Being Led by the Spirit

Yakubu had two letters on the table in front of him, and he had been staring at them for nine days.

The first offered him a graduate trainee position at a commercial bank in Lagos. The pay was good, the training programme was respected, and his mother had already told half the women at her church in Jos. The second offered him a junior role with a development organisation in Abuja, working on rural water projects in the north. The salary was lower, the contract only two years long, but the work stirred something in him that he could not quite explain.

Both letters needed an answer by the end of the month. And Yakubu was terrified of getting it wrong.

He had started a fast on the day the second letter arrived. He was rising at four every morning to pray. He had asked three pastors for a word and received three different answers. He had begun noticing signs everywhere. When a danfo cut in front of his taxi with “Lagos is sweet” painted on the back, he wondered whether that was the Lord. When the radio played a song about the north, he wondered whether that was the Lord instead. He had read Romans 8:14 a hundred times, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God,” and the verse had begun to frighten him. If he could not hear clearly which job to take, was he really being led by the Spirit? And if he was not being led, was he really a son?

When he came to see me, he looked as though he had not slept properly in a week. “Pastor,” he said, “I am afraid of missing God’s will by one inch. If I take the wrong job, my whole life will be out of His plan.”

I asked him to read Romans 8 aloud, starting from verse 1. He was puzzled, because he wanted to talk about the letters. But by the time he reached verse 17 he had gone quiet. “This chapter is not about jobs,” he said slowly.

Punchline

It is not. And understanding that is the beginning of understanding how divine guidance works.

Reading Romans 8:14 where it lives

Romans 8:14 is one of the most quoted verses on guidance in the whole Bible, and one of the most frequently lifted out of its setting. Here it is in its home:

Notice the word that begins verse 14: “For.” Paul is explaining what he has just said. And what has he just said? “If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Being led by the Spirit, in this passage, means being led away from the flesh and into life. It is the Spirit drawing the believer out of the old patterns of sin and into the new life of holiness. The leading Paul describes here is first of all moral and spiritual. It concerns who you are becoming before it concerns where you are going.

Then the next “For” in verse 15 explains the leading in another way. “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” The Spirit leads believers out of fear and into sonship. He leads them to the Father. He testifies within them that they are God’s children. And He leads them, as heirs, along the same path Jesus walked: “if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

That last phrase deserves a moment. The Spirit’s leading does not always run toward ease. Heirs of God share the path of the Son, and that path passed through suffering before it reached glory. Some believers assume that if a road becomes hard, they must have missed God’s leading. Romans 8 suggests otherwise. The Spirit leads sons along the road their elder Brother walked, and He is present with them in the hard places as much as in the pleasant ones. Difficulty is not, by itself, a sign that you took a wrong turn.

So when Paul says that “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God,” he is not setting a test that only the most spiritually sensitive believers can pass. He is describing every believer. All God’s children are led by His Spirit, because the Spirit lives in all of them and is drawing all of them into the life of sons. Being led is the mark of sonship, not a further level beyond it.

That was what Yakubu saw in my office. He had turned a verse about belonging into a source of fear. He had read “led by the Spirit” as “able to hear correct instructions about every decision,” and when the instructions did not come, he concluded that his sonship was in question. Paul says exactly the opposite. The Spirit of adoption has come so that you would not fall back into fear.

Guidance begins with the Father

If the Spirit’s first work is to lead us to the Father, then all our thinking about guidance must start there. What kind of Father is He?

Jesus answers that question directly when He teaches about asking: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13). The Father is not hiding His will behind a locked door, waiting to see whether His children can guess the code. He is a good Father who wants His children to know Him and to walk in His ways.

A good father does not give his son a riddle and then punish him for failing to solve it. Nor does he dictate every small choice for the rest of the boy’s life. He teaches him. He shapes his character. He gives him wisdom and then, increasingly, trusts him to use it. The Psalms describe God’s guidance in exactly this relational way:

“I will guide thee with mine eye.” That is the language of close relationship. A child who is near his father can read his face; a glance is enough. Then comes the warning: “Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle.” A horse needs a bit because it has no understanding of its rider’s mind. God does not want to steer His children like animals, jerking the reins at every junction. He wants children who know Him well enough to recognise the direction of His heart.

This is why fear-driven guidance so often goes wrong. When we are afraid of missing God by an inch, we start looking for bit-and-bridle guidance: signs on danfo buses, random verses, a particular song on the radio. We treat God as though He were reluctant to speak and we must trick an answer out of Him. But the Father’s heart is to instruct and teach. He is not standing at the junction hoping you will turn the wrong way.

Nugget

Divine guidance begins with relationship, not technique. The Spirit leads God’s children to the Father, forms them in the character of Christ, and then guides them within that relationship.

The direction of the Spirit’s leading

Paul uses the same language of leading in Galatians, and there too it is set in the context of character and conduct. “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). A couple of verses later he adds, “But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” (Galatians 5:18).

The Galatians were being pressured to return to the law as the rule of their lives. Paul answers that believers have a better guide. They are led by the Spirit, and the Spirit does not lead them into lawlessness. He leads them into a life that the law could describe but never produce. Paul then lists the works of the flesh, from adultery and idolatry to “hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings” (Galatians 5:20-21), and he sets against them the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23). He ends with an appeal: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).

Two other teachings in this series look closely at that passage. Here I want to draw one practical conclusion from it. We already know the direction in which the Spirit leads. He always leads toward love and away from hatred, toward peace and away from strife, toward faithfulness and away from betrayal, toward self-control and away from indulgence. That means some guidance questions are already answered before we pray. A “leading” to leave your wife for another woman is not from the Spirit. A “leading” to deceive a business partner, to humiliate a colleague or to cut off a family member out of spite is not from the Spirit. The Spirit does not contradict His own fruit.

It also means that most of the Spirit’s leading in any believer’s life concerns the kind of person we are in every situation, more than which situation we are in. Yakubu could serve God in a bank in Lagos or on a water project in Bauchi. In either place, the Spirit’s leading would be far more concerned with how he treated his colleagues, how he handled money, whether he told the truth and how he loved the people around him.

He glorifies Christ

Jesus Himself explained how the Spirit would guide His people. On the night before the cross, He told the disciples:

Three things in this passage shape all our thinking about guidance.

First, the Spirit guides “into all truth.” His leading is never separated from truth. Jesus was speaking first to the apostles, promising that the Spirit would lead them into the full understanding of His person and work, the understanding they would later write down in the New Testament. We receive that truth through their writings. So the Spirit’s guidance in your life will always be consistent with the truth He has already revealed in Scripture. If an inner impression contradicts the plain teaching of the Bible, the impression is not from Him.

Second, “he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak.” The Spirit does not act independently of the Father and the Son. He speaks what He hears. There is perfect agreement within the Godhead. This means you will never find the Spirit leading you in a direction that the Father’s heart and the Son’s example do not support.

Third, and most important, “He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” The Spirit’s great work is to make Jesus known. All genuine guidance has a Christ-shaped character. It leads you to look more like Jesus, to love what He loves, to serve as He served. When you are trying to discern whether a direction is from the Spirit, one of the best questions to ask is this: does it reflect the character of Christ? Does it require me to act in a way that would glorify Him? Jesus is the revealed character of God, and the Spirit always leads in agreement with Him.

Jesus also said that the Spirit “will shew you things to come.” The Spirit can and does give insight about the future, as we see in Acts. But even this is set within His work of glorifying Christ and leading into truth. He is the Spirit of Christ, guiding Christ’s people in Christ’s mission, and He has no interest in serving as a fortune-teller for our curiosity.

What guidance looked like in Acts

I am Pentecostal in conviction, and I believe the Holy Spirit still speaks to believers in specific ways. The book of Acts gives us many examples. “Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot” (Acts 8:29). On Paul’s second journey, he and his companions “were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,” and when they tried to enter Bithynia, “the Spirit suffered them not” (Acts 16:6-7). Then came a vision of a man of Macedonia, and Luke writes that they went, “assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them” (Acts 16:10).

Notice that last phrase. Assuredly gathering. The Greek word means putting things together, concluding. Paul and his team did not receive one dramatic instruction and obey it blindly. They had experienced closed doors, a vision in the night and their own reasoning together, and from all of that they concluded what the Lord was saying. Even specific guidance involved thinking, discussion and discernment.

One of the most instructive episodes comes near the end of Paul’s journey to Jerusalem:

The Spirit spoke through Agabus. The revelation was clear: Paul would be bound in Jerusalem. But the believers who heard it drew a conclusion the Spirit had not stated. They begged Paul not to go. Earlier, at Tyre, some disciples had similarly said to Paul “through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem” (Acts 21:4). Yet Paul had already said that he went “bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem,” knowing that “bonds and afflictions abide me” (Acts 20:22-23). The Spirit had told him the cost. The others heard the cost and assumed it meant “do not go.” Paul heard the same cost and went.

That passage teaches humility. Even genuine revelation can be misinterpreted. Even sincere, Spirit-filled believers can attach their own conclusions to what the Spirit has shown. And the church’s final response is wise: “The will of the Lord be done.”

We should also notice how much of the book of Acts involves ordinary planning. “Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do” (Acts 15:36). That decision came from pastoral concern and good sense, and God used it. Some believers in more cautious traditions emphasise this ordinary wisdom and are wary of claims to direct guidance. They are right that Scripture and sanctified wisdom are the normal means God uses. We Pentecostals are right that the Spirit still speaks specifically. Acts shows us both, often in the same chapter.

The ordinary ways the Spirit leads

Punchline

How then does the Spirit usually lead a believer facing a decision like Yakubu’s? He uses means that are easy to overlook because they are so ordinary.

He leads through Scripture. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). The Bible will rarely tell you which job to take, but it will tell you a great deal about what kind of work honours God, how to treat money, what matters more than salary, and how to care for your parents. Most decisions become clearer once you have settled what Scripture says about the things involved.

He leads through wisdom. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5). Notice that God gives wisdom generously and without reproach. You do not have to be afraid of asking. And wisdom is often the Spirit’s main way of guiding. He renews your thinking, so that you can weigh options with a mind shaped by God’s values.

He leads through counsel. “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14). Mature believers who know you well can see things you cannot.

He leads through peace. Paul writes, “let the peace of God rule in your hearts” (Colossians 3:15). The word rule comes from the language of an umpire at the games. God’s peace settles disputes in the heart. But be careful: peace is not the same as comfort. Paul went to Jerusalem settled in his spirit, though he knew prison waited for him there.

And sometimes He leads through a specific word, impression, dream or prophetic counsel, as Acts shows. These should be welcomed and also weighed. John tells us to “try the spirits whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1). A genuine word from the Spirit will agree with Scripture, glorify Christ and bear good fruit.

A guard-rail is needed here, because claims of guidance can be misused. “The Lord told me” is sometimes used to pressure people: a man telling a young woman that God has shown him she is his wife, a leader demanding money or obedience because he has had a revelation, a relative insisting that a sick person stop taking medication because of a dream. The Spirit does not override another person’s conscience, consent or safety. If someone uses claims of divine guidance to control, frighten or exploit you, you are free to say no, and you should speak to trusted leaders or, where there is danger, to the authorities.

Walking freely as a son

The most liberating truth for Yakubu was this: God is far more committed to guiding him than he is to being guided. “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). You plan. God directs. He is sovereign over your steps, even when you are uncertain.

Isaiah gives a beautiful promise to a people who had been through hard seasons:

“Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” Notice where the voice comes from: behind. The people are already walking. When they veer off the path, a word behind them brings them back. That is a picture of a God who does not wait for you to be certain before you take a step. He guides people who are moving. He corrects. He calls you back when you turn aside.

Many believers are paralysed because they think God’s will is a tightrope and the slightest misstep will plunge them into disaster. But the Father does not raise His children on a tightrope. He gives them a wide path of His character and His commands, and within it He grants real freedom. Some choices are between good and evil. Many are between two good options, either of which can be lived for His glory. In those cases, the Spirit’s leading is often a matter of wisdom, desire and peace, and the Father is delighted to see His child grow up enough to choose.

Yakubu ended his fast the day after we spoke. He told me he ate a whole plate of rice and slept for eleven hours. Over the next week he talked with his parents, with a mentor who had worked in both banking and development, and with his pastor in Jos. He wrote down what Scripture said about work, money and serving others. He prayed, but differently. He was no longer begging for a sign. He was talking to his Father.

In the end he chose Abuja. “I could see myself honouring God in the bank,” he told me. “I really could. But when I prayed about the water project, I kept seeing the faces of those villages. And I felt the peace of my Father, not the fear of a slave.”

Two years later he called me. The contract had ended, and he had been offered a permanent post. But that was not why he called. He wanted to tell me about a colleague who had been stealing from the project budget, and how he had confronted the man privately before reporting him, and how the man had broken down and repented. “Pastor,” he said, “I think that was the Spirit’s leading. Not the job. The way I handled that man.”

He was right. The Spirit leads God’s children into life as His sons. He leads us to the Father. He makes Jesus known. And He shapes us, step by step, in every place we go.