Living Led By The Holy Spirit
In the 1990s, a show called In Living Color, had a theme song that began with the question, “How you livin’?“. In Romans 8:12–17, 26–27, Paul answers that question by saying that believers should be living a new and resurrected life by the leading and the power of the Holy Spirit. I pray that you would engage with the Holy Spirit to lead you into the life that God wants for you. Amen
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:12–13)
Paul had established that the same Spirit of God that resurrected Jesus is now in us. He now said that we therefore have an obligation to live according to the Spirit of God. Accordingly, we should die to the flesh. We should not be the same as we were in the flesh, instead we should be a new creation that lives through the Spirit.
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs —heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8:14–17)
In addition to new life for the believer, living by the Spirit signifies our adoption into the family of God. The Spirit testifies that we are children of God. Paul said that as children of God we are also heirs of God and as heirs we will inherit and share in the glory of Christ.
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. (Romans 8:26–27)
Paul also pointed out an additional aspect of our being led by the Holy Spirit. Like the rest of creation that is groaning under the weight of sin, as we groan in our suffering in a fallen world, the Holy Spirit helps interpret our prayers to intercede for us with wordless groans. Though wordless, God knows the mind of the Holy Spirit so that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us according to God’s will.
Summary The Holy Spirit as the member of the Trinity, that is often the least understood and least appreciated. Paul points out several aspects of the Holy Spirit’s importance for the believer. Because the Spirit of God lives within believers, He helps lead us into the new life that we have in God. No longer are we to be subject to the world and the flesh, but as believers, we should be living as citizens of God‘s kingdom. Jesus taught in Matthew (chapters 5-7), what kingdom values the citizens of the kingdom should be living by. And, because those kingdom values are markedly different than what the world values, the Holy Spirit helps us to live by them. Additionally, the Holy Spirit seals us and testifies that we are children and heirs of God (see Ephesians chapter 2). Finally, in addition to being the teacher and counselor for us in our new life, and testifying to our adoption as sons and daughters who are heirs of God, the Holy Spirit serves as an interpreter for us with God. Because we live in a broken and fallen world, sin causes us to groan under the suffering that we endure. The Holy Spirit takes our prayers and crying out to God and interprets them to God, so that they align with God’s will. All of these things and more are ours when we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into becoming more like Christ and attaining the glory that He has already received. So to draw upon the question posed by the In Living Color theme song once again….”How you livin’?”. For the believer, there is really only one way to answer that… “I’m living led by the Holy Spirit!”.
Blessings, Rev. Glenn
