learning to be led by the holy spirit

8/12/2019 Learning to Be Led by the Holy Spirit

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Lear ni ng t o Be LedBy t he Hol y Spi r i t

By Dave Roberson



Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture notations are taken from the KingJames Version of the Bible.

Learning to Be Led by the Holy SpiritBy Dave Roberson

ISBN 1-929339-14-3ISBN 978-1-929339-14-3Copyright © 2002 by Dave Roberson Ministries

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without writtenpermission from the publisher is prohibited. Printed in the United States of

America.

Dave Roberson MinistriesThe Family Prayer CenterP. O. Box 725Tulsa, OK 74101



Contents

Chapter 1The Importance

Of the Holy Spirit’s Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Chapter 2The Inner Witness vs.

Soulish Emotions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Chapter 3Dividing Between

Spirit and Soul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 4

The ValueOf Praying in Tongues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Chapter 5Present-Day Speaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13



Chapter 1The Importance

Of the Holy Spirit’sLeadership

One of the most importantteachings a person can receive is howto be led by the Holy Spirit. So manysincere believers think God is leadingthem from one situation to another.

Yet, each time, they end up confusedbecause the outcome isn’t what theyexpect. Then they wonder why Godwould speak to them to do such athing if it was going to turn out the

way it did.

If you’ve ever been a victim of thistype of situation, you know thatnothing can be more confusing than tobelieve you heard from God and thento be confronted with overwhelmingevidence that says you did not.

Satan’s Deceptive Tactics

Over the years of ministry, I’veseen a pattern emerge in this area oflearning to be led by the Holy Spirit.People stumble and fall, only to get upand repeat the same mistakes. Satanuses the same tactics over and overagain on believers around the world.

There is something about ourpotential to be led by the Holy Spirit

that really scares the devil. He hasgone to a lot of trouble to keep usconfused, using every deception at hisdisposal to make sure he keeps uswalking down the wrong road.

How does the devil do this? First,he isn’t so stupid as to tell you that

you cannot be led by the Spirit. Herealizes that you know better.Therefore, the only chance he has ofneutralizing you is to indoctrinate youinto a program where you look to your

emotions or outward circumstances asa basis for God’s leadership anddirection in your life instead ofyielding to the Holy Spirit’s innerwitness in your spirit man.

One of the devil’s favoritestrategies is to send a bunch of low-level, second-rate, expendable devils toconfuse us by parading a bunch ofbelievers across our path who claim tobe led by the Holy Spirit in everythingthey do. If we look to these believersas role models of being led by the HolySpirit, we easily become confused.

Although they claim to be divinely led,they go through one situation afteranother, suffering defeat again andagain. The bottom falls out ofeverything they do as they make baddecision after bad decision.

It’s the same tactic the devil usesto confuse the issue of healing. Hemakes sure we hear about everybeliever who has ever believed God fora healing and failed to receive amanifested miracle. In this way, Satanattempts to discredit the possibilitythat we could ever be healed or led bythe Spirit of God.

Why is the devil so avid in hisopposition to our being led by the HolySpirit through the inner witness?Well, just the fact that Satan fights itso hard ought to tell us how powerfuland how dangerous to his kingdomthis divine leadership can be!

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Three Categories of Believers

When it comes to the leadership ofthe Holy Spirit, believers can bedivided into three categories:

The first category includes thebelievers who have come to under-stand how to be led by the Holy Spirit.These people have testimonies andlive lives that cause many to be saved.

The second category is made up ofbelievers who have been indoctrinatedby the devil to operate out of theemotional realm and who haveconsequently never learned how tooperate out of their spirit man. Thesebelievers experience not only thewonderful emotional highs that every-one feels when things go right, but theemotional lows of torments, fears, andinsecurities that can be brought on bythe pressures of this life.

It is this emotional realm that

most Christians fall prey to becausefeelings are such an integral part of aperson’s makeup. Whether or not abeliever is led by the inner witness ofthe Holy Spirit or by the devil’scounterfeit is determined by howsusceptible that believer is to pressureand the enticement of lust. The firsttype of leadership originates in aperson’s spirit; the second type isSatan’s attempt to lead the personthrough his emotions while makingthat person think the leading comesfrom God.

Before we discuss this secondcategory of believers further, let’s go onto the third category of Christians:

those who don’t acknowledge any formof divine leadership at all. Thesebelievers don’t believe that a personcan be led by the Holy Spirit. As far asthey’re concerned, God exists and

they’re going to Heaven. But it’s almostas though this third category ofbelievers think God has abandonedthem while they live on planet earth.They’re supposed to do as well as theycan while they’re here; then when theirlives are over, they’ll finally see Jesus.

But we know from God’s Wordthat this isn’t the case at all. OurHeavenly Father demonstrated Hiswillingness to fellowship with us andto lead us by His Spirit when He notonly saved us but gave us the infillingof the Holy Ghost!

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Chapter 2The Inner Witness vs.

Soulish Emotions

Most of us want to be led by theHoly Spirit. When we’re able to receivedirection from the Holy Spirit, God’scounsel and wisdom is made availableto us in everything we do. I’m not justtalking about receiving divinedirection for ministry, but for our jobs,our businesses, and for raising ourfamilies. So let’s take a look at howthe Holy Spirit manifests Himself tous through the inner witness—the

foundational, primary way that Godleads His children.

In Proverbs 20:27, God comparesour spirit to a candle: The spirit ofman is the candle of the L ORD ,searching all the inward parts of thebelly. You see, our spirit is the part ofus that God illuminates and throughwhich He communicates. It is throughour spirit that the Holy Spirit leadsus, and the most dominant method Heuses to accomplish this leadership isthe inner witness.

Differentiating BetweenSpirit and Emotions

Romans 8:14-16 talks about theinner witness of the Holy Spirit:

For as many as are led bythe Spirit of God, they are thesons of God.

For ye have not received thespirit of bondage again to fear;but ye have received the Spiritof adoption, whereby we cry,

Abba, Father.

T HE S PIRIT ITSELF BEARETH

WITNESS WITH OUR SPIRIT , that weare the children of God:

Here we have a scriptural

foundation verifying the fact that theHoly Spirit will BEAR WITNESS withinour human spirit. But in order tounderstand how the inner witnessreally works, we must firstunderstand what God designed thisform of divine leadership toaccomplish in our lives and how wecan yield to it.

Let’s begin by identifying the

difference between what weexperience when the Holy Spirit bearswitness with our human spirit versuswhen we are being led by ouremotions. We have to differentiatebetween the emotional realm of thesoul—which can fluctuate fromexcitement when everything is goingright to depression when it isn’t—andthe steadfast, stabilizing quality of theborn-again human spirit.

So consider this: Have you evertried to give up on God, but somethingdown on the inside just wouldn’t letyou do it? No matter how hard youtried, how bad things got, or howintense the pressure became,something on the inside kept cryingout, “Abba, Father.” ( Abba is theintimate Greek term for “Daddy.”

Therefore, Abba, Father is anexpression that says, “I am yielding to You, Daddy, because You are theFather of my spirit.”)

Now, you probably didn’t walkaround actually hearing the words“Abba, Father” going off on the inside

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of you. But even though your flesh wasscreaming at you to quit, exertingfifteen tons of pure emotional pressurethrough torment and fear, somethingway down, deep inside you simply

refused to give up. That inner“something” kept saying, “I don’t carehow bad it is—You are the Father ofmy spirit, and I’m not moved by whatI see, hear, or feel. I’m only moved bywhat I believe!”

So here’s how you can tell thedifference between your spirit andyour emotions: The part of you thatrefused to give in was your spirit. Thepart that reacted to the pressure wasyour emotions, or the soulish realm.The key is to learn how to operate out ofthe part of you that would not give up.

The Holy Spirit Bears Witness With Your Spirit

Look again at what Romans 8:16says: The Spirit itself beareth witness

with our spirit, that we are thechildren of God .

This means that whencircumstances in your life get so badthat you feel like giving up, the part ofyou the Holy Spirit strengthens isyour spirit. And as you sense thatstrength, your spirit responds byacknowledging its salvation. This iswhat verse 15 refers to when it says,

We cry, Abba, Father .

The flesh, the devil, and the worldmay heap condemnation on you. Theymay put pressure on you and badgeryou to give up. But the Holy Spirit willcombat all that opposition bycontinually bearing witness on the

inside of your spirit that you are achild of God!

Not only does the Holy Spirit bearwitness to your salvation, but He also

bears witness to whether you arethinking the right way or wrong way,making right or wrong decisions, orbelieving right or wrong doctrine.Therefore, the quicker you candifferentiate between the emotionalrealm of the soul and the stabilizingquality of the born-again humanspirit, the quicker you will learn howto be led by the inner witness out ofthe bondage of the flesh and into awalk of liberty and maturity.

Led by the Holy Spirit,Not by Your Emotions

For many years, I’ve watchedministers, businessmen, and people ingeneral endeavor to make decisionsaccording to the Holy Spirit’sdirection. One thing I’ve noticed is

that even though the Holy Spiritilluminates the spirit of every child ofGod, many Christians still fall into thedevil’s trap of deception of being ledaround by their emotions. Mistakingemotions for the leadership of the HolySpirit, they believe God is leadingthem from one place to another orfrom one situation to another. On theother hand, those who are truly led bythe Holy Spirit and who understandhow to discern the inner witness seemto be qualified by a certain set ofdivine principles.

When I was first born again, I wasexcited about the prospect of being ledby the Holy Spirit. Like most people,

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my concept of the leadership of theSpirit was that He would lead me fromplace to place or even from poverty towealth. But later I found out, as somany have discovered before me, that

it is almost impossible for the HolySpirit to lead a believer in this manneras long as the devil can find accessthrough a good case of emotions andthen overpower the inner witness.

Christians who fit in this categoryfind themselves on a continualemotional merry-go-round. They runfrom place to place, claiming God sentthem and causing confusion becausethey are confused themselves. Theyoften prophesy “direction” over otherpeople’s lives, yet their own lives aremessed up. These people don’tunderstand that it would do God nogood to send them anywhere as longas the devil can overpower them oncethey arrive. They wouldn’t be able tostand up under the pressure ortemptations of sin.

That’s why the Holy Spirit wantsto take you into the next step of theborn-again experience, friend. Hewants to develop your character tosuch an extent that the still, quietvoice of your inner man is louder thanthe turmoil of pressure and strongerthan the temptations of sin. Therefore,the Holy Spirit’s first goal is to leadyou out of a walk based on the fleshand dominated by your emotions intoa walk of the Spirit in which you canknow how to discern His voice.

The truth is, your road to a life ofvictory will always direct you towardthat which is more powerful than your

carnal emotions—the operation ofyour inner man. This brings us to astudy of the operation of spirit, soul,and body.



Chapter 3 Dividing Between

Spirit and Soul

When God created His first man Adam, He fashioned a body for Adamfrom the dust of the earth—asubstance that already existed. Butwhen it came time for the creation of

Adam’s spirit man, God reached downon the inside of His own Being andliterally brought Adam’s spirit intoexistence. And when God placed thatspirit into Adam’s body, the Life inthat spirit activated his vital signs,

and man became a living soul.

And the Lord God formedman of the dust of the ground,and breathed into his nostrilsthe breath of life; and manbecame a living soul.

Genesis 2:7

Adam’s body was the mostincredible thing God ever created. It

was a physical suit of clothing thatflowed in absolute harmony with thenatural laws of physics that governour entire universe. This “suit” gavethe man Adam, a spiritual being, theability to coexist on two levels ofcreation—God’s natural and spiritualkingdoms—much like an astronaut’ssuit allows him to operate both onearth and in space.

There was nothing like man’sphysical body in the entire universe. Itwas designed to house Adam’s spirit inevery aspect. His spiritual hand fitinto his natural hand finger for finger;his spiritual eyes fit into his naturaleyes; and his spiritual ears fit into hisnatural ears. God made this natural

body to so perfectly encompass theoperation of the inner man that if thenatural man and the spiritual manstood alongside each other, they wouldlook almost identical.

A Physical SoulTo House the Spiritual Soul

Now, when I say God created ournatural body to house our spiritualbody, most people don’t have anytrouble understanding this principle.

A more difficult concept to understandis that when God created the spirit ofman, He placed within that humanspirit certain spiritual forces, such aslove, peace, and joy. These forces makeup the nature of our inner man.

Then in exactly the same way thatGod created our physical hands andfeet to be receptacles for our spiritualhands and feet, He created a physicalsoul that acts as a receptacle for thespiritual forces of love, joy, and peace.

So when God placed Adam’s spirit intohis body, the spiritual hand fit into itscounterpart, the physical hand—andthe spiritual soul fit into its counterpart, the physical soul!

You see, the difference betweenthe spiritual soul and the physical soulis this:

• The spiritual soul possesses theFORCE of love.

• The physical soul possesses theEMOTION of love.

Man is the only part of God’screation that possesses a spiritualsoul. Take your pet dog or cat, forexample. Dogs and cats can be so

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warm and friendly that the emotionsof their physical soul can almostparallel the operation of a spiritualsoul. But when your pet dies, eventhough you may miss it terribly, its

physical soul perishes with it.

When we die, however, the innerman is disconnected from the outerman and simply steps out of his body.The spiritual soul, which consists ofthe forces of love, joy, and peace, isdisconnected from the physical soul,which consists of the emotions of love,

joy, and peace.

The same way your physical handis designed to serve your spiritualhand, the physical emotions of thesoul are designed to serve the spiritualforces of the inner man. God designedthese spiritual forces of love, joy, andpeace to operate through theemotional realms of your soul to affectyour entire being.

The New NatureOf the New Birth

But when Adam fell from God’sgrace and died spiritually, he receivedthe nature of sin into his spirit. Atthat point, not only was his spiritcapable of such things as hatred,murder, and lies, but this sin naturealso infiltrated the chromosomes of hisphysical man, breaking the cycle of hisperpetually self-renewing physicalbody. Thus that physical body laiddown and died some nine hundred andthirty years later.

Centuries passed until Jesuscame, and the new nature was once

again made available to us throughthe new birth.

When we are born again, a newnature is received into our human

spirit. Because of this new nature, ourinner man no longer has the capacityto fluctuate between love and hate,truth and lies, peace and murder.Once again it remains constant in thespiritual forces of love, peace, and joy.

There’s just one problem. Thespiritual soul with its forces of love,peace, and joy must operate throughthe physical soul. But the physicalsoul still has death working in it,inherited from the first Adam.Therefore, it still has the capacity tofluctuate between the emotions of loveand hate, and it will continue to havethat capacity until it is glorified.

The cares of this life may startentering in. Torment and fear maytake hold and begin to control your

emotions, causing them to fluctuateback and forth. But in the midst of itall, your spirit man will remainconstant, almost as if to say, “You canfluctuate back and forth betweenhatred and love or between fear andfaith if you want to, but I’m not goingwith you!”

The devil likes to buildstrongholds within the emotionalrealms of the soul. But as you learnhow to be led by the Holy Spirit, you’llgrow to the place where your actionsare controlled by the constant,stabilizing forces of your spirit manrather than by the emotional highsand lows of your soul. At that point,it’s a whole new life!



Chapter 4The Value of

Praying in Tongues

The primary key to help you reachpast the emotional highs and lows ofthe world and open a channel directlyto the inner man is P RAYING IN

TONGUES . First Corinthians 14:14says, For if I pray in an unknowntongue, my spirit prayeth, but myunderstanding is unfruitful.

The truth is, I hate to think of thedisadvantage a person has who hasn’t

been convinced of the significance ofpraying in tongues.

Using this precious gift, you canturn yourself over to the Holy Spiriton purpose, at any moment, todeliberately kindle and activate thefire of the inner witness. As soon asyou start praying in tongues, youbegin operating out of your inner man,for the Bible says that in the Spirityou speak mysteries: For he thatspeaketh in an unknown tonguespeaketh not unto men, but unto God:for no man understandeth him;howbeit in the spirit he speakethmysteries (First Corinthians 14:2).

Building a FoundationThrough Praying in Tongues

The Holy Spirit lives within thatstill, quiet place of your spirit wheretongues originate. He quietly waits foryou to either close the door to Hisincredible, life-changing forces or tothrow that door wide open. Throughthe revelation gift of praying intongues, He wants to put a foundation

underneath your character so strongthat no matter what has you bound orhow loud the voices of pressure andturmoil have become, He is able tolead you out of it all into victory.

You see, even though the origin oftongues is the Holy Spirit, it is yourhuman spirit that does the praying.The Holy Spirit is actually creatingthe language of tongues within yourhuman spirit as you speak it forth.Therefore, the prayer you are prayingis in no way influenced by the soulishemotional highs or lows you may beexperiencing at the time.

That’s why praying in tonguesstrengthens the part of you fromwhich you derive strength to resistsin. It also sharpens your discernmentto differentiate between the emotionalrealm of the soul and the peacefuloperation of the inner witness.

So the next time the enemy

delivers a package of bad news to yourdoor, don’t immediately react out ofyour emotions. Instead, enter into theSpirit. Deliberately begin to operateout of your inner man on purpose bypraying in other tongues. As you do,you’ll bypass the soul altogether anddrive your emotions back to wherethey’re supposed to be—submitted toyour spirit!

‘Throwing a Lifeline’To Your Inner Man

Praying in tongues can be likenedto finding a man who is lost at sea.The chances of finding one person inthe vastness of the ocean are pretty

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slim. But when it does happen, thehelicopter comes over the horizon,spots a tiny little dot in the greatexpanse of water, and throws the mana lifeline.

Well, sometimes the cares of thislife can make you feel as though you’redrowning in an ocean of emotionalturmoil. But praying in tonguesthrows you a spiritual “lifeline” thatcan lead you out of trouble into victory.

At first, when your foundation isstill changing from operating in theemotional realm to operating in the

realm of the Spirit, your emotions canscream so loudly that they overwhelmthe quiet place out of which the spiritoperates. In fact, the operation of yourinner man can seem rather weak nextto your soul when it’s raging withnegative emotions. But just keepthrowing a lifeline to your inner man.Every minute you pray in tongues, youedify yourself, cultivating the forces oflove, peace, and joy resident withinthe new nature of your spirit man.

As you allow the Holy Spirit tocultivate these spiritual forces withinyour inner man through praying intongues, you’ll eventually be able totell the difference between the HolySpirit’s inner witness and youremotions—between the force of loveand the emotion of love, the force of

peace and an emotional sense of well-being, the force of joy and the emotionof happiness. You’ll even grow to aplace where your emotions serve YOU instead of you serving THEM .

That’s when you can enter a rich,full life in which God leads you to

victory in every situation. Hecommunicates with you, bearingwitness when you are heading in aright direction. He checks you whenyou are heading in a wrong direction.

He is able to do that now because the“giants in Canaan land” no longercontrol you through torment and fear.Instead, the calm, stabilizingoperation of your spirit holds yourmind and emotions steady, enablingyou to discern the Holy Spirit’s innerwitness in every situation.

So go forth to possess the promisedland of your inheritance in JesusChrist. Yield to the Lord’s work withinyour inner man as He leads you out ofbondage and corruption into a maturewalk of sonship and liberty. You CAN be led by the Holy Spirit!

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Chapter 5 Present-Day Speaking

The greatest thing a believercan do for Me, says the Lord, is yieldhimself to the power of My Holy Spirit.For have I not said that He will guideyou into all truth and that My Word istruth? Outside of His Presence,there is no leadership and noillumination of the mind.

There are those who have enteredinto a relationship with Me in thegenerations and decades past,

yes, even in other centuries, says theSpirit. Those few who were caught upinto My Presence held the standard asthey passed through their generations.

To any child of God who yieldshimself to Me, I would say it is yourFather’s pleasure to place all the keysto the Kingdom into your hands.There is nothing I am withholdingfrom you, nothing I will not reveal toyou. For I have called you to cross thisplace with your anointing and yourcall and to do exploits in these last days.

Be strong, My child, in the powerof My might, and you will be elatedand full of joy. Thirst on but knowthis: No man can give you what youthirst for. You must allow the HolySpirit to bring you from glory to gloryand reveal the fullness of Jesus Christin your life and in your call.

Oh, that you would enter into MyPresence and be full of My joy andpower! says the Spirit. So learn tospend time with Me. Tune yourself up

to walk with Me, and you will doexploits for Me.

Before My coming, your eyes will seewhat you desire to see—the fullness of

the moving of My Spirit in people’s livesand in the blessings of God.



Do You Want the Holy SpiritTo Lead You?

In this book, Dave Roberson presents a unique scripturalunderstanding of what it means to be led by the Holy Spirit through theinner witness. Dave teaches from the Scriptures that before anything else,the Holy Spirit leads you “out of a walk based on the flesh and dominated byyour emotions into a walk of the Spirit in which you can know how to discernHis voice.”

So if you want to learn how to be led by the Holy Spirit, don’t try toskip the first step. As you yield to the Holy Spirit’s leadership in your life,you’ll find a life of liberty and victory waiting on the other side!

Dave Roberson MinistriesThe Family Prayer Center

P. O. Box 725Tulsa, OK 74101

(918) 298-7729

learning to be led by the holy spirit

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