How to be Led by the Holy Spirit – 4 important steps

How to be led by the Holy Spirit is one of the most important things you can learn to do as a follower of Christ.  How much better would your life be if every decision you made was the right decision?  Knowing how to be led by the Holy Spirit will help you make the right decisions.

You Can Know How to Be Led by the Holy Spirit

Here’s the thing – you can know how to be led by the Holy Spirit.   It is one of the benefits you have as a believer.  Being led by the Holy Spirit is not for just a chosen few, but it is for every believer. Romans 8:14 tells us “For as many are led by the Spirit of God these are sons of God.”  You could take this verse and turn it around to say those who are sons of God are led by the Spirit of God.  In other words if you are a follower of Christ.  You can know how to be led by the Spirit of God and you should be!

God’s Spirit Bears Witness with our Spirit

 So, the question then is how can we be led by the Spirit?  Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit ...”  When you become born again your spirit is made alive and it as the the ability to communion with God.  God speaks to us by the Spirit – He speaks to our spirit.

Jesus said, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. (John 16:13) In other words the Holy Spirit will guide us and tell us things to come.  He does it by speaking to our spirit. Proverbs 20:27 puts it this way, “The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly. “ 

Don’t Trust Your Feelings or Own Reasoning

God does not lead us by our feelings, emotions, or mind, yet most of us are trying to figure out what to do based on how we feel, what we see or what makes sense.  Proverb 3:5 says,  “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”   If we are going to be led by the Holy Spirit it has to be through our spirit.  There are 4 basic, yet very important steps you can take that will help you know how to be led by the Holy Spirit. 

How to be Led by the Holy Spirit – 4 important steps

1) Develop your relationship with the Holy Spirit.      The Holy Spirit is the third person of the God head – Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a person, it’s not an it, or a power, or force.   You can have fellowship and communion with the Holy Spirit.  The more you fellowship with Him the better you will know Him.   To be led by the Holy Spirit you need know His voice.  If you want to know His voice you have to spend time with Him.  It is important to develop your relationship with the Holy Spirit if you want to be led by the Holy Spirit.  “May the grace of’ the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).

2) Develop Your Spirit.   God is speaking to us and wanting to lead us  by His Spirit, but He does it by speaking to our spirit.  Then our spirit speaks to us. Some call it the “still small voice” or  the  “inward witness”  That “small inward voice” is our conscience.  Have you ever done something  you know was wrong and immediately you got this ugly feeling on the inside?  That is your conscience speaking to you. Your conscience is the voice of your spirit.  How do we learn to discern that “inward still small voice”?  We need to develop our spirit.  

You develop your spirit much like you develop your muscles.   Your muscles grow and are strengthened by the right diet and exercise.  Your spirit grows and is strengthen by the right diet – the Word of God and exercise – doing what the Word says to do.  We are to be a doer of the Word not a just a hearer of the Word.  (James 1:22)  The more mature and stronger your spirit is the more you will be able to be led by the Holy Spirit. You develop your Spirit by feeding on God’s Word and then doing what it says to do.

3) Know the Word of God.    The number one way the Holy Spirit leads us is through the Word of God.   “The word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”  (Psalms 119:105)  The leading of the Holy Spirit is never going to be contrary to God’s Word.   We can trust the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, but we must know that truth so He can use it to guide us. The Holy Spirit will help us understand the Word as we study it.  “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  (2Timothy 2:15)  Knowing what God’s Word says is critical to being led by the Spirit

4) Instantly Obey the voice of your spirit.  This will develop the sensitivity of your spirit to the voice of the Spirit of God.  When you don’t obey your spirit becomes calloused and desensitized.  Learn to instantly obey the still small voice with in.

Put these four steps into practice and you will grow spiritually and become better at following the lead of the Holy Spirit in your life.   The more you grow spiritually the better you become in discerning the voice of God and being led by the Spirit.