Guidance From God

1. The Law Of The State Of Being

We are on a new series. A very short one that we will look at what I call the
Guidance from God. Even as I pray for each one of you for your growth and
for the blessing of God to come upon your lives, the Lord began to speak to
me about teaching. The Lord said, “Teach My people to learn My guidance.
To learn to hear from Me. To do My perfect will.” I believe that there is no
greater joy, no greater blessing than to do the perfect will of God.
But there are some more things we want to touch on and build on - on
receiving guidance from God. God still guide and lead His people today.
God teaches us. He moves in our heart. He guides by our inward witness by
His voice to us and by confirmation through various means. And it is our
desire that each one of us learn to hear God. To do God’s perfect will is
most important thing in each one of our lives.
Lets look at the gospel of Luke chapter one. We look at the prophecy of
Zechariah; the father of John the Baptist. Luke 1: 76 onwards, “And you,
child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the
face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His
people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of God,
with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; to give light to those
who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the
way of peace.”
To guide our feet into the way of peace. The road into the perfect will of
God on our lives is also called the way of peace. The peace of God is not
just an attribute; it is not just a state of being. The peace of God is the way.
It’s a way in which we could walk. A path, a guidance system that God has
ordained for our lives. Since Zechariah prophesied about John the Baptist
coming forth and leading and guiding the people of God into the right way
and the right way is called the way of peace.
Lets cross reference to the book of Philippians chapter four. Do you realize
how important guidance is to each one of us? Many times in counseling we
have come across many questions on how do I know that is the will of God.

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How can I tell if this is God’s will for my life? We hope that through this
series that we could help answer some of those questions.
In verse 6, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and
supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
and the peace of God,” not human peace, not a state of being of our soul,
but the state of being that is brought about by Almighty God Himself. “The
peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.”
There is a peace that leads, that guides, that surround. Notice here peace
is not something passive. It is something powerful. It says this peace
guards, protects. The Greek word, the word ‘guard’ is a word that means
garrison. It speaks of a group of soldiers marching like a garrison around a
fortress to protect it from outside attacks. Protect from what kind of
attacks? Protect our hearts from all those forces that would seek to lead us
astray. That would seek to confuse us. That would seek to bring us away
and not of God’s perfect will. So that peace is very powerful. That is the
way of peace that we see here.
As we look at God’s guidance it seems we need a few examples in the
bible. We will be looking at people in the New Testament but we will also
be looking at people in the Old Testament and the guidance that God
brought upon in their lives. Some of them were very well guided. Some of
them were guided but they didn’t obey fully but there are some scriptures
that we want to compare and bring forth some teaching. Right now we will
start with the Old Testament. Don’t forget that we will consider the New
Testament too.
Lets look at the book of I Samuel. In I Samuel 9, the selection of Saul. Saul
was an example of a person who started well but didn’t end up well. He
was anointed by God and selected by God but somehow he didn’t know
how to flow in God’s perfect will. It doesn’t mean that if we start well we
will end well. Thank God that it doesn’t mean that if you didn’t begin well
that you couldn’t end well. If you realize along the way that we are not
walking in the way or in the right path, we can still change and move into
God’s perfect will.

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In I Samuel 9: 27 “As they were going down to the outskirts of the city,
Samuel said to Saul, ‘Tell the servant to go on ahead of us.’ And he went
on.”
He wanted to give this prophecy in private. Isn’t it interesting? It doesn’t
mean that if there is a prophecy from God for somebody else that you have
to give it publicly. Sometimes you receive a word of God for a certain
person who is with two or three others. It doesn’t mean that you give it in
front of the others. Some prophecies need to be given in private. This is
where the majority of the prophets come. The majority of the one who
give the gift of prophecy, here is where he comes in. Sometimes when we
are not experienced enough in operating the gifts of God, when we receive
something we just want to blurt it out. It’s not the way it should be. Some
prophecies are to be given in private. Single one to one. Others can be
given in public. We need God’s majority to come upon our lives.
So Samuel said, “Tell your servant to go ahead.” Why did he ask his servant
to go ahead first? So that he could be alone with Saul. Now understand
here where the pastoral aspect comes. Samuel was a prophet and a judge.
He happens to be also a priest. He stood in three offices. As a priest, in
those days a priest is almost like a pastoral ministry too. He is concerned
about how the servant will react when he hears that Saul is the next king.
Here is where the pastoral aspect comes in. The servant may not be
matured enough to know what to do or the servant may go out and
broadcast to people ahead of time. Samuel knew this and he doesn’t want
anybody else to know up to that point.
And so he says, tell your servant to go ahead and he went on to say in
verse 27, “But you stand here awhile, that I may announce to you the word
of God.” Chapter 10: 1 “Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his
head, and kissed him and said: ‘Is it not because the Lord has anointed you
commander over His inheritance? When you have departed from me
today, you will find two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin
at Zelsah; and they will say to you, ‘The donkeys which you went to look for
have been found. And your father has ceased caring about the donkeys
and is worrying about you, saying, ‘What shall I do about my son?’ Then
you shall go on forward from there and come to the terebinth tree of
Tabor. There three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you, one

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carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and
another carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two
loaves of bread, which you shall receive from their hands.”
These groups of peoples are prophets who are being led by the Spirit to do
certain things. Verse 5, “After that you shall come to the hill of God where
the Philistine garrison is. And it will happen, when you have come there to
the city, that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high
place with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, a flute, and a harp before
them, and they will be prophesying.”
I love that kind of atmosphere. We used to have a little prayer room in our
office. Once in a while intercessors would go in and they would be praying
loudly in tongues. I don’t know why some people don’t seem to like that
kind of prayer sound. I enjoy it. I love to hear prayer. Wouldn’t it seem nice
when you hear somebody praying in tongues? Some people seem to get
disturbed. What happen if your house is right next-door to an
intercessor’s? Early morning at 4am they pray loudly in tongues. If there
are unbelievers around we got to understand not to offend them. That is
understandable. You don’t go to a non-believer house at 4am in the
morning, open your window, shine your speaker on them and then start
praying loudly in tongues and frighten them away. But I am talking about
with believers. I don’t understand believers who get irritated by praying.
Maybe it has something to do with our their personal life. For me I enjoy
the sound of prayer. It is nice to hear prayer.
We have this group of prophets, they are prophesying away. Of course they
don’t have tongues at that time so they were probably speaking in Hebrew.
They are just doing it out of enjoying God’s presence. There was no
particular reason why they were there. They were not just there because
Saul was going to prophesize that day. It was probably a regular feature in
their lives. When Saul comes near to this group of people in verse 6, “Then
the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them
and be turned into another man.” Verse 7, “And let it be, when these signs
come to you, that you do as the occasion demands; for God is with you.”
Notice what is being said here. When the Spirit of God has come upon your
life, you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. And

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when you are another man you will do as the occasion demands. In other
words, whatever your decision, whatever you do, will be the will of God.
That’s powerful. Whatever occasion comes to you, whatever demands are
made on your side, whatever are your impressions at that time do as you
will for the Lord is with you. He is not saying that everything you do will be
God’s will. There is a condition there: that when the Spirit of God is on him
and he is turned into another man. So no.1, the Spirit of God is with you.
No.2, you turned into another man. No.3, you do whatever you want, God
is with you.
It’s tremendous. I like No.3. When you have reached that stage in No.3,
your thinking, your decision and your inclination are so controlled that it’s
under the will of God. At that point in No.3 you don’t need a vision to
come to you. You don’t need a dream. Neither do you need a prophet to
come to you. Neither do you need other types of confirmation because you
have that special position where you are guided from your inside. This is a
tremendous passage.
However, Saul never did learn how to cooperate with them. He never
learned how to cooperate with that order of God’s guidance. Some people
are just called to be prophets. From young they already started seeing
vision and revelation and that’s their guidance system. Why I want to use
Saul is that Saul represents the common guidance that God uses. Not every
one of us is seeing vision or revelation all the time. Not every one of us is
seeing angels coming to us every morning and saying, “Here’s today’s
agenda.” God works in different ways and according to different calling. I
want to touch on the most common guidance. That even prophets and
fivefold ministries have to understand this part. Because you could be
prophet in God, you could be apostle, evangelist, pastor, and teacher and
in the ministry works supernaturally with you, but when it comes to your
own decision making of buying a car, buying a house or your own personal
life, you need this guidance because this is what I call the basic guidance.
This is in the Old Testament and will be carried into the New Testament in a
principle form. Let me draw the principle that we are coming at.
No.1, there is a law of the state of being. We are looking at guidance from
God. There’s spiritual law involved in the guidance from God. The first law
is the law of the state of being. Depending on your state of being you will

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need different types of guidance. The more your state of being is Spirit
controlled the less you need that spectacular guidance. The more your
state of being is controlled by the Spirit and turned into the inclination of
the Spirit even without spectacular guidance, whatever little things and
decision making is the will of God. Under the law of the state of being you
see three principles operating.
A)To what degree are you Spirit filled?
B)To what degree are you changed, transformed? (In the Old Testament
the state of change is of a lesser degree than in the New Testament but
there is still a state of change.)
C)Based on A and B the nature is so changed that whatever the occasion
demands and your decision involved becomes the will of God and God
backs you up.
So all these function under what I called the law of the state of being. Now
lets look at (A) how Spirit filled are we? That’s an important consideration.
We talked about being Spirit filled. There are degrees of being Spirit filled.
Yesterday you could have been more Spirit filled than today. Tomorrow you
may be less Spirit filled than today. Being Spirit filled is not something that
you do yesterday for today. You have to do it everyday. That is why if
people want this blessing, it is important to spend time with God. The
purpose of (A) is to get into the state of being. Part of getting into that
state of being is allowing the Spirit to dominate our life and being Spirit
filled. I could imagine when Saul came among the prophets. As the Lord
told him through Samuel there was this group of prophets there and they
will be prophesying. Since they were prophesying with harps and stringed
instruments and everything else, it would be very musical. So I could
imagine the sound. As Saul comes in he began to prophesy with them and
he turned into another man. And God said, “Whatever you do is God’s
will.”
You can imagine that there is something about yielding to the Spirit before
you get guidance. It’s the state of being you must enter. When Saul heard
the sound and somehow he turned into something else, that was the
spiritual methodology that took place instantly. He was no more the same
Saul. And you know what is like when you yield to the Spirit of God? You

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can change. Some of the changes for people are temporary but if you keep
yielding to the change that the Holy Spirit works in your life, it can become
a permanent change. The wonderful news in the New Testament is that
change can be permanent because of the born again experience and
because the Holy Spirit can now dwell in our hearts.
So something is taking place in Saul’s state of being. He was filled with the
Spirit. I called it the law of the state of being. The definition for the law is in
proportion to the amount of the Spirit controlling your life. Your guidance
is automatic. It means whatever you do is the will of God. There is a state
of being that we need to enter in. You can realize that is why sometimes
people struggle to get God’s guidance. In the first place the Holy Spirit is
not filling their lives. They could be like the Prodigal son, far away from
God, saying, “God where are You?” Sometimes God can speak to people in
that state. Because of intercession God sends angels, God sends a man of
God, woman of God to speak to those people and bring them back. But
they don’t taste of the guidance of God from this law of the state of being.
Their state of being is way out. They are not yielded to that realm of the
state of being of the Spirit of God.
We always have in mind that the guidance has to be a vision, a dream,
some voices or something else and we forget that before we seek the
guidance let’s seek the state of being. In fact the more our state of being is
yielded to the Spirit of God the less spectacular guidance you need. The
more the guidance flow from a part of your very being that has been
transformed, all these scriptures come together to bring what we call the
way of peace. When you are Spirit filled the fruit of the Spirit flows in your
life. It guides you. It garrisons you. How do you know you have entered into
that being? The kingdom of God is not meat and drink but love, joy and
peace. You enter into that atmosphere first. Some of us could be praying
for business decision, secular decision making. God is interested in every
aspect of our decision-making. Not only spiritual decision but natural
decision. He can guide you in your life in the smallest little decision that
you have to make. But sometimes although we have the Holy Spirit in us,
we are not Spirit filled. He is not fully controlling us, therefore guidance
and decision-making is so hard. We cannot discern God’s will. If you will
just put aside all these struggles of trying to be led and just learn to enter

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His presence and be yielded. Just being with Him first and get into His
presence. Get into that kingdom of God of love, peace and joy. Just
concentrate on yielding to Him and being Spirit filled. The atmosphere that
is always there, praying in tongues and your spirit is free soaring like an
eagle above the circumstances, your spirit is free in God and you are just in
His presence. You are not even thinking about your business. You are not
thinking about your personal decision or thinking about any decision-
making. All you want is to be yielded to God and in the state of being of
yielding to God. As you enter into that you experience what Philippians 4
says, the peace of God garrison your heart and mind. Something comes
upon your life and you are Spirit filled.
Lets look at the book of Ephesians 5 and see what the New Testament
definition of Spirit filled is. Ephesians 5: 18-19 “And do not be drunk with
wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.” And then he
goes on to tell us what being filled with the Spirit is like. “Speaking to one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making
melody in your heart to the Lord.”
How do I know I am Spirit filled? You feel very bouncy. Spirit filled people
don’t feel depressed. They don’t go about with a holy sad look. There is
bounciness about being Spirit filled. Something that makes you light
instead of the spirit of heaviness. You could see some Christians with the
spirit of heaviness on them. Their shoulders droop lower and lower and
then they come to you say, ‘Pastor, I need guidance.’ When you look at
them, you know that before you can give any guidance to them they need
to be Spirit filled first. They say, “I am born again. Tongues talking. Demon
chasing. Carrying bible except that I never read it. I only carry it.” They are
not Spirit filled. They were baptized in the Spirit twenty years ago in
Sunday school. They spoke for three minutes in tongues. We Christians
have to learn to remain in the Spirit. Remain being Spirit filled. When the
spirit of heaviness is on us we cannot get guidance. Now you know why the
majority of Christian has no guidance? They were not even Spirit filled.
They were Spirit filled and they were baptized in the Spirit and once in a
blue moon they get touched by God. Spoke a few words of tongues and
then lost it. There is a bounce about being Spirit filled. Think about that.
How can you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and make melody in

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your heart with long face. It says making melody in your heart. The Greek
implies very bouncy melodies hymns.
Before we talk about being led by the Spirit. Before we talk about getting
guidance from God. The most important thing is to get Spirit filled and hear
the melody in your heart. Can you hear the melody in your heart? In other
words, before you hear God says, ‘Thus says the Lord, it is My will for you
to go now to San Francisco.’ Before you hear God’s Word can you hear the
music? The Holy Spirit has music when He moves. Can you hear the music
in your life? In your heart? In your spirit? If there is no music in your heart,
don’t talk about guidance. Get back that music first. Somebody stole your
heart. If there is no music in your heart guidance is very difficult. Even lets
say really by God’s grace and mercy, He came to you and send a prophet or
send a dream or send an angel or send a vision and says, “Thus says the
Lord, it is His will for you to go to Timbuktu.” You are still not ready because
you still don’t have the melody. You will be obeying God very reluctantly.
You are still not in the right spirit. There’s nothing in this world like being
filled with the Spirit.
God has never made Christian life easier. The blessing in the New
Testament is being Spirit filled. Before that the Holy Spirit cannot go out to
the people like He can go out in the New Testament. Can you hear the
music in your life? I realize sometimes we have sad things that happen,
depressing things that happen, things that demand our attention, and
things that cause sorrow. Before you talk about guidance get rid of that
sorrow.
The bible says in Philippians 4: 6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything
by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made
known to God.”
In other words, get rid of anxiety. Get rid of the cares of this life. Get rid of
all the worries, the sorrows, and the heaviness. Get rid of them first and
then verse 7 “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will garrison your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” That’s the
position you can receive guidance from God. So for many Christians they
must get rid of their anxieties and worries through Philippians 4: 6. It may
take some prayer and that is why lets say for the businessman. You have a

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business deal and decision to make but you are so anxious and it occupies
your mind so much so that you can hardly think. It dominates you. You
cannot think freely. You have to free yourself from it first. Move into what
some people called the neutral gear. It’s causing you sleepless night. Get
out of that situation first. God cannot guide you because in those
circumstances you may hear wrongly. Or you may even hear wrong voices.
Before you try to hear any voice, get rid of all that. Get into the right state
of being and let the music comes again into your life. Let psalms, hymns
and spiritual songs fill your life. As it fills your life, you get a bounce back.
You get the light heartedness, the joy, the peace and the love of God. You
feel like hugging the whole world and say, “Jesus loves you.” You just flow
into the Holy Spirit. You are filled once again. There are no more anxieties,
there are no more worries and there are no more cares of this world.
Nothing worries you; you are so happy with things as it is in God. You are
only thankful that you got His presence in your heart. You are just
worshipping God. The music is back. You are just glorifying God and
worshipping Him.
If you get into that kind of situation it’s easy to get into God’s guidance.
Sometimes prayer is not enough. Philippians 4: 6 says, “Be anxious for
nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let
your requests be made known to God.” For some people they have to pray
to release it out first. For other people they need Colossians 3: 16, “Let the
word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” So for some other
people maybe they need to spend time on the Word, meditating on the
Word. Confessing the Word. Speaking the Word. I love to confess God’s
Word and when you confess God’s Word for hours upon hours, something
happens on your inside and you feel so happy. And it causes that freedom
in the spirit. It unlocks your spirit like a bird out of the cage of your soul to
flow into God’s realm. So for some people they need the Word of God to
come into their lives. Just forget about all your dealings and just read God’s
Word and enjoy God’s Word. Munch God’s Word. Just appreciate God’s
Word and God’s Word would cause psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
to fill your spirit being and help you to get into the state of being Spirit
filled.

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So that’s (A) to get into that Spirit filled atmosphere. As you enter into that,
we will hear the song in our heart, a melody in your heart. Let me share
this is also a secret on how to get guidance very fast. When that melody is
in your heart, you get guidance very fast. Within five minutes you can
discern whether something is the will of God. Within five minutes you
could make a decision straight away. It doesn’t take long because the
melody and the song of the Lord are under girding you and you are just
hearing the Lord. Now that melody can be some songs that you already
know. But it just happens to come to you that day. Or it can be a new tune
or something else and you are almost caught up in it and you are just
humming away. You could hear it on your inside. When you are Spirit filled
although you don’t sing it out, sometimes all you have got to do is just to
be alone and you can feel that song coming out. You could hear it on your
inside. You have passed (A) Spirit filled. Your spirit is so full that according
to the book of Psalms he encompasses you with a song of deliverance. Your
garrison, you are guarded; you are tapping on the Lord when you are in the
state of being Spirit-filled.
And when those things come (B) takes place. You are turned into another
man. Your spirit man rises on your inside. It’s no more your own self. In
your old self you may make a wrong decision based on your carnal desires
and your old former ways, but the new self comes in. You are born again a
new man. Now for the Old Testament, they only have it temporary when
the Holy Spirit is upon them. In the New Testament you have it all the time.
Now this is a process that Paul called stirring up the gifts within you.
Lets look over here in the book of II Cor.5: 17 “Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things
have become new.”
Now many of us know the first part of the verse. If anyone is in Christ, he is
a new creation. Old things have passed away. We only know that part. We
know that old things have passed away. What old things? Your old way of
thinking. Your old habits. Your old desires of your old man. All these old
things are now gone. Remember as long as you are Spirit filled they remain
gone. The moment you lose your “Spirit fill-ness,” your old man seems to
revive. But don’t forget that one part of that verse that says ‘all things have
become new’. Your decision-making, the way your eyes look at the

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situation is new. Something has changed on your inside. The way you make
your decision, the way you look at something is no more your old man. It’s
something new on your inside coming out. That’s the transformation that
we have. We are tapping on the spirit of man. Our new born spirit that God
has placed on our inside.
Remember this there is no problem and no difficulty in your life that you
confront where God has not put a solution on your inside. The bible put it
in another way. No temptation has overtaken you except that which is
common to man. With every temptation God has provided a way of
escape. Now my question is: do you know where the way of escape is? It’s
from the inside. God has put something in your spirit man whereby you
could solve every problem that has come into your life. The secret is to tap
on your spirit man.
When Paul was confronting great difficulties and opposition, both in the
natural and spiritual, he cried out to God three times. I don’t know what he
cried out but he would cry out something like, “Lord I don’t know what to
do. Lord I can’t take this. Lord it’s too much for me.” And his cries were met
with silence from heaven. Then he cried out again. When he was hard,
maybe with tears in his eyes and heaviness in his voice. “God I can’t take it.
This is too much.” Silence from heaven. Finally Paul cried out again. “God,
nothing has change I give up. I quit. I can’t do it.” Then he heard the voice
of God, “Paul My grace is sufficient for you.” In other words, God said I
have given you enough resources on your inside. If you study the grace of
God, it is not something outside. It’s something stored in your spirit man.
Grace is an inward enablement not an outward enduement. Inwardly he
was enabled when he said, “I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me.” He says, “In my weakness, He is my strength.” Where is
He? He is on his inside. There is no temptation, no trial; no difficulty that
has overtaken you that God hasn’t prepared a solution and an enablement
on your inside. That’s why (B) is important: to what degree are you
changed and transformed?
When we are Spirit filled, for the first time you can hear what we have
been teaching in being led by the Spirit. Your human spirit the voice of your
own spirit rise up above all the other voices and you find a new strength.

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You are transformed and all things are become new. That’s newness to the
way you see the situation.
Lets look at Romans 8: 14 onwards, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of
God, these are sons of God.”
Have you figured out why the two are connected? Why is it that God says
as many as are led by the Spirit, these are the sons of God? How come the
two are connected? In our mind we see the connection when you led by
the Spirit you demonstrate the power of being sons of God. That is one
interpretation but there is another one that we don’t want you to miss.
That’s what we are talking about. Somehow the leading of the Spirit is
connected to your sonship theologically and the connection because we
have always seen that we are led by the Spirit therefore we become the
sons of God. But it didn’t say that. It didn’t say because you are led by the
Spirit you have become the son of God. That’s how everybody interprets it.
Or because you are led by the Spirit therefore you have become
manifestation of the son of God. He didn’t say it. As he said as many as are
led by the Spirit, these not have become but these are the sons of God. We
could put it in another way. These are the sons of God as many as are led
by the Spirit. There is a connection between the leading of the Spirit and
sonship. And for the correct interpretation look at the verse that follows.
Verse 15, “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but
you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The
Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and
if children then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we
suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”
Have you noticed in verse 15, how the Spirit of God is on your inside and
the Spirit of God is the Spirit of sonship or the Spirit of adoption. The word
of adoption is actually sonship. When the Spirit of sonship is working and
leading you, you are tapping on your sonship; you are tapping on the
nature of your new creation that God has transformed you.
Now bringing this thought to Romans 8: 14, we could paraphrase it as, For
as many allow themselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and guided by
the Holy Spirit, and led by the Holy Spirit and work by the Holy Spirit, they

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are the ones who tap and grow into their new natures of sons and
daughters of God.
Lets look at some New Testament examples. In the book of Ephesians 1:
17-18 “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give
to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the
eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is
the hope of His calling,” that hope of calling is already given. But now you
know what is it. What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the
saints. Now where is His inheritance? Where is His riches? In the saints.
Not in heaven. In the saints. He has given it to us in Christ.
Turn over to Colossians 1: 26-27 “The mystery which has been hidden from
ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To
them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this
mystery among the Gentiles.”
Did you see the same thing? The riches of His glory, which is Christ in you.
Every solution to your problem lies in your spirit man governed by the Holy
Spirit. Now understand why is it that way. Before you were born, God
knows every situation you were to go through. Before the situation occur
God doesn’t wait until the situation occur then gives you the ability. Before
it ever comes God supply your need. Now if you understand this verse in
Col.1: 27 in that way, we will look at Phil.4: 19 in a different way now.
Phil.4: 19 “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in
glory by Christ Jesus.”
Now the question I ask you is, “Where is the riches of His glory?” Col. 1: 27
tells you the riches are revealed to the saints. What is being revealed? The
mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generation. Who is
this mystery that was hidden? Why, it is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ in you is
the riches of His glory. Scripture interprets scripture. The riches of His glory
is in you. The more you grow in the revelation of Jesus Christ, the more
riches of His glory is manifested in your spirit man. Potentially, all of us
have the riches of His glory in us when we receive Jesus Christ into our
hearts. But in reality, it is only when we feed on the Word and grow in the
understanding of the mystery of Christ and receive more divine revelation
of Jesus Christ in our spirit, that these riches of His glory are brought to

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surface in our spirit man. It is just like an uneducated servant who has
received the entire estate of her master when he died, according to the will
the master has written. The estate worth millions is hers, but if she still
remains ignorant about her legal rights of acquiring the estate, she would
still go on in her poverty. But if she takes the pains to study and educate
herself on her legal rights, she will be able to acquire and enjoy the wealth
and the riches left for her by her master.
Now you understand Phil. 4: 19 differently. Since His riches in glory is Jesus
Christ Himself, therefore we can expand this verse as follows: And my God
shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory, who is Jesus
Christ Himself in you, by Christ Jesus.
Now we have always said God supply all my needs according to His riches
in glory in Christ Jesus and we put on our telescope and binoculars and
look for the supply. Here comes Gabriel, Michael, where are you.
Sometimes you focus your telescope on your mailbox. Come on, Mr.
Postman. Wait a minute; His supply is on your inside. This is a powerful law
we have learned. If you have it in the spirit you will have it in the natural. If
you don’t realize you have it in the spirit the natural cannot manifest.
Understand this: the spiritual is greater than the natural. If you have it in
the spiritual, the natural have to obey. The problem why the manifestation
doesn’t come is we don’t have it in the spiritual. We let it pass. We don’t
hold it fast with our spiritual hands. So the next time you say God supply
your needs, don’t look elsewhere. Look at the riches of His glory found in
your spirit man. Ephesians chapter one says, He has blessed you with every
spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. It’s not future tense. It’s not even present
tense. It’s past tense. Even in the context Phil.4: 13 Paul tells you the kind
of revelation he has. He said, I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me, not from outside but from inside. And he is talking about
his needs. He has abundance of Christ’s riches in him. He can abound when
there is lack in every situation. He said he could do it through Christ, who is
on his inside.
Every mountain is no mountain; you can do it. Every situation and difficulty
is not a problem. You can do it through Christ who strengthens you from
your inside. My God supply all my needs according to His riches in glory in
our spirit on our inside. That’s why the transformation is important. You

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get into the law of the state of being. Spirit filled. You hear the melody and
your spirit man who has all the wisdom of God. Who has all the riches of
God? Who has all the strength of God? Who has all the fullness of God?
Who has all the grace of God? It rises from your inside and then it’s easy.
Every decision you make is now a decision of your spirit man and it is
always in line with the will of God.
When you reach that stage, visions and revelations are only bonuses for
you. Little confirmation that you don’t seek. Prophecies are little
confirmations you don’t seek. They are just bonus confirmation for you.
God will still work through visions and revelations, dreams, visions, angelic
beings, prophecy and all the other forms of guidance. But what I am telling
you, if you reach a stage when you walk with God and you know what
God’s will is, you just do it. If God gives you a dream or vision, thank Him
but if He doesn’t it makes no difference. You are still walking with God. It’s
a different state of being that you are walking in. You have the blessing of
being Spirit filled. You are being turned into a different person. Your spirit
man rises and whatever the occasion demand, you just do it, and God will
be with you. You can see why it’s so powerful. When you are so
transformed and your spirit man has risen up, whatever problem comes
up, it’s now your spirit man who now makes the decision. It’s your spirit
man who guides you. No wonder God says, for the Old Testament is only a
temporary phenomena but for us is a permanent phenomena. God says to
Saul whatever the occasion demands do it and it is My will. When your
spirit man is raised, whatever situation occurs, you could make a decision
and that is the will of God because your spirit man is doing all the thinking
not your natural man. That is the law of the state of being. Get into the
state of being and guidance will be easy.
2. THREE KEYS TO THE WILL OF GOD
We are on the guidance of God. It’s such a blessing to know the Word of
God. To be taught the Word of God and to be able to walk in the will of
God. The purpose of this series is in order to help each one of us even
more closely to the will of God in our lives. I believe that there is no greater
call than to do God’s perfect will. Forget about fortune. Forget about fame.
Forget about all the things of this life because all these things God can
easily add them on to you. The most important goal that we have and we

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must have in our lives is to do God’s perfect will. I was speaking to one of
the graduates of the bible school and he was about to go back to his home
country. He had been here for sometime. He asked me several questions
and I left one last word with him. I said the most important thing that you
ever seek in your life it’s not fortune, it’s not fame, it’s not the thing of this
world but it’s God’s perfect will. I pray that word stays in his life.
In order to do God’s perfect will, we need to hear God. Hearing is
something, which we grow into. It’s not necessary something that comes
instantly. John 10: 27 did not say, “My lambs will hear My voice,” but it says
“My sheep hear My voice.” From the time we were born again we are little
lambs in God. It takes us time to grow to be a sheep to discern and hear
God’s voice. It didn’t say My lambs hear My voice, He says My sheep hear
My voice. What do the lambs do then? The lambs follow the sheep until
they learn to hear the voice of God. I have only three little points to share
this morning for guidance from God.
We will read first from Joshua 1: 8, Joshua had taken over leadership from
Moses. It is not easy to fill in Moses’ shoes. Joshua was a servant to Moses
for forty years. Now that Moses had died and gone home to be with God.
Joshua has to fill in his shoes. I would gather those were huge shoes. It’s
not easy to move into a position where Moses had acquired over forty
years. God was encouraging him and the word ‘be strong and of good
courage’ is repeated many times to Joshua. God spoke these words to him
through Moses before Moses died. Spoken by the people to Joshua. Not
only does he have to fit in those shoes, he has one of the most important
things to do, which Moses did not succeed. He has to lead the people into
the Promised Land. In verse 8, God gave him a personal promise.
Joshua 1: 8 “This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but
you shall meditate it day and night, that you may observe to do according
to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and
then you will have good success.”
He is giving him a revelation on how to obtain guidance from Him. How to
walk in the will of God for his life and do what God called him to do. The
first point that I would like to share on, I have titled it “Hard working hands
and feet.” God spoke these words to him. I like to point to verse 3, “Every

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place that sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to
Moses.” Every place where your sole tread upon will be yours. We could
look at it positively and negatively. Looking at it negatively means that any
place that you are too lazy to step on is not yours. If you were to just stand
in one corner and put your feet there in that corner and wait for Me to give
you that Promised Land, I am not going to give that Promise Land. If you
are going to be a lazy bum then you will not have the Promised Land. If you
are going to step on only one square foot of land, that’s all that is going to
be and it’s not even big enough to build your toilet let alone to put your
bed on it. God says every place where your foot steps upon will be yours. It
seems that the discovery of God’s will in our life and the possession and
manifestation of God’s will in our life require effort on our part. Not
forgetting verse 8 whatever you do will prosper provided you have done
certain homework about the book of the Law, about meditating the Word
of God. Then whatever you do will prosper. But again we see the emphasis
there is a doing. Without he going and doing there is no revelation that
God will bring forth.
Along the way, as he fought the battle, there were things that he needed to
call upon God. Like how he cried unto God and commanded the sun and
the moon to be still. How he depended on God and God worked in their
lives. Conquering the Promised Land was not just walking into it. We know
what it entails. They had to take their sword in the hands and the shield in
the other. They go out and fight in order to possess the land. That is the
picture of Christian possessing the promises in Jesus Christ. Yet how many
Christians who are waiting for God’s will to be done in their lives are just
sitting somewhere around. It’s alright to pray in your prayer closet, we
need to continue doing that. It’s alright to meditate on God’s Word; we
need to continue doing that. Please continue strongly in that. But if all we
do is sit around and wait in a corner we will not possess the land. We need
to do something about it. There is a doing.
Lets turn also to Psalms 1: 3 “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of
water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not
wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”
1. Hardworking Hands and Feet

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Your prosperity and the will of God accomplished in your life depend on
your doing and your going besides your being. Now first point in
discovering God’s will in our life is what I called hard working hands and
feet. It can be rephrased in this manner for our understanding. Unless you
do with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and all that you know how
to do, there will be no other thing coming forth. I repeat again in case you
missed it. Unless we work hard with our heart, mind, soul and strength and
put all our energy to do our best, in all that we know how to do, you will
not discover the other parts of God’s will. There are a lot of people who are
not doing their best. They are not doing their best to please God. They are
not doing their best, giving their best effort to do all that they know how to
do. Now it’s fine if you don’t know what to do and how to do. But when
you know how to do and what to do and you don’t give God your best, put
all your strength and energy into it, put all your heart into it, put all your
mind into it, put all your physical energy into it, put all your resources and
finances into it, put all your time into it, knowing that that is what God
wants you to do, there will be no more revelation that comes. And you can
sit around for another fifty years and nothing will happen.
Have you noticed that the people who move into doing God’s will in this
earth, throughout history, besides the life of Jesus Christ, and even in the
Old Covenant and the New Covenant, have you realized that there is
something about their lives? Whatever they do, they do with all their
hearts. There is no half measure. Let me tell you why point one is
important. There are too many Christians who do things with half measure.
I have walked with God for twenty years in the ministry. Before I was in the
ministry, I was born again in 1974. I went into ministry in 1976. I have been
twenty-two years in the Lord. Twenty of those years have been in the
ministry. I have found one thing about God. If you don’t do with all your
heart, energy and resources what you know it’s God’s will nothing else
happen. If God calls you into the ministry and God tells you for example go
and build a bible school. If you are not willing to sell your car and your
house and put all your money to do that, don’t expect a miracle from God.
I didn’t say that you have to do it but you must be willing to do. And if God
calls you into the business world, a chosen generation and God reveals to
you and says, “This is what I call you to do, to bring the finances of the

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world into the kingdom of God. This is what I have revealed to you. This is
the business that you must go in.” You only act in half measure because
you play safe. The word play safe is another word for lack of faith and you
give Him a half measure.
Let me explain, God does not take half measures. When you do something
for God, He expects you to be willing to put your whole life into it. God
does not want your money. He wants your life because He knows if He has
your life He will use all your resources. There are far too many Christians
who are not finding God’s will. They ask God, “Why is it that there are so
many of Your people are not discovering the fullness of Your will?” God
replies, “They don’t love Me with all their heart, mind, soul and strength. If
I were to ask them to do something they give me only half a measure. I tell
them something to do and they give only one percent of their
commitment. The most they would go is only 10% of their commitment.
They are not willing to touch on all of their resources to do what I called
them to do.” If they keep doing that, even for the next hundred years, they
would still not see the glorious church. Let me encourage you. If you want
to accelerate then move into the fullness of that which God’s wants to do.
Then do it with all your heart. And within five years you will reach what
takes place fifty years. Not only will you have the blessings of that but also
the most important thing is you have done God’s perfect will. The others
are still struggling to discover His will. God expects us to flow into the
fullness of that.
Joshua may not know a lot of things yet to do. He may not know what
other things he has to do but he will take it one step at a time. God will not
reveal His will entirely. He reveals His will a little bit at a time. We see in
part and we know in part. We do not have the capacity to see everything at
one time. God prefers to reveal it that way so that we exercise trust and
faith in Him. One of the first laws is the law of hard working hands and
feet. With your hands and your feet symbolically, you do all that you know
how to do and God will show up. If you don’t do it with all your heart, God
will not show up. I have seen so many miracles of God. I have seen it when
you do something and you use it to the last one cent and God comes
through. But if you don’t use it to the last one cent, God doesn’t come
through. Thank God. He does.

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Think about the people in the bible. You can name anyone. Abraham
walked with God but not in the full measure. God says in Genesis 12,
‘Abraham, get out of your kindred and of this land and go into the land
which I have called you.’ And he went out but he did something that God
never asked him to do. He took his nephew Lot along. Because of
Abraham’s partial obedience, God couldn’t reveal anything else. God could
only bless him to the extend that God could because God is a God of love.
He blesses us to the maximum possible with the commitment we have.
Have you ever wondered why Abraham took his nephew along? There are
multiple theories why Abraham took Lot with him. One of the most
possible cases that we could argue from is he took Lot either as an
emotional or physical security; as a just-in-case-something-fouled-up. Now
you cannot say it was Lot who followed Abraham. The bible says Abraham
took Lot. I could argue from context too. See Abraham was someone who
doesn’t say goodbye easily to those whom he loves or to those whom he
has established a relationship.
In Genesis 12: 4, “So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and
Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he
departed from Haran. Verse 5, “Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his
brother’s son.”
He took, the Hebrew word means he took his wife and he took Lot. Why
did he take him? I could research Abraham’s emotional make up and prove
to you from the book of Acts 7 as compared to Genesis 11 and show forth
that by the time God called him in Genesis 12: 1, it was a second time God
called him because the first time that God called him was in Acts 7 and was
recorded by Stephen. Acts 7: 2 “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of
glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia.’ See
the word there ‘before’ and he says that, “Before he dwelt in Haran.” Now
in Genesis 11: 31 “And Terah took his son Abram”, according to Joshua
chapter 24, Terah was an idol worshipper and “Terah took his son Abram
and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his
son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans
to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there.”

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The bible says in Acts 7: 2 before verse 31, before he dwelt in Haran. But
Abraham is someone whom God has dealt with too. He’s just like us. He’s a
great man of faith eventually as he walked with God. Some of you who are
walking with God, you make mistakes, you have done things in your life,
please don’t worry about it. Just keep going. The steps of a good man are
ordered by the Lord. Though he falls yet he shall not be cast down. Just
pick yourself up and go on. There are many times Abraham has fallen and
failed. He picked himself up and go on. Eventually he became a mighty man
of faith. Before he dwelt in Haran God spoke to him. But Abraham could
not give up his father easily. He could not give up all those things around
him easily. That’s the revelation of the character and the emotion of
Abraham. Only when his father died, did God spoke to him again because
God looks at him and says it’s no use speaking to him now. Terah is too
much an influence and too great a voice to him. So God could be on one
side and God says, ‘Abraham come and follow Me. This is God speaking.’
And Terah would be on the other side and says, ‘Abraham come to me, I
am Terah your father.’ The bible says in Joshua 24 that Terah was an idol
worshipper. Here is Abraham; he is caught in between. He hears two
voices: the voice of God and the voice of his father. God knew, God has
called in Acts 7: 2 before he dwelt in Haran but Abraham did not hear
God’s voice. Maybe he heard and he shut it down. Maybe he heard and he
put it down. But the voice of Terah, the terror was too loud. What did you
do? Talk about the will of God? It could be our life that we are talking
about. Maybe you had your Terah in your life. Maybe the Terah in your life
need to die before you discover God’s will. I pray God it will not be so. Do
you know why? You don’t want to be seventy-five years old when you do
God’s will. Abraham had to wait till his father died. That does not mean
some of you are praying for someone to die. Pray for them to be
converted. Terah was an idol worshipper who did not know God, who did
not respect God. Some of you do not know your bible that well. Better read
that verse two otherwise you think is this real. It’s as real as the bible you
hold in your hand, which if you didn’t know this truth you probably didn’t
read that part.
Joshua 24: 2 “Joshua said to all the people, ‘Thus says the Lord God of
Israel: Yours fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father

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of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times; and they served
other gods.”
Maybe there is a Terah in your life that prevent you from discovering God’s
will in your life. It may be in a form of a person. It may be in the form of an
organization. It may be in the form of an emotional grudges that you got in
the early days of your life. You know what God does? He kept calling
Abraham, Abraham did not hear. And on the other side he said to Terah,
“Yes daddy.” And what does God do? God says I will forget about him until
Terah died. Maybe that’s God’s will in our lives. We haven’t discovered
God’s will. We haven’t heard God’s voice because there are other voices
that are crowding out the voice of God. I bring all those things to show
how that even when Terah died, Abraham heard God’s call the second
time. The moment Terah’s funeral was over, God said, ‘Abraham.’ Now
there is only one voice because the other voice is now silent. God said,
“Get out; I have spoken to you for years and years and years ago. Get out
of this place. I am calling you.” And he heard God’s voice. He packed all his
goods and possessions and he took his wife’s family, and you know
sometimes some of us have an emotional grudge, something that’s
sentimental to you. It could be a person. It could be a thing. And he takes
Lot along. He has only one problem. Lot was not as dedicated to God as he.
My friends, if you ever form a team of business colleague, if you ever form
a team of ministry, make sure they have the same dedication. If you have
people of different level of dedication you will realize it will affect your
operation. Somewhere along the line, they start quarreling because their
commitment is different. That shows something about Abraham. He
wanted to do God’s will like many Christians. Like many Christians by the
mercy of God a lot of hindrances like Terah has been removed but it’s more
their own personal decision now that they are not committing their heart,
mind, soul and strength and energy and all their resources to God. Along
the way because of their lack of commitment, in a sense God did speak but
most of the time is silence from heaven. Sometimes they are wondering
why God is so silent. Why God does not reveal. Why God does not speak.
Let me explain something. There has been many times in my life, when I
have put my all for God, and I have felt many times that Abraham offering
Isaac. I have nothing left to offer Him. I have given and given and offered

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until I have nothing left. I said, ‘God I only have my life.’ I shared the other
time, in the offering time I said, it is an attitude that every time we come to
God we should have something in our hands for Him. We come to God to
worship Him. In the Old Testament we worship God we have to bring
something. Now we all are thankful that Jesus replaced all those sacrifices.
Lets not forget that when we come to God, lets have something to bring to
Him because you love Him. It can be represented by anything. Some of us
don’t have much because we are in need. Let me tell you what you have,
you can always find something to bring to God. If you don’t have finances,
you are really down to your last two mites like the widow; you gave your
last two mites away. You have nothing more to give. The next Sunday you
have nothing more to give. Do you know what you can give? Give your
time. There is no such thing that any human being has nothing to give to
God. We should learn to have that attitude.
There are many times I have given and given and I said, Lord, there is
nothing more I can do. Here is the good news. It is during those times that
the voice of God is so clear. It is like you got direct line with heaven and
God completely disallowed the devil from even tempting or inflicting. You
know there are other times you are given a choice because of a test you
are going through. I found that when you are Abraham putting your Isaac
on the altar, the voice of God is so clear. It’s like a direct line with God. You
could be down to your last ounce of energy and I have always heard God’s
voice so clear and says, ‘Son, this is what you must do next.’ And it’s always
something that He tells you to do. And it keeps you going and then along
comes the breakthrough.
Let me challenge you. Law number one, if you want to hear God, you want
to do God’s will, you must put all your hands and feet. Put all your energy
to do what you know that God already told you to do. Now some of us are
not confident enough. God has repeated three times to you, five times to
you, give you five prophecies, three confirmations and two scriptures and
you still say, O God please confirm one more time. By His grace He did. But
there comes a time when God say, ‘Are you listening or are you not
listening?’ Sometime it’s more of our willingness to obey than God’s
willingness to speak. Unless we have passed stage one, hard working hands
and feet, you have done all you know. When I know that God speaks

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something, don’t come and stop me because I want to do it even if it
causes my blood. When I know that something is God’s will, that’s it, I will
burn my bridges and go. Maybe other people have a different personality
but that’s me and that’s the reason God called me into the call that God
has for me. He adapts my personality to that.
It’s important whether you are called into the ministry like me or you are
called into any other area. If you want to succeed in your life, if you want to
do what God calls you to do, if you want to go like Paul says, you have to be
very hardworking. You know Paul was someone who worked hard. Why did
Paul reach such heights of usefulness to God? You read Galatians, Paul says
he excels above his contemporaries. He was someone who does not know
how to serve God in half measures. If he serves the devil, he serves the
devil with all his heart, which is bad of course. But if he serves God, he
serves God with all his heart. He doesn’t know half measure.
Maybe I should turn to that verse in Gal. 1: 14, when he was a Jew, he was
the best Jew. When he was a Pharisee, he was the best Pharisee. When he
was the persecutor, he was the best persecutor. Which is of course the sad
part. But when he was a Christian, he was the best Christian. When he was
a preacher, he wants to be the best. No half measure with him. He says in
verse 14 of Galatians chapter one, “And I advanced in Judaism beyond
many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly
zealous for the traditions of my fathers.” When he was a Pharisee he was a
real Pharisee. That is why in one lifetime, he could touch the whole world.
The whole known world in his time knew the ministry of the apostle Paul.
If you want to live a life of mediocrity, go ahead you will have a mediocre
reward in heaven. But you want to burn your life out for God. Not burnt
out because of stress but burn for God like a bright flame. Burning even to
the last drop of energy until Jesus comes and you will receive the reward
from God.
Discover God’s will in your life. Hard working hands and feet. You see why
Paul succeeded. Name anybody else in the bible. I can tell you that the
main fact is when God reveals a little bit they go all their way to the best.
There are so many revelations. Lets say God reveals one decigram of His
voice and word and you obey God 100%. Then God reveals two decigram
and you obey 100%. What about another person? God reveals one

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decigram and you do everything in half measures; half this, half that. Do
you know that God will never reveal the second decigram? He will never.
That explains why many Christians are not getting guidance from God. They
haven’t even obeyed to what they know with all their heart. Law no. 1 was
not operating. Their hands and their feet are not working for God to do
what they know in their heart is God’s will.
2. The Stirring in Our Hearts and Minds
Second law: the stirring in our hearts. Your hard working hands and feet is
no. 1. No. 2 is the stirring in our hearts and in our hearts and mind. When
we touch on stage one or law no. 1, many people have a problem because
they say, “How do I know whether I am serving God in the flesh or in the
spirit?” Most Christians in their heart really want to make sure that they
serve God in the spirit and not in the flesh. We know how we can end up
doing God’s will in the flesh. We used man’s method. We used man’s
wisdom to do God’s work when God wants us to use spiritual methods.
God wants us to use spiritual means to do His spiritual work. He does not
want us to use our carnal energy, so we have to resolve that question,
which is resolved by stage two here.
Let me explain the difference. The difference lies in the stirring up in our
hearts and in our minds. The difference between serving God in the flesh is
that you are doing something that the energy was not given from the
inside. That was not stirring. The difference is on the internal mechanism,
the internal energy. If there is no energizing from the inside of you, then
that is serving God in the flesh. The difference is whether God told you to
do it. When we do something that God never tell us to do that’s in the
flesh. We have to learn to hear God. Here is the balance. On one side, you
are very hard working. Whatever God tells you to do, you do it with all your
heart, mind, soul and strength. But you need the other side in order to
check yourself that if God does not tell you anything, you will not even lift
one finger to do anything. You will not even lift one finger to do anything
unless you make sure that is really God. That must temper our character.
We must make sure that it is God. We must make sure that it’s God
energizing us.

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The difference between whether something is in the flesh or in the spirit is
whether it’s energized by God or energized by your own zeal. The
difference is whether you have it on your inside. When you have it on your
inside its different. When you have it on your outside its different. Do you
know from the outside it both look the same. That’s the interesting point
because what determines it is on the inside not from the outside. A person
with zeal looks the same as a person with zeal doing God’s will. But those
with the most discerning can tell the difference because of the presence of
God. The peace and the love of God is present when you are walking with
God. See God is love. When you are walking in God with great zeal the love
is still there. But when you are walking with zeal without God’s will love is
absent. You lose love. You don’t operate by love. The difference is not on
the outside. To anyone on the outside it looks the same but it’s on the
inside. What’s going on makes a great difference.
Let me tell you a secret that there are times I have been with God in prayer,
the stirring is so great that I cannot stand it. I got to do something. If you
understand what I am talking about, there is a stirring on the inside to do
God’s will. And if you really spend time with God and the more you spend
time with God the stirring is greater. You could not do anything but to obey.
Let me point to some scriptures here.
Galatians 2, first is the law of hard work. Second is the law of stirring of our
hearts and minds. Galatians 2: 8-9 “For he who worked effectively in Peter
for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward
the Gentiles and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars,
perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas
the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to
the circumcised.”
Notice in Galatians 2: 8 it says he worked effectively in. There’s something
stirring in them on the inside. It’s the preacher in them who wants to go
out. It’s the mission in them that want. Something was stirring Paul to go
out on his missionary journey. It came into his heart. It came into his mind.
There was a stirring from within. When you have that stirring you obey
with all your heart, mind and soul. See when we serve God, it still takes
fleshly energy. I am talking in a very brutal and blunt sense. It still takes
energy. It takes energy to pray to God four hours a day. It takes energy to

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sit down and do all those planning God gives. It takes energy but the
difference is your energy is energized by another power. When you are
serving God you still sweat. You still have blood, sweat and tears. The other
guy over there also has blood, sweat and tears. Don’t tell me that serving
God does not consume your energy. Of course God recharges you. It takes
your time. It takes your energy but there is a difference. You are
empowered from within.
Paul in the book of Ephesians 3: 7 “Of which I became a minister according
to the gift of grace of God given to me by the effective working of His
power.” That is on the inside. The energizing of God is from the inside. The
key difference is the stirring. You have a stirring from God.
I Cor.15, we say its by grace. Yes, it’s by grace. How does the grace operate?
The grace stirs you. The grace energizes you. You feel like you have been
charged ten millions volts and you just want to come out to do something.
I Cor. 15: 10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward
me was not in vain.” Do you notice that he still has to do something? God
gives you the grace to do His will but if you don’t allow the grace on your
inside to come out, the will of God will still not be accomplished.
Paul is the type of person who when he knows God’s grace and God’s will,
he does it with all his heart and mind and soul and strength. In the next
phrase, he says in verse 10, “But I labored more abundantly that they all.”
Who are they all? Look at the verse before that and they all refer to the
other apostles. I am not making it up. Look in the bible. Verse 9, “I am the
least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I
persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and
His grace toward me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than
they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Paul labored
more abundantly than all the other apostles put together.
Some of us may sit around and say, well, Paul was called to be an apostle.
That’s why he was the way he is. Just called to be apostle to the Gentiles,
that’s why he was more famous and more well-known. I am sure there
were other people called to be apostles, sent out to the Gentiles in various
places and they received the grace of God too. Paul received the grace of
God too. Then what makes the difference? He was more hardworking than

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the other apostles. Tom, Dick and Harry could be called to be prophets.
They all received the same graces but what makes the difference is the
extra hard work and diligence. Don’t come and tell me that it’s because
one received a ten-fold anointing and another one received one fold and
the other receive 1/10 fold.
When Jesus appeared to me in 1986, He taught me that the anointing
could be increased. You cannot change your call but you can increase your
anointing. It’s pure laziness in us that refuse that anointing. It’s nothing to
do with God’s call. We recognized you cannot do something God never
called you to but after God called you to do, whatever He called you to do,
it’s up to how hardworking you are to tap on the maximum anointing you
can. The anointing can increase in your life. The call is already determined
before you were born but the anointing can be increased. We have the
bible scriptures. Let me ask you this question. When Elisha had two times
the anointing of Elijah, is it because God called him to be so? Or because
he desired it? He desired it. His call cannot change but his anointing can be
increased. It’s how hardworking they are. You could be called to the
business world, you could be called to be a financer and sit around in your
laurels. If you know your call, it depends on how hardworking you are in
working the grace of God out in your life that determines how much you
receive from God.
Remember King David, when he fell into sin, committed adultery with
Bathsheba and God spoke to him. God said, I could hear the cry of the
father. He was in a sense said to David, “David, I love you so much. I took
you when you were nothing. I have done all these things for you. Given
everything to you. Why do you have to do all these things? Why did you
make My enemies mock Me because you are My chosen one.” David was a
billionaire by that time yet God said, “David, if all I have given you is not
enough, if all the riches I have given to you are not enough, you could have
asked Me for more.” Is it God who set a limit or is it us? The grace of God
draws the boundaries of your work and call. But how hardworking you are
determines the extent of the anointing and the grace that you received.
The anointing can be increased. Grace can be increased. It’s in the bible
story in the book of II Samuel. God said to David, “David! If all that I have
given you up to now is too little, you could have asked Me for more and I

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will give to you. Only, O David, please don’t sin. Whatever you do, don’t
sin. If what I have given to you, you consider it only a miserable pinch of
salt, ask Me for more. I would have given you more.” God said that to him.
II Samuel 12: 7-8 “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I anointed you king
over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave to you your
master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you
the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would
have given you much more.”
He says, ‘David if you are prepared to work hard for Me, you can tap much
more but please don’t sin.’ There is a stirring that God placed. When we
refer to I Cor. 15: 10 “By the grace of God I am what I am.” Do you know
everybody stops there? But don’t forget the other part of the verse. “And
His grace towards me was not in vain.” That means God could give you the
grace and because you are a lazy bum, it was in vain. Strong words. He
implies that it could be in vain. I wonder whether God has given His grace
to our lives in vain. Because we did not do the other part that Paul did. He
says His grace towards me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly
than they all. He didn’t say God labored. He didn’t say the Spirit in him
labored. Although we know the Spirit is in him. I tell you, when you labor
with all your heart, mind and soul, when you Spirit is laboring you can’t tell
the difference because your whole being is consumed by God. All you
know is you want to do God’s will with all your heart, all your mind and all
your soul and with all your strength. He says I labored more abundantly
than they all; yet not I but the grace of God which was with me. He
recognized it was the stirring of God in his life that gave him the energy. O I
thank God for this stirring. I have experienced the stirring of God. When
God stirs me, when God put His stirring in my life, I feel I could do the work
of ten people. Some people say how could you do so many things. It’s the
stirring of God. You are just energized to do all those things.
Get the stirring of God on your inside. Make sure you discern what God
stirs you to do. When God reveals His will to you, He will put the grace of
God to perform His will. Don’t let the grace be in vain. Let the grace move
in you and touch you. But do not be stirred from without. You know some
people do something just because they are stirred from without. They
either do it for fame or fortune. They do it for money. They do it for

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attention. They do it for popularity. They do it from with out. All these
things will pass away. But when you do it from within, you don’t care what
the devil may do. You don’t care what man may do. You don’t care for
anything but you are only concerned for the will of God. In stage two, I am
talking about doing something for God from within. Say it’s from within.
Say it again; it’s from within.
There are far too many people do it from with out. You know why some
pastors are discouraged? You know why some ministers are discouraged?
You know why some people are discouraged? Because they are doing it
from without. When the without does not encourage them enough, when
the without does not produce some results, when the without does not
bring all those things then they expect people to bring to their lives, they
get discouraged. Let me tell you if you do something from within, you don’t
care. You don’t care even if the world doesn’t care. You don’t care even
when no one cares. You don’t care even when nobody cares. All you want
to do is that you want to burn your life for God. Your life will move heaven
and earth because your life is doing God’s will. You don’t care even when
people don’t care because you know you are moved from within. You know
where you are going. There are a lot of people who don’t know where they
are going. You know where you are going and you know what you are
doing.
Second point was what I call the stirring of the heart and of the mind. It
will put more energy in your life then you could ever dream. Some people
are surprised that all the things can be done within 24 hours. I am
surprised myself. I found that in five minutes time God could give you ideas
and things to do that could have taken five years. When the stirring comes,
it stirs your heart and mind. You just know what to do. You just know
exactly what to do. It’s just all in split second time. The best part of it is
that those who work in the flesh they get knocked out. Those who work
from the spirit from within, the spirit who live from your inside strengthen
your mortal body and at the end of the day you are as fresh as ever. In fact
I found it the opposite. When you have done all those things for God and
sometimes you got so much anointing on your life you don’t know what to
do with it. In fact I have to go for a walk to release all the extra energy.
There were too much energy flowing. I have to go for a walk to release all

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the energy. He gives extra. He does not just give you enough and you use it
right to the end and you are knocked out. No, He gives you extra. More
than enough. It just flows out from your system. In fact the more you do
things for God, sometimes the anointing is so great, some of you who have
experienced it, you got the anointing of God, it comes with the anointing
so much in you that you can’t sleep. You can’t sleep not because you are
worried. You can’t sleep not because the cares for this world and the
future on you. You can’t sleep because of the presence of God. All you
want to do is just praise God and worship God. You say God if this continue
on this way we will all be – and go home to heaven. Sometimes the
anointing is so great that you had to go out and work out the anointing.
When it’s all released out of you, finally you can sleep.
3. Open Ears and Open Hearts
Point no.1 hardworking hands and feet. Point no.2 stirring of hearts and
minds. Point no. 3 open ears and open hearts. Sometimes some people
work hard for God with their ears closed. They are sometimes like some
animals that are able to move their ears and close their ears. Some dogs do
that. When the dogs are concentrating on something, their ears pick up
and then when they are doing some other things their ears fall back. Some
people have their ears folded back when they are working hard for God.
We must have open ears and open eyes so that while you are doing
whatever God tells you to do, do it with all your heart. When there is
stirring on your inside, yet at the same time you are so sensitive to God in
the midst of the household activities, your ears are so sharp that if God
whisper you could hear Him. Why is that necessary? Because God continue
to speak when you fulfill the two laws. Put your heart into it and the Lord
will stir forth. God continue to speak in the midst of your activities. I have
found this to be so. God speaks to me all the time. Now I do spend time
with God. I do spend time in the prayer closet. I find that in the prayer
closet God gives me the plan. I have found that on the street God gives me
the methods and He refines the various methods. I know what I am
supposed to do from the prayer closet. But as I am out on the street or out
in the land of Canaan fighting, God began to give me more details.
Strategy. One thing I know, if I don’t go out into the street, go out into the

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land of Canaan to fight against the giants I know I will never receive the
details. But God does reveal His details.
Turn to the book of II Samuel 5: 17 “Now when the Philistines heard that
they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to
search for David. And David heard of it and went down to the stronghold.
The Philistines also went and deployed themselves in the Valley of
Rephaim. So David inquired of the Lord, saying, ‘Shall I go up against the
Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand?’ And the Lord said to
David, ‘Go up for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand.’ So
David went to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there; and he said,
‘The Lord had broken through my enemies before me, like a breakthrough
of water.’”
Now when God spoke something to David, do you know it was blood,
sweat and tears as he fought? It takes energy to accomplish God’s will. It
takes dedication. He had to fight. He had to kill people in order to perform
God’s will. We don’t do that of course but I am just trying to show how
physical it was when you do God’s will. Today in the New Testament let me
tell you that it’s very physical when you are doing God’s will and bring it
into manifestation the thing that God tell you to do. “And then they left
their images there, and David and his men carried them away.” And then
when the Philistines came again, David inquired of the Lord and He said,
‘You shall not go up; circle around behind them,’ now David did not get
stuck in the method. He did not get stuck in something. But it was
something different. He heard from God. He knew what God wants him to
do. And even as he is out in battle and he was about to fight, he didn’t take
things for granted. In every incident he knew how to walk with God. God
was right beside him and he is listening to God all the time. As he went out
and this time God changed the whole strategy and he flowed along. When
God say listen for the sound above the mulberry trees. As God spoke to
David maybe in his prayer closet, he still didn’t hear the sound but when he
went out into the battlefield, he has to quicken his ears, listen carefully and
wait. He has done all that he knew how. And when he heard the sound,
then he went out probably the sound was the sound of angels being
released, marching forth and when he went forth with the angels, he routs
a great victory for God.

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So third point is important. We have to have ears and eyes open even in
the battlefield. You got to know what you are doing even if you are out
there, doing battle fighting away, possessing the land. Your ears and eyes
are opened to God where anytime He changes His instruction you are still
in communication with Him.
The bible tells us the story of how Samuel was sent to anoint David. It tells
us in chapter 16, Samuel was told by God, go and anoint one of the sons of
Jesse. The only problem was Jesse has eight sons. But God did not speak to
him until he went to the house of Jesse. And that’s what we are trying to
get into each one of us. God will not speak to you again until you are in the
midst of doing what God told you to do. Then as Samuel greeted the house
of Jesse, and he asks, “Have you any sons? I like to see all of them.”
Naturally it always starts from the eldest. And so Samuel was sitting down
looking at all the sons. Jesse was there and Jesse called the first one Eliab
to come forth. Eliab walked by. I am not sure whether there was any music
but it was like a model or procession. When Samuel saw Eliab, in his heart
he says this must be the one. God says, “That is not the one. You look at
the outward side. I look at the inward side.” So Samuel said, “Next!” The
next came - nothing. Now we look as if it’s so easy. Let me tell you it was
very physical. When you go to a home, you have the normal
entertainment, the normal welcome, the normal hospitality. You will be
sitting down and you will be bringing these people out. One by one and of
course there may not have music at that time. Finally comes the last one.
What would you do? If you are Samuel you get concerned. He looked
around and there are no more sons. Did he miss God? What happened?
Then maybe Samuel turned around and looked at Mrs. Jesse to see
whether she is pregnant. Maybe the son is still in her mother’s womb. But
no, Mrs. Jesse was not pregnant. Now Samuel gets concerned. He was
down there in the battlefield. He was there doing what God wants him to
do before he can hear God.
Talk about the will of God, we are on a series ‘Guidance from God’, you
don’t get guidance until you obey with all your heart. Until you are stirred
by God and you obey the stirring of God. You are out there obeying God
then you get your guidance. A lot of people are not out there obeying God
and they are not having any guidance. Because they are not even faithful

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to what God called them to do. Not even taking one step. Not even moving
their toenail. O God where are You? Why aren’t You speaking? O God! Are
You displeased? They can only hear the ministering angels says, ‘Yes! God
is displeased with you.’
We need to learn on how to wait on God. But you know what waiting on
God means. Waiting on God is not seeking God’s guidance. Waiting on God
is a private love life you have with God. I am not there to get something
from God when I wait on God. I am there to just love Him and let Him love
me. But when God gives guidance, God just gives His guidance and that’s it.
Sometimes in my prayers, sometimes along the way, I keep obeying Him.
See getting guidance from God is a secondary thing. It is just like an
automatic thing that you establish with God. But what you have
established is a love life, relationship with God. You still need to spend time
with God to just be with Him. I love to be just to be with God and just
worship Him. Sing praises to Him. That is very important but I am talking
about guidance from God this morning.
Samuel is out there obeying God and then he turned around and said to
Jesse, “Do you have anymore sons?” What a question? He got seven but
that is not enough. Jesse said, “Yes. In fact I have one more.” Samuel was
excited. “Where is he?” he asked. “Bring him here.” And he had to wait a
while because they had to call David from the field. The moment David
showed up, God spoke, “This is he.” We are talking about guidance from
God. God would not have spoken those words if Samuel had not obeyed.
Now isn’t it funny that God never revealed to him which son. He had to
have a fashion parade. God wants him to obey to the best of his ability.
The same little Joshua; Joshua is fighting out in the battlefield. Did God tell
him to stop the sun? No, he was fighting and he knew that he needed the
time. He said, “God give me more time.” God stopped the sun and stopped
the moon. He stopped the sun and moon for twenty-three hours. He went
fighting on and on. The bible tells us that there were hailstones that came.
Do you know that hailstone will not come in the Jordan of fighting? But as
they went out fighting and fighting and as they were fighting hailstones
came and knocked out the enemies. Isn’t it fun to work with God? The
bible says, you read in the book of Joshua, there are more people who died
from the hailstones than they are from the sword. That’s fun doing God’s

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work. The interesting part is that if you don’t go out and fight, the
hailstones are not going to help you. The hailstones are all waiting. When
you go out, you will find that God comes.
As we close, let me encourage you. If you are in the ministry, you haven’t
obeyed God to your best ability; you won’t see your breakthrough yet.
Unless you are prepared to work hard for God and prepared to go to the
open doors that God gives you. As you start your ministry, you are not
going to see your ministry establish even in the next fifty years if you do
not work hard. It takes hard work. For those in the business world, if God
tells you to do something and you don’t do it with all your heart, you are
not going to see more guidance from God. But the good news is God wants
you to be the head and not the tail provided we know how to obtain
guidance from God and know how to obey God.
These three points I summarize for you: No.1, hardworking hands and feet.
No.2, stirring of the heart and mind. No.3, open ears and open heart.
God will guide you and getting guidance from God, in fact, is the least
problem. Although it’s the main struggle of many Christians but to me it’s
just the least thing. If the majority of your life you spend just loving God
then guidance is so easy. For me is just like you develop a relationship with
God. God is so real to you. When He speaks to you, you will know. When
He whispers to you, you will know. When He moves, you will know. It’s so
easy. You could hear God anytime, day and night. Twenty-four hour and
just be doing God’s perfect will.

3. Trusting In The Lord

Lets turn to the book of Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5 and 6, which possibly
some of you use as your prayer. We want to look at these two verses
especially as we consider how God continue to lead our lives and bring us
to the position that He wants us to be. Many of you may have even
memorized these scriptures. In fact these were among the first scriptures
that I really loved when I was born again.
It says here Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your
own insight. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your
paths. What a promise that the Lord has for us here. It tells us that if we

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trust Him and that if we choose not to lean on our understanding and that
thirdly if we acknowledge Him, He will direct our paths.
As we receive guidance from God many of you would realize that the Lord
does speak in dreams and visions. But there are a whole lot of other
decisions that we have to make that the Lord expects us to hear from our
human spirit rather than from the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit speaks
many times it comes in visions or dreams or through the voice of the Holy
Spirit or through prophecy or through many other mediums, which the
Holy Spirit has.
But many of life’s decisions of this physical life depend on our inward
witness, which is not really a voice. The conscience is the voice of our
human spirit. But the inward witness is not a voice. It is only if I can put it
this way it is a spiritual feeling of comfort or discomfort. It is a feeling of
uneasiness or of peace. The inward witness is only that sense that we have
on our inward being of rightness or wrongness of situation. It is more like a
traffic light, red light, green light, and yellow light. Those traffic lights don’t
speak. They are not audible but you could see them and you need to
recognize what the lights mean. If we do not know what they mean we
cannot interpret those signals.
In the same way there are spiritual feelings within us. We need to
understand what they mean in order to interpret the signals. At the same
time there are also the inward voice. The inward voice feels like almost
your own self speaking. It’s the voice of your human spirit speaking to you.
Now why is guidance from God important? Possibly nearly about 90
percent of your life’s decisions depend on these two, the inward witness
and the conscience. No doubt you can be spirit filled, tongue talking, bible
carrying, Christians but 90 percent of life’s decisions depend on these little
things here.
When you are buying a house, you ask, “Why doesn’t God guide me
through prophecy? If you depend on supernatural guidance like visions,
dreams, prophecies for your daily occurrences you can go wrong.
Supernatural guidance has more to do with spiritual ministry. For your day-
to-day affairs like getting the job that you need, doing all those things that
you want, you would have to depend a lot on your inward witness than on

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your inward voice of your human spirit. I do not say that God could not
speak in those areas. Even when He speaks or give you a vision of a
particular job that you would have you will need your inward witness and
your inward voice to discern and interpret.
All supernatural guidance needs interpretation. It is what I call the gap. The
gap between the spirit world where the Holy Spirit resides and your mind,
which makes the natural decision, is filled up by your human spirit. And it’s
subject to the interpretation of the human spirit and that’s where a lot of
people have missed God in guidance. They have taken one prophecy out of
context and that’s it. They misinterpret a vision and that’s it. They
misinterpret a dream and that’s it. Sometimes people have a dream of a
disaster happening. Or they dream about something happening to a
particular person. And they think it’s for that same person. They interpret it
wrongly. And they think something is wrong with that guy; they
disassociate with that person and that’s it.
All supernatural guidance needs interpretation. That is why in 99 percent
of our lives including supernatural leadings we need the human spirit to
guide us. What is the one percent? The one percent is where the angels
arrange the circumstances together and not much decision-making is
needed; you just go with the flow.
That is where we need to understand our heart. In Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in
the Lord with all your heart, And then he adds a second phrase and do not
rely on your own insight. It seems that our understanding and our hearts
can be opposing each other - they should not. But many times that conflict
between our minds and spirits can happen since our minds are in the
process of renewal while our spirits are born perfect in God.
There are several Hebrew words for the word trust but there are three
main ones that we will focus on. There is a Hebrew word batah, which
means to confide or to have confidence in. The word trust found in
Proverbs 3:5 is the word batah.
Then there is another one that is the word chasal and it is the other word
that means to take refuge. When you chasal trust in God you are making
God as your Rock and your Refuge. Maybe there are difficult circumstances
and you have no one to turn to so you turn to God and put your trust in

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God. That word chasal means to take God as your refuge. You become a
refugee in God. The word refugee does not have a very nice connotation
for some people. In our times there are refugees of war. Remember that
David at one time was a refugee before he became king. So no matter what
your circumstances God can be your chasal.
Then there is another one not so commonly used is the word yachal. That
is the one used by Job when he says though He slay me yet will I trust Him.
That word is saying that if God kills him he will still trust Him. Theologically
that is not true because God doesn’t destroy or kill His own people. It’s a
statement from a human perspective. And that word trust means to wait in
hope.
What we are look at in Proverbs 3:5 and 6 is the word batah which means
to confide in Him. But many times we have taken that to be chasal or
yachal. When you say, “I got a problem but God is my trust,” you mean,
“God is my chasal. He is my refuge.” But that’s not what that word means.
That word means more than that. And so many times when people seek
guidance from God, they have taken every good idea and every impression
to be from God. That’s not good. There are many good ideas out there but
they may not be from God.
And in that view I like to make two little sentences regarding leaning on our
own understanding. No. 1 it may not be of God. Not everything that seems
good is from God. Even the most spiritual people make mistakes like that.
That’s why sometimes when people receive guidance they impose it on
others. Remember there are lines of authority that we all come under. We
have no right to impose on somebody’s life and say, “I got this dream about
you. You got to listen onto me.” You got no right because that person is
accountable to God not to you. We need to respect one another. If you
have the word of the Lord for one another give it and that’s your
responsibility. That person may interpret it differently and how you
yourself interpret it may not be the way that God wants you to. We can
give prophecy and not understand that prophecy. We can be used by God
to deliver a word from the Lord. And in the process of time your own mind
figures out what you think that word mean for that person. But that person
knows by hearing the word what the Lord really wants not you. They are

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accountable for their own life. We need to respect the free will and free
choice life that God gives to every person.
These are not people who don’t know how to hear God. I am not talking
about young Christians alone who don’t practice Proverbs 3:5-6. I am
talking about leaders. I am talking about spiritual people. It’s important for
us to remember when we receive guidance from God, we keep Proverbs
3:5-6 in mind. That no matter how much God has spoken to you in any way
the Word of God still comes first. We must not lean on our own
understanding but we must learn how to trust God with our hearts.
God used Joshua. He was one who knows how to hear God and get
miracles. Joshua chapter 3 he heard from God how to cross the Jordan.
And they crossed the Jordan and miraculously saw the hand of God. He
had an open vision. He saw the manifestation of God in some way and God
spoke to him. Later on in chapter five he saw an angel. It was not an
ordinary angel. It was a warring angel. By all means we will say that he was
a very spiritual man. Even apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors and
teachers have to learn to hear God. That is why you can be the most
fantastic prophet, preacher or whatever and still miss God on your
personal life. You can hear God and hit the power line and see the miracles
of God, see the parting of the Jordan and yet you can still miss God
somewhere along the line. Being a prophet is no guarantee.
We in the ministry when it comes for making decisions for our own life we
cannot depend on the office of a prophet, the office of an apostle to make
a decision. In our own life we got to depend on our inward witness and the
inward voice. And that separates out the experienced from the
inexperienced ministry.
So here is Joshua and I just have to show all those chapters to show you
how experienced he was in hearing God. He had a bit of hindrance when
Achan sinned but then he renewed the covenant in Joshua 8 and they even
have victory and success. It doesn’t mean that when a person is successful
everything else they do is right. That is the deception of the enemy. It
doesn’t mean that if you have 50 percent right the other 50 percent is
automatically right. But yet a vast majority of Christians will say that if this
prophet or man of God has been successful then everything else that he

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does must be right. I know that rightness produces success. But not all
success is produced through your rightness. It may be produced in other
forms.
Joshua 9:1-5 When all the kings who were beyond the Jordan in the hill
country and in the hill country and in the lowland all along the coast of the
Great Sea towards Lebanon, the Hittities, the Amorites, the Canaanities,
the Perizzities, the Hivities, and the Jebusities, heard of this, they gathered
together with one accord to fight Joshua and Israel. But when the
inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,
they on their part acted with cunning, and went and made ready
provisions, and took worn-out sacks upon their asses, and wineskins, worn-
out and torn and mended, with worn-out, patched sandals on their feet,
and worn-out clothes; and all their provisions were dry and muddy.
They would have made good Hollywood actors. They came to Joshua and
they all acted up very well. They looked as if they were from a far, far place.
They lied to Joshua. Joshua asked them, “Where are you from? In verse
nine They said to him, “From a very far country your servants have come,
because of the name of the Lord your God; for we have heard a report of
Him, and all that He did in Egypt, and all that He did to the two kings of the
Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og
king of Bashan, who dwelt in Ashtaroth. And our elders and all the
inhabitants of our country said to us, ”Take provisions in our hand for the
journey.”
Look at verse 12 Here is our bread; it was still warm when we took it from
our houses as our food for the journey, on the day we set forth to come to
you, but now, behold, it is dry and moldy; these wineskins were new when
we filled them, and behold, they are burst; and these garments and shoes
of ours are worn out from the very long journey.
Then something happened that should not happened in verse 14 - 15. So
the men partook of their provisions, and did not ask direction from the
Lord.
They didn’t ask the Lord. Why didn’t the Lord tell them? The Lord wants
you to ask. And Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with
them, to let them live; and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.

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These are all leaders. They are not young Christians. They didn’t ask the
Lord. They didn’t consult the Lord. They consulted one and another, which
was fine but make sure you consult the Lord. And all the people were
deceived. After they made the covenant they found that they were their
neighbors.
What are they going to do now? Point one it may not be of God. It was a
good idea to make covenant with people and be friendly. Now they did not
immediately make the decision. They would naturally consult one another.
In verse 15 the rulers of the congregation swore to them. And in verse 16 it
says they had made a covenant with them. How could it happen? This is
Joshua we are talking about. This was the one who saw the Jordan parted.
This was the one who heard God and commanded the priests to carry the
ark. This was the one who saw the angel. This was the one who saw all the
wars. He made a mistake. He forgot the principle of Proverbs 3:5-6.
I encourage you no matter how successful you are check every idea with
God. Some ideas may not be of God. I have found that when people
become successful whether in the world or in the kingdom of God, they
begin to assume that every idea is of God. They are so used to having
success from God that they don’t check the ideas. Now here is the word
“batah”. There is another form of it in a different way is “mibtah”. The root
form of the word “mibtah” means to speak with. See the word confide
means to share something. And many times we have taken the word trust
in the Lord means I have trusted in the Lord. God is not speaking about
“chasal”. He is not speaking about whether you have taken Him as a refuge
in times of troubles. He is not talking about whether you put your hope in
God. That’s what people mean when they say I put my trust in God. But He
is asking you, “Have you have a word with Him yet? Have you spoken to
the Lord about this?”
Many times when people have good ideas, no matter how good the ideas
are, the first thing I ask them, “Have you asked the Lord?” The word
“mibtah” means to confide in the Lord. And many times we have not asked
the Lord. We asked every Tom, Dick and Harry we know but we have not
asked the Lord. Maybe we did but He didn’t say anything. Hello there -
does it sounds familiar to your life story? “I have consulted my father; he
says O.K. My mother says O.K. All my loved ones say O.K. O God what do

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you say now?” And you wait for a while and all you get is silence from
heaven. God if you don’t answer I am going to go in O.K. Lord my devotion
time is up to 7.30 you got only 15 minutes to answer. And when God is
silent you took it as a yes. It is dangerous. When God is silent what must
you take it as? Take it as a no first. How does God reply to you? Through
your inward witness and through the inward voice.
Remember the apostles and the elders, when they wrote the decree
concerning observing Jewish laws in Acts 15: 28 it says, It seems good to
the Holy Spirit and to us. They sensed it on their inside. As you sense what
is right and you sense what is the right thing to do and you follow those
steps, God will answer in some form. He sometimes answers by dreams,
prophecy and other supernatural means. But many times the answer
comes from the sensation of your inside.
If you haven’t asked the Lord about it, it means that you haven’t trusted
the Lord. A good idea may not be of God. How can it not be of God? Firstly,
sense knowledge can deceive. You say all the circumstances point to that
thing. Joshua and the people were deceived by sense knowledge. They
went by what their eyes saw and the hands felt. They saw the moldy
bread. They saw the garments. It was the same way Jacob deceived Isaac.
Satan who is crafty can manipulate circumstantial evidence. Secondly, all
the facts are not in yet. They only told them what they wanted them to
know. But they didn’t tell them what they ought to know. What we don’t
know can sometimes be very important. They didn’t know that these
people are from nearby. And they may not realize how deceptive these
people are around them. Remember it is not what you know that can hurt
you; it is what you don’t know. And all our lives we don’t know everything.
Nobody knows everything. Therefore we have to trust in the Son of God
Jesus who knows everything. There may be some facts that He is trying to
get across to us that takes time to come to us.
Thirdly, the good idea may not be for you to carry out. It may certainly be
of God but it may not be for you. That is why we must trust in the Lord and
lean not on our own understanding.
Lets turn to II Samuel chapter 7:1-3 Now when the king dwelt in his house;
and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies round about, the king

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said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the
ark of God dwells in a tent.” And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is
in your heart; for the Lord is with you.”
David wants to trust or confide in the Lord with all his heart. He loves the
Lord. He wanted to do something for God. And it is of God to build Him a
house. It was in line with the Word to build Him a house. But it was not for
him. Even if you passed the first test you got to pass the second one. It may
be of God but it may not be for you. Of course if it is not of God you got to
drop it. But even if you pass the test that is of God, it may not be for you. It
may not be for you to do those things although they are good things.
Which is the reason why we must recognize boundaries set by God.
If God has appointed somebody to go to Russia, how they do it and what
they do there only they would know. I am not there to judge them. But if
God has asked you to do something in your life, in your ministry, that is not
within my jurisdiction and if you come and ask me for my judgment or my
opinion I can give you the best spiritual counsel from my level. But then I
will leave it to you to make your own decision. I recognize that each one is
responsible for our own decision-making. I have to respect your call though
there may be things I may not agree with; that I may do it differently. But
how we do things depends not only on principles. How we do things
depends also on our character and our personality.
There may be more than one way to do something. There may be more
than one right way to solve a problem. There is always more than one
solution. Don’t get the first solution straightaway. If you are in the habit of
jumping to the first solution, sometimes the first solution may be the good
one. But if you “mibtah” or confide in God and have a secret meeting with
God, sometimes the second one can be better. Sometimes the third one
could be even better. “Mibtah” makes it better. Confide in God. It may be a
good idea but it may not be for you. We need to respect how each
individual solve problems using the same biblical principles though the
outcome may be different. And I cannot expect you to do things the way I
do. If I am in charge of vacuuming this place, I may want to go from the
corners to the center. But you may want to go from the center to the
corner. Who am I to say that is wrong? The most important thing is to get
the results. It’s the result that counts. The fruit is the most important thing.

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There may be more than one way to your solution. And we need to
“mibtah” with God until we see three, four, five solutions. And we got to
pray, “God how would you want to do this? O God I am confiding in you.”
David could have just gone and built the Temple. Do you realize that David
could have just done it? He didn’t even have to tell Nathan. He was the
king; he had the money; he had the authority. But first he asked the
prophet, “Nathan you are the prophet of God, what do you think?” You
throw things at one another. That’s what I like to do when I meet with men
of God in the five-fold ministry and who are of the same level. I used to
throw ideas out. Some people don’t understand the realm of fellowship.
Lets say you are living in the time of David and you are a prophet and David
asks you, “What do you think of this? I want to build God a house.” Then
you go around saying that David is going to build a house for God. He
didn’t say he was going to. He is just throwing out ideas and feelers. There
are some people who easily mistake things like that. These are not the kind
of people for you to throw out ideas and feelers when you fellowship with
them. They will just distort what you say.
So David said, “Nathan you are prophet. I dwell in a nice place. I will build
God a house.” And Nathan felt good about it. Remember point three it may
not be for you. It may be of God but it may not be for you. Remember God
was not involved yet in the decision-making. Nathan said, “Go and do it.”
Nathan gives the approval. And that night God came to Nathan and
basically said that it is not for David, but for his son Solomon to build the
house of God. The idea was of God but it was not for him. One of the
things that we learn is how to cut back on the good things. Some things are
good but too much of the good things can cause us to lose our balance.
Too much of good things can make us extreme. Just because water is good
it doesn’t mean that you drink gallons and gallons of it. Good things are
good but you must keep them in its proper balance.
Lets see what God said to David in II Sam. 7:12 When your days are fulfilled
and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you,
who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He
shall build a house for My Name. God is saying it is not for you. Lets
remember that this physical life is only a pattern and I treat it as a test. This
whole life is just a test to live for God. And our real reward comes in

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heaven. Every one of us has our walk with God and our call to fulfill. If you
try to fulfill somebody else’s call you may be trying to rob them of their
reward. All of us have rewards that are ready for us based on God’s
predestined call. If you are faithful to that you will be rewarded. If you try
to do somebody else’s work you are actually trying to steal their reward
from God. It was Solomon’s job to build Him a house.
But there are some other things that David revealed that God said to him
when he was passing the responsibility to Solomon in regard to building
God a house. Lets turn to the book of I Chron. 28:3 But God said to me,
(this was not recorded in the other portion but recorded here, as usual the
bible sometimes give details from another writer,) “You may not build a
house for my name, for you are a warrior and have shed blood.” Now was
it wrong for David to shed blood and be a man of war? David himself tells
us that it’s God who trains his hands for war. And it’s God who enabled him
to fight the fight that he has to do in his lifetime. It was God who anointed
him to fight all the wonderful battles and victories that he had when God
called him into the kingdom. So was it wrong for him to be a man of war?
Was it wrong for him to shed blood? It was not. David had an anointing to
be king. He had an anointing to make war. He says its God who trains my
hands for war. It’s God who helps him to leap over the wall and run to the
troop. So he was fighting with God’s anointing.
We could turn to other passages to show that every time he fought a battle
he asked God, “Lord shall I go for that? Lord shall I fight?” And God says,
“Go ahead.” David has his job to do. And he must do it with all his heart. So
it was a good idea to build God a house. But it was not for David. In the
kingdom of God sometimes when we begin to do something and we
receive the power and the ability to do many things we must learn to stop
ourselves from doing things that are good things that are in line with His
will but may not be God’s will for us to do. Learn how to say no. In our
times today every church wants a bible school; every big church wants a
T.V. program. But it may not be God’s will.
Lets go into the secular world. There are a lot of businesses that can make
money here. It may not be for you. Some people may be called to those
areas. It may not be for you. So genuine ventures may be of God but that
may not be for you. We are talking about trusting or confiding in the Lord

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with all your heart and leaning not on your own understanding. Our
understanding blocks us from trusting in God. Not every good thing is from
God. And even many good ideas may not be for us. One of the things that I
have found is that many people don’t ask God. They do not know how to
“mibtah” with God; to confide in the Lord. There is one thing I always say,
“Have you prayed about that? Have you asked God?” If the answer is “No,”
it doesn’t matter how good it was, don’t. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him and He
will direct your path.
What do you mean by acknowledge Him? Read Proverbs 3:5-6 very
carefully. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and the “mibtah” must be
sincere and not half-heatedly. Sometimes when people consult you or ask
you things they do it half-heartedly. Sometimes when you are in a position
as a counselor and when people come for counsel, they don’t really come
for counsel. Half their heart is already made up. They only want to come to
check what you said and that’s all. Or to find a second agreement that
agree with them. That’s not trusting with all your heart. If we come to God
with that attitude God will keep silent. If we made up our mind before the
Father, He will have to let us go like the prodigal son. Remember the
prodigal son came to his father. You know what the prodigal son had done.
He has already made up his mind. He says, “Give me my part of my
inheritance and I will go my way. I have my own ideas about my life.” What
did the prodigal son’s father do? Nothing. He just gave in to his son’s
request. His son had already made up his mind. The bible says that the
prodigal son came to himself. In the end he realize his error.
It’s important for us to understand that this mind of ours must be
submitted to our heart. Don’t make up our mind and come to God. Come
to God with an open mind and an open heart where God can say no to
what you are bringing to Him. We can plan; we can have very good ideas;
but without God it goes nowhere. Learning how to bring and submit our
ideas to God is a capacity of patience that we need to have. It’s a capacity
of saying, “God if you are not in this I am not going into it.” We must have
the capacity of trusting in the Lord with all our heart. Come with an open
mind in order to receive guidance from Him.

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You see the condition is with all your heart and lean not on your own
understanding. Verse 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him. What do we
mean by acknowledge Him? It means three things. No. 1 give Him the
respect and the right place. Respect is something that we learn in our
relationship with one another. God says respect Him. Give Him the right
place in hour heart. No. 2 acknowledge Him involves worshiping Him. No. 3
acknowledge Him involves talking about Him publicly. You will say, “I got to
talk this over with Jesus. How will Jesus be glorified in this situation?” In
other words we are not ashamed of Jesus. We don’t put Him in a
storeroom. We put Him in the boardroom. Acknowledge that Jesus must
be in the boardroom where the decision is being made. You give Jesus the
chairman seat. Let Him be a part of your decision-making. When that
happens your blessings are He shall direct your path. He will take control of
the circumstances. When you start in verse five your circumstances may
not be in His control yet. And you cannot lean on your own understanding.
You cannot depend on the circumstances. But when you do all those
processes your circumstances will be controlled by God. His angels are in
line to bring every circumstance that is out of your reach into control.
Let me point to some incidences in Jesus’ life where there is no way He
could control the situation any more only God. When Jesus was on the
cross there was a prophecy that says they will see Him whom they have
pierced. It is a prophecy that must be fulfilled. Jesus had no control in a
sense that He could have asked God to help Him anytime. He had no
control in the physical sense that He had surrendered all to the Father. You
could say that there were some prophecies Jesus purposely fulfilled. Fine
He obeyed and He fulfilled. But there were some prophecies that were not
in His control. Some other force controlled it. And the soldier could have a
choice to pierce in His belly or pierce Him at the side or to knock off one of
His legs. These are circumstances that God has to come in and place all His
angels so that no devil can put the wrong thought on the soldier that was
about to pierce Jesus at the side. What happens if he missed and pierced
His hand instead? Sorry, prophecy not fulfilled. There are a lot of things
that were out of the control of the people themselves. So they surrender
to the Controller.

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There were a lot of circumstances Paul’s life that were not in his control.
And I want to encourage you that God can be in control if you learn
Proverbs 3:5-6. If you learn to share and confide in God; trust in Him. And
remember the two points that were shared with you. It may not be of God.
Point two it may not be for you. Let these points guide us so that we only
walk in what is of God and what is really for you. When God says, “David
this is not for you.” David says, “Fine. God I will obey you but let me do all
my best to help Solomon to do what is for him to do.” He had a willingness
to say, “O.K. that’s fine since that’s beyond my jurisdiction.”
God spoke to Paul in the book of Acts as he was going to the temple and he
was captured and taken a prisoner in Acts 23:11 The following night the
Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified about
Me at Jerusalem so you must bear witness also at Rome.” Now God says
you will be in Rome. But Paul was not in control of his life. He has
surrendered his life to God. He was in control in the sense spiritually but he
was not in control of his physical and legal sense because he was a captive
prisoner. It looks like he was under the control of the Roman Governor. But
when he surrendered and trusted in the Lord, he didn’t understand how
God’s word to him was going to take place. In fact there was a delay of
several years before he entered Rome. He was languishing in the prison for
some years. In Acts 23:11 Jesus personally delivered to him the prophecy
that he will be in Rome. As you read on in Acts 24:27 But when two years
had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus; and desiring to do the
Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison. Now there were at least two to three
years that he was in prison before he was sent to Rome. Paul must have
been waiting in prison wondering when he will go to Rome. How can a
prisoner have control of the circumstances?
You can through Proverbs 3:5-6. I want to encourage you no matter how
out of control your situation is; no matter how you felt imprisoned by the
circumstances around by other forces greater and physically more
powerful than you, but if you trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean
not on your own understanding; you acknowledge Him in all your ways; He
will cause everything to be directed in your path. And you will go to the
destination that He has assigned for you. Thank God that He can control

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circumstances. God’s power is released to arrange the circumstances. God
takes control of our hearts, our lives and our circumstances.
And look at how many people God has worked with. He has to work with
No. 1 the governor’s heart. And it does says in the book of Proverbs the
hearts of kings are in God’s hand. So God placed it upon the governor’s
heart to make a decision for Paul to go to Rome. Then he had to arrange all
the circumstances so that all the soldiers are involved to give protection to
Paul. Remember how the people were trying to kill him. He has to protect
him so that he could reach Rome safely. There were several assignations
attempt at Paul’s life. But if God wants him to go to Rome the assignments
will not succeed. So God has to work with the circumstances. Some of it
through a little boy. Remember the Jews were plotting to kill Paul and
Paul’s sister’s son overheard the conversation. God put the son in that
situation to overhear the plot and the son has to run and tell the soldier.
Then the soldiers arranged for extra protection for Paul. How does God
direct our path? He places the right people in the right place all along the
way or your path of life. So that all you have to do is remember He will
direct your path. You just have to walk in the will of God. All your
circumstances you just place to God. Take it one step at a time and you will
flow in God’s will.
Even when Paul was on his way in the journey there were circumstances
beyond his control. I will summarize and close by illustrating with the
journey of Paul in chapter 27:1 And when it was decided that we should
sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of
the Augustan Cohort, named Julius. So they were traveling in a ship and
Paul had no legal authority, no physical authority but Paul was a prisoner
more of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is finally on his way to Rome. And he is
headed for Rome, which is a prophecy God gave him nearly two to three
years ago.
Now that he is on his way in verse 9 and 10 Paul sensed something. See
there were circumstances beyond his control. And Paul advised them
saying I perceive that this journey will end with disaster and much loss not
only of the cargo and the ship but also of our lives. So Paul knew that
although they were supposed to go to Rome, he knew that they were not
supposed to rush there. And he sensed that there was physical danger.

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None of the other people could sense that. None of the other people
trusted the Lord. Everything looks nice but Paul sensed something in his
spirit and it was troubling him. And Paul says there will be danger. We
should not go through this whole voyage. But Paul was not in control. He
was only a prisoner. But if you trust in the Lord and not lean on your own
understanding; if you acknowledge Him He will direct your path.
Along the way danger comes. For many nights there were so much danger
that the people who were in the natural were frightened. But Paul waited
on the Lord. Then finally verse 21 As they had been long without food, Paul
then came forward among them and said, “Men, you should have listened
to me, and should not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and
loss. There was something that was lost. I believe that when you trust in
the Lord you will not lose anything. The Lord is our Shepherd we shall not
want. The Lord is not in the business of making you lose in order to trust
Him more. Just as some people who were praying the wrong way. They say,
“O God take everything away from their lives until they have to trust in
You.” No, that’s not the way to pray. That’s the devil who steals, kills and
destroy. If they had listened they wouldn’t even lose the cargo. The cargo
doesn’t belong to Paul. But God is in the business of restoration not in the
business of stealing. In verse 22 I now bid you to take heart; for there will
be no loss of life among you, but only the ship. For this very night there
stood by me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship,
and he said. ”Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar; and lo,
God has granted you all those who sail with you. Paul trusted in God. He
leaned not on his own understanding. He did not know how he is going to
end up there. And here he tells the people don’t go but they still went. As
he is a prisoner he had no choice. He got dragged along. But God was in
control of the circumstances.
You will always come out on the top when you trust on the Lord and lean
not on your own understanding. When you acknowledge Him He will direct
your path. The good news is you come out on top. You may start at the
bottom of the ladder but you will come out on top. You may start in the
worse position but you will end up on top. Just like Joseph in prison. You
may start at the bottom of the ladder. You will end up on top. I encourage
you no matter how bad your circumstances are, no matter what kind of

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problems you are facing now; remember there is more than one solution.
And no matter how low at the bottom of the rung of the ladder you are
that if you trust in the Lord and understand the two main points that we
focused that firstly, it may not be of God. Secondly, it may not be for you.
Then you say, “What then is for me?” Listen to Him, confide in Him and
walk very softly and surely with Him and you will discern the will of God.

4. Sensations From The Inward Witness

This week we will share a little bit about the promptings of the Holy Spirit
and how the promptings of the Holy Spirit provide us some sort of
guidance. We are going to share from personal experience with God’s
Word here and there. The leading of the Holy Spirit can be quite subjective.
And remember as we share that some of it can be subjective. How you
sense the promptings and the guidance of God in your life can be quite
subjective. There may be similarities but we need to give room for
subjective reason. As we obey God and listen to God and do what God
wants, we find that the inward witness becomes stronger. We have said
that 95 percent of the time in decision making He leads from our inside in
our spirit man. We need to know when it’s right, when it’s wrong. Most
people only know the traffic light. When there is a green light it says its
O.K. Then there is the red light it’s not O.K. There is an orange light that
means be watchful, be aware. We want expand on that in a more
subjective manner to know how it feels like and what it is actually like to be
led by the inward witness and how the promptings of God are like.
There are two major divisions, “A” and “B”. The first major division is the
sensation that is not verbal. By non-verbal I mean it’s not in English or any
known language. It’s a sensation that we have to recognize. It’s a tangible
sensation on our spirit man. Under classification “B” would be what I call
the inward voice or the inner thought and how we differentiate that. We
will touch on “B” later in this teaching series. So remember we are looking
more towards the sensations and not the path that has to do with your
understanding. It’s more the internal sensation and what it feels like to
know what is right and to know what is wrong.

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Under division “A” I like to sub-divide it again into two sub-sections. We
first draw a line. And on one side of the line is what I call before the action
takes place or before your decision is made. You have all the feelings and
sensations up to the point when you make a decision. Then when you cross
the line where your decision has been made and you have taken a course
of action, direction is now focused based on your past decision whether it
happened a few seconds, a few minutes, a few hours, a few days ago. So
that is the line that we draw and the sensation before you cross the line
and sensation after you cross the line.
How do you know whether the decision has been right or wrong? The
inward sensation will still tell you. If we go against the sensation over
several days or weeks that sensation can disappear. You will experience a
condition called a hardness of heart. You will no more be able to sense that
area any more. It’s the hardening that takes place. It’s just like when your
foot is filled with all kinds of thickness because of different injuries. Your
skin is no more sensitive. Or if you are playing the guitar and you are
pressing the chords with the left hand, you will feel a thick layer of skin on
the tips of the finger and. That is the price you pay for being a guitarist. If
you don’t play for some time that layer of skin peels off and it becomes
sensitive again. But if you play everyday your skin will be so thick that it’s
not easy to sense any feeling on your fingertip. That’s what happens when
the sensitivity is resisted over a period of time. There is a hardness that
comes.
In the bible there are more descriptions of what the sensation is like after
you cross the line. It seems even that unless you draw near to the line,
unless you bring yourself to the point of the line you may not even have
any sensation. If you are looking at that line of decision from a far distance
you may not have the sensation. For example if you are buying a house or a
car, you are not sure whether that is a good decision or not. You have done
your economic calculations, you have done your evaluation, you have done
your research and you sought God’s will. And God seems to approve of the
whole thing but sensations are only clearer as you draw near the line when
you are about to make the decision.
Let says you have settled for an apartment within a certain budget. Staying
at home and not doing anything may not give you any sensation. You may

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need to take a step of faith to walk out and look around at all the available
apartments. And if you stand in the very apartment that you are supposed
to buy you would sense different sensations. And that feeling of whether
it’s right or wrong, it’s not just a natural feeling. It’s what Acts 15 will say it
seems good. You could sense that overwhelming goodness when you are in
the right place. Other times when you are in the wrong place you could
sense it.
But if you are far away from that line of decision, all you do is just stay at
home and pray waiting for a vision, waiting for a prophet of God to come
and tell you what you should do, you may never move. If Paul had run his
missionary journey that way, he would not have both the second and the
third missionary journey. The first missionary journey was by a dramatic
supernatural word from the Holy Spirit who said in Acts 13: 2 As they were
ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to
Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” But the
second and third missionary journeys were not based on that type of
leading anymore. Therefore Christians are foolish if they depend only on
one type of leading. Every time God moves, you say, “I need to wait for a
dramatic leading.” You have put God in a box. You have limited God if you
say you only want to be led this way. If Paul had waited to embark on his
subsequent missionary journeys based on his experience of being called
out for his first missionary journey, he would have no second and third
missionary journey.
Paul experienced the peak of his ministry when he was in Ephesus in Acts
19. Yet all he had was an impression in Acts 18: 21 [Paul] took leave of
them, saying, “I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem; but
I will return again to you, God willing.” And he sailed from Ephesus. Hardly
would he have known that when he came back to Ephesus in Acts 19 that
there he would see the greatest revival and miracles taking place. So lets
not put God in a box.
The primarily leading and confirmation of our life are based on our inward
witness of the sense of rightness and wrongness in our heart and our
mind. As we were saying if you stay a distance away from the line of
decision you will never sense anything. You are too far away. There is no
faith commitment. There is no effort on your part. Until there is an effort

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on your part as you draw near to the line and as you are standing on the
line and as you cross over the line to decide or act you will not have any
sensation. That’s why a lot of people are sitting at home waiting for a vision
and up to now they are still waiting. A lot of people are waiting for God’s
guidance and they are not doing anything.
The other extreme is that you do everything without sensing the inward
witness. The other extreme is running into every thing by your own mind,
by your own wisdom and you are rushing where angels fear to tread. That
would be the other extreme of not being sensitive and just rushing into
every good idea. Like last week we said not every good idea is a good idea.
If the devil were to tempt you it wouldn’t constitute a temptation if he
gives you a bad idea. A temptation is when he gives you a second-class
idea. The devil will not tempt you with the worse because if he gives you
the worse you would know that it was from him. The devil will tempt you
with a deceptively good idea and then it constitutes a temptation. So not
all good ideas are necessarily from God.

1. The Inward Sensation Of Being Smitten

We have sub-divided sensation into two parts. One is when you approach
and one after you cross over.
In the book of I Samuel chapter 24, David was running away from king Saul.
In the Old Testament they were not even born again yet they have
sensitivity in their conscience. Our conscience needs to be awakened. In
order to be sensitive to God the main criteria is to develop our conscience
to know what is right and wrong in our heart. Saul was pursuing David with
three thousand chosen men from Israel. As David ran away from king Saul,
he had an opportunity to kill king Saul when Saul came into the cave that
David was hiding in.
I Sam.24: 3 And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a
cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were
sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. And the men of David said to
him, ”Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, “Behold, I will give your
enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to
you.”

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David wanted to do what is right and what is good. Saul was in the cave
and there is no light in the cave. And David knows that he was there. Then
David arose and stealthily cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe. So while Saul was
relieving himself David drew near. That’s a line of division there. Saul
represents where the line is. As David was drawing near to Saul he was not
drawing near to kill him. His heart and his conscience will prevent him from
killing him. But as he drew near he wanted to just cut a piece of Saul’s
robe. Why didn’t his heart smite him as he draw near? He couldn’t sense
anything yet. Up to the point where he was standing right next to Saul
David’s heart still didn’t smite him.
In verse 5 And afterward David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off
Saul’s skirt. The afterward could have been a few seconds or few hours
probably lets give and take some minutes later. As he was holding Saul’s
robe and as he went back to where he was hiding, he waited until Saul left
the cave. Afterwards David’s heart troubled him. The word trouble is from
the Hebrew word nakah, which means to smite or a slap. David’s heart
gave him a slap. It’s the same Hebrew word that is used when it says the
Lord smote all the people and killed them. It’s the same root word that
points to them fighting and smiting one another and in the Old King James
Version killing one another.
David’s heart gave him a punch. He has crossed the line and his heart was
now smitten. It’s almost like maybe you work in an office and there is office
property. All you did was just take the office pen or pencil to your house
and you took it knowing that it was paid with office money. Maybe your
conscience is sensitive and you return it the next day. But you took it with
the intention that it becomes yours. And as you take it and you put it in
your pocket as you are heading home your heart smite you. It never came
until you have it in your possession. The wrong move or the wrong decision
gave your heart a real smacking. That’s the first kind of sensation a kind of
condemnation.
I know Rom. 8:1 says There is therefore now no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but
according to the Spirit. Here I am talking about the conscience hitting you.
Maybe you have done something wrong and you told a lie to cover it up.
Up to the moment before you told that lie there was some tension. But the

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moment you told that lie intentionally to deceive you crossed the line, and
smack, your heart is smitten. You got a smack from your conscience. That’s
the first kind of sensation. It’s almost like something in you jumping up at
you. And it can be so disturbing it will never go off until you take it back
and correct that lie you told. It’s a special sensation all in itself.
If you look at it David could have killed Saul. David showed mercy. He called
on Saul and showed to Saul, saying, “Saul this is a piece of your robe. I
could have killed you.” But he didn’t. God prevented him. God was not
happy that he cut off that robe.
Most people experience another type of experience I call the scratchiness.
To experience this smacking you have to be sensitive to the Lord. You have
to be sensitive to the anointing of God. The reason David senses it was
because he was a man sensitive to the anointing of God. I would describe it
that most people only experience a little pinch. But this is the extreme way.
Look at verse 6 He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this
thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to put forth my hand against him,
seeing he is the Lord’s anointed.” Now what was David sensitive to? The
anointing of God. As he developed sensitivity to the anointing of God the
moment he cut off the piece of Saul’s robe, he felt like the anointing
draining from him and his conscience slapping him. He must have repented
to God straightaway. That was why he did not cross the second line to kill
Saul. He crossed the first line to cut off a piece of Saul’s robe, and his
conscience smote him. He grieved, and he repented; therefore he could
not bring himself to cross the second line to kill Saul.
Let me point to Psalms 51 where David failed God. That was the sin he
committed with Bethsheba. Ps. 51:1-9 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to thy steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy blot out
my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me
from my sin. For I know my transgression, and my sin is ever before me.
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and does that which is evil in thy
sight, so that thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in they
judgment. Behold, I was brought forth to iniquity, and in sin did my mother
conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward being; therefore
teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be
clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Fill me with joy and

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gladness; let the bones which thou has broken rejoice. Hide thy face from
my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
Notice he sensed it like broken bones although none of his bones were
broken.
Verse 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit
within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy
Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with
a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners will
return to thee. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness.
David says, “Take not thy Spirit from me.” It was the same experience or
same kind of sensation that he was having when he cut off a piece of Saul’s
robe. He had that sensitivity to the anointing of God leaving him when this
time he fell into the sin of adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her
husband. And now he feels that condemnation that is coming upon his life.
And he wants to be free from it.
Notice one of the things that he lost in this area is the joy. He says,
“Restore to me the joy of your salvation.” Why are some Christians not
happy? It is because they are not sensitive to the anointing of God and
they are not walking in the anointing of God. For the kingdom of God is
love, peace and joy. When you have the Holy Ghost it’s undeniable that
you will be filled with joy. In fact sometimes Christians get up without
being filled with the Spirit, they go out they won’t have joy. In order to
sense it you got to have a high level of the Spirit and the anointing of God.
And by level it doesn’t mean that you have to be called to the apostle,
prophet, pastor, evangelist or teacher. But it means just being filled with
the Spirit.
And having that sensitivity when you cross the line it’s like suddenly
everything is stripped off. You feel that slap on your inside. That’s what
David felt like. That is when the anointing of God is strong and the
sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and the anointing of God is drained out.
Sometimes you could tell it. For some people they have crossed the line
and they didn’t even know it. It is because they are not sensitive to the
anointing of God. But you could tell that they have lost their joy. If you
have lost your joy my advice and counsel is to go back to the place where

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you lost it. And you will find that at that place where you lost it is a place
where you have compromised some principles or commandments of God.
You say, “But I didn’t kill anyone. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t really break
the Ten Commandments.”
David didn’t break the Ten Commandments in the book of I Sam. 24. He did
later break the commandment “Thou shalt not commit adultery” by
sleeping with Bathsheba but not in I Sam. 24. All he did was cut a piece of
cloth. And his heart smote him. Go back to the place where you have cut
that piece of garment from Saul’s life. What does Saul represent to you and
I? Saul represents people who are anointed by God to be in authority both
in the kingdom of God and in the secular world. The book of Romans tells
us to respect authority. For example, if you speak evil against your
government and rulers of your country you have crossed the line of cutting
Saul’s robe. But this is an area where I find many people are not sensitive
to. That is why personally I avoid fellowshipping with such people. They are
not sensitive to the anointing of God. They are not careful with their
tongue. See there are several things in our life that we have to learn. But
one of the most important lessons we learn is submission and obedience.
Have you realize that submission and obedience cannot be learned as a
lone ranger? Submission and obedience are learned as we relate to human
beings. There is no other way you can learn submission and obedience.
And every one will always have an excuse not to submit not to obey
because of the imperfection of the people above them. But supposing that
you yourself are on the top you may not be as perfect. Many times people
who rise to that position find that they cannot do a better job and then
they understand.
And that is why it’s an important lesson to learn in this first level. It is a
point where you cross the line of authority and anointing. When you have
crossed that you have touched something that God has ordained. And
immediately David says it was the anointing that I touched. When I
touched that robe it was like cutting off something from Saul’s life. Who
was he to take off Saul’s anointing? It was God who gave and let God be
the one to close off his office in his life. I will say that not many people are
sensitive to this first level because they are not sensitive to the anointing of
God or to the authority of God, whether in the kingdom of God and in the

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secular world. You go out to any coffeehouse and you will find a lot of
people criticizing the government. That is why I don’t like to sit around
with people like that. Many times they have no Christian conscience. They
have conscience only for the Ten Commandments but in the areas of
respecting the anointing and the authority they have no conscience. If you
were to walk with God and walk in His perfect will you avoid things like
that. That is the first area what I call a sense of smiting in your heart.

2. The Inward Sensation Of Grief

The next area is found in Ephesians 4: 30, And do not grieve the Holy Spirit
of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. The word
grieve is the word lupeo, which has a root word meaning sorrow. It has
been translated as sadness. Again this is the experience that you will have
only as you are draw near the line and cross the line. It’s different from
that slap. It is a sense of condemnation. Condemnation to many people is
like sensing the anger of God against something that is done. But here it’s
sensing a genuine grief, a sadness and sorrow. Here is experiencing a
sorrow. It is almost like the experience of sadness, except that there is
something much deeper not in the physical realm but in the spiritual
realm. It can even bring tears to your eyes. As you pray the tears come but
it’s from something inside not from something outside. And sometimes
people are grieving the Holy Spirit without knowing it. Every time they
come near to God and they pray sometimes they cry because they are
grieving the Spirit and they don’t know it. If we are touched by God’s
presence, that is different. When our spirits are praying and weeping for
something we don’t know, it may indicate that we have been grieving God.
I do know that when we go into intercession we can experience groaning in
the Spirit. The reason we experience groaning is because we are taking
upon ourselves the sorrow of people that have been grieving the Spirit. If
the whole world is perfect there will be no such thing as groaning in the
Spirit. In heaven there is no more groaning in the Spirit.
Rom. 8: 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail
together until now. It’s the creation that is imperfect that has the groaning.
Then Paul says in verse 23 Not only that, but we also who have the

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firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly
waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. If the whole world
and every human being and every creature were to be doing God’s will
today when you go into intercession there will be no possibility of
groaning. Groaning is what I call taking upon yourself some pain or sorrow
of others. And someone going against God causes that sorrow and you are
praying it through for that person. A whole community can be going
against God. A whole nation can be grieving God because of compromise.
And you could feel the burden of the nation and you are praying and
groaning. It’s the same sensation of sorrow and grief. It’s a grief that is in
line with the stress.
So in the second sensation that takes place in the book of Ephesians
chapter 4:29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouth, but only such as is
good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those
who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were
sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger
and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice, and be kind
to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ
forgave you.
Now the first sensation is caused through sensitiveness to the anointing
and authority that God has placed in the church or in the world. The
second one is related to our response to the Word of God that we know
and to the Word of God that we are hearing. Now the first has to do with
the anointing and authority that God has placed. The second sensation has
to do with how you respond to the Word of God especially the word of the
Holy Spirit. See the Holy Spirit is grieved every time you compromise God’s
Word. The grieving of the Holy Spirit has to do with all the Ten
Commandments and all of God’s Word.
People who are not sensitive to the Holy Spirit would sense the grief in an
opposite form. All anger is based on grief. Angry people are hurt people. If
you have a problem with anger in your life, it is because a lot of grief has
been locked into your sub-conscious. Anger is the opposite reaction that is
caused by grief. A grieved people become an angry people. When we are
grieved we will act in two ways: either an explosion that is anger or
implosion that is depression. But the root is the same. If ever you feel

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angry it’s because you have been grieved. When we are grieved we must
learn how to channel our grief correctly. In a one to one situation the best
way when you have been grieved is go to the person who grieved you and
say, “Look I am hurt. Lets stop this nonsense.” Then the next thing is to
pray to the Lord. But if you keep the grief, it will come out somewhere
along the line. Energy needs to be released. Grief is a form of hurt and
twisted energy that needs to be released somewhere along the line.
Now grieving the Holy Spirit relates to the Word of God. It relates to both
the rhema and the logos in your life. Something that God has told you
personally that nobody knows. That is God’s personal word for you that
you went against and you grieve the Holy Spirit. Or the written Word of
God that you went against and you grieve the Holy Spirit. The only way not
to grieve the Holy Spirit is walk uncompromisingly in God’s Word. Anyone
on this earth who walk against God’s Word is right now grieving the Holy
Spirit. No compromise for that. Many in the world are doing that. That is
why there are so much intercessions and it is necessary to groan. We are
taking the sorrow that has been caused by sinners and praying for them.
Let me point to the example of people who grieve the Holy Spirit but react
in two different ways. In Acts 2 Peter was preaching a sermon in verse 37
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter
and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Now I want to
point very clearly that these people have been going against God. Let me
point to Peter’s sermon and analyze that. In verse 36 Let the house of Israel
therefore know assuredly that God has made Him both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified. They were pronounced guilty of the
crucifixion of Jesus. They were cut in their hearts but they responded
correctly. Sensitivity to the Word of God makes us sensitive to the grieving
of the Spirit. They were grieving the Holy Spirit without knowing it. When
the Word of God came it cut them. They could react in two ways, anger or
repentance. Here they repented and said, “What shall we do?”
Lets look at Acts 3 after the healing of the lame man. In Peter’s sermon he
makes it very personal to the Jews. He put the responsibility on all the
Jews. See the whole Jewish nation had grieved God. Now through the
preaching of the Word it was been made known to them what they were
guilty of. In Acts 3:14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and

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asked for a murderer to be granted to you. In verse 17, Yet now, brethren, I
know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. They grieved the
Spirit in ignorance. A lot of people are grieving the Holy Spirit ignorantly.
Ignorance is no plea. We grieve the Holy Spirit every time we go against the
Word of God, both the rhema word and the logos word. These people
responded correctly and they repented. And the cut was removed when
they repented; they were healed and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Let me point to a group who were grieving the Holy Spirit all the time. And
they didn’t realize it and they reacted differently. In Acts 7 we see the
preaching of Stephen. In verse 51 he tells these people and these people
were the Sanhedrin council, the high priest and all those people who were
responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. You stiff-necked people,
uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. He told
them right to the point from the Word of God. Verse 54 the same thing
took place like in Acts 2. Now when they heard these things they were
enraged, and they ground their teeth against him. The Word pierces but
they reacted differently. They reacted in anger. And they took stones and
killed Stephen. You can kill a man but you cannot kill what the man stand
for. It will haunt you the rest of your life. You can remove somebody, you
can run down somebody, you can destroy a person, but you cannot destroy
what that person stands for. It will haunt the rest of your life especially if
that person stands for the Word of God. They killed Stephen but they
cannot kill their own conscience. The rest of their lives their conscience will
trouble them. The only to escape is to kill themselves. But even then there
is no escape because in eternal life their conscience will disturb them. Look
there is no escape for grieving the Spirit. Only the blood of Jesus is
available for us and a lot of people are grieving the Holy Spirit and making
Him angry. But they don’t sense it as they grieve the Spirit.
Such people who grieve the Holy Spirit, for no rhyme or reason, they get
angry at the Charismatics, they get angry at the prophetic move and they
get angry at the faith message. You know where the anger is coming? It is
coming from grieving the Spirit. You go throughout the Christian world you
find a lot of people getting angry at the move of God. Why should they get
angry? Any normal reasonable person shouldn’t get angry with Jesus for
healing on a Sabbath day. The people are being helped. Any normal human

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being would not get angry with sick people who are being healed. Yet there
are people who do get angry. Their anger is an opposite reaction to the
grief of the Spirit. They are grieving the Spirit and sensing it as anger.
It’s important to know that when you cross the line and grieve the Spirit,
you should experience it as sorrow. Pent up sorrow produces pent up
anger. Those who are soft and sensitive to the Lord the grieving produces a
deep sorrow that causes you to turn to God to travail to pray and cry to the
Lord. When king David crossed the line and violated the Word of God by
falling into the sin of adultery, for three days he didn’t eat anything
because he knew he had grieved God’s heart. II Sam. 12:16 David therefore
besought God for the child; and fasted, and went in and lay all night upon
the ground. And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him
from the ground; but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. On the
seventh day the child died.
Those who are sensitive to God when you are grieving the Holy Spirit this is
your experience: sorrow, loss of appetite and loss of sleep. When you have
crossed the line and you are grieving the Spirit these are your sensations.
When you made a wrong decision, a dumb decision that is not in line with
the Word of God and you compromise the principles of the Holy Spirit, you
will lose your sleep. You know why out there in the world people are
suffering from insomnia? They keep moving out of God’s will. At first they
experience the anger then more and more they step further and further
away from God. They get sickness, they get insomnia, then they survive by
all kind of pills and drugs. People who suffer from insomnia need to get
back to God. There is no other cure. That is grief related to the violating of
God’s Word in your life. When you cross the boundary that’s when the
grief starts.

3. The Inward Sensation Of Quenching

Quenching is a different form. In I Thess 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit. The
word quench is from the Greek word sbennumi, which means to extinguish
a fire. It’s like something that is coming up and you extinguished it. I would
describe it as a loss of zeal. And it is not only a loss of zeal. When you lose
your zeal you try to remove zeal from other people’s lives. Quenching the

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Spirit is crossing the line again and it relates to the manifestation of the
Holy Spirit. A lot of people don’t differentiate between grieving and
quenching. There are ways that we distinguish grieving from quenching.
Grieving is when you are supposed to be doing something and you don’t
do it. You do something opposite or you do the wrong thing. Quenching is
when you are supposed to do it and you don’t do it at all. Grieving is when
you do the wrong thing. Quenching is when you just stop it. You don’t do it
at all. You just push down the gifting of the Spirit. It’s related to the gifting
of the Holy Spirit in your life. Or maybe we do not allow the Holy Spirit to
move the way He wants in a meeting. We quenched the Spirit.
In order to encourage people we need to give room for a little bit of liberty.
If you are too tightly regimented and tightly controlled because you want
perfection you end up with no action. You have to give room for a little
mistake here and there to encourage participation. If you want perfection
you won’t get any action at all. For example you notice that in an altar call
always it takes the first person to come up before everybody come up.
People need encouragement to make the first move; when nobody has
made a move it is not easy for the rest to follow.
And we must be careful not to quench the Holy Spirit or the gifting of God.
How do we quench the Holy Spirit? For example if God is telling somebody
to do something and you give your counsel not to do it, you have just
quenched the Spirit. Nobody begins to operate the gift perfectly. Our heart
could be perfect and right but our method may not be perfect. We have to
give a little bit of room for mistakes otherwise you frighten people away.
For example you are training to be a speaker. If I said that you must speak
perfectly and you must not make any error in theology, you may not want
to speak any more. But if I give you room and say since this is your first
time it’s O.K, you will feel encouraged. We need to be people to encourage
the Spirit in people’s lives. Maybe God is telling them to do something and
you start giving them all the negative advice, you have quenched the Holy
Spirit. I am amazed at people’s lack of sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.
For example a young person wants to go into full time ministry. Just
because this person is very young every counsel this would-be minister
receives from others is based on head knowledge. When someone is

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studying a secular course and halfway through the course he or she
receives a call from God, in the natural most people would advise him or
her to complete the course first. But we must be sensitive to the working
of God in people’s lives. I am surprised that in one particular case a person
gave counsel to the one receiving the call from God not to go into the
ministry without even considering what that person is saying. This person
came to me and I said to him, “Go straight in for I discern this calling is
from God,” and that person is succeeding now in the full time ministry. If
he had listened to the negative advice, he may never have gone into the
ministry God has for him.
In my own personal life God called me at the age of seventeen. I went to
the seminary and I was among the youngest at eighteen plus. I was
considered underage but the seminary officials made me a special case.
Because I was the youngest I had a probation period of one year and I
fulfilled it and then they let me continue. When I look back now I realize
one thing. My mind and my spirit were developing at that time. If I had
gone into the university straight away I would never get back to what God
had in store for me. I know a lot of Christian parents whose children are
called to the ministry but who do not allow their children to go to the
ministry. The kingdom of God is the highest vocation. Some people may get
upset when I share my heart about the important things of God. That’s
why God calls a preacher, to preach, to warn, to counsel.
One day when you stand before God on Judgment Day, none of your
children’s university degrees, even the best university degrees will stand
for anything. Some of you may lose your children out there in the world
especially if God has called them. Your children may bring you worldly and
materialistic wealth; you would have all the money you want, you will have
all the fame you want, but you are living in spiritual poverty. I would rather
have spiritual prosperity and have a moderate lifestyle than all the luxuries
in the world. Maybe some of your children could have the same kind of
personality like mine. If they pursue the things of this world for five years
you may never get them back into God. So Christian parents don’t ever
stand against your children going into the ministry. I know that you are
considering things like food, clothing and shelter. I am a parent too. That’s
all we ever think about. When will you ever break free from the bonds of

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this physical world and realize that the spiritual world is more important? If
one of you parents produces a son like Sadhu Sundar Singh who may not
even have a property to his name but who may be such a spiritual man of
God walking up and down that change the world, I would think that the
best legacy you could leave behind for the kingdom of God. Let’s not
quench the Holy Spirit of God.
At the same time I don’t mean for the parents to push their children into
the fulltime ministry when they are not called. No, we need all the people
out there in the secular world. But people are called to different things.
Those who are in the ministry also should not push your children into the
ministry just because you are a minister. Let your children find their own
calling and choice of life. We need a balance in that but what I am against
is people who don’t even pray. People who don’t even seek God and they
said, “No,” without even considering whether it is from God or not. Then
we may end up quenching the Spirit without knowing it.
So that is the area of quenching the Spirit. It relates to the gift of God in
our life. If you have a gift of the Spirit already operating in your life and if
you don’t yield to the Spirit of God every time it manifest, God is only going
to tolerate it for a certain time. You have a prophecy and you hold back,
when you cross that certain time you quench the Spirit. If God has been
telling you to go for mission in certain area and you put it aside, you will
only have a certain period of time. When you cross that period of time, you
have entered into the quenching of the Holy Spirit.
Now what does the quenching of the Spirit involve? I Thessalonians 5: 19-
20 Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. You develop an
attitude. People who quench the Spirit, what are they like? They despise
spiritual things. They despise spiritual methods. When they hear
something that is of God and something that will work they say “ha”. These
are the people who are quenching the Spirit. It is a cynical attitude. It’s an
attitude that causes you to look down at the things of the Spirit. The
feeling is the feeling of despising. An arrogant, cynical, critical spirit shows
forth in a person who is quenching the Spirit. Whenever anything spiritual
comes they say “ha”. And they look down and despise. That’s the people
who have quenched the Spirit and don’t know it and that’s how they react.
Every time we find ourselves saying “ha” to the move of God we have just

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quenched the Holy Spirit. When you look down at spiritual things; when
you look down at the ministry; when you look down at spiritual ways, you
have quenched the Holy Spirit. When you put natural ways above spiritual
ways you are quenching the Holy Spirit. And that’s where we have to
understand where the line is drawn and not quench the Holy Spirit.
If you hang around with people who quench the Spirit you will lose your
zeal in a few months. And God wants you to be either hot or cold. He
wants you to be full of zeal. Why do a lot of people lose their fire? They
hang around people who quench the Spirit. You want to do something they
will tell you not to get too emotional. You hang around for some time you
will be as dry as them. You quench your Spirit. What are the other signs for
quenching the Spirit? Dryness, spiritually you become dry. All Christians
have their wilderness. I don’t believe in remaining in the wilderness; I
believe in living by the rivers of living waters. Psalms 23 doesn’t promise
any desert. The Lord is my Shepherd He leads me besides the Sahara
Desert. No, He leads me besides still waters, besides green pastures. There
is no promise of any desert or wilderness. Then why do Christians
experience periods of dryness? It is because during those periods they
have not move on into something that God is showing them. When you
quench the Spirit you experience dryness. If you are sensitive to dryness
there are two ways you can react to it. Like grieving in the Spirit you can
react in two ways. You can react in anger or you could react in repentance.
When you quench the Spirit you can react by becoming a cynic. You
become cynical about anything. Or you can react by becoming more
hungry and thirsty for God because you are experiencing dryness. And that
dryness drives you to all the prayer meetings you can find in order to fill
the spiritual thirst. That’s the positive reaction. You realize your dryness.
That is where we make sure we don’t cross the line.

4. The Inward Sensation Of Warmness

Let me speak of some positive side now. In the book of Luke chapter 24:32
They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked
to us on the road, while He opened to us the scriptures?” This is when they
were with Jesus and they were talking with Jesus. It’s the words did not our
hearts burn within us. The Greek word is the word burning. The first three I

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mention being smote, grieving and quenching is on the wrong side. On the
positive side when something is right and you move into the right place
and the right thing, it’s like a warm feeling that goes all over your being. A
sense like an anointing flows through you. And some times when you move
into the right place and do the right thing, and when you step into that it
looks like that warm feeling all over your being. I sense it as a real burning.
And I know this is of God. It’s like some thing is drawing the fire out of me
and I know that’s God. That warmness is a sensitive feeling to His presence
that God is present in what we are doing. You see they were with Jesus and
they didn’t know it was Jesus. But it was something in them that made
them knew that God was speaking through this stranger. As we draw near
the line and as you walk into that line you sense His presence.
How do you sense His presence? We don’t always sense His presence by
the anointing upon. You could always sense His presence by the warming
within. Your heart warms up towards Him. And every time you are doing
something like buying a house or a car, or launching a new business or a
ministry and you are stepping out in faith, can you sense that warming on
your inside? When there is this warming on your inside you know this is
God. I didn’t say that all the circumstances would work perfectly because
you still need faith but you know this is God and you just walk into that
which is God. Moses pleaded with God that His presence should go with
him. Like Moses, I would say as long as His presence goes with me and
God’s angels go with me and I could sense their presence, that’s it, I would
say, “Let’s go.” You don’t consider anything else. You consider whether God
is in it. And when God is in it, go. That is a real physical warming. A
thermometer cannot detect it but that’s the sensation. When I had
sensation like that I will go 100 percent for those things. All of us will have
a measure of that. The positive side is what I call a warming of the heart.
It’s related to the presence of God.

5. The Inward Sensation Of Sweetness

There is another sensation in Acts 15:28 For it seemed good to the Holy
Spirit and to us. That sensation of goodness has to do with fellowship and
harmony. All these are separate sensations. You sense the warming
without sensing the goodness. Now there is a sensation of goodness. You

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know that it is good. As you analyze Acts 15 it was a decision that
harmonizes. There was an initial argument and debate. But they tread on
what they felt was a good thing. It was the right thing and a good thing.
That’s a different sensation altogether. Not the warming this is a sense of
goodness, good feeling I can put it this way. It’s a sense like it’s a good
feeling on your inside. You feel good when you feel the goodness of God.
How does the goodness of God feel like to David? David says it is like honey
in the rock.
Let me describe it a bit more so that I can be more subjective. It is like
sweetness. The other is like a warming and this is like sweetness. You feel
sweetness in your spirit. There is sweetness about things that are done.
And that has to do with working with the body of Christ, working with
relationship, working with people. It is related with fellowship and
harmony with people. Some people sense a warming in their heart and
they hurt everybody else. But there is sweetness about the things of God
and you know this is the sweet way to do some things. And it’s a different
sensation. If you walk with this sweetness and this goodness of God it will
guide you to walk in harmony with people.
A lot of people are right but they are wrong in their methods. For example
you could have a big convention and you are an usher there. The people
are not lining up properly. You shout like a military commander to them,
“Get into line or else.” You are right and they are wrong. But you are not
sweet. See being right and being sweet is different thing. At the same time
there is a false way of being sweet. Some people are wrong and they seal
their mouths about it, never mind, just compromise. That is wrong. I am
not talking about natural thing I am talking about spiritual sense of
sweetness. When you flow along with that God will take care of the rest.
The moment they made a decision in Acts 15 they alienated some people.
The bible tells us in Acts 15 that when the word was circulated throughout
all the churches in verse 31 When they had read it, they rejoiced over its
encouragement. Those who were discouraged because there was no
decision made become encouraged. Those who have been playing the
wrong game doing the wrong thing of course they will be discouraged. And
when you flow with God there is a sense of goodness about the whole
matter. That’s the sense of goodness that we have.

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Last one as we close in Acts chapter 18:19 And they came to Ephesus, and
he left them there; but he himself went into the synagogue and argued
with the Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he
declined; but on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God
will.” As we explore the return to Ephesus in Acts 19:1 While Apollos was at
Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus.
There he found some disciples. And he said to them, ”Did you receive the
Holy Spirit when you believed?” That was the second time Paul came to
Ephesus. And that was where he established the great work and the great
church of Ephesus that became a mighty lighthouse in all the regions
about.
How was Paul’s sensation when he moved into all these things? Let’s look
at some of his personal statement in the book of II Cor. 11:27-28 In toil and
hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often
without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there is
the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches.
You see the word my anxiety for all the churches. Now this is not worry.
The New King James translated it as concerned. And that’s the kind of
sensation that is like a caring, a loving sensation. A loving feeling. We have
the warming, we have the goodness, which is the sweetness, and then we
have the concern, a sense of care, a sense of concern and a sense of love.
And it comes basically based on love. In this world it is not possible to
relate to a million people closely. But if every one of us who have our own
circle of friends and relationship would be faithful to show the love of God
to whatever circle of relationship that you have, the world would be a
better place. And God in His divine economy has placed in each one of us
in our heart a kind of concern not the type that worry you but a concern
that comes and occupies you where you sense a loving tender care for one
another. That is also a sensation of the Spirit. And that sensation can lead
you to many areas like it led Paul into Ephesus.
There have been people who have been led by that way. In other words
when we say go with the flow it means go where the things that concern
you most and which flows smoothest along. And in every one of our hearts
the Spirit will never lead you until you learn how to walk in love. Part of the
leading of the Spirit is learning to yield to this love in our heart. When you

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yield to the concern and care in your life by reaching out to somebody who
is hurt and who needs the love and you are the instrument whom God
chose to anoint with the love to go and care for that person and you
respond you will be rewarded. The Spirit of God is leading you into that.
There is a sense of care, a sense of concern. Sometimes that concern can
cause you to make an international call that costs you some money.
Sometimes that concern can make you take a whole trip all the way to your
hometown. Maybe the burden for somebody has been laid on your heart.
How does God lead us? Remember God can lead you in many methods.
God can place in your life a concern. Suddenly for no apparent reason you
are concerned about your parents. Every time you pray the concern comes.
Not really a worry but a care and when you think about it you have a loving
thought towards them. You seem to care about them very much. That may
be the Holy Spirit working on your life to flow along with that concern and
when you go there you find that you are needed there.
It can be the same for an organization. Maybe suddenly you got concerned
for an organization. Maybe God is speaking to you to do something. Maybe
a concern about another country or another town or another church
somewhere. Maybe God is speaking to you to do some caring work. And
we need to flow with God. Some times that concern comes before you
cross the line and some times it happens as you crossed into the line. In
other words you may shake hands and meet ten people. Out of the ten
people you are drawn to care for one person that you meet. It suddenly
occupies your time and your mind. It could be God speaking to you to do
some thing. You may not have the warm feeling or you may not have the
feeling of concern but some times they all flow together. But flow along
with that flow of love. It’s related to the love of God.
Next week we will cover sensations that come before you reach the line.
The reason we are sharing this is to give you as practical as possible the
sensations that some of us are receiving that our earlier series have not
been enough for you to learn to be led by God.

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5. The Fruit Of The Spirit Part One
This morning we want to look at some of the things that go on in our spirit
man that provide a very complete guidance that God has for our lives.
Thank God that He has given us a guidance system that will keep us and
establish us in the will of God.
Turn to Galatians 5:16 onwards. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not
gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the
Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are
opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. But if
you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. Now the works of the
flesh are plain: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery,
enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy,
drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before,
that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such there is no law.
We have seldom looked at this passage and consider it to be part of God’s
guidance system. But obviously from what Paul wrote in verse 18 if you are
led by the Spirit, he is in the context of talking about guidance and the
leading of the Holy Spirit in our life to help us to fulfill God’s perfect will.
Notice that last week we shared on certain sensations in God’s inward
guidance system. The last one we talked about was concern or a kind of
caring, which is related to agape love. I do know that God speaks to us
through a still small voice, through the human spirit, through the voice of
the Holy Spirit, through prophecy, dreams and visions. But there are
sensations that God has placed in our spirits since we were born again that
enable us to sense rightness and wrongness of certain things in our lives.
This sensation of right and wrong besides all the inward witness sensations
revolve around the fruit of the Spirit. And it’s the fruit of the Spirit that will
be the major confirmation and guidance system as whether something is
right or wrong.
Jesus did say in the Sermon on the Mount that by their fruit you shall know
them. We could interpret it in two ways. That fruit implies the converts of

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one’s ministry and the quality of the converts’ lives. We could also look at
fruit in the lives of those who minister themselves. I believe that it refers to
both. Light produces light. It’s God ordained pattern. In Genesis every
animal produces after its kind. It’s a spiritual law also that every thing
produces after its kind. And we need to measure up to God’s quality
control. There must be a standard of God’s quality control. And quality
control is not based on power or the gifts of the Spirit because these are
gifts or manifestations. But quality control is based on the fruit of the
Spirit.
The church in Corinth has manifestations but they didn’t have the fruit.
Now we don’t want to just have the fruit and have none of the gifts of
manifestation. We need to have every thing. Sine we are talking about
God’s guidance we want to talk about how the fruit of the Spirit works in
our lives and leads us. Don’t consider the fruit of the Spirit to be just
character like having the character of Jesus. But if you think about the
word character very carefully, character is a state of being which influences
every decision you make. If a brother has an evil character, then that
characteristic of evil bend in his mind or soul will influence every other
decision - the plotting, the cruelty, and all the evil that he could think or
dream of. But the good man whose character is good, the goodness of his
character influences every decision that he makes in his life. Therefore
even character is related to decision-making.
But there is some thing wonderful about the fruit of the Spirit. It is at the
same time the fruit of our human spirit and the fruit of the Holy Spirit; it is
God in us. It is Christ in us. The good news is also that the source of the
fruit is not in us but is in the Holy Spirit in God. But the manifestation or
the experience of the fruit is on our inside. There is a continual flow. Which
means that the fruit of the Spirit can be considered as manifestation of
Christ in us. And to confirm that in Gal. 5 he says in verse 24 And those
who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passion and
desires. Remember this is the book of Galatians. Inside the book of
Galatians is one scripture which is very powerful in Gal. 2:20 It is no longer
I who live but Christ who lives in me.
And as you read the book of Galatians Paul was trying to teach them how
Christ lives in us. We know that verse Its no longer I that lived but Christ

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that lives in me. We know that theologically. But how does happen
experientially? Paul speaks about those things in Galatians 5 and he hasn’t
changed his main subject. How does Christ lives in us? There is Christ in us.
He is in all of us. He is omnipresence. He is in us living through us. If we
make our own decision; if we make our own way and will by our own
strength we will make mistakes. No matter how long you have been in
Christ 30, 40, 50 years no matter how old or how young we are we all
recognize one fact we want to know Christ in each other. And we want to
see Christ in each other. And we want to allow Christ to live through us
because every single one of us in ourselves minus Jesus is a horror. There is
none righteous; there is none good in themselves. Minus Jesus we are all
horrors. Thank God for Jesus.
So Christ lives in us. How does that take place and what is the experience
of that? Paul is talking about the leading of the Spirit. How to be led by this
Christ in us? Everything you do you could sense Christ in you responding.
There is a living being that leads you in all your decision-making. The fruit
of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control summarizes that. All these fruit of the Spirit
exactly nine of them can be divided into three groups.
I am going to link it up in a different way. We all know the gifts of the Spirit.
They are word of wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirit, which is
a group by themselves called the revelation gifts. Then we have the gift of
faith, the working of miracles, and the gift of healing, which are known as
the power gifts. Then we have the gift of prophecy, the gift of tongues and
interpretation of tongues, which are known as vocal gifts.
We could have summarized in a visual way. That the first group called the
revelation group may be represented by the eyes to see or reveal some
thing. The hands that do some things may represent the power gifts. The
mouth that says some things may represent the vocal gifts.
Now these groupings of the fruit of the Spirit are also a cluster by
themselves. You always find love, joy and peace together. Every time you
see peace, you see love, you see joy. They are always working in triplets.
And the other triplet is longsuffering, kindness and goodness. Whenever
you see longsuffering you see kindness and you see goodness. Cross

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reference to the book of Exodus talking about God’s character. When God
revealed Himself to Moses He made a declaration of His own character. In
chapter 34:6 The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed, “The Lord, the
Lord, a God merciful and gracious, now those are the two key characters,
then you find, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.
We see the triplet here: graciousness is tied to kindness, longsuffering and
abounding in goodness. We find the triplet inside the character of God. You
cannot long suffer unless inherently you are good. You don’t believe it go
to some evil persons and disturb them, irritate them and see whether they
long suffer. They will not, they will have the opposite, short suffering. They
can’t suffer long because inherently they are evil and they get irritated
easily. Sometimes you read in the newspapers that a gangster shoots
another person for staring at him. There has to be goodness in a person in
order to withstand suffering and there has to be kindness. If there is no
kindness in you, you will react harshly. If you are not gracious and kind you
repay evil for evil. It’s so easy to repay evil for evil. Somebody punch you,
you punch back. It’s so easy to do that if there is no goodness. So the three
are together. That is long-suffering, kindness which actually means a kind
of graciousness, and goodness. So they are in the second group.
The third group faithfulness, gentleness, which actually means meekness
and then self-control. Faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are in a
group by themselves. Faithfulness is different from faith although it’s
related from the same root word. Faithfulness talks about a steadiness in
character and self-control is the same, meekness is the same. That
whatever is done there is faithfulness, there is self-control and there is
meekness or gentleness. All you have to do is find faithful people in the
bible and you see this quality of self-control and meekness. Joshua was
faithful to Moses. You find the quality of self-control and you find the
quality of meekness in his life. Whenever someone has been faithful for a
long time they develop meekness and they develop self-control.
Faithfulness is onto something else, you are faithful to a person, you are
faithful to an organization and you are faithful to a call. You can’t say that a
person has been faithful if they have only been there for one month. See
faithfulness has a time span. Self-control also has a time span. Some
people have no control over food. The only time they fast is between

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breakfast and lunch; and between lunch and dinner. Self-control is
definitely not measured in a few minutes. It has a time measurement. It is
the same with meekness. The meek shall inherit the earth. It is not
measured in a short period. It’s measured in time. In the third group of
triplets you find a common denominator there, time.
Paul is talking about walking in the Spirit. He introduces the subject in Gal
5: 16 walk in the Spirit. Then he concludes it again in Gal 5: 25 If we live in
the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. So he is teaching them to live in the
Spirit and walk in the Spirit. He is teaching them how to keep their lives
governed by the Spirit. Guidance from God is walking in the Spirit. Time is a
key denominator that ties the last three together.
How we are going to approach the subject is by taking one more Old
Testament passage to compare and understand in much greater detail. Isa.
40:28-31 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the
everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or
grow weary, His understanding is unsearchable, He gives power to the
faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even youths
shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who
wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with
wings like eagles, they run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
There are four positions mentioned here. Waiting, mounting up their
wings, running and walking. I like to classify the four positions into three
sections. Because flying is definitely different from running and walking, I
will put it as one position. Waiting which is more or less like a lack of
movement is one cluster by itself. Walking and running indicates
movement and I will put these two together. When it comes to movement
there are two gears. Gear No. 1 is walking. Gear No. 2 is running. There are
two gears for movement, there is one gear for flying, there is one gear for
waiting. There are three clusters together.
I like to tie that to the fruit of the Spirit, which has three clusters and show
forth how God leads us to the fruit of the Spirit. First of all, lets look at the
book of Gal. 5:22 love, joy and peace. Love joy and peace is related to the
heights, to flying to the area of God’s presence in our lives.

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Imagine looking at the center of the cross where the heart is. From the
center of the cross there is only one arrow pointing upwards, there is one
arrow pointing downwards, but there are two horizontal lines one to the
right and one to the left. I would take the two horizontal lines to represent
walking and running. The other vertical line upwards points to flying and
the one that is downwards points to the feet which is standing, waiting.
There is only one up and one down, but there are two sideways left and
right.
We like to illustrate the guidance that we receive from God using the
picture of the cross. Love, joy, and peace talk about our vertical
relationship with God. Whenever God leads you and guides you and His
presence comes into your life where you know that it is God you will
always sense on your inside love, joy, and peace. They are the confirmation
that heaven has approved of whatever you are thinking about. Some times
you are thinking about the move or decision that you want to make - that’s
all and the love, joy and peace come into your heart. Or you are
postulating to move into a certain direction and love, joy and peace come.
They are the signs of heaven’s approval. We know how much we always
want the approval of God. Check in your spirit whether there is experience
of love, joy and peace are abundantly showered forth. There are degrees
of that love, joy and peace. The greater it is the greater the approval. It can
only come as we pray and discern God’s will over every matter.
Lets look at the book of Ephesians 3:16 talking about the working of God in
our inner man.
16 That according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be
strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being
rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have power to comprehend with all
the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you
may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Notice it’s the presence of God in us. Notice in verse 17 it’s Christ in us.
And then it’s the presence of God in verse 19 in us. And the word love is
mentioned, both in verse 17 and verse 19. Our spirit man is mentioned in

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verse 16 it’s the working of God’s love in our life. Love, joy and peace
relates together. When you have love, joy and peace are there as well. I
know some times people have peace but their joy is not overflowing. There
are degrees of love, degrees of joy and degrees of peace. There is love so
great that is beyond comprehension.
Have notice another factor here how he links up to the revelation gifts. The
link is found in verse 17 and 18. When you are rooted and grounded in love
you are able to comprehend with all the saints. So that links to revelation
gifts. The first group of the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy and peace is linked
up to the revelation gifts. Whenever love grow, joy grow, peace grows, and
we know peace can increase according to II Peter 1: 2 Grace and peace be
multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus the Lord. Love, joy,
peace are all related to the presence of God working in our lives pouring
forth His approval and you could sense peace in your heart. Peace has
been a guidance system in our relationship with God.
The whole book of Philippians speaks about love, joy and peace as God’s
guidance system in the church. The moment Paul wrote the book of
Philippians, his heart seems to be overflowing with joy. Anyone who
studies the book of Philippians will notice that it’s the book of joy. Paul
speaks about his joy even while he was in prison. It tells us here in chapter
1:9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with
knowledge and all discernment. Notice that the abounding of love and the
abounding of discernment are proportionally tied together. Again you have
a tie between the first cluster of the fruit of the Spirit and the first cluster
of the gift of the Spirit. The revelation gifts are tied up to what I call the
flying fruit.
Since we tied it to the book of Isaiah 40 they have to do with your vertical
relationship mounting up with wings like an eagle. Eagles can soar to
different heights. Some times they can soar to great heights because the
upward flow of hot air from the ground lifts them higher. Eagles glide more
than fly. So mounting up the wings is to set your wings to position. You
seldom see an eagle flapping its wings. It holds its wing steady. Some
believers think that they are humming birds all the time trying to be led by
the Spirit. That’s not it. God gives the eagles to fly on the winds, which is
caused by the hot rising air from the ground. That’s why you seldom see an

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eagle at night. But in the daytime when the sun heats up the earth there is
a current of air (that is invisible to human eyes) that rises up in little
circular patterns upwards to the atmosphere. The eagles sense this rising
air that and they go from one thermal flow to another. Then they will hook
on to another thermal flow and it will carry them upwards. It’s just like
those experienced gliders. They learn to look to the wind in order to gain
height.
Now it says mount with wings like eagle. All the eagle does is set its wings
in the right position. It’s almost like sailing a boat. It depends on what
direction you want the boat to go and how fast you want the boat to go
and you set the sail accordingly. If you set the sail in the full position where
it carries the full velocity of the wind it will go very fast. But if you slide it at
an angle the boat may turn. Or you put less sail up there it catches less
wind and it goes slower. That’s like the mounting of the wings of an eagle.
Set in position to the rising current. You can mount your wings all you want
but if there is no thermal air you can’t soar like an eagle. As we look at
God’s guidance system even in the operation of love, joy and peace there is
a part that God plays and there is a part that we play.
Lets look at Philippians chapter one as Paul wrote in verse 8 For God is my
witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. The word
affection is the word splachna a deep affection of love, care and concern. It
was a tangible feeling Paul had. Not in his emotions but in his spirit man.
And that’s a sensation of love that he is speaking about here.
As we move onwards in the book of Philippians by chapter four in verse 7 it
says that And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep
your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So there is a peace of God that
guards, that garrisons, that sets your heart and mind. And that is the peace
of God.
Then you have joy in verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say,
Rejoice. Paul here was in prison rejoicing in the Lord. Learn how to have joy
in the things that God has asked you to do. Looking at an eagle there is first
the place or the perch where the eagle launches itself. Eagles make their
nest high up so that they can start on an air current. So that’s the nest of
the eagle. The eagle’s nest is represented by love. It’s our home and resting

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place in our spirit. The only resting place of your spirit is in heaven. You
don’t have to wait until you go home to be with the Lord to have that. Now
you can be seated in heavenly places in Christ and experience all the love
of Jesus, all the love of God, and it’s a position like a nest. You nestle in God
in His love.
Peace is like the mounting of the wings. It sets your heart and your mind.
Notice what peace does, it guards your heart and your mind. So it operates
together with love. It guards, protects, seals off against all other
movements. Your wings are mounted; they shall mount up with wings like
the eagle. Joy is like the thermal air that the eagles depend on. We learn to
rejoice in the Lord. We learn joy unspeakable and joy comes. In the Old
Testament prophecies, the night of sorrow is followed by the morning of
joy. Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. The joy refers to the
sensitivity to the air current that is there. Love is your nest, peace is your
wings and joy is your air current as you fly off into the presence of God.
And you discern God’s will in your life.
There are different degrees of love. Whenever you make a decision in God
you sense the love of God flowing and His stamp of approval on you. The
more time you spend with God the stronger the measure of love that you
sense. And you discern something that is of God, even though the
circumstances may not look like it agrees with God’s will in our life. There is
a peace that mounts your wings and you do not turn to the left or to the
right because you know where you are heading. Where everything around
can be confusion yet the peace of God will keep you. And don’t lose your
peace; your peace is like your wings. If it affects you it affects the angle of
your flight. You may lose your flight. Keep your peace, keep your love and
keep your joy. Joy comes as you begin to walk in love, you are moved by
love, you are walking in that peace and as you walk more and more deeper
into the will of God your joy is greater and greater because you are walking
into the right air current. I have never seen it happen nor have I ever read
it before where an eagle is soaring on an air current and then it makes a
mistake and try to lock onto another air current and he misses and there is
no air current and he drops down. It has never happened but sometimes
believers do that. Now the greater the thermal air current for you to fly on,
the greater the joy you will experience. And when you are doing the right

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thing the joy increases. It started with love, it went into peace and it move
into joy and you know this is it. A joy unspeakable and full of glory. The joy
of the Lord is your strength. He will give you strength to do all that He
wants you to do. So that’s God guidance system in love, joy and peace in
our lives.
Lets turn to the book of Acts 16. Do you remember the place where Paul
first had his breakthrough in his second missionary journey? His first
missionary journey was successful but not a real breakthrough yet. Some
times you have a success but not real breakthrough. His breakthrough
came when he met the Philippians. The Philippians were his main partners
in the ministry throughout his entire life. He told the Philippians in
Philippians chapter four that from the very first time he shared the gospel
with them until now he is in prison as he wrote to the Philippians, the
Philippians have always stood with him. They have always been with him.
Phil 4: 15 Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the
gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me
concerning giving and receiving but you only.
And there is some thing interesting that we can see implied by the word.
That is Paul experienced joy that he never had anywhere else until he
enters Philippi. See he tried to go in Acts 16 in verse 6 And they went
through the regions of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the
Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come opposite
Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not
allow them. So passing by Mysia they went down to Troas. And a vision
appeared to Paul in the night; a man of Macedonia was standing
beseeching him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
It is not mentioned here directly but possibly what happened was that Paul
as he began to take that boat to the capital of Macedonia, which is Philippi,
he experienced that joy that he never had before. I mean he had joy but
this is greater. And as he did the work there he had persecution. He was
put in prison when he cast out a demon. We know from how they react
and what they do that joy was in their life.
In verse 25 But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing
hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. No matter what

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happened Satan could try to put them in prison, persecute them, make life
miserable for them but they never lost their song. When you never lose
your song you are walking in God’s will. That’s the first set of God’s
guidance flying.
The second set in the book of Galatians 5: 22 long suffering, kindness and
goodness, three triplets by themselves. The second set of triplets is related
to the second set of the gift of the Spirit, which is the power gifts. I would
like to find verses that relate it before we continue next week. In the book
of Romans 15:18-19 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what
Christ has wrought through me, again he acknowledged that Christ in him
working the things, to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed,
by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that
from Jerusalem and as far round as Illyricum I have fully preached the
gospel of Christ. Take note mighty signs and wonders.
Now look over at the book of II Corinthians chapter 12. And it tells you how
the signs and wonders come about. II Cor.12:12 Truly the signs of an
apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and
wonders and mighty deeds. The word mighty means “dunamis” deeds or
deeds of power. The word there is with perseverance. With great difficulty
in many situations he persevered through and he saw the signs and
wonders of God. I know that the gifts of God and the signs and wonders of
God come because of His grace. But lets not neglect the fact that the book
of Acts says God gave the Spirit to those who obey Him. God must see that
persistence in our life before He grants signs and wonders to come. He
must see us persistently doing some things faithfully because you love Him
and you love the Word of God before different types of signs follow your
life and ministry.
When a man of God starts a new work that affects thousands of people
over many cities and countries, they forget all the hard work that was
involved. And people see the final reward. I would encourage you that
persistency and long suffering is not measured in a few minutes or a few
months. Some of us are praying for prosperity in our lives or other areas of
blessings in our lives. And you haven’t lived your life right with God one
year in a row. And even if you had lived your life one year you say, “God I
lived my life one year where is my blessing now?” But there is a

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persistence that comes into our life that says Lord even if this takes ten
years I want to be faithful; I want to long suffer, I want to persevere. Keep
on doing it month after month year after year and the times of refreshing
will come. But even when the times of refreshing does not come, you are
not distracted, you know what you are supposed to do and you keep doing
it. Paul says that signs and wonders come with great perseverance. So the
second triplets are tied up to the second triplets of the gift of the Spirit.

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6. The Fruit Of The Spirit Part Two
Turn to the book of Galatians 5. Very seldom do we consider this chapter
that teaches us on the leading of the Spirit. When we speak about how to
be led by the Spirit the first verses that come to many Christians’ minds is
Romans chapter 8. But here in the book of Galatians 5 Paul actually is
talking about the leadings of the Holy Spirit although it has never been
seen in that light. We always know the fruit of the Spirit to be related to
Christian character and Christ likeness but we never see it as guidance
from God. We do know that God is perfecting a people who will so walk
with Him that we would know God’s will intuitively. We will be able to
perceive God’s will. And that actually is lined up to our character.
If you have your bible that divides the verses into little paragraphs this
whole section and paragraph is under “Walking in the Spirit.” Again we see
that it has to do with the leading of the Spirit in our life and not just in
Christian’s character. Of course it has to do with Christian’s character but
Paul was trying to make a point here on how to operate our life on this
earth and how to do the right thing at the right time.
Galatians 5:16 onwards, But I say walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the
desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and
the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each
other, to prevent you from doing what you would.
Now that sounds like Romans 7 where Paul describes the desire to do
God’s will and the struggle within. Then Paul gives the solution to this
struggle in Romans 8 about how to be led by the Spirit. Verse 18 But if you
are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. The law means
commandments. Now all the laws of the Ten Commandments and all the
other commandments, the rightness and the wrongness of doing some
thing are an expression of the character of God. Those things that please
God and those things that displease God are revealed in the old covenant
as laws. And all through nearly four thousand years of Old Testament
history all the people had were rules. Finally the New Testament came and
Jesus looks beyond the rules. He brings us to the source of the rules, which
is the character of God. He put that source of guidance on our inside. And

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when that source of guidance is on our inside we will automatically walk in
those commandments. We will know the Ten Commandments from inside.
We will know every other commandments and the rightness and the
wrongness of whatever factors they are on our inside even though we have
not been told those laws. That’s what Paul means by being above the laws.
And to link it up Paul did say towards the end of the book of Romans that
love fulfills the law. Love is related to the manifestation of the fruit of the
Spirit. If we walk in agape love and not just human love we will be walking
in God’s will.
Lets read on Gal. 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the
law. Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity,
licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness,
dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn
you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against
such there is no law.
You could draw another statement from what Paul is saying. Many times
when we talk about how to be led by the Spirit, in many people’s minds
they are thinking of, “If I have more anointing, if I have a greater measure
of the Holy Spirit, if I have a greater impartation of the Spirit I would be
able to be led in a greater measure.” Consider this as fact: the above
thinking is not exclusively correct. If we grow in love we would have just as
great capacity to be led by the Spirit.
Growing in love is no easy task. A lot of Christians are crying out to God,
“Lord I want to hear Your voice. I want to be led by You. I would like to
understand dreams, visions, the voice of the Spirit, the voice of the human
spirit, the voice of the conscience. I want to be so accurate that I won’t
miss it any time. I want to hit the mark every time You speak to me.” As
they pray, “God teach me to hear Your voice,” God answers their prayers by
first dealing with their lives about unforgiveness, about their bad
relationship with people, about people they are not living rightly with,
their unloving attitude to some people. They say, “God don’t talk to me

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about that. I want to hear Your voice.” And they still struggle to hear God’s
voice. God was answering their prayer by teaching them to love.
When we are able to grow in love our hearts are tender and have a greater
capacity to hear Him. When God’s love is flowing one hundred percent in
our hearts to every person, the good, the bad, the ugly, you will be in the
position to hear God. As we yield to God’s dealing in our life and pass the
test of love, suddenly you see the benefit of it - you will be able to hear
God’s voice so loud and so clearly. The one reason why many people
cannot hear God’s voice is because they are not walking in love. Because
loving is no easy task. It’s easy to love some but it’s not easy to love
everybody with God’s love. However thanks be to God that as we grow in
our Christian life we learn to grow to love more and more people. And the
test of our Christian growth is the test of love. This year you should have
more love than last year. Next year you should have more love than this
year. We should be growing in love until we become a hundred percent
nurtured and nourished and saturated with love because God is love.
When we become perfectly loving we become like God. That’s God perfect
call and predestination in our life to be conformed to His image.
Gal. 5:24-26 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh
with its passions and desires. If we live by the spirit, let us also walk by the
spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of
one another.
In the last session on guidance from God we talked about the nine fruit of
the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control. We have divided the nine fruit of the Spirit
into three categories, just like the gifts of the Holy Spirit can be divided into
three categories. What are the gifts of the Spirit? You probably know them
by heart - the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, discerning of
spirits, the gift of faith, working of miracles, the gift of healing, prophecy,
gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues. The nine gifts are divided
into three groups. The first group is the revelation gifts to reveal
something. The second group is the power gifts to do something. The last
group is the vocal gifts because they say something. The eyes, hands, and
mouth symbolize these groups respectively.

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The fruit of the Spirit is divided into three categories. Love, joy, peace is in
a category by themselves. The first three are related to the revelation gifts.
I say that the triplet of love, joy and peace is one group because they bring
about the revelation of God’s will. When you walk in love, which produces
joy and peace, God is able to reveal His will to you. Being led by the Spirit
means just doing God’s will. Discovering God’s will in our life and doing
God’s will. Before we can do God’s will we need to know what His will is.
We know some of His will from the written Word. But we need to discover
is the personal will of God in our life. We need guidance from God on how
to be led by the Spirit. And we need His guidance from the day-to-day little
things of life. How do we know His will? If you walk in love, joy, peace the
revelation of God’s will, will come to your life. They are related to the
revelations gifts in a different way.
In each category of the nine gifts of the Spirit there is always one stronger
than the other two. The word of wisdom, the word of knowledge and the
discerning of spirits, the strongest among the three is the word of wisdom.
In the power gifts the gift of faith, the working of miracles, the gift of
healing, the strongest among them is the gift of faith. In the vocal gifts the
gift of prophecy, tongues and interpretation of tongues, the strongest
among them is prophecy. It is because prophecy equals tongues plus
interpretation. That’s what I mean by stronger. It can produce the other
two in type.
When we look at the fruit of the Spirit love, joy and peace, love is the
predominant force that must come then you have joy and peace. If love is
absent joy and peace will also be absent. And joy and peace can only be
produced after love comes in. So that’s the first category. I summarize that
section by saying that when you walk in the first three fruit of the Spirit
and allow love, joy and peace to operate in your life you will have the
revelation of God’s will.
The second category, which we can see here using the New King James
translation, is the triplet of longsuffering, kindness and goodness.
Longsuffering, kindness and goodness are one group by themselves. The
first mentioned in this group is longsuffering and is the strongest of the
three. To be longsuffering you would have to have kindness and goodness

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operating. And when you have goodness and kindness it’s because
longsuffering is present.
And this second category of longsuffering, kindness and goodness are
related together to the second pair of the gifts of the Spirit. And the
second pair of the gifts of the Spirit are the power gifts. The power gifts do
something. Now these three fruit of the Spirit in the second category helps
you to No. 2 perform God’s will. The first has to do with the revelation of
God’s will. Unless God reveals His will you can’t do His will. Now when God
reveals His will that’s only the first part. Doing His will is a different matter.
There are a lot of people who know what God’s will is in their life. But they
stop halfway because it’s difficult. They don’t have longsuffering. Doing
God’s will or the performance of God’s will, takes a different set of the fruit
of the Spirit operating in our life. The performing of God’s will, will take the
next three gifts.
Let me give some bible illustration as I have done on the first three fruit of
the Spirit. The first thing that we want to look at is the book of Acts 10: 38
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power,
who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the
devil, for God was with Him.
Notice the word He went about doing good. The second category, which is
longsuffering, kindness and goodness has to do with the performance of
God’s will. Now all these are senses on our inside. Love is a spiritual sense
of well-being; it is the same with joy and peace. And this sensation of
longsuffering and kindness and goodness is a sense on our inside. And it
says doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil. Do you
notice how the fruit of the Spirit goodness and the power gift of healing
work together?
When Jesus Christ was in the synagogue on a Sabbath day and there was a
man who had a withered hand, the Pharisees and the Sadducees were
looking at Him wondering whether Jesus would heal on a Sabbath day.
When Jesus saw the sick, the suffering, the infirm, there is a sense of
kindness and goodness welling up in Him. It is good to heal the sick. It’s not
a bad thing to heal the sick. And Jesus was flowing with the flow of
goodness. Remember there is a flow of goodness. The bible says in Psalms

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23 towards the end: Goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of
your life. And Jesus Christ sensed that it was good. How did He felt at that
time? He felt good about healing the sick. Now the law is filled with do’s
and don’ts but the law didn’t actually forbid doing good in that sense. It
was the Pharisees who have come up with this type of legalism. When
Jesus went ahead and healed the sick they were angry. But He did a good
thing. The Jesus spoke about their hypocrisy. He asked that if one of them
had a donkey and it stumbled and fell into a well on a Sabbath day
wouldn’t they pull out the donkey? How much more worth is a human
being than a donkey. That’s what He was illustrating.
Now in our lives we know that there is a sense of goodness. Some of us
want to be led by the Spirit but we have to learn how to be led by love and
how to be led by sense of goodness in our inside. That’s how God develop
us. In Kenneth Hagin’s little account in his book “How to be led by the
Spirit” and one of those on love, he talked about how one day God spoke
to him and said to give some money to this person. And he obeyed; he
learned to walk in love. He gave it and then that night when he was in a
meeting God did great signs and wonders. And at the end of it God said,
“Thank you for obeying Me. What I am doing now is a manifestation of
what you have done earlier.” In our natural mind we won’t link up doing
good with power. But it’s linked up. There are a lot of things we don’t link.
We have taught in a different series on how the sins of a nation or the
righteousness of a nation can either pull a nation down or bring a nation
up. Deuteronomy chapter 28 indicates that the sin condition or the
righteous condition of the people affect world weather. He says that if they
sin the heaven will be as brass and there will be famine. Although you
explain it scientifically because it’s an invisible connection, there is a
connection between the righteousness or sin of the people in the nation
and the weather of the nation. It’s in the bible. There are a lot of things
that our human mind doesn’t relate, which is why we need the bible.
Because the bible tells us more things than science can. The bible tells us
that laws that science cannot touch and cannot uncover because science is
built around the five scenes.
There is a connection between doing good and the power gifts, which we
don’t relate. Some of us are praying, “O God I want more power.” But in

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their lives they are selfish. God is dealing with their lives about being more
kind to people, about being more generous to people. They have been
stifling the Spirit in the area of goodness and on the other hand they want
more power. I tell you they will never get it. It is linked up the fruit of the
Spirit and the power gift.
The second category long suffering, kindness and goodness are related to
the power gifts. The power gifts demonstrate the power of the Spirit. And
the second category and the fruit of the Spirit longsuffering, kindness and
goodness are linked up to the performing of God’s will. The first three love,
joy, peace are related to the revelation of God’s will. And here it is the
performance of God’s will.
Lets suppose you were a singer. You really want the anointing of God to
flow when you sing in a church service. God gave you a good voice and
musical abilities. But you are so introvert and inward looking and busy
developing your gifts that you are not reaching out to people. You are
hoping that when you sing the anointing of God would come. It won’t
come that way. But if in your life you begin to have a place in your heart
maybe for the needy, widows and the ministry and things of God, in your
heart you begin to be more extrovert and more generous. You begin to
care for others more than yourself. Suddenly when you sing a song there is
an anointing that was not there before. How did it take place in your own
personal life? When you develop longsuffering, kindness and goodness, the
anointing of power will start happening. And when you sing people’s
hearts that were broken gets healed. When you sing the power gift starts
operating. We have never linked them together but we need to because
the Word links them up together.
In science we know that something produces another thing. What do we
do? We get at the source. If you want light you look for electricity because
we know electricity produces light. Or if some thing goes wrong with the
light we check the connection. We go right back to the source. In the same
way we need to link it up together. II Cor. 12:12 The signs of a true apostle
were performed among you in all patience, with signs and wonders and
mighty works. When you see a man of God, you will see the power gifts
operating. You can copy all their methods, you can copy all the theology
but if you don’t have the experience or if you don’t have the trials and the

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sufferings that they have gone through, you will never experience their
power ministry. A power ministry is developed by longsuffering. You never
took the opportunity to show kindness like they may have done in their
secret lives. You have never yielded to the flow of goodness in your life.
If you don’t develop longsuffering, kindness and goodness in your life, your
actions will come out differently. Instead of releasing power, it will release
death. For every word we say and every action we do flows out of the
substance of our lives. And some of the things that God built into us are
quality stuff. The virtue of longsuffering cannot be received through laying
on of hand. There is no scripture for that. The gifts of the Spirit, the power
gifts can be received through impartation and association but longsuffering
is developed when the hard knocks of life are present. The man of God
went through trials and tribulations willingly without giving up halfway.
Paul says here the signs of an apostle were accomplished among them with
all perseverance. Note the word perseverance. There can be no
perseverance without longsuffering.
There can be no perseverance if you don’t choose to be kind. Do you know
that all of us have choices to be kind or to be cruel? We can do some thing
cruelly or we can do some thing kindly. But those little choices that we
make to be kind or to be cruel, to have short suffering or longsuffering will
affect the power gifts operating in our lives. So do not underestimate the
power behind the fruit of the Spirit. Maybe it will help us to understand
the leading of the Spirit if we see the opposite of it.
In Gal. 5 we know what the opposites are that we need to avoid in order to
preserve the ability to hear from God and be led by the Holy Spirit. Gal.
5:22 love, joy, peace are things that we move into to receive the revelation
of God’s will. When we move in love, joy will come and peace will come.
When you walk in love and you choose to walk in love God continues to
reveal His will. A lot of people are not choosing to walk in love. Now love is
a choice we make. Every one of us has our circumstances where we find it
hard to love at times. But when we choose to love against our own
emotions, against our own flesh, our own emotions and our flesh will end
lining up with God.

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The opposite will be hate, sorrow and confusion. Never ever make a
decision when there are feelings of hate, sorrow or confusion. I hope that
helps you to eliminate a lot of wrong guidance. When the feelings are
strong in those three areas my counsel is don’t make a decision. Come to
the prayer meeting and pray through first until love fills your heart. We all
get hurt from time to time. Most of the time we are hurt innocently by
others. When we feel hurt the best thing to do is pray until the love of God
comes and touches your heart. When your heart is melted in love you once
again are filled with joy. And that will take some time of prayer some times
and even fasting and meditation on God’s Word.
I know because I have cried million of tears just in the ministry. You get
hurt all the time; you get things spoken against you all the time. I know
what Kathryn Kuhlman meant when she said that everyday she hears some
things that actually hurt her. The bigger your ministry grows the greater
the opportunity to hear negative things spoken against you. Thank God
that those are small percentages. You do hear a lot of good things too. But
the fact is that by the law of mathematics the percentage is based on the
proportion too. I mean five percent of ten dollars may not be much. But
five percent of ten million dollars is a lot. The more your ministry grows the
more slander and negative things you hear. Being born with human
emotions let me tell you that even if you have one million people thanking
you and being grateful for your life having just one nasty critic can still give
you much pain and grief.
That’s what Bro. Dhinakaran (an evangelist from India whose ministries and
“Jesus Calls” crusades have won millions to the Lord) went through at a
certain stage in his life when he was suffering some sickness and problem.
He received a very nasty letter and it affected him for months. Then on day
God spoke to him and said, “Look there are millions who love you but just
that one little fellow who don’t like you and said all kinds of mean things
about you, you get hurt.” Then he began to see that he should not be
allowing his emotions to get the better of him. He came out of that and got
back his health.
It’s important for us to understand that all of us in whatever condition we
are in we would be hurt by others from time to time. If you were just born
again last week, please do not expect a rose garden without thorns.

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Between last Sunday and this Sunday you may have got hurt once, maybe
twice. You cry, “Why Jesus? Where are You?” Remember on this planet
earth there are between four to five billion people. Do you think all the
four to five billion people love Jesus? No, there could be probably millions
who hate Jesus. Is Jesus feeling the hurt? Of course He would because He
loved the world. Let me encourage you to see that love is a choice you
make. So every time when you don’t feel love, joy, peace in your heart,
every time you feel feelings of hate and you feel feelings of sorrow, and you
felt feeling of confusion don’t make a decision. Hold on; wait and pray
through. But far too many decisions are made on that and we get out of
God’s will. It’s the grace of God that helps us back.
Now let us look the second category, which is longsuffering, kindness and
goodness. Lets look at the opposites to appreciate the positive.
“Shortsuffering” or the opposite of longsuffering means we can only suffer
very little. You say, “Yes I can suffer for Jesus.”
“How long?”
“Two minutes. I can stand it if people scold me. When they start scolding I
will look at my watch. When it passes two minutes one second then I will
explode like Chernobyl in their faces.”
“You sound like king Nebuchadnezzar who had a bad temper too.”
Cruelty is the opposite of kindness. If there is no such a word, then I will
have to coin one to convey the badness, the feelings of inability to control,
irritation, revengefulness, and the rest of the same evil feelings. Don’t do
such things. Hold yourself back and don’t perform or do anything until you
have prayed through and moved into longsuffering, kindness and
goodness. We need those things to perform and do God’s will. The first set
of the nine fruit of the Spirit, love, joy and peace gives us the revelation of
God’s will. The second set of the fruit of the Spirit, longsuffering, kindness
and goodness gives us the power to do God’s will. It is as you move and
perform God’s will that you have a sense of goodness and kindness and
longsuffering. I don’t know how to describe it. Spiritual things are
sometimes difficult to describe. Spiritually, there is that sense of taste of
goodness when you do God’s will. Some of us have tasted God. Even David
said, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” “He tastes like honey in the

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rock.” There is a taste of goodness. You feel so good. You could sense that
welling up from that being in you.
And that’s what the apostles and the elders in the book of Acts chapter 15
when they did God’s will and made the right decision. In Acts 15 there was
a doctrinal debate going on and in verse 6 The apostles and the elders
were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been
much debate, Peter rose and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the
early days God made choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles
should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God who knows the
heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as He did to us,
and He made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their heart
by faith.
Verse 12 And all the assembly kept silence; and they listened to Barnabas
and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through
them among the Gentiles. And after that James stood up and gave a
conclusion.
And the conclusion was expressed in verse 22 Then it seemed good
(pleased) to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church. Now the
word pleased is that what feelings of being pleased have. The word please
is the same when we teach little children to say, “Please.” Some times we
say, “Please,” without knowing it. What was it supposed to do? It is
supposed to help a person become more willing to do whatever you ask
them to do. If someone comes to you and shout loudly, “Sit here!” or say
softly, “Would you like to please sit here?” which one makes you feel nicer
and happy to oblige? Surely the second one. You could always tell people
to do some thing or you could request people to do some thing. And they
would do it willingly or unwillingly. You could be a terror or you could be a
Jesus. Behind “please” conveys a sense of well-being. The noun for the
word please is pleasure. When something gives you pleasure it gives you a
sense of well-being and goodness on your inside. You feel good about it.
That is part of the guidance system of God.
When you are seeking the will of God, first you have a revelation of God’s
will. The eyes see it. Now for the performance of God’s will the hands are
going to do it. As your hands do it and you are walking in the revelation of

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God’s will, you may be uncertain. You know how some times we have the
revelation but we are still uncertain. And some times you still go the wrong
direction. The moment you start going the wrong direction you start
becoming irritable, “shortsuffering” and cruel. The opposite of
longsuffering, kindness and goodness start happening. You are going in the
wrong direction. The further you go in that wrong direction, the more the
bad turns to evil. Some times people are convinced that they are doing
God’s will but you could see cruelty and evil coming forth that they don’t
see themselves.
Long ago in church history when the church of Jesus Christ began to lose
the flow of the Spirit, they started the Inquisition. The church began to
condemn people to be burnt or tortured to death. Yes Christianity has
killed many people and martyred them. John Wycliff who translated the
bible to English was burned not by some pagan barbarians and cannibals
but by the church. I am stating a fact in history. Don’t you think that’s
cruel? What has happened was the church has long left the will of God.
They were already walking away from God’s will and becoming more
irritable. They cannot be longsuffering and tolerant with people any more.
They grew in their badness and then they became evil. The Inquisition put
many people to death. It was cruelty performed by the church. The so-
called holy Crusades were not really holy at all. Many people died in a state
of revenge, vainglory, wickedness, evil and debauchery. Jesus Himself said
he that live by the sword shall die by the sword and yet the church took up
the sword. It’s not some thing to be proud of. It’s some thing to be
ashamed of. We learn from history so that we won’t make the same
mistakes and repeat the dark and shameful side of history.
What took place in church history in a small tiny fraction of the ongoing
cruelty seen in many Christian circles. Some times you hear a move of God
taking place. In the early days of the Charismatic movement just twenty or
thirty years ago, many Charismatics were put on trial. Many churches were
splitting. And you know why they split? They blamed the Charismatics but
many times it’s the non-charismatic taking a cruel stand. How could
Christians become so cruel? Because they left the path of the fruit of the
Spirit long ago and they did it thinking they are doing God’s will.

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Now let me give you an example of that in the bible. His name was Saul. He
said that he persecuted the Christians thinking he was doing God’s will. He
thought that he was pleasing God. He was killing people; separating
families; putting them in prison, all those wrong things. And the bible gives
us his testimony in Acts 22: 3-4 I am a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, but
brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated according the strict
manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as you all are this
day. I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons
both men and women. He says he did it thinking that he was serving God.
And Jesus said in the book of Matthew 5:11-12 Blessed are you, when men
revile you, and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely
on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for
so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. But then Jesus tells
you something in verse 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they
may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
So what happens is that those who left the right way can become cruel like
Saul before his conversion. I think it’s very cruel to kill people and put them
in prison. Paul did it thinking that he was doing God’s will. It was not. He
was “shortsuffering,” he was irritable, cruel and he was doing bad and evil
things. It is not mental conviction that is important alone although it’s
important to have mental conviction in the right way. But if our hearts
don’t have the fruit of the Spirit we are bound to be wrong.
But if you walk in longsuffering, kindness and goodness and you keep
following that in your life, you will continue to walk in the truth. This time
you are on the side of truth. You can never kill truth. You can kill a person
who speaks the truth but you cannot kill truth. It will come forth. And in
time truth prevails. And the energy for doing the right thing comes from
the fruit of the Spirit that suffers long and keep on doing it.
Billy Graham did one thing marvelously well. He went through what every
person whose ministry goes international experiences: persecution from
the brethren. He made a very important decision at the beginning of his
ministry. He will not answer his critics and he will not run down his critics
and he will not persecute them. And that preserved him all the rest of his
life. There have been many different attacks against his life but he has

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never answered them. Many of the critics have died and gone, many are
no more around. But Billy Graham continues to have a good name. Time is
on your side when you stand for truth. The years will come and the years
will go. Falsehood and lies do not last. They will pass away and the people
who propagate them will also pass away. It’s important to stand on what is
right.
We have touched on six fruit of the Spirit. The first three love, joy, peace
have to do with the revelation of God’s will. The second category has to do
with goodness. The concluding verse of Acts 15 verse 22 It pleased the
apostles and elders of the whole church. Now what was it that pleased and
the feelings and pleasure in them in verse 25 It has seemed good to us in
assembly to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas
and Paul.
Now when it said being assembled with one accord, some people think
that one accord means yes men or silent consent. No, look at what one
accord meant for them in verse 5. But some believers who belonged to the
party of the Pharisees rose up, and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them
and to command them to keep the law. Verse 7 And after there had been
much debate. Thank God for one accord. Some people think one accord
means not to have disagreement. No, look at what they mean by one
accord. One accord means that everyone walks in love; we can disagree,
we can fast, we can discuss doctrine and then at the end of it we conclude
as we love one another. One accord does not mean that you don’t tell me
my fault; just say, “I love you, I love you.” No, love means being able to tell
a person that I think this is wrong in your life. I find it hard to put up with
this sharp edge of yours and still be able to love one another. They did all
those things, they fasted, they discussed, they argued, they shouted.
Maybe that is not mentioned in the bible, but the word dispute implies it -
they got angry, they got irritated, at the end of it they concluded in one
accord. Thank God for the bible kind of one accord. Some of us think that
one accord means we can’t communicate on what we may not be agree.
Anyway the bible says finally it seems good to us.
The good thing is that they were all teachable. When it is wrong it’s wrong
when it is right it’s right. Everyone has a say. No one have his or her own
way. There are some people who never had their own way. Those people

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who disagree about the Gentiles but they respected the decision made.
When they toe the line that was the one accord.
Let me conclude by looking at the book of Psalms 23. The Lord is my
shepherd, I shall not want; he is talking about the Lord leading us. He
makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides still waters;
that’s peace coming up. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of
righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy
staff, they comfort me. Thou prepare a table before me in the presence of
my enemies; thou anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
What is this goodness he is talking about? People assume that this
goodness is goods, prosperity, good things that happen. It does definitely
include them. But this goodness means that you live life to the fullness.
Some people when they do some thing they don’t really enjoy it.
I have a little book called “Strange things about animals”. Inside that little
book there was a section on monkeys. In that book it talks about the
strange things that animals do. And it says that monkeys can paint. They
paint only like a one-year-old child. They cannot go beyond the human
level. When the monkeys were given the canvas and paint and the colors, it
seems that they actually think about what they are going to paint. In that
little book it says when the monkeys were painting halfway and the canvas
is pulled away, the monkeys get irritated. They want the canvas back.
When you bring the canvas back the monkey would paint it where he had
left off. He remembers where he left off. When the monkey has finished his
painting, he refuses to keep the painting if he thinks it’s finished. Even if
you scold him and beat him, he will still refuse. He gets angry if you make
him paint. Now here is a strange thing. When they began to reward the
monkeys for the painting, the monkeys began to associate food with the
painting. When the monkeys associate food with the painting the monkeys’
paintings deteriorated. He would just quickly paint and get the reward
because he is more interested in the food than in painting. Painting
becomes a source of getting the food. And the book concluded with this
little statement. It says, “This phenomenon is also found among human
beings. When human beings began to associate with rewards in what they

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are doing the quality of their work deteriorates. They are more interested
in the reward than in their work and the pleasure of their work.”
For human beings it may be success or rewards that we are after and we
forgot to enjoy the pleasure of doing the work. The joy is as much in the
doing as in the receiving what you do. The joy is the sense of pleasure. Do
you derive pleasure out of the little work that you are doing? One of the
things I learn in life is to enjoy doing things. Part of the joy is getting the job
done. And so many people have lost the pleasure of goodness. This is
associated with Psalms 23 when it says sure goodness and mercy shall
follow you. We associate goodness with the end result. What’s the use of
getting the end result without enjoying doing whatever you are doing? I
believe that Psalm 23 also implies that when the Lord is our shepherd
whatever is God’s will in our life, we would learn how to derive enjoyment
out of that. And the pleasure is as much in the doing. Which is why in
heaven it’s a wonderful place.
Today some people become professionals like engineers, artists because of
what they can earn rather than the love of the profession. Imagine in
heaven you don’t have to work for your food. You could do nothing and still
have every thing. And everything you do in heaven will be because you
love to do it. You can do painting in heaven if you love to paint. Not
because you have to paint to earn a living. You can be an engineer in
heaven and build nice buildings in heaven because you love to do it, not
because you got paid for doing that.
So in this life we need to learn that when we walk in love, joy and peace,
and when we began to perform doing God’s will, if you are really doing
what God wants you to do, you will find the pleasure and the goodness
oozing through you. And you enjoy as much the doing of it as the
completion of it. That’s the fruit of the Spirit. That is why people can suffer
long.
In II Cor. 12: 10 Paul says, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in
reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For
when I am weak, then I am strong.” At first Paul didn’t have that attitude.
At first he says, “O God I can’t stand this thorn in the flesh.” Finally God

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says, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Then only could Paul say, “I take
pleasure in infirmities.”
Remember the apostles who were persecuted and whipped. They count it
joy to suffer for Jesus. A lot of Christians are being robbed of the pleasure
of doing God’s will because they only see the end. They think they are like
the little missionary who grinds his teeth and suffers through while the
cannibals are cooking him in the big black pot. It’s not that way. It’s the
pleasure. No wonder Christians have lost their eleventh commandment
“Thou shall have fun while you are doing God’s will.”
7. THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT PART THREE
We have been doing a series on guidance from God. We have seen how
God guides us through the fruit of the Spirit. We are talking about things
that God do within our lives that confirms and direct us. God never works
apart from His nature. In the same way when we were born again God puts
His nature in us. And no guidance from God can be against or contrary to
the nature of God put into our lives. If we would sense and yield to the
nature and the seed of God placed in our lives we will always be directed
into the right path and do the right thing at the right time.
As we have said before Gal. 5 is talking about the leading of the Spirit
although we always have used the fruit of the Spirit to just teach about the
character of Jesus. But Paul didn’t stop at the developing the character of
Jesus in our lives through the nine fruit of the Spirit. He goes to illustrate
how the nine fruit of the Spirit helps us to be sensitive to the leading of the
Spirit in our Christian walk.
Gal. 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the
flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of
the Spirit are against the flesh; for those are opposed to each other, to
prevent you from doing what you would. But if you are led by the Spirit you
are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are plain; immortality,
impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealous, anger,
selfishness, dissention, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the
like. I warn you, as I warned before, that those who do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against

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such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified
the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit let us also
walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another,
no envy of one another.
We have said before in verse 22 to 23 that the nine fruit of the Spirit can be
divided into three categories just like the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. We
have stated how love, joy and peace are related to the revelation gifts of
the Holy Spirit because love, joy and peace put us in a position to receive
revelation from God. If you don’t walk in love, joy and peace God is not
going to reveal His will in your life. We must walk in love, joy and peace
and then He will reveal His will in our life.
The second group that we have which is longsuffering, kindness and
goodness are a class by themselves. And they relate to the power gifts. Last
week we related how Paul through perseverance that is longsuffering
worked out the gifts and the signs of an apostle in his life. Quoting II Cor.
12 that the power gifting in our lives is found through perseverance which
relates to longsuffering. And we have also related how in Acts 10: 38 how
God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and He went about doing good.
There you have goodness. And we have tied up how doing good has to do
with the power gifts of the Holy Spirit. The power gifts of the Holy Spirit
are gifts that do some thing. And for some thing to be done we need to
have longsuffering, kindness and goodness. An act of the Holy Spirit is
always in kindness. That is why when the Holy Spirit moves and kindness
and goodness are not present it is not of God. We need to learn how that
the second group of the fruit of the Spirit relates to the power gifts.
Now the revelation gifts reveal some thing: the power gifts do some thing;
the vocal gifts say some thing. And the first grouping of the fruit of the
Spirit love, joy and peace is the revelation of the will of God.
The second grouping is the performance of the will of God. When we
perform God’s will and don’t sense a flow of goodness in your life definitely
it’s not of God’s will. Some times you can have God’s will revealed to you
but if you don’t do it correctly or if you don’t sense it is a good thing or if
you sense trouble, then you know that the performance of God’s will is out
of synchrony.

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The last grouping is in the area of faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
And that last grouping relates to the vocal gifts because the test of our
faithfulness, the test of our gentleness, the test of our self-control begins in
the control of the tongue. If you cannot control your tongue you can never
control your actions. If you cannot control your tongue you can never be
meek and humble. If you cannot control your tongue you can never
demonstrate faithfulness. The last grouping is related to the vocal gifts.
Now third grouping, which relates to the vocal gifts in saying something, is
what I call the proclamation of God’s will. Why is proclamation important?
It is important to know the way God reveals and carries out His will on this
planet. God always say it and then He does it. The control of this planet
earth revolves around the power of the spoken Word. That’s how God has
organized this world.
The first grouping of the fruit of the Spirit love, joy and peace relates to our
relationship with God in the revelation of His will.
The second grouping of the fruit of the Spirit of longsuffering, kindness and
goodness has to do with our relationship to the people around us as we
perform God’s will.
The third grouping of the fruit of the Spirit of faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control relates to the circumstances around us as we proclaim His will.
It. We all know that the will of God cannot be determined by
circumstances. The sons of God are not controlled by circumstances. They
control the circumstances. The storms do not determine where they go or
what they do because it is they who stop the storms. But little lambs in
God who had not grown to be sheep yet sometimes are rocked to and fro
by the circumstances of life. The people of this world are controlled by
circumstances. But the people of God are not supposed to be controlled by
circumstances. They are the ones that control the circumstances around
them. That makes a great difference.
In order to achieve that we need to rise up to the level of authority that
God wants us to. And you can check throughout the bible from Genesis to
Revelation that God controls the circumstances. He doesn’t allow
circumstances to control Him. And the people of God control the
circumstances. They are not controlled by the circumstances. When there

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is a drought those who are weak and do not know God perish in the
drought. But those who know God like Elijah went through the famine
unscathed. Those who knew God had provisions even in the wilderness.
They are not controlled by the circumstances. They change and they
control the circumstances. And the control of circumstances relates to the
spoken Word.
Last week I ended with a little story of the chimpanzee. After the service a
few people asked me about the book. It seems they were quite interested
in the chimpanzee book. We are talking about when we do God’s will we
need to enjoy what God tells us to do and we should sense goodness
flowing in us. The account that I gave is from a little paperback book
entitled “Mother Nature’s Greatest Hits, The top forty wonders of the
animal world” published by World Wildlife Fund. And there is a section on
artistic apes. Let me repeat about these apes and I was sharing about
goodness. How do we know when to do some thing? It’s when we sense
the goodness that flow through and we perform it best and we do it well.
The only animal that has been observed to create objects that can pass as
artistic at least to the uninformed viewer are the apes. Captives
chimpanzees not only enjoy applying paint to canvas but can become
somewhat obsessed with that activity. They ponder long over the
placement of brush strokes. They fly into rages if their materials are taken
away from them before they feel that their work is finished. If a session is
interrupted and the primate painter is given back his or her material at a
later time, work will resume where it was left off until the painting is
completed to the ape’s satisfaction. Once the painting is finished the ape is
happy about the way the piece looks he or she will refuse to apply any
further brush stroke and can become very nasty if urged to do so. In other
words he thinks it’s finished.
One of the strangest similarities between ape and human creativity is the
negative effect that rewards have on the production. Just as human artist
some times lose their creative sparks when fame or fortune come their
way, ape painters will become jaded if their efforts are consistently
rewarded by gifts of fruit. Once the connection between painting and
material benefits are made, all the fun seems to go out of the process. It’s
just like human beings. If you are doing something you really enjoy doing it,

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you do it well. But if you are doing that some thing to get some thing else
you may just quickly finish it just to get the reward. And you don’t really
enjoy it.
I am talking about the higher quality of life that God gives to us that when
we do some thing we should really enjoy it. When we are doing God’s will
we should really enjoy it whether it is digging ditches, preaching to ten
thousands, praying for the sick, or doing a little needle work like Dorcas to
help some poor people. If God really called us to do something and had
guided us to do some thing we would enjoy it. There will be that goodness
in you flowing. You would have the pleasure and the feel of goodness in
the performance of His will.
Now in the third category called the proclaiming of God’s will relates to
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It relates to control over our
circumstances. There is a difference when a person is faithful and then he
speaks the word of faith. There is a difference between saying some thing
and decreeing some thing. All is determined by whether we are faithful or
faithless. When Jesus was with the apostles He was talking to them about
He was going to be betrayed, crucified and then resurrected and that every
one of them will scatter and flee. Then Peter spoke up and said in Luke
22:33 “Lord I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” Now that
looks like a very brave statement. But he knows not what he said. A lot of
time some of us learned the faith message and we speak to the mountain.
The mountain echo back and nothing happened. They say to the mountain,
“Remove from here to there.” And the echo comes back, “Remove from
here to there.” And we got ourselves removed. They wonder why the
circumstances don’t change. It is conditioned upon the fact that unless you
are full of faith you can speak words of faith. And in many lives they are not
full of faith. If you are an empty teapot, you can’t pour out tea. We could
take an empty teapot and no matter how much you try to pour there will
be no tea coming out. You have to be full of it before you can give it out.
A lot of people are not full of faith and they are trying to give it out. We
have to be meditating on God’s Word. The Word of God has to be changed
into the constituent of faith in our lives before they can come forth. The
Word is just raw material. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word.

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We need to keep hearing the Word until faith arises and a revelation comes
into our lives before we can speak the Word of God.
And so the first quality among the third category is being faithful. As we
have said that the first of the least in the three groupings is always the
major one. Like love, joy, peace, love is the major one. Long suffering,
kindness and goodness, longsuffering is the major force. Faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control, faithfulness is the key force. Faithfulness may
be understood here as having words full of faith. How does someone
become full of faith? Take the Word of God and start practicing it on small
little areas. This is why if some of you have a minor problem of sickness or
disease, a little cold or a little headache or flu, and if for these small, small
things you still depend on any other things but not on God’s Word, one day
when a more serious sickness or problem strikes you, you won’t have faith
for it. The vast majority of people don’t exercise faith over a cold. But when
they are struck with cancer they start seeking for faith. They have not been
exercising their faith muscles. And they expect their faith muscles to work
when they are in need. That’s not how things go in the bible. All the people
who are full of faith were faithful. And it takes time to build up that faith
into faithfulness. And then you become full of faith.
Lets look at some who are faithful and become full of faith. Acts 6:8 Here is
the phrase that is an adjective that describes the noun Stephen. It says in
verse 8 And Stephen, full of grace (faith as in this bible) and power, did
great wonders and signs among the people. Many people would like to be
that. They would like to be full of faith. Obviously everything he did and
everything that he said contained power. And he was full of faith. The
question is how did he get that? The bible tells us in Acts 6 verse 3 the
apostles had a need to look for people who would serve the widows. Not
emptying the hospital beds yet, not preaching to hundred thousand of
people yet, not healing, casting out devils, not making the lame to walk
and the blind to see, but it says just to serve the poor little widows.
Verse 3 Therefore, brethren, pick out from among you seven men of good
repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this duty.
But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.”

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But before the selection of the deacons the apostles laid down the
conditions for their selection. They must be of good reputation, they must
have the Holy Ghost in their lives and they must be full of wisdom. In other
words the apostles wanted faithful and steady people, who were already
serving faithfully before there were considered for the position of deacons.
And they looked among them and they found in verse 5 And what they said
pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith
and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon,
and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. Now these seven
people were already faithful. They were serving without a title; without
any official recognition. After their span of faithfulness God started working
in their lives mightily. Among them recorded was Stephen a man full of
faith.
Now the same apostle Paul said in the book of II Timothy chapter two
verse 2. And what you have heard from me before many witness entrust to
faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Commit the things that
I give to you faithful people. And these faithful people will be able to carry
the same power of the spoken Word and teach other people. Now in our
society we measure faithfulness based on the ability to serve under a
cause or a person consistently without stopping until told to stop. If faith
relates to the Word of God, faithfulness relates to a person, a principle or a
cause. You are faithful to a person or an organization or a cause. When it
comes to where the rubber hits the road faithfulness becomes loyalty to a
person or an organization. There are far too many lone rangers riding
about on their horses wearing masks, wearing a hat, carrying their gun,
without their Tonto and trying to do something for God. But when it comes
to be faithful they cannot be found. All the men in the bible who became
great people first learned to serve under other people. Think about Moses
- he served under his father Jethro for forty years just as a cattle herdsman.
Think about Joshua. He served under Moses for forty years.
Think about Elisha - he served for between eight to ten years under Elijah.
Think about the disciples of Jesus. Three years they learned to serve the
Lord. Think about Timothy who served Paul. Think about Paul and how he
served with Barnabas. Unless we learn how to be faithful we will never be
full of faith. The test of whether we have the ability to be faithful is your

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loyalty to a person or to a cause. Some times we excuse ourselves. Nobody
is perfect, doesn’t mean that you serve nobody. No organization is perfect,
so what? Nothing is perfect except Jesus. If nobody in the world is perfect
including yourself and no organization in the world is perfect, and you try
to start your own organization do you think you will be perfect?
Faithfulness was a requirement to serve under imperfect conditions, not
perfect condition. And that’s what begins to give a person authority to
speak powerful words.
Think about Joshua a mere man anointed by God who could speak to the
sun and said, “Sun stop where you are,” and to the moon, “Stay where you
are,” and the heaven obeyed his voice. He was a man who learned to serve
for forty years as a mere servant to Moses.
Elisha’s words were powerful. At his word resurrection power flows. He
received the double portion of Elijah’s anointing and did twice the miracles
and healings that Elijah did. But for eight to ten years he served pouring
water over Elijah’s hands for washing.
Let me explain greatness can only come by great faith. There is no way we
can rise up in life without faith. Great achievement comes by great faith.
Greatness comes by great servanthood. If you want to be great you learn
to be a servant. It’s important that when the circumstances come upon our
lives and we have the opportunity to be servant then we start that way.
There are many people who would like to change their circumstances. But
there is a strange paradox. Let me illustrate the worse case scenario. Think
about some one who has power over work and circumstances. If the sun is
too hot, he could just command the sun to cool down and it would cool
down. When he gets angry with somebody he says, “Let fire consume you.”
Obviously we don’t want such an individual. He is too powerful, and
abuses his power too easily. Before God gives such authority the reverse
must take place in his life. In life there must be a reversal. The greater God
is going to use you the greater you are going to be put through testing. The
harder the steel is going to be, the greater the hammering the steel has to
go through. I read one article on how they made those Japanese swords.
Their swords must be sharp and strong and be of fine steel that at one
blow it could cut off somebody’s head. The greater the steel the greater
the suffering the steel must go through. It is proportional in this life. There

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is some thing in this life that is like a spring. When you pull down one part
the other part goes up. It’s like an energy spring. The higher you want it to
go this part must go lower. For you to be popular and be loved by people,
you have to first go through the test of being unpopular. There is no escape
that is part of the test of God in our life. The greater God wants to use you,
the greater the suffering you must go through first. The suffering must
come before the glory. It is God’s pattern and method.
Therefore, before God gives you great faith to speak to circumstances God
puts you through areas where you learn and you suffer under those
circumstances. You learn to be faithful under every circumstance.
Sometimes you learn to be faithful under certain circumstances. But you
learn to be faithful under all circumstances and than later God gives you
power over all circumstances. You learn to be faithful under some
circumstances God gives you power over some circumstances. Then when
a person had gone through the test then God puts the person up and begin
to give the person authority with words. He goes about and sees the sun
beating down his back but he has learned to be a servant. He doesn’t
simply stop the sun anyhow he wants any more although the power is
there. Then he goes to a circumstance where he needs rain. He doesn’t
simply call the rain anyhow he wants because he has learned to be a
servant. The authority becomes bridled and under control by God.
Jesus had the power to turn stones into bread. Why didn’t He do it? It is
not because He didn’t have the power. If Jesus hasn’t got the power and
the whole thing was a show then the temptation was not real. A
temptation is only real when you actually have the power to do it. But He
has for thirty years learned to serve under earthly parents. If you think it is
not easy to serve an organization or person think about Jesus perfect Son
of God, son of man, serving as a carpenter and in the home of Joseph and
Mary for thirty years. Being misunderstood by His parents who couldn’t
understand the level of His spirituality. Jesus was far ahead in His spirit and
in His mind than any in His generation. But Jesus served faithfully. He never
utters a word of complaint. And when the time came He had great power
and authority. Faithfulness must come first before you are full of faith.
Before we have power over circumstances we must have the endurance
under the circumstances. That is why a lot of people would like to take

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control over circumstances. But sometimes you hear their words they are
like Peter speaking more from his head than from his heart. Saying things
that he never would be able to carry out. It is very strange. The only people
who have power over the storms are people who have persevered under
the storms. And they need not stop the storm because they had the
endurance to go through the storm. The only people who had the power to
stop the storm are the people who endure the storm. And the people who
would like to stop the storm are the people who don’t have the power or
the endurance to go through the storm.
So why does God do it that way? It is for us to learn great servanthood.
When you have the power to endure the storm you don’t simply go and
stop every storm. You become under submission to God and you will do it
only when He tells you to. Not for your own stomach or food turning stone
into bread. Not for your own little vegetable garden. But you will do it
because it is a part of God’s will to help others. God doesn’t give you the
power to stop the lion’s mouth until He gives you the endurance to go
through the lion’s den. God doesn’t give you the power to stop the fire that
was consuming you and burning you until He gives you the endurance to
go through the fire. The three Jewish boys Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego
said to Nebuchadnezzar even they should die, they would not bow to any
idol. They were committed and faithful to God. They were faithful onto
death. And when you have that kind of endurance, you would have the
attitude, “If I have to die by fire, Iet me die.” Then God saves you and stops
the fire from consuming you. The only people who had power over fire are
those who are able to go through the fire.
It’s important when we look at the will of God in our lives and guidance
from God, there are a lot of times we are asking God’s guidance to bring us
out of circumstances or trying to take authority over circumstances that we
haven’t learned the lessons yet. And we are asking God to take us out of
the situation, out of those trials, when those trials were trying to build the
fruit of the Spirit in our lives.
Let me explain again turn to Romans 5. There is no other way you can get
character except by tribulation. He doesn’t send you sickness and disease
for the blood of Jesus has redeemed you from sicknesses and diseases. But
you have circumstances to endure that build the fruit of the Spirit in your

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life. And when they are built in you that’s when the authority is there.
Think about storms; the storm is blowing the windows are shattering and
those around you say, “Stop the storm.” You learn to endure. Throughout
the storm you worship God. You thank God for His love, His protection. And
finally storm after storm come, trial after trial come, until in the end no
trial can shake you any more. No storm could ruffle your hair any more. No
criticism can hurt you any more. No wrong words could hurt you any more.
You have become very strong. And that same strength that you earned and
you learned and you harnessed through your trial is the same strength that
God will use. When one day the need is there and somebody else is going
through the storm and he said to you, “Brother pray for me.” You had gone
through the storm and learned the great strength under such trying storms
and you began to pray. When you pray while the wind is howling and the
windows are shattering the storm obeys you. Because that storm has
learned who is the master. When the storm cannot ruffle your hair the
storm has learned who is the master. That’s why faithfulness precedes full
of faith. We get full of faith through first being faithful.
Let me read Jesus’ words in the book of Matthew chapter 24:45 onwards
Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over
his household, to give them their food at the proper time. It’s the faithful
servant the master makes. Then the other one in verse 48 the evil servant
who is not faithful. In the end the faithful one gets rewarded. Let me
encourage you Jesus is looking for faithfulness in our lives. Chapter 25:14
For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and
entrusted to them his property; to one he gave five talents, to another two,
to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He
who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them; and
made five talents more. So also, he who had the two talents made two
talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the
ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of
those servants came and settled account with them. And he who had
received the five talents came forward bringing five talents more, saying,
“Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents
more.” His master said to him, ”Well done, good and faithful servant; you
have been faithful over little.

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I will make you ruler over many things. Did you notice that the authority to
rule comes from the authority to submit? He submitted first. He learns
first. And that same energy that gives him power to submit is the same
energy that gives him powers to rule.
I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master. And he also who
had the two talents came forward saying, “Master, you delivered to me
two talents; here I have made two talents more.” His master said to him,”
Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little. (I
will make you ruler over many things.) I will set you over much, enter into
the joy of your master.
You find the three grouping there faithful, good and joy relates to love.
Verse 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying,
“Master, I knew you to be a hard man, (now what was his problem. His
problem was because he couldn’t be faithful to the master because of his
conception of the master. Isn’t it strange that out of three servants, two
think He is a good master, one thinks He is a bad master. Sometimes you
are in a good church; ninety nine percent think it’s a good church one
percent think it’s a bad church. You can go to any church and you can find
people who think that it is not the best church. You go to Benny Hinn’s
church in Orlando you find some people there who think that is not the
kind of church it should be. Lets not fool ourselves. If people cannot be
loyal to any church they can never be loyal to any church. We learn loyalty
with people and not as a hermit hiding on a mountain. Find a church that
helps you. It may not be perfect but stick to it. Even if there are problems
that come and go, even if there are misunderstandings that come and go,
stick to that place because the only way you learn how to love and have
the character of Jesus is by sticking together. If you keep running from
place to place and every small little incident you are the problem and in
the end it is you who loses out. It is you. Learn to be faithful in any thing
that God ask you to do.)
reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow;
(here is the key thing)
so I was afraid, (afraid of what? Afraid of the master? No, let me tell you
what he was afraid of: losing his talent. He doesn’t dare to invest it. He had

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never learned to sow in his life.)
and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.
He actually gave back to the master everything. He actually hasn’t lost
anything. But why was the master displeased? Here is the key if you remain
the same it is failure. If in the Christian life you remain the same you are
already a failure. We grow from glory to glory; faith to faith. And a lot of
people like to be the same. If we stop we die, we failed. The Word must go
on until the whole world is reached. We must press on until the gospel
reached the nations of the world. We must never be satisfied with past
success. We learn how to put it aside and press on for more until our last
breath we must serve our Lord Jesus Christ and move on.
Verse 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and
at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So
take the talent from him, and give it to him who has the ten talents. The
one who had the most still get the most. And Jesus makes this statement
here in verse 29 For to every one who has will more be given, and he will
have abundance, but from him who has not, even what he has will be
taken away. This is the key to being full of faith.
The other two, gentleness and meekness are related. We see gentleness in
Galatians chapter 6:1 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you
who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Do you notice
that it is the spirit of gentleness that will help you speak the right words?
As I say again the last three groupings of the fruit of the Spirit relate to the
proclaiming of God’s Word through circumstances. And it is when you are
in self-control that you can speak the right word. It is when meekness and
gentleness has come. And meekness is a quality of being able to endure
and take all circumstances quietly and meekly. Jesus says, “Blessed are the
meek for they shall inherit the earth.” When you think about meekness
you think about people who are scolded and just took it meekly. Meekness
is a quality of endurance. Not necessary a quality of being overcoming. Yet
the same quality of endurance is the same quality of overcoming.
As for self-control, in the book of Proverbs it says that he who cannot rule
over his own spirit or his own temper cannot rule over a city. But he who
rules over his own temper or spirit he can rule over a city. This is the same

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principle. Think again if you can’t control your temper you can’t control
other people. If you can control your own temper then you can control
other people. It is the same way when it comes back to self-control. And of
course these two qualities are related back to faithfulness.
Faithfulness, meekness and gentleness and self-control are qualities of
endurance. Jesus did say talk to those who overcome, but if you look at
what He means in Revelation 2 and 3, they actually overcome by
endurance. And having endured they are now given authority to rule. The
authority or endurance and the authority of overcoming are the same.
When you have endured you have overcome. When you have overcome
you can speak words of authority and you will rule over circumstances in
your life. And the will of God in your life will not be hindered by
circumstances because no circumstances can now face up to your
endurance. And you have such power and authority that some times when
circumstances try to rise all you have to do is speak the word of faith and
the storms are calmed, the mountains are moved, the valleys are
smoothened up. Such is the power that God gives you to proclaim His will.

8. The Law Of Love

In this message we want to talk about the law of love as a conclusion to
the whole series on Guidance From God. Turn to Galatians 5 where Paul
speaks about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It tells us in verse 18 that the fruit
of the Holy Spirit is not just merely describing a Christian’s character but
Paul was talking about the leading of the Spirit. We have other series on
how to be led by the Spirit but in this particular series we are talking more
of the inward guidance, which affects 95 to 99 percent of all the decisions
we ever made in our lives.
It says in verse 18 But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.
And he goes on to talk about all the fruit of the Spirit in verse 22 and 23.
Then in verse 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Not
forgetting the last part of verse 23 it says against such there is no law. It
means that the law of love, which is contained in the fruit of the Spirit is so
powerful and so high that it completely subjugates every other law.
Whether it be prophecy, tongue, supernatural guidance, dreams, visions,

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the office of a prophet or any other guidance system we have the law of
love as the highest law.
We understand natural law and human law, legal law or legal principles. In
all laws there is always a higher law and a lower law. And that law that is
highest affects the law that is lowest. Even in the legal system we have a
court system where you go to a lower court and then to the next one and
finally to the Supreme Court. There are what I call levels. And a lower court
can make a judgment and a rule. But the highest court can overturn it. And
when the highest court overturn the judgment of the lower court, it
doesn’t matter whether the judge in the lower court agree or disagree
because whosoever is in the Supreme Court makes a final judgment and
there is no further appeal.
In natural laws there are also levels. There are scientific laws that can
control lower laws. We know the law of gravity. Then the laws of
propulsion can break or supersede the law of gravity. We know there is
friction that prevents us from going fast. But through the inventions of man
we are able to travel faster than what a normal human being can do on
their two legs. It is because we are using natural law to supersede the
lower law.
When we think about spiritual laws, we need to understand that what we
have in the natural world and what human can conceive in the legal system
can never be better than what God has conceived and created. The natural
is a pattern that follows the spiritual. The spiritual rules the natural and not
the natural rules the spiritual. Therefore whatever we have in the natural
first came from the spiritual. And how is it that when we look at spiritual
laws some times we don’t understand that there are classified into
degrees? For example the law that says that the wages of sin is death is
overcome by a higher law of mercy where a just man and a sinless man
who is also a Son of God died for our sins and paid the price and He rose
from the dead. The lower law of sin and death doesn’t apply any more to
Christians who receive Jesus into their hearts because the higher law of the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus now supersedes the law of sin and death. Even
though we have sinned and we had sinned before we know Him the higher
law now eradicate that sin. Similarly there are many lower laws and higher
laws in different areas in the spiritual world.

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As we look at guidance form God we know that there are many areas of
supernatural guidance. All guidance from God is supernatural but some
guidance is more spectacular than others. Having a dream, a vision or a
visitation from an angel is very spectacular. Have you realized that many
times people put guidance from angels or a vision from Jesus higher than
the law of love and the prompting in their hearts to do what is loving and
unloving? To me they have put the lower court above the Supreme Court.
The bible says that the very nature of God is love. Before there are visions,
before there are revelation everything in birthed out from love.
As a conclusion to this series I want to bring to you the fact that the law of
love and walking in love and being guided by the spirit of love is higher
than the guidance you can get from an angel, higher than the guidance you
can get from an apostle, higher than a guidance you can get by an open
vision or a dream. It is the final witness test of our guidance system. The
law of love which Paul says against such there is no law. There is no other
law that can conflict the law of love.

1. The Law Of Love Rules Over Religious

Convictions
Let me point to the book of Romans chapter 13:8 Owe no one anything,
except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the
law. Love is above the Ten Commandments. When you walk in love you
keep the Ten Commandments; you fulfill and you supersede them. That’s a
powerful revelation in Galatians 5: 23 Paul says against such there is no
law. It could look like it contradicts but it doesn’t. What it does is it
supersedes, it fulfills the law to its fullness of its requirement and it
supersedes that. Against such there is no law. Paul says here owe no man
anything except to love one another for he who love another has fulfilled
the law and he quote all the different commandments.
Verse 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling
of the law. Lets talk about the law of love in supernatural guidance. There
are a lot of decisions that we have to make in our life. And I want to
emphasize the fact that we can walk with God as Charismatics and some
times some end up as charismaniacs, who don’t know the balance of the

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Spirit and the Word. We need to understand there is a Supreme Court to
our guidance system and that is the law of love. As Charismatics we receive
visions, dreams, prophecies, visitation from God, but the visitation from
God and the spectacular guidance system is subject to the law of love in
guiding us.
I will show some bible examples how when we received supernatural
guidance you still need the Supreme Court of the law of love to guide us. It
has the final say. You can be right in your vision and wrong in your
interpretation because of the law of love. Romans 14 there is a problem
that Paul was trying to solve. He hasn’t actually met the Romans but for
some reasons by revelation he is writing the answers to their problems
that they are encountering. Whenever you have to make a decision you
wrestle with the leading of the Spirit. And we make decisions all the time.
The leading of the Spirit doesn’t belong just to the five fold ministers,
apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastors and teachers.
(If you are called to be apostle, prophet and evangelist you would be an
ape (A.P.E.). If you are called to be a teacher first then yours could be T.E.A:
teacher, evangelist, apostle. Then you will be inviting people for tea all the
time. Perhaps if you are an evangelist first you would be E.A.T. evangelist,
apostle and teacher, eating all the time. The other way when you have it as
apostle first, apostle teacher, evangelist, A.T.E. you ate so you don’t eat any
more. It’s very dangerous when you are a prophet first, prophet, evangelist
and teacher, you are P.E.T. But don’t take this seriously – I am not speaking
by revelation.)
Rom.14:1 As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for
disputes over opinions. Let make a very simple statement. All problems,
misunderstandings and strife between believers have to do with their
internal struggle of perceiving what is right and what is wrong. Every
believer senses right and wrong to different degrees. If every one of us
sees right and wrong in actually the same way there will never be any
problem. In general there are some things that we all agree that is right
and wrong. For example, the Ten Commandments are indisputable. But
there are many areas of Christian life that we can disagree on what is right
and wrong. In case you are wondering whether this is scriptural read the
book of Hebrews chapter 5 where it talks about spiritual growth being tied

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up to the ability to discern between right and wrong. So the more we grow
the more we have the ability to discern between right and wrong better
than a baby Christian. And that is a statement that tells us that as we grow
we have different degrees of capacity to detect more and more accurately
what is right and what is wrong in a lot of tiniest details of life. And as long
as there are baby Christians and adults Christians, matured Christians,
immature Christians there will continue to be problems because we all
discern what is right and wrong to different degrees in different ways. We
need to have an understanding of the crux of the issue.
As we understand that every one has a conscience and a sense of right and
wrong it brings us to the second area. We must be able to give each one a
freedom of choice to decide what is right and wrong in their own lives and
to live in the light that they have received and respect one another choices.
It is when we begin to impose what we feel in ourselves upon another
person then the problem comes. If I discern what is right and wrong and I
impose my opinion on your life, it would make you miserable. If you
discern what is right and wrong and impose your opinion on my life too, I
too may become miserable. I am talking about right and wrong above the
Ten Commandments. If you are convinced that it is right to rob a bank we
got to pray for you. I am talking about things beyond the Ten
Commandments. We are talking about little decisions that we make. Is it
right to choose this job or not to choose this job? Is it right to continue
here or to stop here? All these are subjective. And if you ask for counsel
you may have eleven different counsels from ten different counselors.
Now here in Romans 14 Paul is talking about situation where people are of
different levels. Such a situation will always be present all the time. It says
in verse 2 One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only
vegetables. So everyone has his or her own guidance system. So here is a
problem. He talks about a situation where some people are convinced that
they can eat all things. And there is another situation where some believe
that they can only eat vegetables and it is a sin to eat animals. What
happens if a person is convinced that way? How do they get the guidance
from God?
What happens if somebody thinks that on the Sabbath day Christians
should not do anything? Sometimes some Christians think that Sunday is

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the Sabbath day. Sunday is not the Sabbath day. Sunday is the first day of
the week that we gather together to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. What about Christians who are convinced that you should not do
anything at all on whichever day they are convinced is the Sabbath?
We have to learn how to get guidance from God and stand on what we are
convinced of. We have to be convinced of what is right and wrong and do
it. We are answerable to God for our own life. One thing I know when you
suffer you suffer alone. The very people who teach you and bring you to
that suffering may not stand with you. Of course your real friends will
always be there for you whether you are in wealth or in poverty. But the
people who give you some fat advice will not be around when their advice
doesn’t work.
Personally when I advise some people and they follow my advice and if
something goes wrong I feel responsible and I will help them through. That
is my principle. But for some other people they give out advice and say this
advice is given without any prejudice and without any obligation or
commitment on our part. I believe if I counsel some body and they follow
my advice I am responsible. Some people believe you could sit in the
board, give advice and say I have no obligation and no responsibility for
that. If you follow what I tell you to do and you get into trouble I am not
responsible. If you feel your advice is good enough for others it should be
good enough for you. I am just bringing some practical example of how
when we make decisions it is important to stand by it. And when we advise
others we are responsible for that. We must back them to the hilt.
Of course if somebody don’t follow the advice I would say I am not
responsible. Some times when I see something happening I say, “Look this
is my advice. If you choose to follow I will back you up. If you don’t choose
to follow I have no responsibility because I have already spoken my heart
and mind.” So when you come to a crossroad and you say that the Lord
guided you to go this way but I discerned that it is not guidance from God
but the other way should be taken, what do I do? I absolve myself. But long
ago my personality was such that I would just quietly go away without
speaking a word to you. Now God has changed me. Now what I would do is
I would speak my heart and mind and give people the freedom to choose.

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Some are convinced that everyday you can do some thing for the Lord.
Some are convinced that you should hold one day above other days. Paul
says in Romans 14: 6 He who observes the day, observe it to the Lord; and
he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. Look
there is contrary guidance. So what’s the conclusion? He says let love
prevail. Love gives room for people. Remember what we mentioned
earlier: the crux of the issue is that all Christian problem and disagreement
are over a guidance system. When a church split up what’s happening? The
people within the church disagree whether to go this direction or that
direction. And they can’t resolve the issue. Why do people walk different
ways after a long time? It is because they come to a disagreement. And it is
important for us to resolve all these.
Some of you may be sitting there saying that this sort of things will never
happen to me. Every one of us would have some particular point in our life
find something to disagree with another Christian. If you don’t get a hold
of this principle we may be misguided. So Paul says love prevails. In verse 7
None of us live to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live
to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. And he basically advises in
verse 19 Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual
upbuilding. In other words let us pursue love. For love edifies and builds
up. So we see the law of love.
When we read Romans 14 we say that it may happen to them but not to
us. Let me tell you this, the people in the bible here who believed in eating
vegetables were not only eating vegetables for health reasons. They were
doing it because of religious reason. And religious reasons are the hardest
reasons to reason out. For example I don’t eat unclean food in a sense. I
don’t eat crabs, pork and prawn, though once in a while there may be a
prawn in my fried noodles. I just swallow it. I don’t eat unclean food
because of health reason. If somebody disagrees I don’t get emotional
about it because it is a natural reason. But if I don’t eat pork because of
religious reason it’s harder to reason with me because I am convinced it
has to do with my holiness and it becomes an emotional thing. It’s very
hard to reason with such people. The hardest people to reason with are
people who are religiously convinced that what they do are part of their
religion. Even in Christianity there are different levels of religiosity.

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In those days the laws of health and science have not been discovered as it
is in our time. The people were eating vegetables because they were
religiously convinced that this is the right way that God wants them to
follow. It’s the only way to please God. Even non-Christians like mediums
and psychics are religiously convinced that if they eat meat their powers
are reduced. It is a religious reason and not a natural health reason. And
it’s very hard to convince this kind of people.
And the people who believe in keeping one day to the Lord are convinced
that is the only way you please the Lord. And they consider it a sin if you
don’t follow them. I am pointing to a fact that there was a problem here
among the Roman Christians that Paul was writing to and that it is not a
simple problem as you put it. It’s a problem of religious conviction. Paul is
saying religion or no religion the law of love supersedes them all.
Remember what we said earlier, against such there is no law. Love fulfills
the law. What are you trying to do if you are convinced that eating
vegetables is the only right way to please God? To you that is the spiritual
law. On the other extreme there are some who are convinced that to
please God you may eat any thing, including scorpions, centipedes etc. In
Singapore there is a restaurant that serve you fried scorpions. Whatever
reasons there are to make them religiously convinced it is still a law to
them.
And the bible says against love there is no law. The bible says that love
fulfills the law. That means in a situation where right and wrong is not
clear, you look for the right way of love. Even in Christians’ relationship
with non-Christians you can be religiously convinced until you become
fanatical towards them instead of being a friendly person to them. I mean
you could go to some one who is a non-Christian and say, “You know that if
you don’t get your life right with God you are going to hell. It’s no more my
responsibility I have told you so.” Some Christians are convinced that all
that they are doing is right. Doctrinally they are right. But you know what is
missing – love. Do you think that we would accept Jesus if Jesus had come
to the world and said, “You are horrible creatures; I have to die for your
sins,” none of us would be born again. People do not come to God because
of doctrine alone. Few have accepted Jesus Christ because of pure doctrine
alone. We came because there was love behind that teaching, behind the

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doctrine. We are convicted because of love. Now doctrine is important. But
doctrine without love kills. And many of us here heard the gospel because
we have Christian friends whom we like.
In fact if not for my friends who were chess players, I may not have heard
the gospel and accepted the Lord. We were all state players and we used to
meet to play chess every week. And one by one they began to disappear
on a Sunday, which is a free day. And I ask them the next day what
happened. They said they went to church. Because they were my friends
they invited me to church. I went to church not because I was convinced of
the gospel, I haven’t even heard the gospel, I haven’t even seen a bible, I
went to church because of my friends. I trusted my buddies in a natural
way. And when I went there somebody there came to me and said, “I have
something to share with you if you have time.” I said, “Fine I have time
since I am here.” And we sat down in one corner and he shared with me
the four spiritual laws. For the first time I saw the doctrine of Christ. Now
he didn’t roughly pull me aside and said in a aloud voice, “I have something
serious to tell you. Sit up and listen.” He spoke to me in a gentle voice and
he said, “Look I have something to share with you. Can I share with you? I
said, “Fine.” And he shared with me the four spiritual laws and I saw that it
makes sense. Now I didn’t accepted Christ straight away. But later on I did.
It was because of my friends that I had a chance to hear the gospel. You
would have never be able to drag me into the doors of the church if you
saw me in the street and witnessed to me. I wouldn’t be interested if you
were not somebody I knew or trusted.
And it is a true that people attend church and become part of the church
because they have friends in the church. If people attend churches because
they have the power of the Holy Spirit, you know what the church will be
like – a hospital. People only come and get healed and they go. If people
only attend church because of the teaching, this can be some of the reason
you like the church. You know what it will be like – a restaurant, you go eat
some spiritual food and then go off. Church is a place where we should find
friends. Of course I am sad with the fact that Christians don’t know how to
make real friends. But church is a place where we find true friendship. You
may first start attending a church because of healing and because of
teaching. Or maybe you attend church to look for a wife. What happens if

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you found a wife, stop attending church? No. Whatever our reason for
attending church those should not be the only reasons that keep us there.
In the end we must press beyond that to find that church is a place where
we develop genuine friendship with people who love us and we love them.
It’s not an easy task as a pastor to try to get people to love one another,
but all the rest of my life I will keep encouraging that. We want to build a
church not around the gifts of the Holy Spirit, not around just the Word of
God, not just around a manifestation of God. All those things we should
have but where people learn to love and care for one another.
That’s why it’s important when we look at the guidance from God that we
received and as we fellowship with one another love should be our primary
aim. When we come to making decisions on little things let love be the
final goal. The law of love precedes and supersedes all our little religious
convictions on little things. The law of love must prevail.
We are not asking you to give up religious convictions that are good for
you. Some ladies are convinced that ladies should wear veils in church. I
cannot remove that religious conviction because that person is convinced
that what they do is pleasing God. And for me to make a rule that when
anyone steps in church wearing a veil to take the veil from them, I may
make them feel sinful. We know that is not a sin but I may make them feel
that they have displeased God. But the only rule I make is this if you are
religiously convinced to wear a veil to church, then wear it. But don’t make
somebody else wear it. We all have our own religious convictions.
Some people believe that when they come to church that they have to
dress their best. When somebody else comes with a pair of slippers or in
something informal, they say, “Don’t you know how to please God? What
do you do when you want to meet the managing director or the emperor?
Do you dress in slippers?” You make that person feel condemned. To you
it’s a religious conviction, a personal expression of wanting to please God.
Church should be a place where we give room for religious convictions. Let
us be gracious. So what is the rule in church? My rule is wear what is
reasonable. What is beyond reason is not allowed, like donning swimwear
to church.

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Religious convictions are the hardest to deal with. In order to deal with
that in the church without running down people we give room to people as
long as it doesn’t break the laws of decency. We need to give room for
some religious convictions. If some people come up to the sanctuary and
dance in the Spirit and to you they seem to dance like little ducks and you
tell them, “If you want to dance in the Spirit please go for three months
ballet training, then come and dance in the Spirit,” then you are not
allowing for religious convictions. A pastor who understands religious
liberty will come and say, “It is alright if you dance like a duck but don’t
knock over chairs and people.” In this church dancing in the Spirit is fine as
long as you are dressed properly. If your dance movement in the Spirit is
like a Russian dance, I will say, “If you flow in that kind of dance please
don’t wear skirts.” We need to give some rooms for religious convictions. In
our walk with God there are times when religious convictions are
necessary to our spiritual growth that others may not understand. Try to
hear the pastor’s point of view. Even a lady who is convinced about
wearing a veil in church it can be a part of her religious walk with God that
you must give room for. And Paul says point one in religious convictions let
the law of love rule and reign.

2. The Law Of Love Rules Over Doctrinal

Contention
Secondly in Acts chapter 15 in doctrinal issue in verse 2 And when Paul and
Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and
Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to
the apostles and the elders about this question. Then when they came
they make a little decision after much dispute, arguments and discussions.
They passed a judgment and they made a decision. I want to point to the
fact that the decision was made based on three areas, the Word of God,
the word of testimony and the Holy Spirit. Now these are all laws. And
these laws are subject to the law of love because if you look at the final
decision it edifies the people.
In verse 12 And all the assembly kept silence; and they listened to
Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done

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through them among the Gentiles. That’s the word of the testimony.
Verse 28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us, to lay upon you
no greater burden than these necessary things. This is the agreement of
the Holy Spirit.
Verse 29 That you abstain from things offered to idols and from blood,
from things strangled and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourself from
these, you will do well. Farewell. This is the Word of God.
Now the word farewell is a Greek word that says to wish you the best that
edify you. In other words we are seeking the best road that will be the best
loving road to help your life. In the same way we may argue over doctrinal
issues, we may fight and we may get emotionally worked up but in the end
it is a law of love that keeps us going. For love edifies. It is not easy to be
together and loving when you differ seriously.
John Wesley and George Whitefield disagree on predestination. But they
work together because they loved each other and they loved the Lord.
John Wesley speaks well of George Whitefield in his journals. People can
disagree on doctrine and they become unloving. How do you know they
become unloving? They run down those who don’t agree with them. You
can believe in what you believe but don’t run people down. We can have
doctrinal discussion in an atmosphere of love. And love will allow
differentiation of understanding over things that have nothing to do with
salvation. I mean salvation is based on our faith in Jesus. How you believe
in your doctrine of Christology should not affect your love for one another
because you are part of the family of God.

3. The Law Of Love Rules In The Gifts Of

The Holy Spirit
Thirdly in the book of I Cor. 13 love is the guiding factor in the gifts of the
Holy Spirit. I Cor. 12:31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And I will show
you a still more excellent way. Then in chapter 13 he talks about love in
verse 4 onwards, Love is patient and kind, love is not jealous etc. Paul is
trying to tell them that if you can receive guidance by the gifts of the Spirit
and there in no love there the guidance can be wrong. In our earlier

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messages we talked about the groupings of the gifts and fruit of Holy Spirit.
Remember love, joy and peace is one group that has to do with the
revelation of the will of God. If you don’t walk in love although you have
the gifts operating you cannot really see the will of God clearly. You only
see part of the will because of the gifts. Love is important when the gifts
operate. Paul says that even if you have prophecy in chapter 13:2 and you
don’t have love, you are nothing. In other words if you are a prophet or
you have a ministry of prophecy or you have the gift of dreams, or you
have the gift of visions, and if you don’t have love you have no right to
guide other people or to guide your own life.
But in the Charismatic circles visions and dreams seems to take a higher
place than love. People would do the most unloving thing and say, “Thus
says the Lord.” I am not saying what you received is not from God. Paul
never says that the gifts were not from God. He says such gifts operated
without love were not edifying. They do not help anybody, not even
helping the one who operates the gifts.
Turn to the book of Acts 21 let me show the gifts of the Spirit operating.
Verse 9 and 10 Now this man [Philip the evangelist] had four virgin
daughters who prophesied. (Now definitely that is the ministry of
prophecy. They have a very strong gift of prophecy. They spoke to Paul.)
And as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down
from Judea. (Agabus was one of the most recognized prophets in the New
Testament church. He came with a group of other prophets. He even had a
school of prophets with him. So we can say that he is a well-established
ministry.)
Verse 11, When he had come to us, he took Paul’s belt, bound his own
hands and feet, and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘So shall the Jews at
Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands
of the Gentiles.’ “
Now after he prophesied in verse 12 everybody told Paul not to go to
Jerusalem. This is to show you that the office of a prophet or the ministry
of a prophet or visions or dreams cannot guide us outside of love. When
you are within a circle of love and you are walking in love all those things

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are powerful. But if you only have these things without love they don’t
count as guidance from God.
You know what Paul did? He completely discounted these words spoken
through the gift of prophecy. He said look he still have to go. Everybody
was convinced that Paul was not doing the right thing. They tried to
persuade Paul not to go because of that prophecy. But Paul says they are
breaking his heart. Now that becomes wrong. Look at verse 13 What are
you doing, weeping and breaking my heart. If you break somebody’s heart
it cannot be the leading of the Spirit any more. And so what is the love
way? There is a prophet saying these things. What is the most loving way?
Let Paul move according to his conviction. Let him feel the right way to
edify. I am sure they must have prayed for him. These are not the only
group of people who told Paul not to go. Earlier when they landed at Tyre,
they found some disciples who also told Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Acts
21:4 And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days.
Through the Spirit they told Paul not to go.
Now through the Spirit means that these disciples through the gifts of the
Holy Spirit told Paul not to go to Jerusalem. They had the gifts of the Holy
Spirit functioning. But love is different. Love considers the other person.
Love considers the feelings and the limitations of the person. Love is not
one-sided; love is not demanding; love never say, “You be what I want you
to be.” When people demand that I say, “Look I can’t; you must also
understand my situation. I can’t do what you demand me to do. I don’t
demand you do what I want. I give you the free choice.” So we all must
have that love for one another. Love doesn’t demand of one another. Love
respects the wishes of each other. When love becomes demand it’s no
more love.
When we walk in love the guidance of God can come clearer. The gifting of
the Holy Spirit becomes a confirmation in our walk with God. Sometimes
people may have a prophecy that certain things should be done or should
not be done. Then they come to the persons concerned and say, “I think
what you are doing is wrong.” Their prophecy may be correct but if they
are without of love then their ministry is out of order. Sometimes people
leave their family or place in a ministry and I ask them why do they leave.
They say, “God told me, God warned me in a dream.” I said, “Fine, but you

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must have love and responsibility. What you are doing is not walking in
love.”
I hear of preachers from other countries and they come here and minister.
I asked one of them, “Are you married?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have a family?”
“Yes.”
“Where is your family now?”
“O I left them years ago.”
“How can it be?”
“God told me to preach the gospel.”
I said, “No. If you leave your wife and your children behind, who is taking
of them now? You mean your wife has to work and feed the children and
you are here preaching the gospel. That is not the leading of the Spirit.
That is walking without love.”
He can be the most anointed preacher in the world but it makes no
difference. I think he is misguided. It is important for us to understand that
the guidance of the Spirit and the gifting operates only under love. Even if
God really spoke to that man and told him to go and preach, if he had any
love and if he really had to travel often that much from his family, you
know what he should do first? He should first of all seek the best way in
which his family is very well taken care of. And if his wife doesn’t quite
agree he should work out some means of understanding with the wife.
God could speak to them but they are wrong with the speed of their
obedience. Some times we are too slow and some times we are too fast.
And the way he is doing he is completely neglecting his wife and his
children. It is wrong. You cannot say, “Thus says the Lord,” and everyday
you go out witnessing. You are no more working to earn money to pay your
rent, pay for the food, your children don’t have a father to see them
everyday. That is not love and neither is it truly of the Spirit of God. It is
possibly fifty percent Spirit and fifty percent of the flesh.

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When we are guided by God the highest law is the law of love. And love
seeks the best of a person. Don’t quote vision, dreams, thus says the Lord,
religious convictions to contradict the law of love. For example if God says
you must quickly leave a certain place and join a certain group and you
come to them and say, “God told me to join you” even the manner of your
joining them has to have some order. When God told you to join or help a
particular group, you don’t go to them as a big boss and say, “God told me
to join and I expect to operate in the things of God.” No, you have to learn
how to flow with the people. You have to submit and flow with the
leadership that is there first. And you got to learn to work with those
people. You got to learn that the people are there who are already doing
different things. And you got to seek the most loving way to contribute
your gift. So people who come and say, “I am a big boss here,” they are not
led by the Spirit. That is not the loving way to do things.
Sometimes I sit in committees that organize inter-churches crusades and
events. Sometimes it is very funny. There are pastors on this committee
with experience to organize massive events and sometimes the most
outspoken person is the pastor of a little fifteen-member church who tells
everybody else what to do. The more established pastors would have the
ability to tell from experience what is workable and what is not but they
are keeping quiet. But the inexperienced pastor whose ministry is not
established yet wants to tell everybody what to do. If he has years of
experience he would know that it is not as easily done as he would think.
There was a young preacher who became quite famous when his name
appeared in the Charisma magazine. One day this preacher was invited to
John Osteen’s church to preach. As he preached he started scolding the
people. John Osteen at that time had seven thousand members in his
church. This young preacher is quite famous. He believed that he is
prophet and apostle. John Osteen stepped up to the pulpit and said,
“Young man sit down. This is my church and I won’t allow you to beat the
sheep over their head.” And he sat down and John Osteen took over and
began to preach. It’s important to understand that we can have an office of
a prophet, apostle, evangelist, pastor or teacher but we will lose that office
without love.

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Sometimes as a pastor I have spiritual authority. I could do things in a
strong dominating way. I don’t use my office to push people around.
Sometimes with other pastors and we fellowship I don’t use my standing to
push people around. If I do that it becomes wrong. I don’t walk in love. Or
maybe talk about the secular world. You could be a great CEO in the
business world. You could be a billionaire with many companies and you
are attending church here. Remember this when you come to church you
don’t push people around. You may have a hundred servants in your house
and one thousand employees in your job but when you come to church,
you don’t come and push the usher. You can be in any position in any place
but you don’t push people around.
Whether you are in the ministry or in the secular world there is something
that God must do with our life. And as a pastor I am not afraid of preaching
through whether it concerns a ministry or a business world. Even if my
businessmen friends were sitting in the congregation, they need to be told
in a loving way. In fact if they were to listen they would become better
people. Who knows all their life they have been pushing people with
money and position and power. But they have become arrogant and
domineering characters. If you really love them you need to tell them that
they are becoming more and more ugly as a person. And God wants them
to be beautiful and they need to change. They do not have the law of love
operating in their lives. The gifts of the Spirit, positions, or titles all these
things are not given to you to push people around. The law of love edifies
others and counts other better than yourself.
Now that applies to everything. Lets say you are a gifted musician. You
don’t come and tell people what to do. You could be the most gifted
pianist. It’s ungodly and ugly if you come and order people around, do this,
do that. It will not edify. Its better if you come along them and you began
to show them. One of the things I like about our music pastor is that
although he is one of the most talented people I have ever known he is
also very humble. He doesn’t come around and push people. When he is
with other musicians who are coming up, when they make mistakes he
doesn’t run them down. Whatever our talents, whatever our gifts,
whatever God has given us, these are not things that should be used
outside of love. They must be operated through love. And it’s through love

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that we can guide people and help people. And it’s in love that we can get
guidance from God. Because when we die to everything outside and inside
you will only have one goal in your life, to please God and to love people.
Let me read from Philippians 2:1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ,
any incentive of love, any participation in the Spirit, any affliction and
sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same
love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfishness or
conceit.
Let me tell you in church, in spiritual kingdom its still possible to
sometimes to have selfish ambition and conceit.
But in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look
not only of his own interest, but also to the interest of others. Have this
mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who though He was in
the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but
emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of
men. And being found in human form He humbled himself and become
obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
And finally love is not an option. Love is not a suggestion. Love is a
commandment. We are commanded to love. Jesus says if you love me keep
my word and He says this is my commandment that I give to you to love
one another. It is not for you to choose whether you want to forgive or not.
You are commanded to forgive. Its not for you and I to choose whether you
want to be loving or not. We are commanded to be loving. Many people
are not breaking the Ten Commandments. But many people are breaking
the commandment of love.
As we conclude let me ask this question. Are you breaking the
commandment of love? It is as serious as breaking the Ten
Commandments. When you break any one of the commandments you
break only one commandment. When you break the commandment of
love you are breaking all the Ten Commandments together since all the Ten
Commandments are in the spirit of love. The greatest commandment that
we break is not committing adultery, not stealing. The greatest
commandment that we break is the commandment to love. And if we
break the commandment to love we have to repent. We have to

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acknowledge that we have fallen away in love and get ourselves right with
God. And if you break the commandment of love you can pray your heart
out God will not hear you. If you break the commandment of love you can
cry and fast God will not hear you because you broke the commandment. If
you break the commandment of God you can ask and pray and ask for a
miracle from God you can ask for healing you can ask for prosperity God
will not hear you. We need to keep Jesus’ commandment of love in our
hearts.

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Table of Contents
Guidance From God 1
1. The Law Of The State Of Being 1
3. Trusting In The Lord 36
4. Sensations From The Inward Witness 52
1. The Inward Sensation Of Being Smitten 55
2. The Inward Sensation Of Grief 60
3. The Inward Sensation Of Quenching 64
4. The Inward Sensation Of Warmness 68
5. The Inward Sensation Of Sweetness 69
5. The Fruit Of The Spirit Part One 73
6. The Fruit Of The Spirit Part Two 85
8. The Law Of Love 114
1. The Law Of Love Rules Over Religious Convictions 116
2. The Law Of Love Rules Over Doctrinal Contention 124
3. The Law Of Love Rules In The Gifts Of The Holy Spirit 125

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