How to Trust and Obey the Holy Spirit | Season 03, Episode 09 | Simple Truth Podcast

Have you ever known what God wanted you to do, but you didn't do it? Not because you didn't hear him, but because you weren't sure enough to act. Sometimes Christians, they're not struggling to recognize God's voice. Sometimes they're struggling to move when he speaks. They wait for more clarification, for more clarity, maybe even a better feeling. And in that hesitation, they miss the moment. But the Bible is clear. being led by the spirit. It's not optional. It actually defines you and me as God's child. This is bigger than just decisionmaking. This is about your relationship with God. Because when the Holy Spirit speaks to you, he's not just giving you a direction. He's inviting you to make an important response. And when we resist him, we don't just misguidance. We actually grieve or sadden the Holy Spirit. Ouch. In this episode, you'll learn what it really means to trust God's voice, how to obey, not just hear the Holy Spirit, and how to walk confidently in the direction and guidance that only God's Holy Spirit can give. So, let's get into it in this episode of The Simple Truth. Welcome to the Simple Truth Podcast, where we open the Bible to uncover simple, biblical, and essential truths that can transform your life. And now, here's your host, Ted Ross. Hi, my name is Ted Ross, and this is the Simple Truth Podcast, your home for biblical truth clearly taught and freely given. We're in season 3, episode 9. We're getting close to wrapping up season 3 on how Christians grow. And where last episode we talked about how to hear and recognize the Holy Spirit, this episode gets practical. We get tactical. We're going to talk about how to trust and obey the Holy Spirit. So, let's get into it. Why does this episode matter? Well, many Christians, they say that they trust God, but they hesitate when the Holy Spirit speaks and when it's time to act. They want clarity. They want comfort. They want some full understanding before they obey. So they delay, they ignore, they second guessess what God is actually saying. But scripture shows that being led by the Holy Spirit, it's actually what defines you as a child of God. We're going to see that in Romans 8:14. We'll look at other verses, too. If you want a successful Christian life, if I want a successful Christian life, then we must learn to trust and obey God's voice. In other words, we need to be led by the Holy Spirit. In this episode, you'll learn how to trust God's voice, how to obey with confidence, and how to walk in the divine direction. What a blessing that is. The divine direction that only God can give. By the way, folks spend a lot of money to get direction, to get advice, to get counsel. And at no cost at all. The only cost is we're going to have to lay down our lives. Amen. We are going to be able to walk in divine direction provided by God through the Holy Spirit. So, what is the path to a spirit-led life? Here's a recap of what we covered in last episode, the spirit-led life in practice. What were the steps, right? First of all, you recognize God's voice in your daily life. You're doing what you're doing, but you hear when the Lord is speaking. Secondly, you got to discern that it's God. Remember what we heard in last episode. There are many voices. We have voices inside ourselves, some of our own thoughts and some of our own musings. And there's also other voices outside of us. And it's not our job to follow our voice. It's not our job to follow other voices. It's our job to follow God's voice. So last episode we got into great detail on how to discern whether it's God or not. Number three, then you have to trust his direction even if you don't have full clarity. And we're going to take a look at a variety of scriptures in which we saw people who didn't understand all the details or exactly how everything was going to come to pass, but they still stepped out and obeyed God because they had a confidence it was God who was talking. Number four, obey what God says. Do it quickly. Do it consistently. If God is truly speaking to you and guiding you, then get on with it. And number five, review your response. Seek confirmation. You don't just go out and do things. You go out, you do it, and then you examine yourself and you check and see, was that God? Is is there a confirmation that I was following God's spirit or was I missing it? Right? And so, you're going to do a review afterwards. These are these five steps along the path. Okay? So, as we discussed last episode, it's about recognizing, discerning, trusting, obeying, and then reviewing. And in last episode, we drilled in on recognizing and discerning. So, in this episode, we're going to drill in on how to trust, how to obey, and what does it mean to review your response to God's voice. Amen. So, this brings us into our first simple truth. You should trust God's direction when he speaks to you. In that path of recognize, discern, trust, obey, and review. This is where we get into the trust part of it. Okay? And we're going to take a look at Proverbs 3:es 5 and 6. All Bible verses in this entire episode, they're going to come from the New King James Version. So, feel free to follow along. And in Proverbs 3:5, we're going to see that you can't trust God's leading while relying on your own understanding. Amen. Proverbs 3:5, quote, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." Amen. Trust that means rely on, place full confidence in. It implies resting your weight fully on something you believe will hold you. Uh quite often you may have heard a pastor or preacher speak on this topic. A good example is a chair. When you go to sit in a chair, you have full confidence that the chair will hold you up. You don't kind of slowly lean into a chair. You have great expectation that it'll be able to handle your weight. That is trust. The trust that is being spoken of in Proverbs 3:5 is the same kind of trust. Put your trust in the Lord the same way you'd put your trust in a chair you're sitting in. Rely on it. Place full confidence in the Lord. Amen. And it says, "Do so in the Lord." This word Lord, this is the personal covenant name of God. It's self-existent. It's unchanging. It's faithful. This means God keeps his promises and he is worth trusting in. We're not just talking about trusting John or Jane or whoever we're talking about. We're talking about trusting the Lord God, who by the way, he was before us and after us. And when God speaks, he keeps his promises. He is faithful. He is reliable. And you can trust the Lord. Amen. And it says, "Lean not on your own understanding." To lean not is to don't support yourself. Don't depend on your own understanding. Your own understanding is your own insight, your own discernment, your own reasoning. So to say that you should rely and place full confidence on God and to not depend on your own reasoning, that's a powerful thing to say and it's directly related to trusting in and obeying the Holy Spirit. God's direction. It often goes beyond what makes sense naturally. So Christians will have to choose trust over control when God speaks. I'm going to repeat that because many people prefer control over trust. And in this case, to obey God, to serve God, to please God, you will need to choose trust over control when God speaks. Proverbs 3:6. And here we're going to see that the Holy Spirit guides your life when you trust and involve him in your daily decisions, not just the big decisions. Okay? Proverbs 3:6, quote, "In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths. In all your ways, those are your paths, your decisions, your actions. Acknowledge him. That means to intentionally recognize and be aware of God. So in all of your decisions and actions, intentionally recognize God in them and be aware of God as those decisions are being made. And he shall direct, he shall lead correctly, he shall make straight, he shall make right your paths. That's your way of life. That's the direction that you are walking. It's the direction that you're going in. God's direction is not automatic. You're not some kind of robot. You must intentionally involve God in your decisions and then he will direct your paths. What does it mean to trust God? Well, you intentionally involve him and you submit to his guidance in your life and that requires faith. So, let's take a look at Hebrews 11 6-8. And here in Hebrews 11:6, we're going to see faith. It's not optional. It's required to please God because trusting God is foundational to obeying God in your life. Hebrews 11:6, quote, "But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is God and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him." Amen. It says, "But without faith, without trust, without belief, without confidence in God, it is impossible. It's not possible. We are unable to please him. That means to be acceptable to him, to be pleasing to God. I don't know about you, but I think it's pretty clear that if I want success in my life, if I want success as a Christian, then being acceptable to God, being pleasing to God should be my goal. And to be pleasing to him, quite clearly, it shows here that we need to trust, believe, have confidence in him. For without that faith, it's not possible to even be pleasing to God. Amen. It says, "For he who comes to God must believe, must trust and rely on, commit to that he is God and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek God." Trusting God's voice, it means stepping out in faith. It means that you are confident that God is trustworthy and God is a rewarder of those who seek after him. Let's see an example in Hebrews 11:7. And here we're going to see that trusting God sometimes means acting on what he says even when we can't even see the reason or even the evidence yet. Hebrews 11:7, by the way, if you want to read more about faith, read the entire chapter of Hebrews 11. Some folks call it the roll call of faith, right? It's a list of people who obeyed and believed God and who pleased them with their faith and with their obedience. Hebrews 11:7, quote, "By faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith." By faith, by trust, by belief, by confidence in God, Noah being divinely warned mean God directed him, God instructed him, God spoke to him, right? He warned him of things not yet seen. Noah had not seen, perceived, or understood. There was not a flood that he could see and point to and say, "I better get an ark ready for it." A flood was coming. The divine warning came and Noah on faith built an ark much to the humiliation of others around him. And he was moved with fear. That means he acted in reverence. He acted in respect. When God spoke to him, he respected God's voice. And he took the huge undertaking of what it means to build the ark and submit to God's will. And he did so without seeing evidence. He had not seen that what was about to happen. Noah acted on what God said to him, though it didn't make any sense. In Hebrews 11:8, we're going to see that trusting God. It often means obeying God's voice even when the outcome is not quite known yet. That's why it's faith. Hebrews 11:8, quote, "By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going." Amen. God bless all of you. God bless us all that we could hear God's voice and that we could walk in faith and trust God and obey God that we can do something even though we don't know the outcome, even though we don't know where we're going. But if we're confident and we know that it is God's voice, I pray that you obey it and I pray that we all obey it because God knows how to lead a person and he knows how to direct a person. He knows how to make a path straight. But he's looking for us to believe him and trust him as he speaks to us. So Abraham obeyed. He listened attentively. He responded with action. And he went out. He departed. He went forth, right? He went out to a place not knowing where he was going. He didn't understand. He had no knowledge. And in his own reasoning, he had no clue where God wanted him to go or what was happening. And he still stepped out to do it because he was very confident that he heard God's voice and he was going to obey God's voice. God doesn't always give you and me a full map. He doesn't sit us down and say, "You're going to do this, this, this, and that, and here's going to be the result." God doesn't confer with our counsel. God sits us down and says, "Ted, Jane, John, Joe, whoever it may be. I need you to go out and do this." And you're gonna say, "Okay, is that you, God?" Okay, it is God. It seems like it's God. I'm going to step out in faith and I'm going to do it. And if I if it's God, he'll confirm it. If it's not God, I'll say, "Dear Lord, I missed it. I need to keep reading, keep praying, keep fasting, keep seeking your face because clearly I thought that was you, but it wasn't you. And I know you speak to your people." God wants you to trust his next step. Right now, let's take a look at John 3:8. And here, we're going to see that you won't always understand how God is leading. Remember what we saw back in Proverbs. It says, "Lean not on your own understanding, on your own reasoning." You're going to see that you and I won't always understand how God is leading us, but you're still called to trust God and to follow in his direction as the right way to go. John 3:8, this is Jesus talking. The winds blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the spirit. Okay. The wind, that's a very interesting word. It's numa in Greek. Numa with a pn. Wind. It can mean wind like air. It could also mean breath like a lifegiving force. It could also mean the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. Okay. So Jesus is doing a play on words, right? There's word play involved here because Jesus is saying the wind blows where it wishes. The wind moves according to its own will and purpose. You and I don't control the wind. You can't control the wind. The same is like the Holy Spirit. So the same way that the wind blows, you're not sure where it's coming from or exactly where it's going. So is the Holy Spirit, right? Amen. That's a powerful, powerful statement. And it says, "So is everyone who is born, everyone who's brought forth, everyone who's produced, everyone who's led by the Holy Spirit." So like wind, God's leading is not always predictable. The wind's not predictable, and so is being led by the spirit. It's not predictable according to our reasoning or our mind, but it is always right. So trust and follow God even without seeing the full picture yet. Amen. So let's take a moment. Okay. So, we know we need to trust and have faith in the leading of God's spirit. Amen. So, what happens if we don't have trust and faith in God's spirit? What happens when we don't trust his voice? Let's take a look. First Thessalonians 5:19, you can stop the work of the Holy Spirit in your life by simply ignoring, in other words, not trusting what the Spirit is telling you to do. 1 Thessalonians 5:19, quote, "Do not quench the spirit." A very concise scripture. Do not quench the spirit. What does that mean? It says, "Do not." Uh, that seems self-explanatory, but let's go ahead and define that. Do not means it's a negative command. It means never do this. Okay? Never do this. Never quench. That is to extinguish, to suppress, to put out like a fire. Don't extinguish the Holy Spirit. Don't suppress the Holy Spirit. Don't put it out. Interesting. And it says, "Put out the spirit." The Holy Spirit, right? The sacred breath of God, the holy wind of God, like we were seeing in John. To quench the spirit means to suppress or to resist his leading like putting out a fire. This happens when Christians they ignore, they delay, or they reject what the Holy Spirit is prompting or convicting them to do. Ephesians 4:30. In this verse, we're going to see that when you ignore or you resist God's voice, you're not just missing direction in your life, you're actually hurting your relationship with God. Ephesians 4:30, quote, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." To grieve is to cause sorrow, to cause pain, to cause distress. It says, "Don't cause sorrow, pain, or distress to the Holy Spirit, right? To the sacred breath, the Holy Wind of God." That's the third person of the Trinity, folks. The Holy Spirit is a person equal with the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit dwells in Christians as we saw in season 2, episode 2. Feel free to check out that episode for more details. He speaks, he guides, and he teaches us if we would submit to him. Amen. It says, "Don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God." It says, "By whom you were sealed, you were marked, you were confirmed under God's ownership for the day of redemption." That's deliverance. That's final salvation. It's God's second coming. That's the day of redemption that's being described. So it says here that the Holy Spirit marks you as belonging to God. You were sealed and you're sealed for deliverance, for final salvation. So when he convicts or he prompts you, respond to him with obedience. Don't resist him because being disobedient or resisting the Holy Spirit of God with whom is why you were sealed for the day of redemption, you grieve him. So, let's take a moment. You might be thinking,"Well, I'm practicing the five disciplines to grow my relationship with God. So, I certainly don't want to damage that relationship by ignoring or resisting, aka grieving, the Holy Spirit's prompting and conviction. But here's the truth. If you want a closer relationship with God, you can't ignore his voice. You must hear it and obey it. You must submit yourself to God's will and you must be led by the spirit of God. Which brings us to our next simple truth. You must obey God's direction when he speaks. So in that path for spiritled life where you recognize God's voice, discern God's voice, trust in it, obey and review, we are now going to talk about the obey part of that road map, if you will. Let's take a look at Romans 8 12-14. In Romans 8:12, we're going to see that we don't owe our flesh obedience anymore. We used to be submitted and ruled by our flesh, but now our life, it belongs to God. Romans 8:12, therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. Clearly, Paul's setting us up for these next verses to say who we are debtors to, but it's not the flesh. It says we are debtors. We're one who owes a debt. We have an obligation but not to the flesh, not to our sinful nature, not to our desires apart from God. To live or conduct our life to live in a certain way according to the flesh, right? Aligned with, governed or ruled by the flesh, our sinful nature, our desires separate from God. When God gives us direction, we're called to follow God, not our own desires, not our sinful nature, not our flesh. And there's many good reasons why we should be following God and not the desires of our flesh. But let's take a look at Romans 8:13. And here we're going to see that life comes when you obey the leading of God's Holy Spirit. But ignoring him, ignoring God's Holy Spirit, aka living after the flesh, it leads you back to ruin, leads you to destruction. All sorts of harms and issues are associated with following after our own desires. We are not to be led by ourselves or self-led. We are meant to be spiritled. And in that, we will have all sorts of wonderful benefits. If we would hear and submit and obey the will of God, we will have tremendous benefits in our life. There's so many promises. is there's so many blessings associated with believing the gospel that God wants to perform and do in you. But he's going to do it for children. He's going to do it for those who submit to his will and perform his purpose, who fulfill his purpose in their life. And that requires submitting yourself to the leading of the Holy Spirit. So Romans 8:13, quote, "For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. It says for if you live according to the flesh, if you conduct your life, or if you live a certain way according to the flesh, that's the sinful nature. Those are those desires that are apart from God, separate from God, things that you're embarrassed to show God or talk to God about. It says, "But if you by the spirit, by the Holy Spirit, if by being led by the spirit, if you put to death, that is to actively kill, it's to bring to an end, to eliminate the deeds of the body." The deeds are your actions, your practices, your behavior of the body, of the flesh. Then you will live. Obedience to the Holy Spirit is how sin loses its power in your life. You do not gain power by telling yourself over and over again, don't sin. Don't sin. Don't sin. I'm such a bad person. And you beat yourself up for it. If you want to overcome that sin, you are going to do it by putting that sin to death, the deeds of the body to death through the spirit. You need to build yourself up in prayer and in fasting and in reading the word of God and meditating on the word of God. You are not going to overcome the sin of your flesh by just trying to beat yourself into submission or humiliate yourself or judge yourself. God has forgiven you. If you confess those sins, he's faithful and just to forgive you those sins. But you can overcome those sins and you can overcome those habits and those practices and those behaviors by building up your spirit. You are going to be led by God's spirit to overcome the the sins and the harms and the issues of the flesh. Okay. more importantly. So yes, obedience to the Holy Spirit is how sin loses power in your life. So instead of just trying to reduce sin, you're gaining strength in the spirit. That's how you do it. More importantly, this obedience is actually what identifies God's children. Romans 8:14. And here we're going to see that those who belong to God are led by God's spirit and they obey God's guidance. Romans 8:14 a famous quote for as many as are led by the spirit of God these are sons of God. So as many as are led to be led it's to lead to guide to bring along under direction. So as many as are led or guided or brought under the direction of the spirit of God that's God's holy spirit his sacred breath his holy winds these are the sons of God. to be a son. It simply means one who shares the nature and the character of the parents. So, we're not talking about just men here. We're talking about men and women. And we're talking about children and sons and daughters of God. We're talking about them because they share God's nature and God's character. This word emphasizes not so much birth. It emphasizes maturity and likeness. That is a very important distinction. So as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are God's children. It's not because they were born under God. That's not the point. It's they were brought into the fold and they are demonstrating their childhood. They're demonstrating their nature. They're demonstrating God as their parent through the maturity and likeness that they show. Okay? So this is a very powerful set of verses. Being a son or a daughter of God, it's not declared. You don't declare it. And even God doesn't declare it. It's demonstrated by being led by God's Holy Spirit. Because as many as are led by that spirit, those are God's children. Which brings us to our next simple truth. Review your actions to see if you followed or missed God. So in that path to a spirit-led life where you recognize God, discern God, trust God, obey God, and review, we are now in the review section. Let's get into it. We're going to take a look at 2 Corinthians 13:5. And here we see that spiritual growth requires honest self-examination. You must evaluate whether or not you truly followed God's spirit in any given situation, and you should be honest with yourself about it. 2 Corinthians 13:5, quote, "examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves." Paul writes to the Corinthian church. quote, "Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you are disqualified, examine yourselves, Paul says. That means to test, to review, to prove something's quality." When you examine, you test, you prove whether it has quality or not. He says, "Examine yourselves as to whether you in the faith." Faith, trusting, believing, having confidence in God. So review and prove and test yourself whether you are trusting, believing or having confidence in God. Then it says test yourselves in this verse. Carefully evaluate, prove something as genuine. Do you not know yourselves? Are you not aware or recognizing yourselves? Paul writes that Jesus Christ is in you. Do you not perceive that you've got Christ in you? Therefore, you can test yourself. You can examine yourself. He says, "Unless indeed you are disqualified, not approved, or you failed the test." Paul is saying, "Regularly review whether you are trusting, believing, or having confidence in God. Regularly review whether you obeyed God's direction or you missed it. If it's God's voice, then God will confirm it." So, how does God confirm it? By its fruits. Let's take a look at Matthew 7 15 and 16. And here we're going to see in Matthew 7:15, be discerning about who and what you listen to. It actually affects you. Matthew 7:15, quote, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. Beware, Jesus says, be alert. Take heed. Right? Keep an eye out of false prophets. The false prophet is one who falsely claims to speak for God. They're going to say, "God says this." And they may not even say, "God said this." They may come to you and say, "These are instructions from God. This is what it means to serve God. This is how righteousness is and isn't." So, a false prophet is one who claims to speak on behalf of or for God. And it says they'll come to you in sheep's clothing. They're going to be innocent on the outward appearance, folks. They're not going to jump up and say, "I'm a false prophet. Listen to me." I don't really think I haven't seen such people, but they're going to come, as Jesus said, with an outward appearance that's innocent. As if they belong to God's people, as if they're one of God's people. But inwardly, Jesus said, not on the outside, inwardly beneath the surface, they're ravenous. They're greedy. They're destructive. They seek gain. They're not seeking the will of God. They're not seeking right righteousness in your life. They're not seeking for you to be transformed and converted. They're seeking greed, destruction, and they want to gain from you somehow. And inwardly, they're ravenous wolves. A wolf is a predator. A wolf is an animal that seeks to destroy or do harm. Right? You do not need to be submitting yourself to false prophets and listening to teachings and messages of people who inwardly are greedy, destructive, seek their own gain, and they're predators. That means that they're trying to turn you into prey. Not every thought or impression is from God, even if it seems right. Okay. Matthew 7:16. Here we're going to see that the outcome of your actions or others actions, it actually reveals whether you followed God or not. Matthew 7:16. You will know them, these false prophets, by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? You will know. You will fully recognize, discern, identify these false prophets as well as others as well as whether you were led by God's Holy Spirit by their fruits. Fruits as we discussed in detail earlier in this season, right? where we showed you grapes. We showed you grapes on a vine. We discussed in detail about fruit. Fruits are results. Fruits are outcomes. Fruit is visible evidence of what was produced. Okay? So, you will know them by their results. You'll know them by their outcomes. You'll know them by the evidence that gets produced based on what they're teaching and what they're ministering. It says, "Do men gather grapes?" Right? Grape is something valuable. You can make wine out of it. You can eat it. There's so many wonderful things you could do with grapes. You can make jelly out of it, right? Do people gather grapes from thorn bushes that are thorny and and harmful? No, they don't. Or do they gather figs, you know, fruit that you could eat and make desserts out of? Do they gather them from thistles, which are thorny weeds, something useless to most people? No, they don't. So spirits, people, and decisions, they're revealed by the results they produce, not so much by how they appear. So that means sometimes something can look like it's a good thing, but be a bad thing. And there's sometimes something that can look like a bad thing, but it's a good thing. So that's why discernment is really important. And that's why it's important for you to review. You believe you followed God. Do an assessment, examine yourself, see whether you're in the faith, right? You can determine if you followed God's voice by afterward reviewing the results or the fruit of your actions. Amen. Galatians 5, we're going to look at verses 22 and 23. And here we're going to see that when you hear and obey the Holy Spirit, the result, aka the fruit, is godly qualities that reflect God's character and God's nature. Amen. Galatians 5:22, quote, "But the fruit of the spirit, the Holy Spirit, is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness." Amen. So it says, "The fruit of the spirit, the fruit, the result, the outcome, the visible evidence produced by God's Holy Spirit or being led by his holy spirit are these items that we're going to go through concisely." Okay. So, first of all, the fruit of the spirit is love. That's that selfless sacrificial care, that agape behavior where you love and you do what's best for people. It's also joy, which is gladness and delight. Amen. So, God didn't call us to be sad and and and bothered and just just grumpy. He actually has a fruit of the spirit which is a inner gladness and a delight. Third is peace, inner calm and rest. One of the outcomes or one of the results of being led by God's spirit or by God's spirit is an inner calm and arrest for you and for others. Longsuffering, it's bearing long with other people. A fruit of the spirit is your ability to patiently be long-suffering. That means you're doing good and you'll continue to do good even though they may have a problem with you or they're cursing at you while you do it. God bless you. It's a fruit of the spirit to longsuffer. Jesus did it. Paul did it. Peter did it. Many people did it. and you'll do it. And it's a fruit of the spirit in you. Amen. Kindness, it's being helpful. It's being serviceable to actually deliver things that are of benefit to others. Goodness, it's doing what's right for others. That we don't just do things for other people, but we do what's right, what's upstanding, and what's beneficial to them. And faithfulness, that's to be reliable and trustworthy. We don't just do it once. We are consistent in our goodness and our kindness and our love and our joy and our longsuffering. We are reliable and we are trustworthy. These are fruits or results or outcomes of God's Holy Spirit. Spirit-led decisions will consistently produce selflessness, benefit to others, discipline in your life, strength, inner peace, right? And other godly outcomes. And you'll know those actions and those behaviors by those outcomes, by those fruits. Galatians 5 23. Here we're going to see that obeying the Holy Spirit produces qualities that align perfectly with God, with his nature, with his character, and there is nothing wrong in them. Quote, gentleness, self-control. Paul finishes that list. And against such there is no law. So gentleness is strength under control. It's humility. That means you could exert some authority or exert some strength. You could respond in kind to someone who's doing evil, but you have your strength and you bring it under control. You're humble before God. Just because you can do it doesn't mean you should do it. You are going to obey God. That's where you're going to apply your energy. And self-control. That's mastery over your desires. It's disciplined restraint. God doesn't just have you just going out crazy, just just running out there and just releasing all this energy and all this wildness. God is going to put in you a fruit, an outcome that by his leading of his Holy Spirit, you actually bring your desires under control. You actually apply a level of disciplined restraint. Because as we saw with gentleness, God doesn't want you just releasing your energy everywhere. He wants you to submit to him, to obey him, and apply force where he wants you to apply force. Amen. Against such, so none of these instructions, none of these these outcomes, none of these results or fruits of the spirit does God oppose. None of these things God opposes. God doesn't oppose peace or love. He doesn't oppose gentleness or self-control. These fruits of the spirit are always right, and they're never in conflict with God. If following God's voice produced this kind of fruit, this byproduct, you were likely led by the Holy Spirit. If not, if you know all the opposite of these things was occurring, then you may have followed another voice and you may need to course correct. You may need to repent. For additional insight, I recommend you read the fruits of the flesh. So in Galatians 5:19-21, the time doesn't permit us to be able to read through those verses. You could read the fruits of the flesh. So, if you're being led by the spirit, you'll see the fruits of the spirit. And if you're being led by the flesh, you will see the fruits of the flesh. And those are found in Galatians 5:19-21. Let's take a look at 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22. In 1 Thessalonians 5:21, we're going to see that spiritual growth, it comes when you confirm what was from God and let go of what was not from God. So, 1 Thessalonians 5:21, quote, "Test all things. Hold fast what is good." Test, that's to carefully evaluate, to prove something as genuine. We actually saw this in the preceding verses before. Same word. Paul says it repeatedly. Carefully evaluate, prove something as genuine, and do it for all things, everything without exception. Then Paul says, "Hold fast, firmly retain, keep hold of, don't let go of that which is good. Those things that are noble, those things that are right, those things that are beneficial in results." Notice that word results again. We talked about fruit of the spirit being outcomes or results. And now we're seeing that we should hold fast to those good results. We should continue to do those things that provide and deliver the fruits of the spirit. So Paul said, "Test everything and hold on to those things that are good that deliver the fruits of the spirit." Examine whether what you heard and acted on was truly from God. Right? That's what he's saying. Test everything. Evaluate it. Prove it. Examine it. If it's proved to be of God, then hold on to it, as Paul says here, and thank God for it. If not, if you examine and test it and evaluate it and pray about it and and get confirmation in your spirit and you you don't have peace regarding that thing that you did, then reject it. Then repent from it. It's okay. We will miss it sometimes, folks. God did not say, "Here's a list of rules, and everyone who follows those rules is great, and everyone who breaks one of those rules is terrible." That is not the New Testament. That's not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We our job is to repent from our old lifestyle, from our bad habits. We're to repent from those things that are desires of the flesh that we're missing and to believe, to trust in, rely on, and adhere to the gospel. That is what God calls us to do. For Jesus to preach in the book of Mark, to repent and believe the gospel, it means there are things for us to repent from. Okay. So now, let's take a look at 1 Thessalonians 5:22. Once you recognize what was from God and what was not from God, then turn away what was not from God. 1 Thessalonians 5:22, quote, "Abstain from every form of evil." When you recognize what was not from God, you abstain from it. Abstain is to keep distance from, to hold yourself away from. Okay? every form, every appearance, every form, every expression, every kind, every type of evil. Evil's brokenness. Evil are things that cause harm. Things that have destructive results, that lead yourself and others away from God. That is evil. Just because it feels good doesn't make it right. There are going to be evil things that feel good. If you just look at the long list of things that people are addicted to, those are things that break them, harm them, are destructive to them, but they enjoy, right? And that is a terrible situation to be in. That's a bondage to be in. It's a bondage in which you should be building up your spirit to overcome and to get past those works of the flesh. So, you should abstain. You should keep a distance from, you should hold yourself away from any kind or type or expression of things that break you or harm you. In other words, of every form of evil. If you acted on what you believed was God's voice, but the outcome or the fruit or the result shows that you missed it, turn away from it. Repent from it. Now, let's get into some practical advice on being led by the Holy Spirit. Okay, final advice on being led by the spirit of God. Okay, we're going to go through some lists here. First of all, know that you can hear God. Do you understand me? We looked at this in detail last episode. Just know that you and I can hear God. God's sheep hear his voice. He literally calls us as a shepherd and he guides us and he guides from the front and we follow. Every Christian is made to recognize God's voice through your relationship with him. Second, continue to build the relationship with God. God's voice becomes familiar. As you spend time with him through the five disciplines, as you pray, as you read God's word out loud, as you meditate, as you fast, as you seek to be led by God's spirit, increasingly his voice becomes familiar. The distractions of the world become less familiar, and then it becomes easier to follow God's voice. Third, recognize how God speaks. God speaks through prompting, through conviction, through an inner witness, right? Like peace and through scripture. Something we went in great detail in last episode. Pay attention to those prompting, right? The Holy Spirit often leads through an inner leading, a nudge, a thought, something that's requiring action from you. Follow your inner witness. God will often confirm a direction through peace. Like I have a strong inner peace with this direction. I believe this is God and I have a strong inner peace. Even though some of the things on the outside might be a little crazy. There might be resistance. There might be persecution or pressure, tribulation, but deep inside I have real peace with that decision. Follow it. Or God warns you through a lack of peace. You know, I'm doing something and it doesn't even necessarily seem all that bad, but I have no peace with this. If you lack peace, abstain from it. Step away from it. In other words, pursue peace in your life. Next, ground yourself in scripture. The Holy Spirit's role is to impart truth to Christians. So, the Bible is a great way to confirm God's voice. Become more knowledgeable. Read scripture. It teaches a lot about who God is and who you are. Next, pray intentionally. Ask God this. Lord, what would you like me to do? What are you saying to me today? Listen for his voice. Be attentive to his response. Next, God often speaks during worship. Quite often, a person might say, "Well, I really want to hear God." Praise and worship creates a wonderful atmosphere to hear God's prompings and God's conviction. Next, test what you sense. Not every voice is from God. We saw it in this episode. We saw it in last episode. So, examine it. Examine it against the fruit of the spirit, against the outcomes of God, against God's nature and his character, and examine it against scripture and trust in God's direction. If it seems like God and you don't fully understand, consider trying it even if you may have to repent later cuz maybe you missed it. It's worth stepping out in faith. Remember, God is looking for those who will believe will have confidence in him because without that faith, it's impossible to please him. Accept both the go and the no prompting. You got that? God may tell you to go and God may sell you to stop going. A no prompting. The spirit guides us forward at times and the spirit restrains us at times when something is not his will. We saw that quite clearly in the book of acts in last episode. And then obey quickly. Delayed obedience it weakens your conviction. It dulls your sensitivity to God's voice. If you believe you heard the voice of God and you have discerned that I believe that's God, then get on with it and obey God and do it quickly. Next, choose obedience over comfort. Too often as Christians, we're seeking comfort, the comforts of this world. And we're we're doing it quite often in our feelings. I want to feel comfortable. I want to feel good. I understand we all want to feel good, but it's not about comfort and it's not about feeling. We need to follow God even when it's difficult or inconvenient for us to do it. And by the way, it's totally worth obeying God. And it's totally worth choosing obedience over comfort. Stay responsive to conviction. The spirit may correct you to guide you back into alignment with his will. Don't resist it. Don't resist the Holy Spirit of God. Remember, it grieves him. It sorrows him. Don't do that. Reflect afterwards, right? You're not going around blindly doing things. You're taking actions and then you're being sensitive. You're examining yourself. You're testing whether your actions were in faith or not. Right? Review your actions to see if you followed God or if you missed God. And evaluate the fruit. God's leading will produce the fruit of the spirit. It'll produce peace, clarity, righteousness. It's not going to create confusion and pride and ruin. Repent quickly if you missed it. Turn back to God. Ask for God's for forgiveness and let him correct your direction. God's forgiving and God's faithful. He wants you to be led by the spirit. And honestly, he understands that we're not all going to get it right every time. And be patient in your growth. Hearing God becomes clearer through practice, through obedience, and through experience. So, what about our next episode of The Simple Truth? You may remember in the beginning I said that we are getting to closing up season three on how Christians grow. It's been an intense nine episodes folks. We broke down how Christians grow through the five disciplines for Christians growth. So let's put it all together. Join us next episode as we answer all of your season 3 questions that were provided to us through social media and we apply these five disciplines to real life. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Simple Truth Podcast. Today we saw that trusting God is not complete till it actually results in obeying God. So don't just recognize God's voice, respond to it, obey it, and grow in your ability to follow and be led by the Holy Spirit. So here is a simple challenge for you for the next seven days. Each day, ask God, "What are you leading me to do today?" Then take one clear step of what you believe is obedience, no matter how small. And at the end of each day of the seven days, review and reflect on how you responded. Do you believe you did what God wanted or did you miss it that day? Take what you learned in this episode and apply it in real life. Start listening more closely, trusting more deeply and obeying more quickly. And if this episode helped you, please be sure to like, subscribe, and share it with someone who's also learning how to trust and obey God's voice. Next episode, we're going to get into answering your questions about Christian growth and the five disciplines, and we're going to bring everything together so you can apply these truths clearly in your everyday life. As we close season 3, it's been a pleasure talking about the Bible with you. I pray God bless you and God keep you and God help you hear his voice clearly and obey him faithfully. Until next time, thank you for listening to the Simple Truth Podcast. For additional episodes, visit us at www.simpletruth.org.