Being Led by the Spirit

There is a moment in John’s Gospel that should stop you in your tracks. Philip has just met Jesus, and the first thing he does is go and find his friend Nathanael — whose name, by the way, means gift from God — to tell him that the one they have been looking for, the one Moses said would be the answer to their problems, has been found. “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote — Jesus of Nazareth.”

The Samaritan woman said the same thing after her own encounter: come and see the man we have all been looking for — the one who brings us the answer to our heart cry from God.

So let me ask you the question this passage asks me. Can people say “I have found God” after they have had an encounter with you? Can they go about telling others, “The answer we have been looking for — to our problems and issues in life — God has brought to us through this person”?

What one encounter can do

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!” Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

John 1:47–49 (NKJV)

One sentence from Jesus — one glimpse of a man who knew what he could not naturally know — and Nathanael went from “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” to “Rabbi, You are the Son of God!” What an encounter with the Son of God.

And Jesus promised him more: “You will see greater things than these… you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

The plan of God is for you and me to be instruments — vessels — so that when people encounter us, they know they have encountered God. How? Through an encounter with a son of God.

Anyone can become a son of God

This is why the promise of the scriptures is that all sons of men — no matter who you are — can become sons of God.

And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, “You are not My people,” there it shall be said to them, “You are sons of the living God.”

Hosea 1:10 (NKJV)

John says the same thing: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12–13). And Jesus told Nicodemus that unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God — “that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:5–6).

To be “born of God” or “born of the Spirit” means that everything this person does comes from, is birthed by, and is influenced by the Holy Spirit — by God. Everything you do can be born of the flesh — your natural senses and feelings — or it can be born of the Spirit. And when what you do is produced by God, you are born of God. You are a son of God.

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. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Romans 8:13–14 (NKJV)

The world around you is waiting

Paul goes on to say something remarkable: “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19). Creation itself is on tiptoe, waiting. And it is waiting closer to home than you think.

• Your children are waiting for you to manifest as a son of God — to be led by the Spirit, not your flesh.
• Your office is waiting for you to manifest as a son of God.
• Your town, your friends, this church — all waiting for someone who is influenced not by what he sees, hears, tastes, smells, or feels, but by what the Spirit is doing.

Why are they waiting? Because of what happens when a son of God shows up: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Wherever sons of God are manifested, the works of the devil get destroyed.

God poured out His Spirit so there would be sons

How do we become sons of God? By being born of the Spirit — by our lives and actions flowing from communion with God’s Spirit. And because God was eager to produce sons, so that the works of the devil would be destroyed in this created, seen world, He poured out His Spirit on all flesh.

And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

Joel 2:28–29 (NKJV)

That passage was fulfilled in Acts 2. And since Acts 2, anyone who opens themselves to be led by the Spirit will prophesy — speak what they hear — will see visions, will dream dreams. And through them God will show wonders.

Here is the good news: if you have received Jesus, you already have this Holy Spirit. What we call the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or the infilling of the Holy Spirit, is really not you getting more of the Holy Spirit — it is the Holy Spirit getting more of you. This is why we are saved once, but we can be filled with the Spirit many times over.

You don’t become more of a son of God; you grow in sonship. You don’t become more anointed; you grow in the anointing.

How the Spirit actually leads

So practically — how are we led by the Spirit? How can our thoughts, actions, and words flow from and be influenced by the Holy Spirit? Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet, gives us clear insight into how he received from the Spirit: “Therefore my loins are filled with pain; pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor. I was distressed when I heard it; I was dismayed when I saw it” (Isaiah 21:3). Notice three things happening in one man.

• He felt something in his body.
• He heard something in his mind’s ear.
• He saw something in his mind’s eyes.

We see Jesus operate exactly this way with Nathanael. He “saw” Nathanael when he was sitting under the fig tree. He “heard,” or was told, what kind of person this man was. Somehow He also knew what God had prepared for him. And simply by opening His mouth to declare what He had seen and heard, that man had an encounter with God.

Throughout the Bible you see Jesus doing this again and again. With the Samaritan woman, He knew the number of men who had rejected her and that the one she was with was not her husband. With the man at the pool of Bethesda, He knew he had been there a long time — and that somehow his time for healing had come. Passing through Jericho, He looked up into a tree and knew the man’s name was Zacchaeus. He stopped and called the man by name.

How did Jesus know?

How did Jesus know all these things? Was it because He was God? No. Hear what Jesus Himself said about it.

Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.

John 5:19–20 (NKJV)

Hebrews tells us that Christ offered Himself to God “through the eternal Spirit” (Hebrews 9:14). Jesus lived and ministered the way you and I are now invited to live — as a Son led by the Spirit. Which means that just like Jesus, we too can get to see what God is doing — and do it in like manner.

Ask, seek, knock

So what is the key? Jesus gave it to us plainly. He told a story about a man whose friend arrives on a journey at midnight, and he has nothing to set before him. So he goes to another friend’s door and knocks: “Friend, lend me three loaves.” The man inside will not rise for friendship’s sake — but because of the knocker’s persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you… If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!

Luke 11:9, 13 (NKJV)

Notice the posture of the man at the door: I have nothing for my friend — but I have come to you to give me something. That is exactly where the Spirit-led life begins. Not with your ability, your discipline, or your cleverness, but with an honest confession of emptiness brought to a Father who has bread.

Somebody in your world is sitting under a fig tree right now, waiting for a word only God can give you. So ask. Seek. Knock. Ask the Father to fill you afresh with His Spirit — not so you can feel something, but so the people who encounter you will know they have encountered God. He gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. Ask Him today.