“How can I know the Holy Spirit is speaking to me?”

October 2013 – Grace & Truth Magazine

QUESTION: How can I know the Holy Spirit is speaking to me and that it is not just my conscience or something else?

ANSWER: In John 13-14, before the Lord Jesus went to the cross, He told His disciples that He was leaving them and that they would not be able to follow Him where He was going. He assured them, however, that He would ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to be with them – and that the Holy Spirit would be in them and with them.

The Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost uniting the 120 believers in the upper room into one body, the Assembly, or as it is commonly called, the Church, and empowering them to serve our blessed Lord Jesus. Today, every true Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit not only indwells each Christian, but He also wants to lead him or her. He is the witness that we are the children of God: “As many as led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Rom. 8:14 NKJV). The closer our walk is to the leading of the Spirit the easier it will be to discern His voice.

One prime purpose for the Spirit to be with believers is to reveal the things of Christ to them. He always seeks to glorify Christ and to open Christ’s rich treasures to us. Although fully co-equal with both God the Father and the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit does not focus attention upon Himself.

He will only speak and lead in full agreement with God’s Word. He inspired the holy men of God whom He used to write the books of the Bible. The Holy Spirit will not contradict Himself. He is God, and God does not lie. He cannot lie (Ti. 1:2)!

Being God, the Holy Spirit is sovereign. There is no uncertainty with Him – He speaks with absolute authority. He is the Spirit of truth. If we have doubts or second thoughts about a voice we feel we hear, it is apt not to be the Holy Spirit speaking.

Yet the Holy Spirit is sensitive. Scripture shows us that He can be grieved and quenched. We can conduct ourselves in a way that grieves Him: disobeying the Word, walking in sin, not following His direction, doing that which displeases Him. We can quench Him by ruling Him out of our personal lives or by categorically refusing Him liberty to lead in our corporate [collective] lives, as for example, by giving over the direction of our worship or the preaching of God’s Word to a minister or priest whom we hire or appoint for that purpose.

We are easily misled when we are not walking in the Spirit but are indulging the flesh [human nature]. Conscience, being basically the knowledge of good and evil, can be a helpful guide but man is sinful, and it is not reliable. Our conscience must be educated and guided by the Word of God – not by the thoughts and practices of man. When we do something again and again or when we observe others doing a thing over and over, it is easy for our conscience to be hardened to the point that we view that activity as normal and acceptable. We are then using man’s standard rather than God’s, and others doing similar things are often quick to encourage us to do as they do.

The Spirit of God has only one standard – the Word of God. Supreme Court rulings, governmental laws, psychological or medical recommendations, political correctness, majority opinion – none of these can be trusted when they conflict with the clear voice of the Word of God!

Demons are far more active in this world than we realize and they have many subtle– and not so subtle – ways of misleading. Satan is a master at deceiving and even has the audacity to misquote or misapply God’s holy Word. Resist him firmly with the Word of God. Be careful to test by God’s Word every “leading” or suggestion that comes your way, for the Holy Spirit will always lead and speak consistently with its teaching.

Answered by Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. —Romans 8:9 NKJV