Passage
Romans 8:12-16
[12] 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,
Throughout the world people usually think men are different from animals because of their ability to think on a higher level.
But, we frequently note the expression ‘a beast with a human face’ used in the news these days.
It means they have face of human beings but their mind is same as that of beasts.
If men do not live like a man, they are no different from animals.
Just by seeing this fact, we can see that it is not only the thinking ability that differentiates men from animals.
What is it then that makes us human, and what is it that differentiates man from other animals?
It is the spirit.
To use the expression of the worldly people, it is a person’s ‘heart’.
God has planted the Seed of Life in the nucleus of one of the cells in the heart of men.
When we accept the Lord, the Holy Spirit comes into our heart, and this Seed of Life is awakened.
It means the spirit that died because of the sin of Adam, is revived.
Then, the Holy Spirit leads us to live like men and like children of God.
Even though men have a superior ability to think, if their thoughts are controlled by the enemy devil and Satan they will only be led to death.
I hope you will clearly hear the voice that the Holy Spirit has let you hear in your heart and become true men and true children of God.
I pray in the name of the Lord that, as the first man Adam looked good in the eyes of God, God will be greatly pleased with you as well.
Main
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the sixth session on the voice and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In the last session, I talked about the fleshly thoughts.
Originally, I wanted to talk about what kinds of fleshly thoughts would arise according to the measure of faith of each one.
But before that, let me elaborate on how the voice of the Holy Spirit and that of Satan respectively control people.
This is a very important concept that you must understand to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.
You can consider this session as a review and in-depth study of the two previous sessions.
Brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit dwells in the heart of the children of God as a Temple.
1 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
So, the Holy Spirit moves the truth of our heart.
On the other hand, Satan is not inside men but outside.
Ephesians 2:2 says, “…in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” As recorded, Satan works in the air.
Just like sending radio waves, Satan spreads the power and heart of Satan.
The untruths in heart will act like an antenna that receives this voice of Satan.
The voice is received and begins to work through the fleshly thoughts that arise from the untruths.
Fleshly thoughts are the retrieval of the knowledge of untruth among the knowledge that is input into our memory device.
Satan causes the voice of Satan to be heard through these fleshly thoughts.
From Satan’s viewpoint, our thoughts can be compared with a main gate.
Suppose the most important place in a house is the main bedroom, and to get into this room we have to pass the main gate first.
Only after passing the main gate we can go into the house and get into the bedroom.
This main gate can be compared with the thoughts of men.
And the bedroom can be likened to our heart.
Satan can be likened to a robber who is wandering outside the house, waiting for the gate to open.
Satan is always trying to get his voice into the heart of men and control their heart as he likes.
Having fleshly thoughts is same as opening the main gate wide-open for the robber.
When men open the gate to Satan, namely when they have fleshly thoughts, Satan tries to come into the heart of men by passing through the gates of their thoughts.
On the other hand, the Holy Spirit is not outside but He is enthroned in our hearts.
The Holy Spirit is in the main bedroom whereas Satan is outside the house.
Dwelling in our heart, He speaks to us through the truth that is cultivated in our heart.
He doesn’t have to pass through the gate of thoughts, to come into the house from outside.
He speaks to us directly from the heart.
Now, do you understand why Satan controls the thoughts while the Holy Spirit controls our heart?
Hearing this explanation, you shouldn’t get confused with Revelation 3:20. It says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”
What does it mean? This word was given to those who have not accepted the Lord yet.
Standing at and knocking on the door means He is knocking on the door of thoughts before He comes into the heart of men.
For example, through the preachers, the Lord tells us about the way of salvation and the life to come, and knocks on the door of the thoughts of each individual.
In this church, we also show the powerful works of God, the signs and wonders that are not possible through human knowledge or power.
At this moment, those who open the door of their thoughts think about whether the crucifixion was a real event, whether God is really alive, and whether Heaven is really there.
Then, when they accept the gospel and open their heart, the Lord comes into their heart.
More precisely, the Holy Spirit, who is one with the Lord, comes into their heart.
After coming into the heart, the Holy Spirit always dwells in our heart.
He doesn’t have to come through the gate of thoughts.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in summary, the fleshly thoughts that are controlled by Satan come from the head, and the voice of the Holy Spirit comes from the heart.
So, we may think that we can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit more clearly than the voice of Satan.
It’s because Satan is working from outside while the Holy Spirit is in our heart.
What do you think is the actual situation?
I will give you the conclusion first. You will have fleshly thoughts first as long as you have untruths in your heart.
The more untruths you have, the quicker you will have fleshly thoughts.
Namely, the more untruths you have, the voice of Satan is delivered to you more quickly.
Let me explain why.
You see and hear so many things. To which place are they delivered first, your heart or your head? It is delivered to the head first.
What you see and hear will be delivered to the brain through the optic and auditory nerves.
The brain will think based upon this information.
This principle will apply to those who have untruths in them.
When they see or hear something, they will first register the thoughts in their heads.
If they have input a lot of knowledge of untruth, they will mainly have fleshly thoughts.
But for those men of truth who have cast away untruths completely, what they see or hear will not necessarily directly cause them to think about it.
It will be delivered to their hearts first.
Of course, what they see and hear will be delivered to the brain through optic and auditory nerves.
But because their heart controls their thoughts, that is, because their spirit controls their soul, they will think according to the voice of the Holy Spirit that is heard within their heart.
The information they gain through seeing and hearing will not immediately become thoughts. The thoughts will be made after going through the heart.
This way, they will have only thoughts of truth that belong to Spirit through the control of the Holy Spirit in their heart.
Now, suppose you received the Holy Spirit and your dead spirit is revived, but you still have untruths in your heart.
In this case, the Holy Spirit moves your heart when you see or hear something, but before you can sense it, you are apt to have fleshly thoughts first.
It’s because as the fleshly thoughts arise first, they block the voice of the Holy Spirit.
We can understand this process when we think about the process of the lust of the eyes arising.
For example, you see a person who is very fashionable in a worldly sense, and you think she is so beautiful.
Now, the Holy Spirit will speak to you saying, “The beauty of this world is false, and it is meaningless.”
But as Satan agitates your fleshly thoughts continually, you cannot hear such voice of the Holy Spirit.
As a result, the sinful nature in your heart will also be agitated.
Your lust is stimulated in heart and you begin to think, “I want to do the same. I want to have those things, too.”
Let me give you another example. Suppose you are taking a walk in a park.
You happen to see a young couple sitting on a bench.
They are talking to each other sitting very close to each other.
At first, you were just passing, but you notice that their faces are familiar.
You remember that you have seen them in the church.
Hearing up to this point, what kind of imagination do you have? Each of you will have different thoughts.
According to what kind of knowledge and feeling you have input about such a situation, your opinions will be different.
The moment you see the scene, the knowledge that you have input with your feelings will be retrieved.
Those who have pure heart will look at others in the same way with purity.
On the contrary, those who have impure hearts will look at others in a way that’s less than pure.
They wonder, “What kind of relationship do they have?”
They begin to imagine many things and pass judgment and condemnation on them.
Because they have unlawfulness in their hearts, they think others will do the same.
They apply their own experience, knowledge, and feelings, and try to make judgment on what they have just seen or heard.
Because they have evilness in their minds, they also think others have evilness, too.
The more knowledge of untruths you have, the more evil thoughts you will have.
Those who do not have untruths in them will not have any evil thought. They will only see with eyes of goodness.
That couple might be discussing something about the kingdom of God or sharing a testimony. So they just think with goodness.
Of course, the couple may actually be meeting each other with intentions that are less than appropriate.
But if that’s the case, God may show something very certain so that those who do not have any untruth in their heart will be able to discern the situation.
But even in this case, they will not pass any judgment or condemnation. They will not have any desire to spread the news either.
They will think only in a way to save lives and to lead them to the way of goodness.
Brothers and sisters, if you remove the untruths from your heart, the knowledge of untruths will also be removed from your head.
So, fleshly thoughts will also be removed.
Even though you may try to have fleshly thoughts, you can’t.
Therefore, in any situation or in any problem, you will not receive any works of Satan.
It’s because there are no grounds for Satan to work on you.
Because you never open the gate of your thoughts to Satan, there is no room for the voice of Satan to come in.
Only the Holy Spirit who is in your heart will control your heart.
To the extent that you cast away untruths and fill yourself with the truth, the voice of Satan will become fainter.
And the voice of the Holy Spirit will become louder.
For example, if your heart consists of 80% of the truth and 20% of the untruth, you can clearly understand the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Even if there is voice of Satan, you will just ignore it and continuously listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice.
The voice of the Holy Spirit is much clearer, and the desire of the Holy Spirit is much stronger than your desire of flesh.
Even though you have cast away flesh completely, as long as you have the traces of it, you might hear the voice of Satan faintly.
But by this time you already have desire to follow the voice of the Holy Spirit, and you wouldn’t try to listen to the weak whispering voice of Satan.
For example, on a radio, suppose you can hear some noise on the channel you are hearing.
But the broadcast you are listening to is much clearer, and the noise is very faint.
It is so weak that you can barely hear it only when you put your ear to the radio itself.
Then, would you try to listen to that little noise? Of course you wouldn’t.
It’s the same with the voice of the Holy Spirit and the voice of Satan.
But on the other hand, even when the voice of Satan is louder than that of the Holy Spirit, you can still hear the Holy Spirit’s voice if you want to.
You can listen to it if you just try to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit alone.
When relatively faint noise and relatively loud sounds are mixed, you can still listen to the weak noise if you focus on it.
Namely, even new believers can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and obey it, but only if they diligently practice the word with the desire to obey the voice.
Then, they can cast away untruths quickly.
The important thing is your longing desire.
If you long to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, and if you want to obey it, you will hear it even though it is not clear.
On the other hand, even though you have same portion of truths and untruths in you, you cannot hear the Holy Spirit’s voice if your longing is minimal and if you don’t really want to obey it.
Therefore, I hope all of you will long to hear the Holy Spirit’s voice more earnestly.
Conclusion
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, do you love God with your head?
No. you love Him with your heart!
The voice of the Holy Spirit is not heard with the head.
You cannot discern the will of God by thinking about many things and with calculations.
Of course, you have to have the knowledge of truth in your head, but after all, the voice of the Holy Spirit can be heard only as much as the truth that is cultivated in you.
Therefore, do not give your thoughts to Satan but cast away untruths quickly, and leave your heart with the Holy Spirit who is in your heart.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will always enjoy a peaceful and happy life by obeying the voice and urging of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen]
