Characteristic Fourteen of a Believer-Led

Recently, I attended a retreat with Suzi Eller as the speaker to launch her new Come With Me Devotional. The activities on Saturday are to zipline and to go on a trail ride. Last year at the retreat, I had tried the zipline but didn’t have strength in my legs to climb the pole due to my knee replacement. So this year, I decided the trail ride would be my adventure. The time arrived and I had my helmet on and with a set of stairs, I mounted the horse. As I am waiting, fear of falling off the horse begins to run through my head, I ask a second time for the instructions of how to go to the right and to the left. Beloved, can I just tell you, I really at this moment wished the ground would swallow me up, after all, what if I fall off, I have osteoporosis and a bad back. The main rider leads us out and we’re being led in a single file on a trail.

Beloved, the fourteenth characteristic of a born-again believer is one’s led by the Holy Spirit. Led’s defined as most commonly refers to a place of advantage. Jesus promises the Holy Spirit in John 14: 15-17

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be^c in you.

The Holy Spirit indwells us when we accept Jesus as our Savior. He whispers to us, tells us, prompts us, what is the right thing to do and say. He led us and affirms we are God’s children. In Romans 8, the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness and helps us when we do not know how to pray. Romans 8: 26-27

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Jesus relies on the Holy Spirit when he’s led to the desert for forty days. We read in Matthew 4: 1-3, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted^a by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”  Jesus comes through the temptation by telling the devil man should not live on bread alone. Beloved, we are never tempted beyond what we can withstand. The Holy Spirit will give the way out just as he does for Jesus. 1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you’re tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.’ 

Beloved, the fourteenth characteristic of a born-again believer is one’s led by the Holy Spirit.

We’re led on the trail ride by the main horse with an experienced rider. The trail was not a beginners trail. We went on some smooth terrain, some hills, some rocky terrain, and some scary terrain. The horse I was riding met each obstacle as a pro. Daily as a born-again believer, the Holy Spirit wants to led us. I saw me trusting this horse and letting him take care of me in the rocky places, like God does through the Holy Spirit. I faced my fears this day which is what we must do daily as a Christian, when we’re led by the Holy Spirit.

Father God, Thank you for the indwelling Holy Spirit. I pray for the woman reading this that she may trust you with her needs and will want to be led by the Holy Spirit. In Jesus name, Amen.

What do you need to do to be led by the Holy Spirit?

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This post is part of a 31 day series on the Characteristics of a Believer. I am so glad that you are here. To read all of the posts in this series, click here.