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Supernatural
Biblical Guidance 2
The
Holy Spirit, Your Inner Umpire, Part One
by
Pastor John Hamel
"Success
is always the result of following the leading of the Holy Spirit." Dr.
Kenneth E. Hagin
“And when we had
sailed over the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia. And there
the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing into Italy; and he put us
therein. And when we had sailed slowly many days, and scarce were
come over against Cnidus, the wind not
suffering us, we sailed under Crete, over against Salmone; And, hardly passing it, came unto a place
which is called The fair havens; nigh whereunto was the city of Lasea.
"Now when
much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast
was now already past, Paul admonished them, And said unto them, Sirs, I
perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of
the lading and ship, but also of our lives. Nevertheless the
centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship, more than those
things which were spoken by Paul.” (Acts 27:5-11)
The Apostle Paul
was in prison for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we pick up
the narrative here in Acts chapter 27, we find him being transported to Rome to stand
trial. In verse ten you will notice that Paul said to his captors
aboard the ship, “Sirs, I PERCEIVE that this voyage will be with hurt and
much damage…”
If you were to read
the rest of this chapter, you would discover that Paul’s perception was one
hundred percent accurate. They encountered a major storm that
resulted in the loss of the ship and all of its cargo. Paul was
actually saying to his captors, “Sirs, I don’t have any peace about
continuing further with this journey. I believe we should wait a day
or two before continuing.”
Another way of
looking at Paul’s perception would be that he had “unrest” in his spirit
about continuing on the journey. This inner perception, this lack of
peace, or unrest that Paul had in his spirit is the primary way that the
Holy Spirit guides New Testament Believers today. Unfortunately, many
Believers reject it, insisting on more spectacular forms of guidance such as
visions or dreams and completely miss this
primary form of guidance.
When Believers do
not have Scripture to reveal the will of God to them, God expects them to
turn inwardly listening to what is commonly called the “Inner witness” of
the Holy Spirit.
The
Holy Spirit Is Our Inner "Umpire"
“And let the peace
(soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (ACT AS UMPIRE CONTINUALLY) in
your hearts [DECIDING AND SETTLING WITH FINALITY ALL QUESTIONS THAT ARISE
IN YOUR MINDS, in that peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ’s]
one body you were also called [to live].” (Colossians 3:15 Amplified Bible)
Paul referred to
inner peace as an “umpire.” An umpire’s job is to keep an eye on the
players/participants making sure that they stay within certain
parameters. This is also the job of the Holy Spirit, our inner
umpire. He lets us know by an inward perception, by peace or by
unrest, whether we are safely pursuing the will of God for our lives or
not.
The Holy Spirit
within can be illustrated by the internal guidance systems that are
commonly used by ships, planes and spacecraft today. These vehicles
all have an inner gyroscope that is based on the magnetic pull of the
Earth. A gyroscope sends signals to instruments indicating the
attitude, or the position of the vehicle. Pilots spend years, decades
and thousands of hours training themselves to trust the readings given by
the internal gyroscope, not outside reference points. Many pilots
have died overriding their instruments and depending on their human senses
in a crisis situation. The human eye and the inner ear particularly
can give false readings leading a pilot to believe that they are in one
position when actually they are in another.
For example, in the
dark with no visible horizon or outside reference points, a pilot can
easily believe that he is right side up when he is upside down. This
is known as spatial disorientation. If a pilot will choose to believe
his instruments over his inner ear, he can pretty much be assured of
safety. The inner ear can give a false reading but the magnetic pull
of the Earth, although it may vary ever so slightly at the poles, will
never give a false reading. Pilots are trained to trust their lives
to this fact.
The human mind,
outward circumstances, trusted loved ones, however well meaning, can all
give wrong guidance that appears to be right, just like the inner ear of a
pilot can. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, is like the inner
gyroscope based on the magnetic pull of the Earth. He will never give
a false reading because His guidance is based on the pull of the Father Who
is All Knowing.
I refer you back to
Paul’s journey on the prison ship to Rome. His “inner
gyroscope” or the “inner witness” of the “inner umpire” / Holy Spirit was
giving him a reading indicating that there was a problem. Yet
outwardly everything appeared to be just fine. The sun was
shining. A cool breeze was blowing. It appeared to be perfect
sailing weather but every one of those outside reference points turned out
to be wrong.
Paul knew that his inner guidance system, the Holy
Spirit, his Umpire, was sending him a signal or a perception from down in
his spirit indicating that they were about to head off in a wrong
direction. The Holy Spirit still guides Believers this way
today. No doubt, you, the reader, are recalling a time or two where
you overrode this form of inner guidance and ended up in a peck of trouble.
So many make the
mistake of taking the path of least resistance, allowing other people to
guide them when the Holy Spirit wants to guide them directly. Others
make the mistake of only looking for “emergency” guidance in a
crisis. A crisis is not the time to attempt to develop sensitivity to
the “inner witness” of the Holy Spirit.
Others insist on more
spectacular forms of supernatural guidance such as voices, dreams, visions, prophecies and Angels. These are all Biblical
forms of supernatural guidance, indeed, but they are not the primary way
that the Holy Spirit guides Believers today.
The primary way the Holy
Spirit leads is by the “inner witness” or “inner perception” or “peace” or
“unrest.”
If you are about to
make a decision in your life concerning investments, a move, marriage,
school, a job change, etc., and something on the inside is telling you to
back off, you would do exceptionally well to heed that inner
perception. That “something” is actually “Someone.” That is the
“inner witness” of the Holy Spirit and it is the primary way that God
guides when there is no Scripture to tell you what to do. Override it
and drink from a bitter cup.
Putting
the Holy Spirit in Position to Answer You
I always like to
get some sort of a witness in my spirit as to what God wants me to do in
every situation. For instance, if I am in position to choose between Pastoring in Maine or
Pastoring in Idaho, I do not say to
the Holy Spirit, “Sir, I’m going to the grocery store. If they have Maine potatoes, I’m
taking the Church in Maine. If they
have Idaho potatoes, I’m
taking the Church in Idaho.” That is
being led by outside reference points. The devil can put Maine or Idaho potatoes in my
local store just as easily as God can, because he, Satan, is the god of
this world. (2Corinthians 4:4) He can do lots of things that most
Believers do not realize.
Rather, I say to
the Holy Spirit, “Holy Spirit, Sir, I’m impressed that You want me to take
the Church in Maine, so here’s what
I’m going to do. I’m going to make the decision to go to Maine. I’m going
to sit on it for a few days or more. If I continue to have peace
about my decision, I know that You are giving me the green light. If
I continue to have unrest about my decision, I know that You are giving me
the red light.”
This way, I am always putting the Holy Spirit in
position to where He is never being forced to speak to me in a voice,
vision, dream or visitation form. I am always putting Him in position
to where He only has to answer me “Yes” or “No,” “peace” or “unrest,”
“green light” or “red light” down in my spirit where He lives. After
all, I am a spirit,
not a body or a soul. He is not going to talk through my body or my
soul. He is going to talk to me from the spirit realm on the inside
of my spirit.
Let me say this again
at the risk of being redundant.
When I need supernatural guidance, I
will make a decision to the best of my ability and put the Holy Spirit in
position to where He only has to tell me through an inner perception
whether I have made a right decision or a wrong decision.
This is so
simple that most people miss it. The world calls it “intuition” or
“gut instinct.” The Apostle Paul called it “perception,” “peace” and
the inner “Umpire.”
More people, saved and unsaved alike, have overridden
this inner instinct walking headlong into crisis and tragedy. When it
was all said and done, they have been heard to say, “What was I thinking
when I did that? Something was telling me not to do that. Why
didn’t I listen?”
You
Must "Let" the Holy Spirit Guide You
The Apostle Paul
said in Colossians 3:15, “And LET the peace … act as umpire continually …
deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your
minds…” (Amplified Bible)
This is a decision
you must continually make, daily. The Holy Spirit will not force you
to obey Him, but He will continually bear witness within you as to what is
right and what is wrong for your life. He will continually give you
peace or unrest about things. He will continually give you the green
light or the red light, but you must LET that witness rule within
you.
You must decide whether to stop or to go ahead. You must
make the decision constantly to not be led by outward circumstances, well
meaning individuals or anything else besides the inner witness of the Holy
Spirit. Even if you should receive one of the Holy Spirit’s two
voices, a dream, a vision, a prophecy or an Angelic visitation, you
absolutely must have peace on the inside about any of them. Any form
of guidance that comes that is not in line with the Written Word of God and
causes unrest in your spirit is not the Holy Spirit.
Satan can
counterfeit all forms of guidance with the exception of the inner
witness. He does not live within you anymore; therefore, he cannot
counterfeit the inner witness from within, anymore. This is why the
Holy Spirit insists that everything comes back to the inner witness when we
are dealing with supernatural guidance. It is the only area where
Satan cannot slap you with a counterfeit!
Inner
Peace Vs. Relief in the Flesh
It is time for the
Body of Christ to grow up and to recognize the difference between inner
peace and relief in the flesh. I will give you an example that will
help you. The simple fact of the matter is that there are a lot of
lazy, compromising Christians within the Body of Christ. They are not
the majority but they do exist and it is not critical to say so.
These are the individuals who will sit in a Local Church for a few months.
They enjoy the praise and worship. They enjoying
hearing about things like the power of Jesus’ Name, their authority over Satan, Divine healing and Biblical prosperity in perspective. But
then one day the Pastor feels led
of the Holy Spirit to start teaching about consecration, sanctification,
holiness and living a sin free lifestyle.
All of a sudden
going to Church is not as comfortable as it used to be. All of a
sudden we are not just talking about the blessings,
we are now talking about the blessings of obedience.
I call obedience the “O” word. Baby Christians do not like the “O”
word. It is a cuss word to them and the Pastor should not be cussing
in Church. So they get all offended, they get all restless, they get
all irritated and agitated and decide it is time to go somewhere else where
the Pastor does not cuss in Church. They go looking for a new carnal
hide-out and people begin to wonder where they went. So begins the
search for the lost sheep. The brothers and
sisters finally hunt down the prodigal asking
why they suddenly just up and left. The explanation is always the
same. “I just didn’t have peace about going to that Church
anymore. The Holy Spirit led me to leave that Church and to go to
this new Church. I have complete peace about where I am.”
In reality a more
truthful answer would be, “That Pastor started preaching about obedience
and my flesh started crawling. My flesh started really bothering me
because it was as if he was talking directly to me, although he never
called my name. But as soon as I left, I had the most unbelievable
“peace” knowing I wasn’t going to have to listen to the “O” word
anymore. That’s why I’m going to this new Church for the next couple
of months, at least until he starts irritating my flesh by using dirty
words like “obedience” and things like that. When he does, I just
know the Holy Spirit will give me “peace” about leaving there, too.”
So on and on goes the game of musical Churches.
You see, this
individual had “relief in the flesh” that they did not have to sit under
the Pastor’s convicting preaching any longer. They were calling it “peace” and “being
led by the Holy Spirit.” This is
what spiritual babies do.
However, there is a
major difference between the inner peace of the Holy Spirit and the outward
relief of the flesh when one is under conviction. We will never learn
how to be properly led by the Holy Spirit of God until we first learn the
difference between the Holy Spirit’s peace and the carnal relief of the
convicted flesh.
We will continue
this lesson in our next study.
Be sure to obey the Holy Spirit and stick with us now. Don’t say,
“The Holy Spirit gave me peace about not finishing those lessons.
That Preacher uses the ‘O’ word.”
Be Blessed ... John and Barbara Hamel
How
to Be Born Again (Receive Christ as Your Savior)
How
to Receive The Holy Spirit & Power
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