessing.
He figured out that the amount would be greater than the price of his land that was sold.
Now, he wants to give to God more, and he decides to give God a greater amount than his vowed offering with the new blessing.
So, he spends the money he got from selling the land for his new business.
In this case, it’s not that he doesn’t want to fulfill his vow, but he changed his mind.
In Leviticus chapter 27, we find how to present a vowed offering.
Leviticus 27:9-10 says, “Now if it is an animal of the kind which men can present as an offering to the LORD, any such that one gives to the LORD shall be holy. [10] He shall not replace it or exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; or if he does exchange animal for animal, then both it and its substitute shall become holy.”
God says that even though we have something better, we must not exchange the offering before God.
If we really want to give, we have to give both of them.
It is because whatever we decided to give to God is already set apart as holy offering to God.
Brothers and sisters, the important thing in receiving the guidance of the Holy Spirit is obedience. It is to obey until the end without any change of mind.
If you obey the voice and urging of the Holy Spirit all the time, it means you are always guided by Him.
Such people can be called true children of God as said in Romans 8:14, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
We can discern whether or not we were guided by the Holy Spirit by hearing His voice and obeying it, through the fruit that is borne.
We will definitely bear spiritual fruits if we are really guided by the Holy Spirit.
Through this message, I hope you will all become true children who are always guided by the Holy Spirit.
In addition to the voice of urging and guidance of the Holy Spirit, there is a case where we hear the voice ‘in inspiration’ among the methods of communicating with the Holy Spirit.
The voice in inspiration is a little different from the Holy Spirit’s voice heard in our heart.
It is delivered clearly like a voice, so we say it is a voice.
The contents that are given through the voice in inspiration vary.
In the Bible, there are some revelations that such prophets as Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea received from God and recorded.
These revelations were given through voices by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
In the Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit didn’t dwell in the hearts of people, so He worked as the Spirit of God from outside.
Let me tell you about my experiences of having heard the voice by the inspiration. Quite a few times God let me know what would happen in the future as John 16:13 says, “He will disclose to you what is to come.”
In 1987, He let me know about the June 29 declaration, which was a big turning point in Korea’s democracy.
He let me know how it would proceed through inspiration, and urged me to put it in the church weekly bulletin.
And the actual event took place soon after we put it in the weekly bulletin as the Holy Spirit let me know.
Also, at other times, God let me know the exact amount of offerings that would be given the following Sunday.
He sometimes let me know in advance that some important persons would register in the church.
The contents revealed to me by those voices have been fulfilled exactly, and so I could proclaim it on the altar or tell the workers around me.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we have learned about the methods of communicating with the Holy Spirit.
I explained how the Holy Spirit’s voice is heard, and what it is to be urged and guided by the Holy Spirit.
If we repent and accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, everyone who has received the Holy Spirit should be able to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.
But in fact, not all those who have received the Holy Spirit do actually hear the voice or receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Even though the Holy Spirit speaks to them, they cannot hear it if they are not ready.
Then, what do we have to do to hear the voice and receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit?
We have to cultivate our heart with the truth. God is the truth itself.
In John 14:17, Jesus says the Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of truth.”
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and He can work only through the truth.
For this reason we can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit as much as the measure of truth we have in our heart.
Namely, we can hear the Holy Spirit’s voice to the extent that our spiritual faith grows up by cultivating our heart with the truth.
The faith of spirit, namely, the fourth level of faith or higher, is achieved by having cast away all untruths in our heart.
Our heart then is cultivated with the truth completely. So, we are able to hear the Holy Spirit’s voice clearly.
But of course, some new believers who are in the 1st or the 2nd level of faith hear the Holy Spirit’s voice clearly.
Even though their measure of faith is little, they can hear the voice when they are full of the Holy Spirit.
But in these cases, they will not be able to hear clearly if they lose the fullness of the Spirit.
They can continually hear the voice only when they keep on cultivating their heart with the truth and their spiritual faith increases.
They can hear the voice more clearly and more deeply to the extent that they cultivate their heart with the truth.
On the other hand, even though we have accepted the Lord and received the Holy Spirit, we cannot hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, if we do not cultivate our heart with the truth.
Therefore, to be able to hear Holy Spirit’s voice, and to hear it more clearly, we have to cast away all untruths from our heart.
Then, we have to fill our heart with the truth.
We have to do the two things at the same time: casting away untruths and filling our heart with the truth.
But to fill our heart with the truth here does not mean we store the knowledge of the truth in our head.
It is to actually cultivate our heart with the truth.
For example, Jesus said in Luke 6:27, “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”
Most of you have heard and know this verse very well. Many of you even memorized it.
But just having the knowledge in head does not mean we have cultivated it in our heart.
We can say this word of truth is cultivated in our heart only when we actually love our enemies.
Now, I want you to check whether you have cultivated this truth in your heart.
Suppose somebody bumps into you on the street and just walks away.
Then, there will be different responses. Some will understand thinking, “Certainly, he must have lost his balance!” or “He must be in a hurry!” And they do not have any discomfort.
Furthermore, they might even worry about the other person thinking, “I hope it didn’t hurt him…”
Or some others will get irritated the moment that person bumps into them and think, “He is so careless! How can he just go away without even saying ‘Excuse me’?”
These thoughts that come up in that moment cannot be made up, so you can see your heart through these situations.
Those who have cultivated the truth telling us to love our enemies will have only peaceful and good thoughts in above situations.
It is because they are full of forgiving and understanding.
On the contrary, those who have not cultivated the truth telling us to love our enemies will have anger or hatred, which is the opposite of love.
If you shake a bucket full of dirty water, the dirty water will spill. Likewise, the contents in your heart will come out.
Have you checked whether you cultivated your heart with the truth?
To cast away untruths from heart and replace it with the truth, we first have to cast away the obvious untruths, and then, we have to cast away the evil in conscience and our nature.
Thus, you do not have any time to waste if you really want to become God’s worker who hears the Holy Spirit’s voice clearly.
But by any chance are you still at the stage where you have not even cast away obvious untruths like hatred, envy, jealousy, and falsehood?
In the next session, I will explain to you about how the truth and untruth in our heart play their part in hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, during the time of the judges, the Midianites once gave a hard time to Israel for seven years.
At the end, they came to invade Israel along with Amalekites and sons of the east.
They would come in number like locusts, both they and their camels were innumerable.
32,000 men gathered with the judge, Gideon to fight this enemy.
But God said the number of the soldiers was too many, and those who were afraid were to go back.
So, 22,000 men returned and only 10,000 left.
But God said even these 10,000 were too many, and He gave instructions to select certain soldiers.
Namely, He let Gideon choose the soldiers by seeing how they drink the water.
Finally, only those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were selected.
The number was 300. God allowed for them to defeat the Midianite army through these 300 men.
Brothers and sisters, after those who were afraid left, only 10,000 men remained, and they were all volunteering to sacrifice themselves.
But even among these people, God selected just 300 men.
What was the standard to do it?
It was whether they felt the will of God at the moment or not.
The 300 men drank the water in the same way as if they agreed to do it.
This was the result of receiving the inspiration from God.
Many of you have volunteered to dedicate yourselves for the kingdom of God.
But God says there are those who are only workers and there are also workers of faith.
Those who can be sent to the spiritual warfare are the workers who can accurately receive the will of God and obey it.
In order to do this, you have to cast away the untruths from your heart.
Only then can you become true workers of faith who clearly hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and obey it.
I pray in the name of the Lord that many of you will become spiritual warriors who will lead the forthcoming spiritual warfare to victory.
[Amen]
