Romans 8:14 reads, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” In this message we need to consider what are the constituents of the leading of the Spirit. In principle everything is composed with some things. We have to find out what the leading of the Spirit of God is composed with. How is it constituted? How could we have such a thing that is called the leading of the Spirit of God? According to Romans 8:14 there is such a thing within us as the leading of the Spirit of God.
Through all the centuries most Christians have not been so clear about the matter of God’s leading. Christians have mostly considered the matter of God’s leading in somewhat an outward way. For example, they would seek the Lord’s leading concerning a trip to New York. But although we were not taught properly concerning the matter of leading, we do have a lot of concepts concerning the matter of leading. We are always concerned about what courses we should take in school, about how much money we should spend, or about the matter of marriage. Concerning these kinds of things we always like to have the leading of the Lord.
Actually the leading does matter a lot in our daily life. If you are a Christian, and yet you do not care for the leading of God, you are not a proper Christian. If you are a proper Christian you surely like to know what is the Lord’s leading. You want to know whether you should rent or buy a house. You want to know what street you should live on. You want to know how you should get your hair cut. If you would do this, it would indicate to some extent that you might be a good Christian. I hope that when you go to buy a pair of shoes you do consider what color and what style. If you don’t consider these matters, you are just a careless Christian. You are not so careful, so sober, as you should be.
We consider the matter of leading mostly an outward thing. I also did until I began to pay so much attention to Romans 8. Then I began to realize that out of all the sixty-six books in the Bible, perhaps no other chapter unveils to us the spiritual experiences in as much detail as Romans 8. Of course, the longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119. It tells a lot concerning the praising of the Lord and the contacting of the Lord by the Old Testament saints. There is some help to be found in that psalm, but it is somewhat old and in the old covenant. The longest and most detailed chapter concerning spiritual experience is Romans 8. In this it is unique. Since I began to realize this chapter with all the details, I began to see a lot of things which I had actually already experienced, but without much knowledge of them. I had little knowledge concerning these matters because such teachings have not been stressed among the Christians.
We may illustrate this matter with vitamins. Hundreds of years ago our forefathers ate a lot of vitamins but without much knowledge. Without taking in the proper vitamins, a person cannot be healthy. Although vitamins had not been discovered many years ago, people had the experience of living by eating the vitamins.
In Romans 8 there is such a thing which is called the leading of the Spirit of God. You have to realize it is not mentioned in verses 1-13. Rather it is mentioned in the fourteenth verse. This means that certain verses have gone before. And of course more verses follow verse 14. Verses 15 to 23 have a lot to do with the matter of the leading in verse 14. So before verse 14 there are thirteen verses, and after verse 14 there are another fourteen verses, all of which are related to the matter of the leading of the Spirit. If you are going to understand adequately the leading of the Spirit, you must get into all these verses.
In principle the leading of the Spirit must be composed with some thing or things. There must be some things as the constituents of the constitution of the leading of the Spirit. Basically the leading of the Spirit of God is composed of three elements, all from verse 2: the law, the Spirit, and life.