A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN AND A CHOICE MADE ON EARTH(PART 2)

2) INNER WITNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Last time,we concluded that God can arrange circumstances and use them to speak to us.
Today,I want us to look at how God can speak to us via the inner witness of the Holy Spirit.
Let us start with the conversation between Abraham and a survivor of a plane crash!
Dan: Actually something told me not to embark on that trip when I woke up that fateful morning!
Abraham: Something?
Dan: Yes now! It was like a flash/impression on my mind:’Don’t go’!
Another thought now rushed into my mind that was more reasonable: ‘Go now,do you want to disappoint your business partners that you have promised to see? What about your flight ticket?

Abraham: Hmmmmmm.So you decided to yield to the second thought…
Dan: Yes,I did.But I lost my inner peace instantly.
Abraham: Did you ever have a premonition of the plane crash?
Dan: Yes,my mind was preoccupied with negative thoughts till the incident happened.I kept struggling with that first thought.
Abraham: Bro Dan,the first thought came from the Holy Spirit.He is not something! He was speaking the mind of God to you at that time.He lives within you to teach you all things:
“But the Helper, The Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in my name,that one will teach you all things and bring back to your minds all the things that I have told you”-John 14:26
He is your helper.
He is your teacher.
He teaches you ALL THINGS.
He brings impressions into your mind.
Dan: Whao…I never knew that the first thought was from Him.I just thought it was my flesh speaking to me or probably the devil !
Abraham: Thank God you survived the crash.Many were not that fortunate.
Dan: But why did the Holy Spirit not force me not to enter the plane that day?
Abraham: He doesn’t force His will on anybody! He speaks gently.The voice is like a nudge within you( other voices are not like that).This nudge of the Holy Spirit is more than mere intuition.
He guides you but you can decide not to follow His guidance.
The painful thing is that disobedience to His leading may lead to a big loss,disappointment,divorce and sometimes death!
Dan: Father Abraham! Does He also speak to us about the person we ought to marry?
Abraham: Yes of course.He guides you in all truths that you need to know! He is interested in every minor/ major decisions of your life.
“When the Holy Spirit who is truth, comes, he shall guide you into all truth, for he will not be presenting his own ideas, but will be passing on to you what he has heard. He will tell you ABOUT THE FUTURE…”-John 16:13.
The Holy Spirit can tell you about the future.
I welcome you in Jesus’ name to today’s teaching.
The Holy Spirit within the believers speaks but most times other voices prevent them to make the right
choice.So let us learn how to recognise the voice of the Holy Spirit.
HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE THE VOICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FROM THAT OF OUR FLESH/DEVIL
A)The voice of the Holy Spirit is gentle and spontaneous:
The voice of the Holy Spirit is gentle and quiet—very difficult for us to hear when we don’t pay close attention or when our mind is noisy and rowdy!
The nudge of the Holy Spirit comes in form of impression in your mind sometimes not necessarily a voice.
You may be at work and suddenly there is a rush of thoughts/impressions that were not what you were thinking before.The impressions will not be forceful on
you.They will be very gentle such that you can even discard them as trash!
When you are so engrossed with God’s work or your secular work and suddenly a GENTLE thought comes into your mind that is never your premeditation of recent,please pay attention to that spontaneous thought.
But if it is a thought you have been meditating upon or even praying about of recent,be careful,it might not be from the Holy Spirit.
Just like the scripture says: ‘Dream comes when there are many cares…-Eccl 5:3, thoughts also come from previous meditations that are not necessarily from the Holy Spirit.
B) There is a peace that accompanies the voice of the Holy Spirit.
When you go ahead to propose to a woman having ‘heard’ from God and suddenly you are full of fears,confused and depressed! Bros,take heed!
You are about saying ‘yes’ to that brother and suddenly you become confused about the whole thing,sister,exercise some patience.
Let me explain the genesis of the loss of peace:
Whenever there is a struggle/war between the Spirit and the flesh/devil, and the flesh or devil wins,the result is loss of peace!
For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want-Gal 5:17
Is conflict not the opposite of peace?
So when there is conflict,you lose your inner peace!
Brethren,do you have inner peace in that relationship you just started?
Pls be careful when your inner peace is distrupted!
Do you know that many couples having serious problems in their marriage now suddenly lost their peace sometime while still dating? That was an inner check for them but they refused to pay attention until their ‘plane’ crashed!
C)The Holy Spirit will speak in agreement with the Bible:
The Holy Spirit cannot ask you to do what is not permitted by the Bible.
A sister is thinking: ‘Oh the guy is caring and loving only that he is an unbeliever but I am led and convinced he is my husband!”
Who led her? Holy Spirit,her flesh or the devil?
The answer is in the next quote:
“What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?”-2 Cor 6:15
D)The Holy Spirit will never force His will on you!
He will always present a choice for your prompt action but will not enforce it on you.
He gives everyone a benefit of refusal.
God can make a match in heaven between a brother and a sister.The Holy Spirit who knows God’s mind communicates that to the parties involved but the onus is now on them to make their decisions on earth here.
So Bros,stop intimidating the sisters with the revelations supposedly from God.If God has revealed her to you,let that God also speak to her.
If God does not force His will on us,if the Holy Spirit is so gentle that He will not force God’s will down our throat,then bros how far?
When you keep hearing:’Go and propose to her,do it now,whether she likes it or not she must agree to your proposal.
Some will even say God said the lady will die or barren if she does not marry them!
Are these statements from God? I dont think so!
God respects human will ! He does this so that we can be held responsible for our actions.
So be careful when you hear a voice that is too demanding and forceful.Query such a voice!
In summary,if you have impressions on your mind or flood of thoughts that are gentle,spontaneous,not forceful and are in agreement with the Words of God such that there is a peace that passes all understanding in your mind,then you just experienced the inner witness of the Holy Spirit.
Let me stop here for now.We shall continue on other ways God speaks to us in the next post.
Remember we are still studying Gen 24,we only digressed to look at other ways God speaks to us apart from the one He used to speak to Abraham’s servant.
Watch out for my personal blog…I will be leaving this ‘wordpress’ site very soon.
I will inform you when the website is hoisted.
Till then,
Remain blessed and rapturable.