Welcome to the Believers Bible Assembly This is the day that the Lord has made and we're going

to rejoice and be glad in it Open your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 8

verse 14 And it reads as follows for all who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God

Today we will begin a series of messages entitled The Spirit Led Life and these messages is

going to help us understand the true essence of who we are in Christ and to

help us understand how being connected to the Spirit will produce spiritual fruit in our life It will help us

understand how being connected to the spirit will help us live the more than abundant life

That's what we're going to be talking about how to live the spirit-led life how to be led

by the Spirit of God So we asked the question this morning what does it mean

to live a spirit-led life To be led by the spirit is a life that is guided

and directed by God's will And in Romans chapter 8 verses 5 to 8 what you see is a

contrast between two ways of living One that is focused on the flesh the sinful

nature of man And one that is focused on being led and guided by the Holy

Spirit There's only two ways of living in life You're either in the flesh category or you're

in the spirit category but the Bible is clear It says those who live according

to the flesh have their mind set on what the flesh desires That's why they

continue to live by the flesh Now when I talk about the flesh I'm not just talking about the

physical body but a life lived apart from God driven by selfish and sinful desires That's what it means

to live by the flesh People who live by the flesh are driven motivated by

selfish and sinful desires They still want what the flesh wants But the Bible says that this way of thinking

living by the flesh having your mind set on fleshly things the Bible says that this

way of thinking leads to death because it's hostile it's against God This kind of mindset

that's focused on the flesh cannot submit to the word of God So those who live by the

flesh that thinking is against God and because they think this way it's impossible for them

to please God while living in the flesh In contrast those who live according to

the spirit who have their mind set on what the spirit desires the Bible says it leads to life and

peace and that's what we want Those who live by the spirit have their minds set on what the

spirit desires and a mind controlled by the spirit the spirit led is in harmony with God's will Therefore to

live a spirit-led life is to walk in daily relationship with the Holy Spirit Allowing

the Holy Spirit to guide us to empower us and to transform us It's a

daily walk It's a daily relationship with the Holy Spirit allowing him to guide us to empower

us and to transform us from the inside out That's how the Holy Spirit does his work

We got to rethink how we understand the Holy Spirit It's not just about a spiritual

experience The Holy Spirit is not something that just shows up on Sunday morning It's a life that's

led by the Spirit daily allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us empower us and to transform

us So it's not just about a spiritual experience that you get once a week but it's about growing

spiritually It's about a lifestyle That reflects Christ and this lifestyle that reflects Christ can

only come through a relationship with the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit Let's talk about the

characteristics of the spirit led life What does that look like What is it What are the

characteristics of a spirit led life Number one intimacy with God A spirit-led life begins

with a deep relationship with God Therefore it just cannot be a Sunday morning experience Is a deep relationship

with God where we allow the Holy Spirit to draw us into daily communion with the Father

and the Son intimacy with God How deep is your relationship with God In John chapter

and the spirit will be our companion meaning it's going to be the Holy Spirit that's going to draw

us into daily communion with God through the Son but he's not going to drag you he's

not going to pull you You have to have a desire To have intimacy with God Once

you have that desire it's the Holy Spirit that's going to draw you closer and closer and closer

and closer as you draw closer and closer to God through His word In Galatians chapter 4 verse

Two key things here in this verse because you are sons we are sons and daughters of God He

is our Father And he's our father because God has sent His Spirit into our hearts

and the Spirit is the one that connects us with God to give us this intimate

relationship where we can call Him Father and he can call us His children Abba Father

is an intimate phrase that speaks of a closer deeper relationship with the Father So

it's the spirit that draws us into a close relationship with the Father as we

desire to grow in our relationship with him each and every day So the question

is how do we draw closer to the Lord through the Spirit each and every day

Through daily prayer through daily worship a daily submitting of our bodies to the Lord That's true worship Through the

reading and the studying of His word you cannot grow closer to God apart from His

word Everything is contingent upon the word Our prayers is contingent upon the word Our worship

is contingent upon the word So the more word you know the deeper your prayer can be The

more words you know the deeper your worship can be And the deeper our prayer our worship and

our devotion to the word the closer we grow to the Father Now we can hear his voice Now

we can listen and be led by the Spirit That's why the Bible says over and over again in the

book of Revelation He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to you And you'll

never be able to have the ear to hear the spirit if you don't have close

intimacy with God It's the spirit that draws us closer in our relationship with the

Father but you got to have a desire to grow The second characteristic of a

spirited life is our transformation and our renewal How do I know that I have a spirit-led

life My life is being transformed I'm not the same I'm being renewed day by day and

it's the spirit who renews our minds and transforms our character to reflect Christ Romans chapter 12 verse

you do this your life will produce the fruit of the spirit When our minds are transformed

to the word of God when we're no longer following the desires of the flesh but the

desires of the spirit Now our life will produce the fruit of the spirit The word is that

spiritual seed that we deposit into our minds on a daily basis And just like every

seed that's sown it has to be watered it has to be nurtured and then

over a period of time that seed will produce fruit Likewise when we take the word of God

which is a seed and sow it into our lives on a daily basis then our life

will start to produce fruit That's a sign of transformation Now what are these fruits Galatians chapter

patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control How do I know that my life is

being transformed by the spirit is because my life is going to produce these fruits And listen

you're not able to produce these fruit apart from the Holy Spirit When times of testing comes that's

when the Spirit now produces these fruit But the true fruit of the Spirit when it's tested nothing can come

against it That's how you know you're being transformed So it's the spirit that produced fruit in us

that reflects Christ That's how we know that we're being transformed That's how we know that we are

being renewed because our life now is taking on a life that reflects Christ And as we continue to renew

our minds to the word of God that's what's going to shape our responses to the actions

in our life We're now going to be spirit led instead of flesh led But we've got to renew

our minds Now this is a process This is a walk depending on you and your

desire to work in conjunction with the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit There's

a process It's called sanctification The third characteristic of a spirit-led life is your sensitivity to the

voice of God A spirit-led believer learns that's the key word to discern the voice of God

There's so many voices out here in the world today that claim they're of God but a spirit-led believer

learns to discern the voice of God and then responds in obedience meaning you're going to do what

the voice says for you to do But we got to understand every voice is not the

voice of God So we got to be able to discern the differences so we won't be

led astray run amok hoodwinked bamboozled by false teachers that's running rampant in the world today John chapter 10

verse 27 says this My sheep hear my voice So there's only one voice that we should

be listening to and that's the voice of the shepherd Jesus Christ My sheep hear my voice and

I know them and they follow me He said in John 10:5 and they do not recognize or follow the

voice of a stranger There's some strange voices out here There's some strange voices out here So we need to

learn how to discern the voice of God Jesus said My sheep hear my voice There's only one voice

we should be listening to and that's the voice of God He said My sheep do not even

recognize or follow another voice the voice of a stranger There's so many strange doctrines out

here strange voices Every time you turn around somebody popping up with a new revelation

God spoke to me this morning and God told me this But see if you don't know the

voice of God meaning you don't know the word you'll follow that foolishness If you don't know the

voice of God the word you'll follow any strange doctrine that you hear How do you

think people end up in a cult They're following a strange voice that's teaching a strange doctrine That's

not in accordance with the will of God They're not being spirit-led because listen where's the spirit going

to lead you The spirit is not going to lead you to a strange doctrine The spirit is going to

lead you to the word of God That's where the spirit is going to lead you Take everything you

hear everything you see and line it up with the scripture And if it's not there reject

it That's a false teacher He or she says something that's not in accordance with the

word so I must reject it But listen if you don't have the word if you don't know

how to discern the voice of God you'll follow anyone anywhere not knowing what the

final destination is going to be That's why Jesus said My sheep hear my voice

If you're spirit led you're going to have a sensitivity to the voice of God because it's gonna line up

with the word of God Now the role of the Holy Spirit is clear John 16:13 Jesus said when

the Spirit of truth comes he called it the Spirit of truth Talking about the Holy Spirit He will guide

you into all truth That's the role of the Holy Spirit Number one he's the spirit

of truth and he comes to guide you into all truth Those the scriptures use the word guide Means he's

gonna lead He's gonna direct you into all truth Where is he gonna direct you to

Where is he gonna lead you to the word of God You see how everything comes

back to the word Everything comes back to the word Isaiah chapter 30 verse 21 your ears shall hear

a word behind you saying this is the way walk in it Jesus said in John 14:6 I am the

way walk in it I am the truth walk in it I am the life walk in it We have

to have a sensitivity to the leading and the guiding of the voice of God and the Holy

Spirit's role is to help us to discern the voice of God the truth of God's word It's the Holy

Spirit that guides us into all truth It's either all truth or it's all lie

There is no half truth It's either all truth that comes from God or it's

all lie which comes from Satan And the Bible says in John chapter 8 he's the father of lies

We have to have that sensitivity to the voice of God and the only way we're gonna get it is

not on our own ability it's not based on our own intellect We have to lean

on depend on be led by the Holy Spirit And we need to practice this

spiritual discipline of discernment and how do you practice it You practice it by doing what the Holy Spirit

leads us to do It's called faith We want to understand it all before we

do it No that's not faith That's not faith in any sense of the word Faith

is unseen We're walking by faith not by sight So we have to step out

in faith and the only way we can do that is by making that a daily discipline in

our life being sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is not going to take

you somewhere the Lord don't want you to be The 4th thing that I want to share

with you today the Holy Spirit purpose is to equip you for service The Holy

Spirit equips us with the power and the spiritual gifts that we need to serve others And as

we move in obedience Every gift that we need every word that we need will come to

us 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7 says to each is given the manifestation of the spirit

for the common good for the profit of all That's why the gifts are given and we

have been given these gifts to serve others to advance the kingdom and it's the spirit that equips us

with spiritual gifts and abilities to serve others and we need to use our spiritual giftings and

abilities To bless others and to build up the body of Christ To edify to encourage to comfort When you

pray your spiritual gifts and abilities are in manifestation You're interceding on behalf of another believer You

can't take that for granted And in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 Paul makes it clear there are

no little gifts and big gifts Every gift is needed in the body in order

for it to function but we all have to work together to function as one So don't

neglect your gift If it's prayer pray If you're speaking words of encouragement keep speaking

words of encouragement Pray that God shows you your gifted area and then flow in it and you'll be

a tremendous contributor to the body of Christ And the last thing I want to talk about and this

ties in with 0.4 empowerment for service 0.5 is the boldness in our witness How do you know

that you've been spirit led Because you'll be witnessing for Jesus Christ and there'll be a

boldness there A spirit-led believer is bold and they're witnessing and sharing the gospel and

living out their faith not arrogant but bold Acts chapter 4 verse 13 says when they

saw the boldness of Peter and John they recognized that they had been with Jesus

because there was a transformation especially with Peter Peter went from denying the Lord 3 times to becoming

a bold witness for Jesus but it was the spirit that gave them the boldness to speak and to share

the word And God does not respect a person so the same spirit will give us the

boldness to speak and to share the word Acts chapter 4 verse 31 says they were all filled

with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness They had no fear They

didn't care if they got beaten they didn't care if they were thrown in jail They

were filled with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit gave them the boldness to speak and to share

the word because the Holy Spirit does not give the spirit of fear 2 Timothy

and of love and a sound mind So if there's any fear in us when it comes to speaking the

word sharing the word it didn't come from the Holy Spirit We have been empowered for

service We have been empowered to become witnesses of Jesus Christ So Monday Tuesday Wednesday

Thursday Friday Saturday what should we be doing Telling somebody about Jesus Christ We have

so many things that's available to us now that the apostles did not have but you have

to have the boldness to be a witness for Jesus Christ and you can be bold and courageous

Because God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power love and a sound mind And

it's the spirit that gives us the courage to share the gospel and to live faithfully in

an ungodly world So many people are saying one thing out of their mouth but their

life reflects something totally different In order for you to be a bold witness for Jesus Christ your words

have to line up with your actions You can't just talk the talk but you also have

to walk the walk And the Holy Spirit has given us the courage to do that So we need to

step out in faith and boldly speak the truth of the word We're just the vessels the vehicles

that the Lord is using to get His word to a lost ungodly world But

we need to be bold in our witness We need to step out in faith and

we need to speak the truth in love