(ver 1.2) This is Part 5 in a series of very important basic Christian Bible lessons on the subject of Being Led by the Spirit of God.  We have covered a lot of information that will not be repeated so if you have not read this from the beginning I would suggest that you go and start with “Part 1”  first.  In the last lesson I attempted to emphasize the importance of hearing, learning and understanding the written Word of God and then becoming a doer of the Word of God and not just a hearer only.  Learning God’s Word and then following your knowledge of God’s Word by acting it out, makes you a disciple follower of Jesus Christ permitting the Spirit of God to guide you.  Ignoring God’s word and being independent from God’s word will prohibit the Spirit of God from leading you.  Therefore I believe that the written Word of God is the number one method that God has chosen to communicate with all of humanity in order to lead them out of the dangers, adversities and the negative consequences of living in a world of darkness ruled by Satan.  It is also essential to understand that whatever the Spirit of God speaks to your heart will always be established upon the written Word of God.  The voice of the Spirit of God will never instruct you to do anything that is contrary or opposed to the written word of God.  God will never lead anyone into sin.  Do you understand that?  This is probably the main reason why it is essential to know the Word of God intimately.

ESTABLISHING AN INDEPENDENT BELIEF APART FROM GOD’S WORD

You see I once heard the story of a woman who claimed that the Spirit of God had spoken to her and told her that she was going to become the wife of a well-known preacher.   This lady went about telling her friends and they even held a mock wedding by faith to proclaim and confirm God’s direction. The only problem was that this preacher already had a wife, but this woman and her church friends were not going to let the Bible or the facts get in the way of what they believed that God had articulated to her in her private prayer time.  That is clearly an example of a woman being deceived by a spiritual voice other than the voice of God.  The Bible teaches us that God’s words are forever established in heaven (Ps 119:89), therefore they do not change.  What God speaks today will not ever contradict what God has spoken yesterday.  The Bible clearly teaches us not to covet or desire what your neighbor already possesses (Exo 20:17) nor is it ever legal or permissible to commit adultery (Exo 20:14) or murder (Exo 20:13).  God would have to kill the current preacher’s wife in order for another woman to be married to him.  This woman was perfectly content to ignore these key Bible verses thinking God has suddenly changed His mind to what is allowed within His established Laws.  All you need to do is to go and read the story of David and Bathsheba (2 Sam 11) and you will see clearly that God did not indorse this type of behavior of taking another person’s spouse.   Wow, that is a crazy dangerous approach to Christianity if you choose to ignore the Bible to establish an independent belief system of right and wrong.  Clearly Jesus called this a type of behavior the acts of a foolish man building his spiritual house on shifting sand and this will result in a great destruction of that house when the storm arrives (Mat 7:26-27).

THE TIME FOR KNOWING THE WORD OF GOD IS NOW!

Also in the last lesson, I used the example of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke to show you the appointed time of salvation and learning the Word of God is right NOW while you still can!  No human non-Christian is guaranteed a tomorrow.  No one likes to contemplate death, but death is inevitable for everyone if Jesus tarries long enough.  Many people in hell today probably thought they had more time before they had to make a choice.  However making no selection is still a conscious choice and people don’t always realize that.  We are all born into the world ignorant of the truth.  Therefore everyone is required to seek the truth in order to find it.  Those in hell today have either ignored the truth, did not seek the truth, refused to believe the truth and their ignorance of God and His word has caused them reap what they have sown and that is not good news for them.  I like to think of the Bible to be like the manufacturer’s handbook of instructions for the men and women on the earth.  Clearly we are God’s creation so there is no better place to learn about what God has created than learning it from the Creator’s own Owner’s Manual!   I also like to think that the Bible is God’s divine service plan of maintenance and repair for the human mind and spirit.  Without these inspired words written on the pages, no one could be saved today, including me!  Therefore knowing the Bible is the foundation for everything else that occurs in our life that is positive.  I guess the flip side (inverse truth) of that statement is that everything else that happens negatively in your life could come as a result of you not knowing the Word of God and doing it.  I really hope you understand the awesome importance of the Bible to some greater extent.   I’m going to give you the list of the twelve divine methods of communication that I have been teaching from again today so that you can review them:

1. The Audible Voice of God
2. The Finger of God
3. Angels Sent by God
4. Prophets, Teachers, Pastors, Evangelists, Apostles or other Men/Women (disciples) of God
5. The inward Still Small Voice of God
6. The Written Word of God
7. External Visible Signs from God
8. Visions from God
9. Dreams from God
10. Prayer of an Individual
11. The Inward Witness of God / Moral Conscience / Intuition / Internal Knowledge / Spiritual Insight
12. Patterns found within God’s Creation

From this list I have introduced you to methods 12, 9, 8, 7, 6, 3, 2 and 1 so far.  So we are getting nearer to the end, but we still have a lot to cover and maybe some of the most important methods are still left to come.  I think today I am going to focus only on number 4 and speak to you about a method that God has used extensively in the Bible to communicate with many people.  Like the written Word of God, the use of a human messenger like a prophet has been comprehensively established by God from cover to cover.  There are certainly overlaps between the written word of God and God’s usage of a man to bring a verbal message to God’s people.  Many of the prophetical Old Testament books were God’s messages to the nation of Israel and these messages were always designed to ultimately point Israel to Jesus.  However these books also still hold information that is relevant to the church that we need to learn from today.  As the population of the earth increased from the two original father and mother of us all, God came down to one man or one woman usually to bring a message to all of the others.  The first recorded human messenger of God could possibly be viewed to be Adam.  Clearly we are told that God spoke to Adam and Eve and prophesied many things to come.  However, if Adam ever left us a message from God I do not know of its existence today.  The major problem with believing Adam was a prophet is the lack of anyone else on the earth to prophesy it to.  Everyone present on earth heard what God said in Genesis 3 and this is the last time that I know of that this has occurred.  It was only when Adam and Eve had children that they could teach them anything about what God had said and I do not know where that is recorded in the Bible either. In the book of Jude God declares that Enoch the seventh son from Adam prophesied about the coming of the Lord.  This is the first time that I know of where God says a man brought a direct message from God to others, but it is certainly not the last time this occurred.

BELIEVE HIS PROPHETS BY FAITH

2Ch 20:20  And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.

God is basically equating your belief in God to your belief in hearing the words of His prophets to be the same.  This verse is informing you of one way you can prosper in the world.  To prosper is an all-inclusive term including health and wealth.  Of course this verse is written to natural Israel, but it has a double referenced intentional truth that applies to the modern church today also.  God is declaring a greater truth in this verse than you can imagine.  God had to speak to the prophet in order for the prophet to speak to the people.  The people had to hear the message an then believe the message and finally accept and do the message.  This is an example of being led by a prophet and this is very valid in the Old Testament, but I’ll have to explain why it is not so valid in the New Testament soon.

Everything that God does on the earth is based upon a spiritual law called faith (Rom 3:27).  If God would come to everyone individually or corporately and reveal His existence, no one would be permitted a freewill choice not to believe in Him.  However if a single man of God comes from God to you with the Words of God you now have a freewill choice to make immediately!  Do I believe that God sent this man and do I believe that he speaks for God?  These are now faith based choices built upon you hearing and believing or hearing and rejecting the words spoken to you.  If you choose to believe them, then you are saved, but if you refuse to believe them God says you will perish  (Mark 16:16).  This is clearly an example of the divine sovereign choice of God.  God allows all men freewill to do as they please.  God never forces anyone to believe anything.  Here is a scripture that reveals the faith based process created by God.

Rom 10:14  How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

Hearing a preacher is a concept that dominates the entire Bible from Genesis to the Revelation.  Noah was revealed to us to be a righteous preacher (2 Peter 2:5) of the truth of God and he proclaimed the end is near for nearly 100 years while building the ark.  Everyone heard the message and laughed at the words of God and then the rains came and washed them all away.  It is also this exact same way today.  Jesus said as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days before the coming of the Son of Man! (Mat 24:37).  Today, when I tell people that the end is near, I have people laugh at me and perhaps you do to.   What would have happened if God suddenly appeared to everyone on the earth in Noah’s day?  Would anyone have doubted Noah then?  I do not think they could.  It is clear to me that God’s ways of doing things are not our ways of doing things.

THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL AND GOD’S MEDIATOR MOSES

When God heard the cries of Israel in bondage in Egypt, what did God do?  God selected one man named Moses to be the deliver with the message of deliverance.  Moses continued to be the man with the message from God right up until he died in the wilderness.  This is called a mediator approach to communication between two parties.  Not listening to the preachers of God today may cause you to be washed away or even left in symbolic Egypt very soon also.  This is one of the main reasons that I listen to every preacher that I can.  I have over 10,000 MP3 files of preachers and teachers and I have listened to most of them and some of the lessons I have listened to a 100 times because they were so good.  Please understand why God has done what He has done.  God forces everyone involved to have faith and believe His words.  The children of Israel definitely had this choice and wavered back and forth based upon whether Moses was actually present or not.  Pharaoh clearly did not believe Moses had the words of God and hardened his heart against God.  God sent plagues and eventually convinced Pharaoh after the firstborn of his family was killed.   There are always consequences for not hearing the Word of God and doing it.  This is an important lesson but I’m going to move on and continue teaching on being led by the Spirit of God.

THE 5 FOLD MINISTRY GIFTS IN THE CHURCH

Let’s shift our focus off of the Old Testament examples to more modern relevant teachings found within the New Covenant for the church:

Eph 4:11  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

Eph 4:12  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

Here in Ephesians 4:11-12 is the same concept of a Noah or a Moses being repeated in the modern church today.  Sometimes people don’t realize that what God did in the Old Covenant is a foreshadowing of what He will do again in the New Covenant.  There is truly nothing new under the sun as it says in Ecclesiastes.  The thing that has been in the natural realm is the exact same thing that shall be again in the spiritual realm.  We know from reading here in Ephesians that not everyone in the church is an apostle.  Not everyone in the church is a prophet.  Not everyone in the church is an evangelist.  Finally not everyone is called to be a pastor or a teacher either.  This is a divine designed hierarchical structured approach to spiritual organization.  It is a classic set and sub-set teaching from high school math.  We are all in the Body of Christ Set, but we are not all in the Apostle subset, for example.  Without structure we would have a body of all leaders and no followers or all followers and no leaders.  Jesus of course is the Head of the Body and He takes preeminence over everyone else.  Jesus Christ is also the only physical man on the earth that occupied every office of the 5 fold ministry.  However what God does today is to give some men and women on the earth today a specific role of responsibility with a message and these individuals are held accountable for teaching it to everyone else.  The Bible says that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance (Rom 11:29).   It was this way with Moses and the children of Israel and it will continue to be this way until the church is taken up very soon.  Why does God do things this way?   You need to immediately stop and ask yourself are you a called apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher or are you just a disciple?  Finding your place in the body will determine what you need to do next.  If you are NOT one of the classic 5 fold ministers then why are they needed, if the same Spirit of God is resident in you as it is in them?  Can’t the Spirit of God just teach me everything that I need to know directly?  I think that is an excellent question!  This method that God has implemented, gives everyone individual responsibility and future accountability for doing what God has said.  Again it is based upon the requirement of the spiritual faith of each individual to respond and to believe the message from God when no one has ever seen God.  Without faith it is impossible to please Him (Heb 11:6) God says.  Ignoring the subject of faith will cause you to be unpleasing to God and miss out on the blessings of God and that is a tragedy.  Many times I have seen God lead people with questions to the men of God who know the answers.  This is a modern example of being led into the truth by the Spirit of God.  God leads some men to find certain things in the Bible and to teach them and then God leads others who wish to know the truth to those that are teaching it.

God declares that He has established apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the “perfecting” of the saints.  Did you know that you were a saint RIGHT NOW?  There are many Christians who do not include themselves in the “saint” category of spiritual beings.  One unnamed church denomination votes people to sainthood based upon some undocumented and unscriptural working of miracles supposedly?  Therefore in this church no one can be a saint unless some men on the earth say they can be one and this is usually after they are dead and gone.  So technically to them there can be no benefit on the earth of being a saint and it appears to have benefits only in the afterlife.  Wow, that makes the Christian life pretty tough if you have to please men and you choose to ignore God.   That is another example of how some people have ignored the Bible to teach another man-made doctrine.  I am a saint right now according to the Bible and if you are born again you are a saint also right now according to the Bible!  Use your Bible program on your computer and search for the word “saint(s)” and go read about yourself and find the truth.  There are 62 verses in the New Testament that use this word in KJV Bible.  If you don’t have a Bible program you can download one for free.  You have no excuse not to search and find what the truth is.

The Greek word translated as “Perfecting” does not mean you will become perfect!  The Greek word translated as perfecting comes from a word that means to “repair”.  What does it mean to repair something?  Does it mean that something must first be broken or in need of repair?  I believe that it does.  I never fixed anything that was not broken.  Also I do not know about you but anytime I ever repaired something I could never call it perfect again.  Even if you glue it back and fill the cracks no matter what you attempt to do to it, it can never be called perfect again.  The Bible is more complex than this one verse however.  There is a verse that says “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature” (2 Cor 5:17).  After being born again you become a brand new creation in your spirit, but your mind is still not renewed until you replace all of the old natural junk with God’s Word.  Do you feel like you were broken before Christ came along?  After you were a believer, did you feel like you were a new creature?  This is why we do not walk by feelings, we walk by faith in God’s Word.  I need to get back to the main subject and talk about God’s usage of the 5 ministry gifts.  God says that the ministry gifts as described in Ephesians have been given for the good of the whole church body.  If you are a teacher then teach.  If you are not a teacher then learn to study from a teacher called by God.  If you are an apostle go to who God has sent you to. If you are an evangelist preach the gospel of salvation to everyone.  If you are a pastor become a shepherd to God’s sheep.  If you are a prophet prophesy what God gives you for the edifying of the body.  Soon I will give you an example of just because you are an apostle that does not mean you do not need a prophet.

I have heard many people say to me I can read and study the Bible all by myself and the Spirit of God will teach me everything that I need to know!  That is a belief built upon a partial truth ignoring all other truths.  If that was the complete truth there would be no need for God to have teachers like me in the church.  If that was the complete truth, there would also be no requirement for you to have faith!  The scripture in John 16:13 that people embrace incorrectly says “The Spirit of Truth will guide you into all truth”.  But, if you expect the Spirit of God to teach you all truth you have misapplied the verse.  There is a great deal of difference between being led into the truth and being taught the truth directly by the Spirit.  I have people being led by God to my website to get answers that they have been searching for and this is how God works.  When you try to misapply the Bible you paint yourself into a corner that limits God’s ability to reach you.  If you expect God to teach you what He has already taught someone else to give you the answer, then you are expecting things to happen outside of the designed plan of God.  It is true that everyone is required to study the Bible for themselves (including me) and to research and prove all things that anyone else teaches by confirming it in the Word of God! (Acts 17:11)  But that does not mean that God is going to come to you and tell you everything nor does it mean God will give everyone the same revelation knowledge or understanding of the Bible.  You just cannot find this in the Bible.  God gave Paul specific revelation that He gave no one else.  God gave John the revelation of the end times and you cannot find anyone else that wrote the same book of information unless you go back to Daniel and see some specific parallels.  Guess what I’m a Bible teacher and I do not know everything.  Only God knows everything.  No man is God!  That is another reason why I listen to other Bible teachers.  God will never give any one man the complete knowledge of the entire Bible.  So I’ll tell you very plainly you need to read and study from many teachers of God and not just one.  The more you know the faster you will be able to recognize which ones are stronger in their knowledge of God and which ones are less mature than maybe you are.  Some preachers I listen to one time and move on because they have no clue what they are saying.  You need to learn to let the Spirit of God within you confirm what a man is teaching you and I’ll get into that more soon.

A PERSONAL EXAMPLE OF GUIDANCE FROM A PREACHER

I went to a church that had a pastor that is still one of my favorites.  When I lost my job over twenty years ago because the company went bankrupt, I started seeking God for help and guidance.  I told you in the last lesson that I began to seek God by looking first to the Word of God and God spoke to me about having a job for me from a verse that I saw in the Bible.  But, that was not the end of the story.  Within two weeks I had two job offers from two different companies.  At that time I was standing at a fork in the road of life decision point.  I knew that God had said that He had a job for me by me believing His Word, but which one do I take?  If I only had one job offer I could assume that this was the one that God had opened up for me.  But since I had two job offers I had to assume that one was the right one and the other one was the wrong one.  So I began to pray again and ask God for which one to take.  One Sunday night in church my favorite preacher was speaking and all of sudden he said something that rang true in my spirit to which job to take.  This is a prime example of how the Spirit of God can answer your prayer request by speaking through another Spirit filled man of God.   The preacher never knew he was speaking to me and I never told him I needed to hear from God.  This makes it more spectacular when God answers in this way.  It also proves He heard my prayer request because the preacher was led by the Spirit of God and he was able to deliver the message to me from God.  I took the words of the preacher to be from God and not from the preacher and I made the choice and worked for that company that I felt led to go to.  I hope you understand what I am saying today.  God sometimes uses other people to get you a message.  I have to admit I was not expecting to hear it from the preacher, but God did it this way to teach me a new lesson.  The preacher that is speaking to you may never be talking directly to you, looking at you and they may not tell you anything specifically like your name or your choices that you should make but they may simply just say enough to give you the direction to go in and you know it in your spirit.  I don’t know how God does it exactly or why God does it this way sometimes, but I am a witness to the fact that it is done this way often in churches that are led by the Spirit of God.  If you are not getting directions or guidance from you pastor to the events of life you are going to the wrong church.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF BEING LED BY A MAN OF GOD

I’ll give you another example from a preacher that gave his testimony of how God led him.  This preacher was offered a church position in Texas.  He really wanted to make sure he was being led by God and not by an offer so he began to pray and seek God for what to do!  Do I stay here or do I go to Texas?  This was another example of a fork in the road of life with no visible sign posts for the direction to travel in.  Always remember if any road could get you where you needed to be then it would not matter which decision you made.  However when I studied the Bible, I learned that just any road is not the right answer.  Only the narrow right path will lead you to life and the wide path leads you to destruction.  So it definitely matters in life which road you select in everything that you do.  This preacher continued for several days praying and asking God for direction and one day he was walking outside down the road praying again for what to do and another minister of God not from his church came running by getting his exercise.  He suddenly stopped and said something to the effect of you better stay where you are at and then kept running by.  This running preacher did not know the situation nor was he asked to give his opinion of what was being contemplated.  It was simply the Spirit of God speaking through him confirming what the other preacher should do, but was debating in his mind because of a new church offer.  Again this is just how God does things sometimes.  The preacher stayed in the church he was at and that church is now one of the largest churches in that city.

WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU NEED TO KNOW WHICH ROAD TO TAKE?

If you are ever faced with a fork in the road life decision like should I marry that man?  Or should I work for that company?  Or should I move to another city?  Then you need to stop and seek God for what to do.  Don’t do anything or be pressured to do anything until you actually are confident that you have heard from God.  Did you hear what I said?  This could be a matter of minutes or even a matter of several days.  Look for the answer to come in several different ways depending upon your spiritual maturity and your ability to hear the Spirit of God.  I’ll use a famous movie line that I remember which the teacher said to the student “Don’t move till you see it”.  If you move before you hear from God you will probably regret it very soon.  If you pray and ask for directions then expect to hear God answer, but you are going to have to exercise some patience and wait until you hear.   Let me give you another Bible example from the New Testament:

Act 21:10  And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus.

Act 21:11  And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.

People, we are told are tarrying in Jerusalem for many days?  To tarry is an act of waiting and exercising patience.  Why were these people in Jerusalem waiting?  I guess they were waiting to hear from God?  I based that upon what happened next!  God sends a prophet to the group in Jerusalem with a very specific message for them.  Remember we are talking about the Apostle Paul here in this group of people!  Apparently even an apostle needs a prophet occasionally.  The prophet takes Paul’s girdle and binds his hands and feet and here is the part that I want you to see.  The prophet says “Thus says the Holy Ghost”.  Wow is that important?  These are not the words of the prophet, they are clearly the words carried to be delivered to Paul from God.  God teaches us that men still bring messages from God to other men even if they are great apostles and wrote 2/3 of the New Testament.  If you think you will never need your brother or your sister in Christ you might just miss one of the most important messages from God that you have ever needed to hear.  Are you grasping these concepts today?

Why didn’t God just speak to Paul directly?  I personally believe that God did speak to Paul directly and the prophet sent was just a confirmation to what Paul already knew in his spirit.  I will definitely speak more in the future about being led by the Spirit of God personally, but today I am just trying to teach you how God still uses men to get messages to other men.   I also want you to see that you do not have to be a preacher, teacher, apostle, prophet or evangelist to be sent by God with a message.

Act 9:10  And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.

Act 9:11  And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth,

I want you to see in these two verses that there is a lot going on.  The spiritual information being taught is extremely complex and very extensive.  Before these verses Saul was on the road to Damascus and Jesus shows up in a vision and this is another demonstration of the sovereign will of God getting the attention of a future great man of God.  In this vision Saul was saved, did you know that can happen?  The Bible says Saul must have believed in the Lord because that is what Saul calls Him, his Lord!  According to what God says in Romans 10:9-10, that is all it takes to be saved.  It is also interesting to note what Jesus said to Saul as instructions.  Let me give you verse 6 quickly:

Act 9:6  And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

Jesus was speaking to Saul personally in a vision and He tells Saul to go into the city and basically wait for further instructions.  Why didn’t God just tell Saul what was going to happen right then?  God has his full attention, but the full disclosure of information was never given.  This is how God operates.  God will tell you the step by step instructions of what to do and He will hardly ever give you the end step before the first step.  As you can see Saul is required to obey and to believe which is called walking by faith.  The Spirit of God then speaks to Ananias in a vision and tells him to go to the house where Saul is for the next steps to take place.  Both men are required to walk by faith.

We are told that Saul is in a house praying and then before that it says a certain disciple named Ananias must also have been praying because He was given a vision from God to go to see Saul.  Saul is the future Apostle Paul and God uses a relatively unknown spirit-filled disciple to deliver a message so that Saul can receive his sight and be filled with the Spirit of God.  What I am attempting to teach you is that you do not have to hold an office of one of the five-fold ministry positions in order to be used mightily by God.  Anyone available can be used by God to bring someone a message of help so that they can receive an answer to their prayer.  What we learn from this story is that if Saul would have refused to be ministered to by a simple disciple because he was looking for a great prophet, or an angel or another vision from Jesus, he would have not written the greatest part of the New Testament.  Do you see my points found in this story?  Can you learn anything from this that you can apply to your situation today?  I know I can!  Maybe you should go back and reread the entire chapter and see what other nuggets of spiritual knowledge you can find hidden there.

ASKING GOD THE RIGHT QUESTIONS!

Let me speak to another issue in closing concerning how to be led by God with greater precision.  Does it matter how you ask God for direction?  You better believe it matters.  Everything you do and how you do it always matters.  If you ask without using any wisdom you may paint God into a corner where He has to choose between the lesser of two evils.  You see there are three different types of questions generally speaking.  These are Yes/No Questions, closed questions and open questions.  If you are faced with a fork in the road life decision choosing between two obvious choices, always leave God a different answer or option.  This in effect changes the question from a closed question to an open type of question.  In other words when I look back upon my decision of choosing between two jobs that were offered to me and I only asked God “Do I work for company A or do I work for company B?”  Do you see the problem with that question?  What if there was a company C that was the optimal way to go and I missed that one because God had to choose between the lesser of the two bad choices that I gave Him to select from?  Wow, that is some very good and valuable teaching and I hope you understand what I am saying?  Remember when Jesus came up to the boat walking on the water in Matthew 14 and there was a great storm raging and the disciples cried out in fear and then suddenly Peter says “Lord if it is you bid me to come on the water”!  That is a clear example of painting God into a corner with a closed question without thinking about what you are asking.  Because it was Jesus He had no choice but to say come!  There were no other correct answers for Jesus.  Jesus could not say no Peter it is not me, don’t come!  He could also not say “Yes it is me but don’t come”.  Neither of these would have been permissible for the question being asked.  So Peter goes out to walk on the water like Jesus and eventually is shrouded in new found doubts of uncertainty and begins to sink.  Now Jesus is forced to save Peter because he was not ready for water walking faith.  Peter should have asked “Lord if it is you and it is your will tell me to come” or “If I am able to stay above the water and it is you, bid me to come”.  Would either of these different types of questions resulted in a different answer from Jesus?  Potentially yes!   What I have learned is we would all benefit if we would learn to think before we speak.  Always give God an out for a different better possible direction to go in.  Never place specific limitations on God’s answer by your question.  Never stop and say “Should I stay here or should I go to Texas”?  There could be something else behind door number 3 that is way the best choice for you but you missed it because you were not open to that possibility.  I began to learn this lesson from how Jesus prayed and asked His father things.  Once Jesus is recorded praying and saying “If it be possible, take this cup from me, nevertheless not my will, but thine be done”.  You can see that Jesus left it open ended to do the will of God and did not elminate any possible choices.

I hope you have learned something new about being led by the Spirit of God today.  This subject is very complex and God has many ways to get a message to you.  Being open and smart to these methods will allow God to get to you faster than if you were narrow minded and placed constraints on God’s ways to communicate.  We still have several more methods to discuss and hopefully we will go a bit faster now, but I cannot guarantee that.  I will have to wait and see how the Lord leads me and then try to follow what He wants to say.  If you have ever heard God speak through a minister to answer your question to God, please tell me about it.  I’m sure I’m not the only one that has experienced this.  Thanks for taking the time to read and study the Bible today and until next time God Bless you tremendously.

If you would like to continue reading in this series of lessons you may continue to “Part 6” now.