Listening to the Holy Spirit

[Smalcald]

Onelight, yes I think listening to the Holy Spirit is critical to our life on this earth. The question is for me, having the humility to listen to the Holy Spirit and not myself. Many times according to scripture following our hearts, following our desires, will lead us to hell.

I don't think listening to the Holy Spirit is automatic nor easy for a Christian, in fact it may go against our basic nature. Luckily for us we have the Word of God which is infused with and written by the Holy Spirit to use to test what is within us, we have a guide we are not alone in understanding what the Holy Spirit is saying to us in our life.

One thing I do now which I did not understand before is use thoughtful quite and patience, I wait, sometimes for years to understand an answer to my prayers or to understand what the Holy Spirit is saying.

[CBE1]

Onelight, yes I think listening to the Holy Spirit is critical to our life on this earth. The question is for me, having the humility to listen to the Holy Spirit and not myself. Many times according to scripture following our hearts, following our desires, will lead us to hell.

I don't think listening to the Holy Spirit is automatic nor easy for a Christian, in fact it may go against our basic nature. Luckily for us we have the Word of God which is infused with and written by the Holy Spirit to use to test what is within us, we have a guide we are not alone in understanding what the Holy Spirit is saying to us in our life.

One thing I do now which I did not understand before is use thoughtful quite and patience, I wait, sometimes for years to understand an answer to my prayers or to understand what the Holy Spirit is saying.

I don't think listening to the Holy Sprit is automatice either. And it may not be easy to get myself to listen to the Spirit, but it is very easy to hear from the Spirit, however it is hard to believe that I can. So it is not the hearing that is hard, but the believing that is hard.

Also, while I can see the God has always had a plan in my life, I do not think it is right to concluded that just because I do something that the Holy Spirit was actually leading me. For this reason I believe that it is important to check with the Lord through out the day to make sure I am acting according to what He wants. I believe that if I am indeed going to be lead by the Spirit of God, I am going to have to listening to Him through out the day, and the more the better.

[OneLight]

I have always believed that the closer we walk with the Lord, the easier it is to recognize His leading. It is not automatic, but takes work on our part. If we only give Him 50% of ourselves, He can only work with 50%. We need to lay our lives down completely so He can use us as He wills, not only when we agree. If anyone wants Christ to be truly the Lord of their lives, then it can only be accomplished by us surrendering truly to Him.

[CBE1]

I have always believed that the closer we walk with the Lord, the easier it is to recognize His leading. It is not automatic, but takes work on our part. If we only give Him 50% of ourselves, He can only work with 50%. We need to lay our lived down completely so He can use us as He wills, not only when we agree. If anyone wants Christ to be truly the Lord of their lives, then it can only be accomplished by us surrendering truly to Him.

Absolutely

[nikki1]

I have always believed that the closer we walk with the Lord, the easier it is to recognize His leading. It is not automatic, but takes work on our part. If we only give Him 50% of ourselves, He can only work with 50%. We need to lay our lives down completely so He can use us as He wills, not only when we agree. If anyone wants Christ to be truly the Lord of their lives, then it can only be accomplished by us surrendering truly to Him.

Blessings, Alan

I concur with the above. This is basically what I meant when I said earlier that learning to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit is not an easy task and it took me quite a few years to learn how to hear His voice. After several years and as I became closer and closer in my walk with our Lord, and as I began to trust Him more, His voice was quite distinct and I knew without a doubt it was His voice. There were times when I wasn't walking as close to our Lord as I now see, and looking back on those times, I see that was when I wasn't hearing His voice as distinctly.

[OneLight]

I have always believed that the closer we walk with the Lord, the easier it is to recognize His leading. It is not automatic, but takes work on our part. If we only give Him 50% of ourselves, He can only work with 50%. We need to lay our lives down completely so He can use us as He wills, not only when we agree. If anyone wants Christ to be truly the Lord of their lives, then it can only be accomplished by us surrendering truly to Him.

Blessings, Alan

I concur with the above. This is basically what I meant when I said earlier that learning to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit is not an easy task and it took me quite a few years to learn how to hear His voice. After several years and as I became closer and closer in my walk with our Lord, and as I began to trust Him more, His voice was quite distinct and I knew without a doubt it was His voice. There were times when I wasn't walking as close to our Lord as I now see, and looking back on those times, I see that was when I wasn't hearing His voice as distinctly.

Blessing to you also!

Yes, I have had the very same experience. Some are blessed enough to hear and recognize right away, most are not. Only God know what the difference. As long as we continue to be more like Him, that is all that matters.

God Bless,

Alan

[Fez]

I have always believed that the closer we walk with the Lord, the easier it is to recognize His leading. It is not automatic, but takes work on our part. If we only give Him 50% of ourselves, He can only work with 50%. We need to lay our lives down completely so He can use us as He wills, not only when we agree. If anyone wants Christ to be truly the Lord of their lives, then it can only be accomplished by us surrendering truly to Him.

Joh 13:23 Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.

That close! Leaning on Him and hearing His heartbeat!

Imagine...... The heartbeat of God!

[Permie]

by Ovedya: Incidentally, the "cowardly" in Rev. 21:8 are unbelievers, not believers.

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Revelation 21:8

Why would the verse repeat the unbelieving twice?

Not meaning to speak for Ovedya - but if you're referring to "the fearful, and unbelieving" as being two separate things, then you should know that AND, {kai} is a connecting word.

Kai

and, also, even, indeed, but.

It's joining fearful and unbelieving, as a means of enforcing unbelieving. It doesnt make it two separate things, but rather one bigger thing.

kai

Pronunciation

kī' (Key)

Part of Speech

conjuction

Root Word (Etymology)

Apparently, a primary particle, having a copulative and sometimes also a cumulative force

That sure is one long run on sentence then with all the "ands" in it. I do see that the word "kai" includes the possibility of the meaning "also". If all the commas, which indicate a separation, were removed then I would tend to agree with you.

As it is, the use of the commas indicate a separation/difference as the word "also" (kai) would too.

With the commas as they are used, I read them as a list.

[Permie]

Grace to you,

As you probably know, I believe that at our core, our real selves is love.

That's incorrect according to Scripture.

Jer

[OneLight]

Doing a word study on Revelation 21:8, I have discovered the following.

"Fearful", or "cowardly", are said to be Christians who cower under persecution, that may become apostatized.

"And" is not used to describe one person, but different people, each having their own weakness.