How to be led by the Holy Spirit

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CHAPTER 4SPECTACULAR LEADINGSAll the leadings of the Holy Spirit are supernatural although all of themare not spectacular. Spectacular leadings of the Holy Spirit have a place inthe Christian life. However, there need to be guidelines as to discern allspectacular leadings.Visions and DreamsWe should not seek for visions and dreams. Rather, we should seek toobey God as much as we have discerned His perfect Will in our lives. In Hisown time and by His discretion, God may choose to operate in visions andrevelations in our lives. It is not necessary to see a vision to be greatly usedby God. Kathryn Kuhlman was greatly used by God but there is not a singlerecord of her seeing any visions.On the other hand, there are other men of God like William Branhamwhose ministry moved in the spectacular. Before he left the main stream ofChristianity and went into error in his teaching, he operated in visionsregularly together with an angel. We must not be sceptical about people whooperate solely in the spectacular realm nor must we be those who seek onlythe spectacular. We must be balanced and yet be opened to themanifestations of God.By His impartation of operation grace, God sometimes chooses to workthrough a vessel in visions and dreams. It is also a manifestation of thisdispensation of the Holy Spirit for visions to abound (Acts 2:17). There arethree types of visions as covered in Volume Eight of this FoundationalTruths Series. We will therefore not cover the same ground but instead pointout common areas of those who are accustomed to visions.There is a timing of God for His manifestation of visions to a vessel. Allthe recorded visions of the prophet Daniel were seen in his old age. All ofthem occurred during the reigns of Belshazzar, Darius and Cyrus (Dan. 7:1;8:19; 10:1). Daniel was probably in his eighties by this time. Samuel neitherknew the voice nor the visions of the Lord as a small boy. It was some timeafter his faithful service in the temple of God that he experienced his firstspectacular encounter with God (1 Sam. 3:1-4).© Copyright 2008 Peter Tan Evangelism. All rights reserved. 16
This does not mean that a believer cannot receive and experience aspectacular vision when they are born again. It merely means that God doesprepare a vessel before He manifests in a spectacular way. Without adequatepreparation, those who experience visions can go off-track. It can be notedthat those who are extremely intellectual do not have as many visions asthose who are freer in releasing their emotions in the worship of God. Thesceptical and doubting intellectual mind is a hindrance to receiving visionsin the spirit realm. It takes a simple hearted childlike faith to move into therealm of visions.Most of those in the Bible who received visions were in an attitude ofprayer or worship. This is not a requirement for a vision to manifest but itseems to be a regular feature in the Bible. Daniel received the revelationconcerning the seventy weeks from the archangel Gabriel while he was inprayer (Dan. 9:20, 21). He saw another vision and communicated withGabriel at the end of his twenty-one day fast (Dan. 10:3-11). Zacharias,while offering worship in incense to God, saw a vision of Gabriel in answerto his prayers for a child (Lk. 1:11, 13). Paul was in prayer when he saw avision of Ananias (Acts 9:11, 12). Peter saw a vision after he had spentsome time in prayer (Acts 10:9-11).Dreams have been called visions of the night (Job. 33:15). They have beenused to lead God’s people. Joseph had his future predicted by a dream (Gen.37:5-10). It took fifteen years for his dreams to be fulfilled (Gen. 37:2;41:46; 45:6). The parents of Jesus, Joseph and Mary, were led by threedreams. In the dreams, it was an angel of God who communicated withJoseph (Matt. 2:13, 19, 22).Symbolic dreams need interpretation. There is a gift of the interpretationof visions and dreams (Dan. 1:16). Daniel manifested it and it was this giftthat brought him into recognition by Nebuchadnezzar. Joseph alsomanifested this gift of interpretation (Gen. 40:8). We need to pray for thisgift of interpretation when we have a symbolic dream. Plain dreams aredirect and do not need any interpretation. This gift is an aspect of one of thenine gifts of the Spirit called the gift of interpretation of tongues. Note thatDaniel through the same gift upon his life interpreted the unknownhandwriting on the wall (Dan. 5:13-16, 26-28).The Audible Voice of GodOccasionally, God leads His people by His audible voice. In Jesus’ministry, the audible voice of God was manifested at the beginning of Hisministry. Upon being baptized with water, a voice came forth from heavensaying, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17).© Copyright 2008 Peter Tan Evangelism. All rights reserved. 17
Page 1 and 2: How to be ledby theHoly SpiritFound
Page 3 and 4: PREFACEFrom my years if counselling
Page 5 and 6: The spiritual senses of our spirit
Page 7 and 8: When Paul was in Athens, his spirit
Page 9 and 10: ‘revelations’ do not produce ho
Page 11 and 12: having virtue and praiseworthiness
Page 13 and 14: controlling them from the inside ou
Page 15: evelation by the Holy Spirit is as
Page 19 and 20: changes that took place in me have
Page 21 and 22: CHAPTER 5BALANCE IN GUIDANCEIt is i
Page 23 and 24: The Experience of being led by the
Page 25: Most of the leadings that we receiv

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