When you repent and accept Jesus Christ, God sends the Holy Spirit the Helper into your heart as a gift. Romans 8:14-15 reads, "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba! Father!'" As written, God's children who received the Holy Spirit can hear what the Holy Spirit says to them and be led by Him.
The voice of the Spirit is not heard through your ears, but through your heart. And since He is the Spirit of truth (John 14:17), He works through the truth. Thus, to hear His word, you have to cultivate your heart with truth first. When you pay attention to His voice, even if it is faint, and obey Him, you can fill your heart with truth and hear Him better and better. Moreover, if you receive the fullness of the Spirit by fervent prayers, you can hear Him much better and more clearly.
That is, you can hear the Holy Spirit more clearly and better as you grow in faith by cultivating truth in your heart. Now let's delve more into what we should do to hear the voice of the Spirit well and be led by Him.
You should try to discern the will of God with a truthful heart.
You cannot clearly hear the Spirit's word for you if you put your situation or condition you are in before His word. In this case, you may think, 'I like this better. The reality of it is so difficult.' If you have such thoughts rather than discern the will of God first with a truthful heart, you have difficulty hearing what the Spirit says to you clearly and being guided by Him.
Thus, you must have the heart to obey unconditionally as long as it is in the will of God. You must pray with faith that God will achieve even what seems impossible as long as you obey. In such prayer with faith, you can hear the word of the Spirit.
You must not use fleshly thoughts caused by self-framework, self-righteousness, and speculations.
Suppose one has strong self-righteousness and received much grace from the sermon about Daniel's integrity. He established his own self-righteousness like 'No compromise in truth whatsoever!' Then, he might use it as the standard for everything. He might insist that people should never compromise and might break peace with them. Such people usually form their self-framework, self-righteousness, and speculations and mistakenly think of them as truth. Then, they cannot hear what the Spirit says even when He teaches them truth. They seem to lead diligent believing lives outwardly, but they are likely to be faced with limit and stuck in a certain level of faith.
Therefore, when you work for the kingdom of God, you should apply different methods that are proper according to each person's faith and situation. You should not stubbornly insist on your idea since you may mistake it for truth. Even if you think you heard the word of the Spirit, you should check according to the truth if it is real.
You should obey what the Spirit says and what He urges you to do.
Even new believers can hear what the Spirit says as long as they listen to the Word of God and try to keep it diligently. But most people fail to bear in mind the Word and keep it. That is why they cannot continue to hear the voice of the Spirit.
If you continually disobey what the Spirit tells you, you cannot experience the work of God and later you will not be able to hear His voice anymore. If you cannot hear what He says, you may have no relation to salvation.
When God's children commit the sins leading to death, they will feel afraid and tremble at first because the Spirit groans in their heart. But as they ignore it and commit such sins again and again, their heart may become numb and they will come to have no fear. They will end up in spiritual death. Their consciences will have been seared with a branding iron, and thus they will follow their own benefits and desires. They will fall deep into sins. Then, they may be put into a situation where they cannot repent and turn back from sin. They will eventually lead to spiritual death.
When you hear the voice of the Spirit and receive His guidance, unless you obey, you cannot say that you are led by Him. Only when you obey His word, however insignificant, can you hear Him more clearly and be led exactly by Him. Therefore, you should cast off untruthful heart quickly in the fullness of the Spirit, have only spiritual thoughts, and hear and obey what the Spirit says to you. Then, you can always be led to the way of blessings.
The most fundamental secret to hearing the voice of the Spirit is achieving a sanctified heart. When you become sanctified and resemble God, your will and heart will be in accord with that of God and then you can naturally be led by the Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:21-24 reads, "But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass." Thus, we should become sanctified quickly, communicate with the Spirit clearly, and finish the adornment as the Lord's bride.
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