In this message we consider once more Romans 8:14 which reads: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” We have come to a point which we can never avoid. If we would know the leading of the Spirit, we must get through the point which we are going to cover in this message. You may consider the point of this message as something quite common or quite ordinary. But actually it is not that common. You might consider it so common because our understanding of the leading of the Spirit has not been adequate.
The problem is this: most Christians through the centuries have considered that God’s leading is just God’s action, God’s activity. Because you are a child of God, you like to please God. You don’t like to do anything by your own way; you like to follow His way. So you pray, asking God the Father to give you a leading that you may follow. This kind of prayer indicates that you consider the leading of the Lord is His action, His activity.
But Romans 8:14 says that the leading is to be led by the Spirit. When you read such a word you must be alert, and you must pay your full attention to understand it. It doesn’t say that we need the leading of the Spirit. This is something different. To have the leading of the Spirit is one thing; to be led by the Spirit is another thing. Sometimes Christians say that they have a leading from the Lord, but eventually they discover that they went the wrong way. They prayed, they touched their inner feeling, they looked at their outward circumstances. It seems they were fully confirmed that a certain thing was fully from the Lord. But eventually they went the wrong way. This is because our realization of the matter of the leading of the Spirit has not been so accurate. We were taught in the wrong way, so our realization has not been adequate.
By our natural birth we have a tendency to receive this kind of teaching. Some have been taught to seek the leading of God according to three things: the inner feeling, the Word of God, and the outward circumstances. If these three things line up, that indicates the will of God. Many Christians have heard this kind of teaching. It is easy to understand, and we all have the inclination toward this kind of teaching. We have the tendency to receive this kind of teaching.
But I am going to fellowship with you concerning one point which is contrary to your natural tendency. The leading in Romans 8:14 is not a leading of the Lord. Rather, it is a leading by the Lord. A leading of the Lord is one thing, and a leading by the Lord is another thing. When we had our Life-study of Genesis, I stressed strongly that from the first time Abraham was called out, the Lord didn’t give him any leading. The Lord only told him that he had to leave. The Lord didn’t tell him how he should go on. In other words the Lord didn’t give him any road maps. Abraham’s leading was the Lord Himself, a Person. This Person was with him all the time doing the leading. Abraham was led by the Lord. Abraham didn’t receive a leading of the Lord. There is a big difference.
In order to understand clearly the matter of being led by the Spirit, we have to realize it is absolutely a fact that we Christians who have believed in the Lord Jesus and have been really regenerated do have another Person living within us. You may think you know this already. But to know this is one thing, and to realize daily, hourly, and even momentarily that you have another One living within you is another thing.