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,
It’s hard to find it these days, but there used to be a social class of slaves.
Slaves belonged to their master, and they were kept by their masters.
In a society where the status of slave is inherited, the children of the slaves had to live as slaves.
They were born into slavery and were maltreated throughout their whole lives.
In a society where the status system is very rigid, they could not change their social status at all.
But in fact, we were all born into spiritual slavery and lived as slaves.
Romans 6:16 says, “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?”
Psalm 51:5 says, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” As written, we all received the blood of Adam who was a sinner; we were conceived in sin and born as a sinner.
And until we accepted the Lord, we obeyed the enemy devil and Satan and lived as slaves of sin.
But thankfully, unlike the slaves of this world, we had a chance to change our status by ourselves.
By accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord, we are no longer slaves of the enemy devil and Satan but we have become the children of God and we now live a valuable life.
I believe all of you want to live a precious life as children of God.
Then, you have to obey the voice and urging of the Holy Spirit.
But what is the reason that you cannot obey even though you want to obey?
It’s because of the untruths that are in your heart.
In the last session, I explained that we have to cast away untruths from our heart and replace them with the truth in order to clearly hear the Holy Spirit’s voice.
We cannot hear the voice of the Holy Spirit clearly just by knowing the truth or by trying to cultivate the truth in us.
Therefore, if you realize that you have a lot of untruths in your heart, I hope you will diligently cast them away.
If you have determination and practice the truth, it will not take so much time to cultivate your heart with the truth.
From this session, let us delve into the process of cultivating our heart with the truth.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will all become precious children of God who obey the voice of the Holy Spirit completely.
[Main]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the fourth session on the voice and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In the last session, I explained that we have to both cast away untruth and replace it with the truth at the same time, in order to fill our heart with the truth.
Before I explain the specific ways to do it, let us first look into how the truth and untruth play their part in our heart in regard to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
I hope you will realize why you have to get rid of untruths and fill yourself with the truth.
First, the truth is like a textbook in regard to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit gives the most appropriate answer to His children in each occasion. He teaches them what to do and what to say.
Here, the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of the Truth, gives us the answer within the measure of truth that is cultivated in our heart.
For this reason, if we do not have truth in us, the Holy Spirit cannot give us any answers.
For example, those students who didn’t study at all will be in trouble on the exam day.
They won’t be able to write down any answers because they don’t know anything. The same principle applies when we hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Those who have little truth in them, even if they can hear the Holy Spirit’s voice when full of the Spirit, still have a limitation.
Therefore, we have to fill our heart with the truth diligently.
We have to read, hear, and learn the word of God that is the truth. It’s also better for us to memorize some important verses.
We have to meditate on the messages we listened to in the worship services and recall the contents.
But what is more important than all these things is to practice the word.
I have a very poor memory, but it’s not difficult for me to hear the Holy Spirit’s voice.
It’s because I don’t have the word of God as knowledge in my head but it is cultivated in my heart.
The Holy Spirit reminds me of the word of God as necessary at each moment.
In order to cultivate our heart with the truth, we have to practice the word.
We have to obey the commands in the Bible that tell us to do, not do, keep, or cast away certain things.
Even though you read the Bible, memorize some verses, and know all the contents of the sermons, that truth will not give you any power as long as you don’t cultivate it in your heart by practicing it.
Let me compare it with studying a foreign language. You cannot speak a language fluently just by studying at the desk and memorizing the textbooks.
You have to train yourself by speaking it and listening to it based on the things you learned. You have to apply the grammar and vocabulary to make some sentences, too.
You can speak it fluently only when you actually speak, write, and listen to it.
Without this kind of training, you won’t be able to speak it when you have to suddenly speak in that language.
The same goes with hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
To be able to hear the clear voice of the Holy Spirit at each moment, we must have the truth cultivated in our heart.
Only then can the Holy Spirit speak to us clearly through that truth.
In our Christian lives, many times we seek answers to certain problems.
Sometimes, the answer is very simple, but in most cases it’s not.
There could even be multiple numbers of answers, or the answers might vary for the same problem according to the measure of each individual’s faith.
If we have the truth cultivated in our heart, we can understand what the answer is through the voice of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 2:10 says, “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.”
The Holy Spirit searches even the deep things of God. It means He knows the deep things of God.
Those who have cultivated the truth in their heart will feel the heart of God through the Holy Spirit.
That is why they can understand the will of God correctly and follow it.
The truth that is cultivated in heart plays the role of the textbook so that the Holy Spirit can give us the appropriate answer.
Another role of the truth is that it lets each one obey the voice of the Holy Spirit.
For example, the Holy Spirit tells us to love our brothers, but we cannot love them as long as we don’t have love in us.
Even though we try to love, we still hate them.
On the other hand, those who have cultivated love in them will be able to love others in obedience to the voice telling them to love.
They have the ability and power to obey the voice and practice the truth.
This is the reason why I am emphasizing that we have to cultivate the truth in our heart.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as above, the truth helps us hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and lets us obey it.
Now, how does the untruths in our heart work in regard to hearing the Holy Spirit’s voice?
It does the opposite of the truth. Namely, it hinders us from hearing the voice and from obeying it.
More specifically, if we have untruths in us, first of all, we will have fleshly thoughts.
Romans 8:7 says, “… the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.”
Easily put, fleshly thoughts are the opposite thoughts of the spiritual thoughts. They stand against the Holy Spirit’s voice and urging.
I will talk about the fleshly thoughts in more detail later.
The untruths in our heart, secondly, make us follow the desire of the flesh, but not the desire of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:17 says, “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”
Simply put, fleshly desire is the nature that follows flesh but not the will of the Holy Spirit.
Likewise, if we have untruths in our heart, the two things will begin to work, namely, fleshly thoughts and the fleshly desires.
That is why we cannot hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, and even if we do, we cannot obey it.
Instead, we will only hear the voice of the enemy devil and Satan.
Upon hearing this you may doubt this fact thinking that you are the one who is in control of your behavior.
But if you understand the spiritual realm, you would understand that it is not your will but the will of the enemy devil and Satan when you do something in untruths.
The role of the enemy devil and Satan is to hinder God’s children from living according to God’s will.
Ultimately, it is to lead them to eternal death.
So, they don’t just leave them to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.
They try to let them hear the voice of Satan by utilizing the untruths in their heart.
Namely, through the fleshly thoughts and fleshly desires that are derived from the untruths, they control men as Satan wants.
Now, let me explain briefly how Satan works, and how the voice of Satan differs from the voice of the Holy Spirit.
I would like to compare it with radio waves.
The Holy Spirit always speaks to the children of God dwelling in their heart.
God’s children hear this voice through the truth in their heart. Namely, the voice or the urging comes in the heart.
On the other hand, Satan diffuses the voice of Satan just like airing the radio wave.
More specifically, Satan disseminates in the air the evil mind and the power that makes people do things of darkness.
Those who have cast away untruths from their heart and filled it with the truth hear the voice of the Holy Spirit alone.
We can say their frequency is set exactly with the voice of the Holy Spirit.
But those who are filled with untruths in their heart will accept the voice of Satan.
We can say their frequency is set with the voice of Satan.
The untruths in their heart play the role of antenna.
Just like radio antennas accept the radio wave, the untruths in heart accept the voice of Satan.
More accurately, Satan’s voice is accepted through the fleshly thoughts that are derived from untruths.
Therefore, it is easier for Satan to work on those who have many fleshly thoughts.
So, you should have correct discernment. Satan’s voice is not heard as a clear voice from outside.
The Holy Spirit’s voice is heard from the heart as a delicate voice, whereas Satan’s voice first comes through the thoughts.
More specifically, it comes through the fleshly thoughts.
Satan agitates the fleshly thoughts to stimulate the untruths in heart.
Through the fleshly thoughts, it motivates the fleshly desires.
For example, it seems another person hates you. You pass judgment on him in your thoughts.
Satan is working through your fleshly thoughts.
Then, your mind is burning with hatred. You want to argue with him and you even want to hit him.
It means your fleshly desire is agitated.
When Satan works this way, if you receive the works of the devil, you come to actually use foul language or use violence.
We can understand this process from those who have depression.
First, negative thoughts come into their mind. After that, they become sad and depressed due to those thoughts.
They just stay in the dark room all day, or in extreme cases, even kill themselves.
Once they continue to accept Satan’s voice working through their fleshly thoughts, next, their mind will be captured and their actions will be controlled.
If we understand this difference, we will be able to discern between the voice of Satan and that of the Holy Spirit.
But few people have only truth or only untruth in their heart. People have some truths and some untruths in their heart together.
It’s because many people are still in the process of casting away untruths.
In this kind of a case, how would the Holy Spirit’s voice or Satan’s voice be heard?
If you do not set your frequency accurately, you will hear many other noises along with the actual broadcast you want to hear.
Likewise, if you have some truths and some untruths in you, you will hear the voice of Satan as well as that of the Holy Spirit.
Now, you should be listening to only the voice of the Holy Spirit.
If you understand how the untruths work in you, you can cast away untruths more quickly and more certainly.
Also, there are different kinds of fleshly thoughts and the magnitude of fleshly desires is different according to the measure of faith.
I will explain about these from the next session.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if you try to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit clearly, the Holy Spirit will not just keep quiet.
He will try His best to help you as you try to cast away untruths from your heart and practice the truth.
Of course, God will give you grace and strength, too.
You can cast away untruths quickly with the grace and strength of God, the help of the Holy Spirit, and your own effort combined together.
When you accepted the Lord, you were forgiven of the sins of the past completely by receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
But this kind of work of the Holy Spirit is not just a one-time event. He cleanses us continuously.
He cleanses the sinful natures so deep in our heart that we don’t even realize they are there. He also burns them with the fire.
But, we have to try to keep the fullness of the Spirit all the time so that He can do this kind of work continually.
We have to meditate on the word of God, try to be on alert and pray fervently, and be faithful in God’s kingdom.
Luke 11:13 says, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
God the Father sent the Holy Spirit to this earth for the benefit of His beloved children.
He gives the Holy Spirit to any one who believes in this love of God and asks of Him.
Also, if anybody asks for the power of the Holy Spirit, God gives it to him with joy.
God is good, and I hope you will voluntarily ask of God for the help of the Holy Spirit.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will be guided by the Holy Spirit and enjoy a blessed life as precious children of God.
[Amen]
