John 17:17
“Sanctify them in the truth; Your Word is truth.”
Will the Holy Spirit ever prompt me to do anything other than what is written in God’s Word? No. The Holy Spirit will never prompt us throughout the day to do anything other than what is found in the written Word of God. As Jesus prayed on the last night of His earthly life one of His top priorities was that His people would be “sanctified” (made more holy). And He knew the only way the Father would accomplish this was by rooting them in “truth.” He went on give the solid testimony that the Word of God “is truth.” Therefore, there is no way for the people of God to experience the process of sanctification outside of the Word of God; and there is no truth outside of the Word of God.
The Holy Spirit will never lead His people to do anything that contradicts sanctification (holiness) since He Himself is Holy. And, He will never prompt His people to do anything that isn’t already contained in Scripture since there is no truth outside of Scripture for Him to lead them in. Everything the Holy Spirit does stems from the Word of God; and nothing He says or does will ever be outside of what God’s Word already contains.
If I ever feel the Holy Spirit prompting me throughout the day the prompting should correlate with Scripture. He will never prompt me to do anything other than truth – and the Word of God is truth. The Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work in me will always be in accordance with God’s Word – truth. If I feel Him nudge my heart towards reaching out with the Gospel to a person (like Philip in our article from yesterday) that would fit within the confines of Scripture. It is truthful that the Word of God says to do that; therefore it fits that the Holy Spirit would work on my sanctification by means of reaching out. If, on the other hand, I feel that the Holy Spirit is leading me to have premarital relations with someone I’m interested in, that would not fit within the confines of Scripture. God’s Word calls this sin; therefore the Holy Spirit would never be leading me to do this, since premarital relations would hurt my sanctification and be untruthful. These are just two examples out of thousands and thousands on how this works.
So, as a follow up to yesterday’s post: we Christians must be rooted in God’s Word. That very Word tells us to live in the Spirit. So there is a balance to live out in our lives that often gets misunderstood, watered down, or exploited. Two of the biggest problems I find in today’s “Christianity” are believers who never live their faith outside of reading the Bible, and believers who live all their faith outside of reading the Bible. A healthy Christian will be rooted in truth (Scripture) while living that truth out through the Spirit in everyday life.
As the Holy Spirit leads you throughout the day make sure He’s really leading you. He will never prompt you to do anything or be anything other than what is already found in God’s Word. He will always be leading you in truth, in order to bring more and more sanctification to your life (and hopefully to the lives of those around you).
I like to hre it live