Blessed be the Eternal God, the Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, because we are standing by His will, breathing by His grace, and with strength by His mercy. We give thanks to the Eternal God for one more day of life and for the opportunity to present ourselves before His presence, before His word, to be corrected, instructed, guided, and confirmed in the work to which the Lord has called and commissioned us.
Faith and the Ability to Follow Instructions
This teaching explores the relationship between faith and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. From the beginning of this series, it was established that there is a fundamental connection between faith and the human capacity to follow instructions. Not all of us naturally possess this capacity; in fact, many of us manifest self-sufficient and independent behavior, which is part of our human nature.
God, in His grace and mercy, has given the opportunity for man to receive faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God in the first place, and without faith we cannot approach the Lord. Faith does not come from man—the human being does not generate faith because it does not belong to the material plane. Faith is spiritual and it is God who delivers it by His grace and mercy to those on whom He has had mercy, as the word establishes: “it is not of him who runs, not of him who wills, but of God who has mercy”.
When God gives faith so that man can believe in Him, faith begins precisely with the capacity we can develop to follow instructions. We observe this in both the Old and New Testaments. Every time God establishes a supernatural work—a miracle—there is an instruction involved. We see this in Abraham, in Noah, and in the New Testament when the apostle Paul, on the road to Damascus, encounters Jesus the Christ and asks Him: “what do you want me to do?” Jesus responded: “enter the city and there you will be told what you should do”.
Disobedience and Restoration
If we go to the book of Genesis, chapters 2 and 3, we discover that it was disobedience that expelled man and woman from the Garden of Eden. Therefore, the way God has established for the human being to restore his condition and his approach before the Lord is precisely obedience to instructions. The apostle Paul, inspired by the Spirit of God, writes in his epistle to the Romans: “through disobedience sin entered and through sin death entered, for all have fallen short of the glory of God”.
The only form of restoration, of restitution, of reincorporation into relationship with the Lord is through obedience, that is, following instructions.
Beyond Instructions: The Guidance of the Holy Spirit
However, we will not always receive instructions. There comes a time when man and woman must have grown sufficiently to be subordinate to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In Romans chapter 8, verse 14, we read: “for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”.
This text establishes limits and conditions for the relationship of being made sons of God. It is true that in the Gospel of John, chapter 1, it says that “to those who believed in him he gave the power to become children of God”. These are the initial forms of approaching the Lord. But the life of faith does not consist of receiving instructions continuously. We all begin that way, but there comes a time when we must have developed sufficient maturity to walk not according to instructions, but according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
What is the Guidance of the Holy Spirit?
It is called “guidance” not because we are receiving an instruction all the time, but because man walks according to the will of God without having received a specific instruction on how to act, what to say, or what to establish. It is called guidance because we are following the flow of the Holy Spirit, without an instruction telling us: “do this, say that, go to this place.”
The guidance of the Holy Spirit is the capacity that man develops when he has grown and matured in faith to do what pleases the Lord, what He wants us to do, even though there has been no prior instruction.
The Problem of Spiritual Stagnation
This is the problem in which many of us have found ourselves: we have not been able to develop faith. The parable of the talents teaches us an important principle: to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one. God’s purpose in giving us something—and in this case faith in particular—is for us to produce it, multiply it, and develop more than what was given to us.
What happens? That many times, as God’s people who have confessed ourselves as children of God, we fail to grow or develop. We remain at a basic level: “give me another instruction and I’ll follow it,” “tell me what I have to do and I’ll do it.” When we have been exposed to the word, our tendency is to ask: “and what should I do?” This shows that we still have not grown, that we have not matured, that we have not developed in faith, because we are waiting to be told what we have to do.
The apostle writes in Hebrews chapter 5: “for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God”.
Faith as a Spiritual Virtue That Must Grow
Faith is a spiritual virtue that God delivers by measure. In Romans chapter 12 it is established that God gives faith by measure. Therefore, each of us who confess ourselves as children of God must make the faith that has been given to us grow. It is a measure, but we cannot stay with that quantity. We must make it grow, multiply it.
Here enters the parable of the mustard seed: “if you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this mountain: remove from here and cast yourself into the sea”. The Lord Himself explained that the mustard seed, being the smallest, when sown becomes the largest plant, such that the birds of the air make nests in it. This is the process of faith, the process of development in faith.
How much time has passed? How much time has gone by? And many of us are still in the primary stages in which we began the Christian life. We are not supposed to be at the same stage. We have become stagnant because we got used to being given instructions.
We Have Not Received a Spirit of Bondage
Continuing in Romans chapter 8, verse 15 says: “for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear”. What is the Spirit telling us? The life of faith does not consist of having to give an instruction all the time: “do this, do that, raise your hands, say this, sing here.” We all began that way, but as we expose ourselves before the Lord and before His word, each of us must be developing, growing, multiplying faith.
Here enters what we have cited on other occasions: “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”—not in hearing to have greater knowledge, but in hearing to do what the word is telling us to do.
The Importance of Developing Faith
On this depends development, growth, that each of us can develop gifts, multiply fruits, develop ministries. Let us not believe that we have to be called and positioned so that we then begin. It is as we realize that the Lord has given us a measure and we move according to what the word says, that we will grow and develop until we come to be led by the Spirit of God.
Being led by the Spirit of God does not mean that the Spirit has to constantly tell us what we have to do: “go there, come here, say this, do this, don’t go in there, go to this place.” No. “You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear”. The guidance of the Spirit means that man, by faith, positions himself in the flow of the Spirit without there being a word or instruction telling him “do this.” That is why it is called the guidance of the Spirit: because the person himself is walking according to what pleases the Spirit, without there having been a prior instruction.
The Testimony of the Spirit
In Psalm 19 we can better understand this: “day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language, yet their voice has gone out through all the earth”. There is no instruction as in the primary stage, but man and woman are acting according to what the Spirit of God has established.
Faith carries us, transcends, leads us, positions us, and confirms that we are walking according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Verse 16 says clearly: “for the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God”.
Fundamental Principle
No one arrives at the guidance of the Holy Spirit if he has not first developed faith. No one arrives, no one positions himself, no one walks under the guidance of the Holy Spirit if he has not developed, if he has not grown, if he has not matured in faith. That is why faith is so important.
Faith is Not Only a Resource
Faith is not simply the capacity to receive what we are asking the Lord for. It is not just a resource: “I have faith that I will receive this,” “I have faith that this will turn out as I am asking.” Many of us have seen faith as only a resource, and that idea is not founded on the word of God. We must discard those primitive states, or rather, those religious states.
We were taught that “have faith so you can receive, have faith so you can do what you are asking the Lord for,” as if it were a resource. Faith is not a resource. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1, says that “faith is a substance”, which means that faith is the spiritual form that gives life to all things. It is the substance of things, what forms all things. All things are already established in the spiritual realm; it only remains for them to be made concrete in the material or physical realm in which we are moving.
The Three Reasons Why We Do Not Walk by Faith
No one can arrive at the guidance of the Holy Spirit without having developed faith. We may have very good intentions, but we must have gone through the process of faith, because faith leads us to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. No one, without exception, can come to be led by the Holy Spirit and walk under what pleases God without having developed faith, because it is precisely what gives life to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In previous teachings we established two important reasons:
- Faith is the capacity to see things as God sees them. “Things which eye has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man are the things God has prepared for those who love Him”. There must be a capacity to see as God sees things.
- Faith is the spiritual capacity to call things as God calls them.
Now we add a third reason, which is found in Romans chapter 8, verse 5:
- Occupation with the things of the flesh. The verse says: “for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit”.
We are not talking about sin, but about tendencies: social things, cultural things, economic things, health things, everything that has to do with the forms of life in this world. We are talking about fashion, about the inclination of how things are resolved in the environment in which we live.
Verses 7 and 8 continue: “because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God”. Compare this verse with Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6: “without faith it is impossible to please God”.
Not Getting Involved with the World System
Jesus the Christ said clearly: “Father, I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one”. The instruction is clear: it is not about leaving this world, isolating ourselves, not having friendships, not working, not participating in anything. It is about not getting involved with what the world’s life system establishes.
The life system establishes that to resolve a situation you have to empower yourself of the situation. The word says that for a situation to be resolved you have to allow the Lord to enter your environment and He empowers Himself, takes control, takes authority of that situation.
It is not about isolating ourselves, but about not getting involved beyond what the situation allows us. For example: do you need a job? Of course you do, but let the job not occupy God’s position, let the job not really be the resource that brings sustenance to your life. It is not getting involved with the things that are part of this environment, but maintaining the correct perspective.
Instructions from the New and Old Testament
In Galatians chapter 5, verses 16-18, we read: “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law”.
Clearly the instruction and exhortation is: do not get involved with the things of this world, do not go beyond what the situation requires you to face the things you have to face.
In the Old Testament, Psalm 143, verse 10, David writes and sings: “Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; Your good Spirit lead me in the land of uprightness”. This is the guidance of the Spirit: when man and woman can fit into the daily things that are according to the Spirit of God, they are walking under guidance, even though there has been no instruction saying “do this or do that.”
Man, woman has fit into the flow, is moving in the flow of the Holy Spirit and is being pleasing to God, calling things as God calls them and seeing things as God sees them. This is the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Processes Cannot Be Skipped
To be able to arrive at the guidance of the Holy Spirit it is important, it is necessary, it is extremely necessary that man and woman have been able to develop faith, have been able to walk by faith, have been able to grow in faith, have been able to mature in faith. Otherwise, it is not possible.
Many times we believe we can skip processes: “in this I am incapable, I cannot do it, but in this other thing yes, here I will develop.” Processes cannot be skipped. The life of faith in Christ Jesus, which is the message of the Gospel, does not allow skipping processes. It is a path of development that the Lord takes us through different stages, without there having been an instruction in between.
Biblical Examples of the Guidance of the Holy Spirit
David and Goliath (Old Testament)
In the first book of Samuel, chapter 17, verses 45-47, David says to the Philistine: “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. The Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands”.
David was a young man at that time. The question arises: who told him he had to face Goliath? There is no instruction. In fact, the soldiers dedicated to war ran and fled from Goliath’s presence. David had no experience as a soldier, had never participated in a battle. When Saul wanted to put armor on him, David could not handle it, he was not prepared or trained for it.
How is it possible that soldiers with years of battle preparation fled from Goliath, and this young man who had never entered battle wants to face a giant? Who told him? He arrived there by chance because his father sent him to bring provisions to his brothers who were soldiers.
Here is where we must understand the guidance of the Holy Spirit: we are doing without an instruction in between and without imagining things, we are doing what the Lord wants us to do.
In chapter 13 of the first book of Samuel, verse 14, it is said of David: “But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you”.
“A man after His own heart”—this is the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Man, woman is a man, woman according to God’s heart when he or she is moving, saying, doing, establishing what God wants them to speak, establish, and do, without having received a prior instruction telling them “do this or do that.”
David declared in verse 46: “The Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you”. How did David know that God was going to deliver him into his hand? The guidance of the Holy Spirit. There was no word that said: “David, go, face Goliath and I will deliver him into your hands and you will take his head.” But David was acting according to what the Spirit had determined.
The Apostle Paul (New Testament)
In Acts chapter 13, verses 8-11, we read: “But Elymas the sorcerer (for so his name is translated) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, ‘O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.’ And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand”.
Who told the apostle Paul he had to do that? No one told him, but the apostle Paul walked according to what the Spirit of God had established for that moment. What he did was pleasing to God, was pleasing before the presence of the Lord.
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”.
The Need to Live by Faith in These Times
It is necessary that we grow in faith, that we develop faith, that we live by faith. Many men and women are not living by faith in the current time. This will become later the greatest stumbling block that man and woman can have.
Let us keep in mind Matthew chapter 13, the parable of the sower: the seed that fell by the wayside, the birds of the air carried it away; the seed that fell on stony places dried up; the seed that fell among thorns did not prosper. Time passed—one of them took root, but it had no depth and then it dried up.
It is important to understand the need to grow in faith, to walk in faith. Let us not resolve by our resources, by our contacts, by our abilities, leaving God aside.
Many of us boast of saying “God the last word.” Have we stopped to think about what we are saying? That we relegate Him to the last place. We relegate Him to the last, when we can no longer do anything by our resources, when by our abilities everything has slipped from our hands, we turn to Him.
But is that the life of the man of faith? Is that the life of the woman of faith? God is our resource, God is our shelter. The book of Psalms declares: “You are my rock, my rock of salvation, You are my shield, You are my banner, You are everything. From where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
We do not need more resources than what God gives us. The Lord said: “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water”.
The Word Makes Us Children of God
Faith establishes God as our resource, our shelter, our strength, our ready help. God is everything. When man and woman walk by faith, then we are led by the Spirit of God.
The apostle, establishing this teaching in Romans chapter 8, is establishing a condition for us: “for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”.
It is important that each of us understand the word of God, because what makes us children of God is the word. Let us not walk by religious proposals, let us not walk by denominational proposals, let us walk by the word. The word establishes that those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.
This is leading us to take definition and decisions regarding who we are. The psalmist David declared: “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” Who are we? We are children of God. Who are the children of God? Those who are led by the Holy Spirit.
Walking in the Flow of the Holy Spirit
These examples from the Old and New Testament are establishing for us that we do not walk by instruction. At one time we did, that is how we started, but as we grow, mature, and develop, to that extent we enter into the flow of the Holy Spirit.
We call things as God calls them. Do not boast of a joke from people who do not know God nor participate in it, because then the world is calling things and we are acting according to it. To call things as God calls them means that if something is pleasing, it is pleasing; but if something is abominable and I laugh at it and participate in it, I am not walking under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
If God calls them abominable, even when other members of my family are participating, it is abominable, because God calls them abominable. To see things as God sees them: if God sees a situation as unjust and I call it just, I am going against God. “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters”.
I must call things as God calls them. If God called them unjust, even when the whole world calls them just, I must call them as God calls them. I must see things as God sees them, call things as God calls them, but not compromise with people and laugh at what people do so that they will not reject me, will not marginalize me, or even so I will not lose my job or what I have earned.
The apostle said: “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God”.
Conclusion
We want to be led by the Holy Spirit. Let us walk in faith, not in the resources of this world, not in the resources of this earth. Let us walk in faith, let us walk under the provision of the word of the Lord, and then—and only then, not in any other way—only then will we be moving by the Holy Spirit and we will be pleasing.
Not only David is the man after God’s own heart. All those who walk according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit become men, women after God’s own heart. This is the exhortation of the Holy Spirit so that we can then establish the kingdom of heaven on earth.
There is no other way, even when we preach it, there is no other way. Only then can we establish it.
May the peace of the Lord be with you and with your house, and may the Eternal God, the Almighty, have mercy on you and allow you to put your hand to the plow and not look back. Amen.
