The Holy Spirit: Your Inner Compass

SPEAKER 02 : 0:01

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, August 27th. When faced with a decision, how do you know what to do? Let’s continue the series on the power of the Holy Spirit to understand how He guides us every step of our journey with the Lord.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:20

Every day you and I have to make decisions. Some of them have great significant consequences and some of them appear to be very insignificant. But whatever our decisions may be, sometimes they carry far greater consequence than we realize. Some of them are irrevocable. You can’t change them. Once that decision is made, it’s made, and you have to live with the consequence. All of us want to make right decisions every time, but we don’t. We can’t always know all the facts, don’t have all the issues at hand, and so sometimes we make wrong mistakes. Sometimes those wrong decisions are the result of carelessly, indifferently making up our mind without seeking God’s direction. The wisest way to make a decision is to find out what is the mind of God. What does He want us to do about this particular situation? And that’s what I want to talk about in this message entitled, The Holy Spirit, Our Guide. I want you to turn, if you will, to John chapter 16. He says in verse 12, I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall take of mine and shall disclose it to you. All things that the Father has of mine, therefore I said that he takes of mine and will disclose it to you. So let me say, first of all, that the Holy Spirit is an all-sufficient guide for us in the decisions of our life. Well, it’s very evident that he is because Jesus said on one occasion, in fact, in this very same chapter, the seventh verse, he said, I tell you, it is to your advantage that I go away. He says, because if I don’t go away, the helper will not come. But when I go away, I will send him. And you recall, he says, I will send him. He’ll be in you, with you, and upon you. And here in this passage, he says, he’ll be your guide. One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to lead us in our decisions, to guide us in our daily affairs, to give us direction about how we to spend or invest our life, and to prevent us from making those mistakes that oftentimes the consequences are deadly in our life. And so he says, when he comes, he will guide you, the Bible says, into all truth. Now think about this, that every time you and I make a decision, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are all in on that decision. Now look at this, if you will, in verse 13. He says, Let me explain what that means to them. What He was saying to them was this. When the Holy Spirit comes, He’s going to tell you what to do next. They were confused and frustrated and full of fear. If you leave us, what’s going to happen? How are we going to know what to do next? You’ve been leading us for three years. We’ve been following you. He says, when the Holy Spirit comes, you won’t have to worry about what to do next. He will guide you into all truth. And the way He’ll do it is this. He says, the Holy Spirit will receive from me. I will disclose it to him. He will disclose it to you. So God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are all involved in your decision-making and my decision-making process. And what he’s simply saying to them in verse 14 when he says, he shall glorify me, he was saying to them at that point in their lives, When the Holy Spirit comes, He’s going to explain to you the meaning of the crucifixion. He’s going to explain and encourage your heart about the resurrection so you’ll know what took place. All things that the Father has are mine, therefore I said, that He takes from me and will disclose it to you. So He says the way you and I receive direction is from the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, which is what He’s saying to us here. Now, Not only has he promised us guidance from heaven, but God took another step. He says that when you and I received the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, the Holy Spirit came to indwell every single one of us. And you recall He said when He comes, He’ll be in you, with you, and upon you. And He will abide with you forever so that all of us have indwelling us the person, not the force, not the thing, not an it, the person of the Holy Spirit. And He within us is like having an inbuilt compass. That is, we have someone on the inside of us who will direct us properly, exactly the right way every single time. He will never make a mistake. I didn’t say we wouldn’t. He will never make a mistake. He will never misguide us, mislead us. He will never teach us anything that is not true. He’s the spirit of truth. And so every single believer is one who has the Holy Spirit living inside him or her. And therefore, it’s like having a compass on the inside. And what we must do is our spirit must be in tune with the Holy Spirit and in agreement with Him. And when our spirit is in agreement with the Holy Spirit, we will make the right decision every single time. That is the promise of the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our life. Now, he says when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into what? He will guide you into all truth. Now, here’s the promise. I say all of that to say that he is a sufficient guide because he’s living on the inside of us and knows everything and is there instantaneously. We can consult Him. Instantly, we can consult Him. And He’s not there on a temporary basis. He’s there from the moment you receive Him as your personal Savior. Forever, the Spirit of God is indwelling and abiding within us so that we always, without an exception, no matter what’s going on, we always have Him to rely upon, to trust in, to give us guidance. What a wonderful, reassuring thing to live in this crazy, mixed up, sinful world of ours where so many people have so much advice that is so absolutely unscriptural, unbiblical, anti-God, anti-Christ. And yet we have one on the inside of us who says, listen to the one who is within you, the Holy Spirit. Don’t listen to all the voices about you. And so here’s what Jesus said. He says, I promise you. Jesus says, I promise you, I’m going to send you one who will tell you what to do next in every decision you have to make. Now, he’s not going to drive us. He says he’s going to lead us. Now, think about this. First of all, God the Father loves us unconditionally. He knows our failures, our weaknesses. He knows oftentimes you and I have to make decisions. We don’t have all the facts. Sometimes the situations are such that we can’t know all the facts. We can’t always know all the truth. That’s why the sovereign spirit works within us to give us guidance and leadership that oftentimes will not fit the world’s opinion. And so the world says why. Nobody in their right mind would do that. But it’s not a matter of being in our right mind. It’s a matter of knowing the mind of God. the one who loves us unconditionally, the one who is involved in every aspect of our life, has so condescended to come in the person of the Spirit to live on the inside of us, as he says, in order to give us absolute clear guidance. Now, think about, for example, how often in the Scriptures God reassures us of His guidance. Well, let’s turn back, if you will, to the 23rd Psalm, the one you probably know the best of all and can quote the best. And I don’t know whether you’ve thought about it or not, but there are two times in this passage that he assures us and promises us guidance, the guidance of the Spirit. Now listen to what he says in Psalm 23. I know you know it by heart, but there’s something about looking at it. Look at this. He says, the Lord is my shepherd. Therefore, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He does what? He leads me beside quiet waters. Verse three, he restores my soul and then he guides me into the paths of righteousness. Here is the promise of our Lord, of His leadership in our life. Turn to Psalm 32. There are lots of them. We’ll just hit a few of them. Psalm 32, and you’ll recall in verse 8 what He says. He says, I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your path. Luke chapter 12, verse 12 says, The Holy Spirit shall teach you in the same hour what you ought to say. That is, guide us, lead us. All through the scriptures, God assures us and promises us his leadership. Now why? Because He wants the best for us, and He knows in order for us to have His best, we must know what to do and how to do it next. Now, let’s look at some examples in the New Testament of how Jesus fulfilled His promise. He says, when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He’ll guide you into all truth. Well, did he really do that? He certainly did. And here are several examples of how the Spirit of God led those servants of God as the New Testament church began to make decisions that were difficult for them. So look, if you will, first of all, in Acts chapter 11. Acts chapter 11, you’ll recall, is the incident of Peter having been to Cornelius’ house and how the Gentiles heard the gospel, and now he’s got to explain it all and sort of defend his preaching and what happened there. And he answers that in the 11th chapter by saying in verse 12, “…and the Spirit told me to go with them.” Here’s Peter saying, “…the reason I did what I did is because the Holy Spirit gave me clear guidance to go with them without any misgivings.” Listen, “…and the Spirit told me to go with them.” without misgivings, very clear guidance. Turn to Acts chapter 16. And you recall here on the second missionary journey that Paul has Silas with him and here’s where they get in trouble. But before they do, they’re headed in one direction and something happens. If you recall in verse 6 of Acts 16. And they passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. Clear cut direction, clear sense of direction. The Holy Spirit said, don’t do it. That is, don’t preach the gospel in Asia. And when they had come to Mycenae, they were trying to go into Pythia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. So again, the Holy Spirit is giving them clear direction. What did Jesus say? When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. You say, well, now I understand that’s for the apostles, but what about us? So I want you to turn, if you will, to Romans chapter 8. Because the promise that Jesus gave to his apostles was not simply to them only, but to all of us. So that the promise of the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit that he was to perform in those days, he still performs today. So look, if you were in Romans 8. He says in verse 14, for all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God, which is his way of simply saying it is the natural, normal way for the sons and daughters of God to live. How’s that? To be led by the Holy Spirit. That is, that’s our lifestyle. When you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, you gave up your rights to yourself. And so therefore, from that point on, you and I were to follow him, to obey him, to walk after him, to walk uprightly before him. In order to do that, we had to know what to do, when to do it, how to do it. And so he says, when the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all the truth. He says the sons and daughters of God are led by the Spirit of God. And turn, if you will, to Galatians chapter 5, and you’ll recall he says in verse 16 of Galatians 5, He says, but I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. What is he saying? He says that you and I are to live our lives how? Leaning upon, relying upon the Holy Spirit. That is, relying upon His guidance, relying upon His energy, relying upon His direction day by day. It is the natural, normal course for the believer to daily walk in the mornings when we awaken, seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our life, in our decisions, whatever that decision may be. That’s the normal way believers ought to live. We should arise in the morning, putting on the whole armor, he says, the helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, loins girt about with truth, feet shy with the preparation of the gospel, peace, sword of the Spirit, above all, taking the shield of faith, and he says, above all else, praying. That is, we’re to dress up in the morning when we get up to face the day and all the things that are going to happen. And not only that, But to ask and to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit who’s living within us, this inbuilt compass we have, the person of the Spirit seeking His direction and guidance, asking for His warnings when we’re heading in the wrong direction, asking for His clear guidance when we’re about to make a decision. We are to live enveloped by the person of God. Listen, in the mind of God, He never sees us getting up and going over yonder apart from Him. The Spirit of God sees us. God sees us as living, that is, indwelling in His presence. baptized in His presence, enveloped in His presence, enmeshed in His presence, permeated, saturated with God. There’s no separation between us and Him. And we’re to live each moment, each day, aware of His presence, and that’s what godly living is all about. A godly man or a godly woman is a person who lives in the awareness that they’re walking in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ moment by moment, day by day. And you see, a person who is seeking the mind of God, seeking the Spirit’s guidance and direction, never sees themselves at any moment separated from Him or doing anything apart from the presence of Christ, who is living within us in the presence of the Holy Spirit. So… When you and I think about the Spirit’s guidance, don’t look back and say, well, that’s what he said to the apostles. He said, when the Spirit of truth has come, he’ll guide you into all truth. He also said, when the Spirit of truth comes, what’ll happen? He said, ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth. So you can’t take one of those promises and say, well, I’m going to claim these and ignore those. No. God knew how absolutely, totally dependent you and I would be upon Him to make the right decisions. The third thing I want us to note here is this. When He says, “…when the Spirit of truth comes, He’ll guide us into all truth.” with a particular purpose in mind. It’s a threefold purpose, really. And here’s what the threefold purpose is. Number one, the Holy Spirit is there to guide us, to prevent us from making wrong decisions in the immediate present. He knows we are prone to make decisions. Sometimes with snap judgment, we don’t think. So we want to make one right now. Look, if you will, in the very first verse of this chapter, what he says. He says, now these things I have spoken to you that you may be kept from stumbling. I don’t want you to falter. I don’t want you to fall. That is, I don’t want you to make the wrong decision. So he says, what I’m telling you is for the purpose of preventing you from making the wrong decisions. Making decisions in your life that’ll be detrimental to you. He says, so I want to tell you when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you. He will guide you. He will show you the way. He will teach you. And so one of the primary motivations of the Holy Spirit leading us is to prevent us from making those mistakes in the immediate present in which we live. Those daily things that we have to decide. The second motivation is that you and I may fulfill God’s great purpose for our life. If you recall in Ephesians chapter 5… what he says in this passage. Look there for a moment, if you will. Beginning in the 15th verse of the 5th chapter of Ephesians. Therefore, be careful how you walk, how you live, not as unwise men or women, but as wise, making the most of your time, which means, listen, making the most of your life, reaching your life’s potential, fulfilling God’s great purpose for your life. making the most of your time because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is for your life, whatever that might be. And we know the verses following say, one of God’s purposes in our life is to be filled with the Spirit. But think about this. The Holy Spirit is your God living within you moment by moment, day by day. He is there eternally. He’s permanent. He is instantaneously accessible to us and He is there to prevent us from making mistakes moment by moment in our daily decision process. Secondly, He’s there to guide us to make the right decision about our overall purpose in life. What are you living for? Spending it or investing it? Where are you headed in life? What are your goals? What are your ambitions? What are your dreams out there? Are these things that are consistent with God’s purpose and plan for your life? That is, what is the will of God? He says the Spirit of God is living within you in order to protect you and guide you and lead you to make wise decisions. It is foolish to make decisions in our life and ignore the presence, the power, and the preeminent right of God to guide us in making those decisions. There’s a third motivation, and that is, that motivation has to do with God’s ultimate purpose in our life, which is in Romans 8, 29, when He says that He predestined us to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. So, the Holy Spirit is indwelling us, is leading us and guiding us with a threefold purpose in mind. That tomorrow morning, whatever you’re facing, you’d make the right decision. He would keep you from stumbling. Secondly, as you pursue God’s purpose in your life, that you’d make right decisions in fulfilling that purpose. And ultimately, that you and I would be able to look back in our life and see that we’ve made right decisions all along the way. And in the process of making those right decisions, God was shaping us and conforming us to the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER 02 : 19:39

Thank you for listening to The Holy Spirit, Our Guide. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.