The matter of the leading by the Spirit of God has been misunderstood by most Christians. Our understanding is still unconsciously under the influence of our background. We all came from that region where the understanding of the matter of the leading of the Spirit was mostly natural. Very little of that understanding was spiritual.
Recently I admired some wonderful testimonies concerning the leading by the Spirit of God, but at the same time I had the deep sensation that they were wrong. They were very good, but they were wrong. Your understanding of the leading by the Spirit of God is still wrong. It is wrong in this aspect: you consider that the leading by the Spirit is a matter for activities, for actions, or for business.
What many call the leading of the Spirit is actually a kind of performance. In seeking the Lord’s leading you are a kind of dramatic performer. You are not Peter, but you are performing as if you were Peter. You are not Mary, but you are performing as if you were Mary. The real Peter did not perform; he just lived. He simply lived that way. That was his being. Whatever he did was not merely his activities, but his living.
In Romans 8 the matter of the leading by the Spirit is a conclusion of so many points. It is not one among many items. Rather, it is the totality of those many items. It is the conclusion of all those previously mentioned items in verses 1-13. So it is a great thing! In Romans 8 there is no hint that the leading by the Spirit is related to activities or works or actions or business. It is altogether related to our daily living. An actor is one who lives one way but performs another way. He may be a young man in his living, but he is performing as if he is an old man. If you would apply this principle of acting or performing to your way of seeking the Lord’s leading, you could see that in the past it was like this. You didn’t live that way, but when the occasion came up and you needed to do something or to face a situation, you sought the Lord’s leading. This kind of leading is not your daily living; it is your acting.
Some might argue that certain instances in Acts indicate that the early Apostles received the Lord’s leading for activities. For example, there is the case of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40). After baptizing the eunuch, the Holy Spirit caught Philip away. You might ask, Was that not the Lord’s leading? Yes, that was the Lord’s leading, but you have to realize that all the day long Philip was under the Spirit’s leading. For him to be caught away by the Spirit was not an accident. That was his living. He was all the time under the leading of the Spirit, so he didn’t need to seek after the leading. He was living minute by minute in his daily walk in the leading by the Spirit. The leading by the Spirit was his living. He was taken to the eunuch by the Spirit, and he was also caught away by the Spirit,
Then you might ask about Peter’s case in Acts 10. By the vision that he saw in his trance, he realized that he had to go to the Gentiles. You might ask, Was that not a leading for Peter’s activity? I would say no. Rather, Peter all the day long was living and walking in the spirit, and he simply went to the housetop to pray. He lived that way. For him to go to the housetop at his prayer time proves that way was his living. While he was living in that way the vision came. So it was not a leading for his activity.
In Acts 16 is an example of another person who was altogether living and even dreaming under the leading by the Spirit. While Paul was traveling, the Spirit within was forbidding and prohibiting. He was always living under the leading by the Spirit. He was a person living by the Spirit. He was not led by the Spirit to have some kind of activity.
The New Testament ministry according to 2 Corinthians 2 is not carried out by activities, but by the ministers of the New Testament in their living. They are captives in the triumphal procession of Christ (2 Cor. 2:14). They live a captive life. Paul considered his ministry a life of a captive in the triumphal procession. So whatever he did was not a kind of activity. It was just a kind of living. To Paul, his traveling about was not a kind of activity. To Paul it was just the leading by the Spirit. It was the way Paul lived.
If you don’t live day after day and hour after hour under the leading by the Spirit, when the time comes for you to make a decision, then you must perform. Not only must you perform, you must even try to force the Spirit to perform with you. Whatever comes out of that kind of situation will not be a part of your living. It will be just an activity because in your daily life you are not so one with the Spirit.