For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Romans 8:14.
But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.… But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Galatians 5:16, 18.
Being led by the Spirit or walking by the Spirit is very important, but I think it has become a phrase to us without its significance really dawning on us. We need much teaching on being led by the Spirit, but we must also have teaching on what happens to a person who is led by the Spirit.
In the first place, you attain spiritual maturity if you reach that place where the Spirit is leading you.
Most new converts, even those who have received the Holy Spirit, are led now and then; I think that they are led more by hindrances than they are by direct leading. The Spirit hinders them and checks them from that which they shouldn’t do. Otherwise, they sort of grope their way along. But a mature saint, a son of God, comes into that place where he is led by the Spirit of God.
There is something most significant about the position of a son who is led by the Spirit of God. “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” This is difficult for us to understand.
The truth is we are under a lot of law, even the best of us. But we rejoice that we are under a lesser degree of Mosaic law and under more grace than before, but we are still under much law. We have to come into sonship; we have to come into that positive leading of the Holy Spirit, and the two are synonymous.
If you are wholly led by the Spirit of the Lord you have come to sonship. If you have come to sonship, you’re wholly led by the Spirit of the Lord. You can’t avoid that conclusion.
When people are still moved by their own ambition and plans, they are not being led by the Spirit of the Lord. Many great ministries go out and heal, putting on great campaigns and promotions. They are not being led by the Spirit of the Lord; they are promoting something.
Now, what did Jesus do? Did He advertise? No. He said, “Whatever I see the Father do, that I do.” He was really led by God the Father and God the Spirit.
John 3:34 says that the Father didn’t give the Holy Spirit in measure. Without measure He received, and so Christ, attaining sonship (the same sonship that He holds before us), was led by the Spirit of the Lord.
It says in the gospels that when He was first filled with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness, there to fast forty days and to be tempted of the devil. Every act, everything He did was because He was driven by it.
Saul of Tarsus was not a son of God—he was a rebel, a persecutor of the church. But when God got him down, He said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” And he said, “Who art Thou, Lord?” The Lord answered, “I’m Jesus Whom thou persecutest. It’s hard for you to kick against the pricks.” (Acts 9:4, 5).
An ox pulling a cart down the road that didn’t move fast enough would be jabbed with a sharp, hard, flat edged stick. If the ox became mad and kicked back, he was just hurting himself a little more, to kick against that prick.
That’s the way it was with Saul—God was putting him right in a corner. He was saying, “Saul, it will be hard for you to kick against what I’m doing.” Later Paul wrote, “It is good to be led by the Spirit of the Lord,” but he knew what it was to be driven and goaded by God. It is quite another thing to come to the place as a son where you are led by the Spirit of God and being led by the Spirit is certainly easier.
You may still be getting some of the treatments Saul of Tarsus got before he became a son. Have you felt lately as if you were being jabbed by the Lord and you felt like kicking against the prick? We can’t be rebellious; we must move out in the Spirit of the Lord, and come to that place where we are completely given to what God wants out of our lives.
During the Feast of Tabernacles, the course for the coming year is determined for many people. They are set in motion by the ministry they receive. You don’t realize what is happening with our elders and ministers that are out working and what we’re ready for in this great move of God’s Spirit. Some are ready to go forth in the ministry. Everything now is “Say no more ‘Tomorrow, tomorrow’ ”. The focus is on what God is thrusting us into now; we will be doing it. We will be going on with personal prophecy, divine commissions, divine direction to a Body in motion.
I would like to see our services end in prayer, standing and worshiping the Lord—then all of us falling to our knees, spending a few minutes praying over the word and the directives that come to our hearts during the service.
It may seem like a little form, but after we hear the word, we need to have more dedication to take it in our heart, to see it, and walk in it with everything that is within us.
As the latter rain outpouring begins, God desires some of our services to be a prophet’s meeting.
Here are seven objectives which will be the basis of our revelation and ministry services in the future:
1. We will wait upon the Lord in that meeting and, first of all, will come the foretelling of events so that the people of the Lord can be alert to what will take place in the world, in politics, in the church, in our lives. It will be a prophet’s meeting for revealing of the future.
2. It will be the proclamation and the setting in motion of the judgments of God in the earth. It will minister judgment.
3. It is to be a service of impartation to the ministries that are set in the Body under divine order. Notice that: impartation to them—not to anyone who comes along and says, “Give me a gift of the Holy Spirit.” Impartation will come to those whom God has set in this walk, in this remnant, who are set in order; impartation and also the commissioning of them—hands will be laid upon the ministries and they will be sent forth.
4. We have neglected ministry to the ministries of the church. Everyone who is set in the Body is to function. Every teacher in the Church at Study should be prophesied over and have hands laid on them. We need a special service where we commission people into their function in the Body; with the elders, the prophets, the apostles, the pastors, all laying hands on them, and saying in the name of the Lord Jesus, that the commission, and the divine enablement that goes with the commission, is there.
5. That service will be for spiritual warfare, to come against the demonic forces; because God wants us to be in the warfare together. All of us are to be united in it.
6. There should be prophetic ministry to other churches and ministers. God can lead us in this manner, “It is time to prophesy to those in Seattle.” What difference does it make if they’re not here? It’s the word of the Lord. We join together and begin to prophesy, pray for them, minister to them, send them up the tape and let them listen to it—“We ministered to you in the Sunday night service.”
7. The last point would be the directives to individuals as well as to the churches. They had that in the early church—the Holy Spirit would come and directives would be given. This also means that the ministry of confirmation—two, three or more witnesses coming to speak it—will be very necessary. Otherwise, it begins to rest too much on the word of one or two ministries. We shall have to really be sharp, looking for the word of God that there be no errors, no mistakes in this.
Now, these seven areas will be the scope of the prophet’s meeting. If we are to move in God, we must have a meeting like that.
Now, what about those from the outside that come to us—how do we help them? That’s simple. More and more we shall concentrate on divine order and reverence, and after the service, the benediction, the elders are to move on to the platform, and the people can come and receive ministry by the hour if they want it. Because this, again, is the divine order—a great deal of ministry.
We should have more times that we share what takes place in these meetings, and what the people of God are really getting. God will bring hundreds of young people and with the simple dedication that God will use them, they will go over the whole world in this move of the Spirit.