Bashan Ministries - Led by the Spirit

Led by the Spirit

In Matthew chapter nine, two blind men followed Jesus, crying out for help—but He kept walking!
He healed them, but not immediately.
He was being led by the Spirit...

Paul stated in Romans 8:14:
All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.
Another way to put it is, “God’s sons are those who are led by the Spirit”. If we are not really being led by the Spirit, it implies that we may not be God’s sons...

The meaning of the word for “led” is Ago. It has several meanings like bring and go and to lead by laying hold of.

It describes the way a large animal can be trained to follow its owner. The animal is initially restrained and tugged along by a heavy rope or guided by using a goad. Every time it tries to stray, the trainer can poke that stick at the animal to keep it on track.

After considerable training the owner may be able to simply say, ”follow Me”, walk on and the animal follows.
That is a simplistic explanation of what being led by the Spirit means.

Jesus told us in John ten that His sheep hear His voice—and follow Him. The Greek word here is different. It is akoloutheō.

This refers to people who are walking together or accompanying each other in a close relationship.

One meaning refers to discipleship. He commanded us to make disciples, not hold meetings and plant churches.

Being led by the Spirit is not the nice sounding religious cliché it is often purported to be. It has practical applications and the need to hear that still, small voice inside us is real and very important. It can help us avoid danger, or prompt us to do something that eventually produces a blessing.

In Matthew 9, Jesus was walking down the road and two blind men followed Him. When I read that, I wondered how they could do that.
Was someone helping them? Did they hear his footsteps or His voice? That makes sense.

We are often led by The Voice—the Word of God, by that still small voice inside us. They knew He was there and did not want to miss the moment. There are times when we must seize the moment—when the door is open (temporarily) when the Holy Spirit is present. He is always with us of course, but, as Jesus said in John 3, the wind blows where it wants at that time and we need to be aware of what He, the Holy Spirit is currently doing. He may wish to impart instruction to us. He could want to give direction and counsel, or correction. He may be present on a particular moment to heal.
Throughout the bible, God speaks of times and seasons. Ecclesiastes 3 for example speaks of timing factors.

We see this principle in John chapter five when the water was stirred up and the first and I believe the only person to get into it at that time was healed.

Scriptures clearly reveal that there are times when the Holy Spirit is present for a specific purpose. He is not there for that reason every time. We therefore cannot assume anything, thinking one way, whereas He is thinking differently.
...My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

This is why the New Testament tells us to have the mind of Christ and to renew our minds.

The Matthew account

And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched He their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.
And their eyes were opened. Matthew 9:27-30

Many things done in churches have been initiated by man—not by the Spirit of God. On many occasions, people have already started to do their own thing and then ask God to bless what they have initiated. We just assume that it is His will because it seems like a good idea.
More often than not, we achieve poor results. We might even offend Him.

Philip was holding a revival meeting in Acts nine when the Holy Spirit suddenly interrupted him. He often takes us by surprize like that.
He knows what is happening and if we are not tuned in, we can miss the moment. I cannot imagine what would have happened if Philip had refused to budge. That Ethiopian eunuch might not have met the Lord as a result.

Jesus told Ananias to go to Saul of Tarsus to pray for him, so that he would be healed—totally healed and have good eyesight, but if he had not learned how to listen and obey, we may not have the Pauline epistles in scripture with that amazing revelation that blesses and inspires us.

We have a wonderful privilege to be part of what the Lord wants to do, but it involves discernment, wisdom—and obedience.

Jesus told us to heal the sick and I have seen His healing miracles at first hand—but not at all times.
Sometimes the miracle is immediately evident, but on other occasions, it is a work in progress.
Healing is a real, valid and necessary part of ministry, but this does not give us an excuse to race into hospitals and empty the beds.
It does not mean that in our meetings, we can get everyone out of their wheelchairs when we pray for them. Sometimes our own pride comes into play. God wants everyone healed of course, but we need to factor in the precise will of the Lord for that particular occasion and how He wants things done.

Jesus healed blindness, but went about it in different ways at different times and places and different people were involved.
Other people may have been present at the time, but they are not mentioned.
He spat on the ground and made clay once only. He laid hands on someone else and he spoke to another person—three different circumstances required different actions.

He was anointed but always listened to the Father’s instructions. He was led by the Spirit.

In John 3:8, when the Lord was talking about salvation to a religious leader who really did not know a thing about the spirit dimension at all, He said that the Spirit blows where He wants to, how He wants to and when He wishes. It is up to us to learn to discern that.

We cannot try to do something unless He is present. We cannot pray for something, such as for a healing, if He wants to give correction or guidance. The Holy Spirit anoints us, guides and leads us as and when He wishes. Without such things, we revert to man made religious concepts, just as the Pharisees did. The evidence or lack thereof is evident.

It is evident when legalism, manipulation, domination and control exist. Such people usually misquote and misunderstand Paul’s teaching on such matters. It may be a simple matter of not understanding, but is often a pure control mechanism. When that occurs, be careful, as it is a sign of witchcraft, perhaps a manifestation of kinds of evil that Elijah encountered with Jezebel and Ahab. The two work together. They introuced all kinds of demonic worship to God's people—the Baals, the Shedim, the Diamomia—who are still here today.

This is a biblical truth and sadly exists in churches. It is deception, plain and simple and deception is the first sign Jesus gave to His followers in Matthew 24.

It does not refer to the world, because they are already deceived! Think and pray about this.

Decently and in order

When people tell others to do things decently and in order, misquoting 1 Corinthians 14, they are telling you that you must seek their approval to obey the Holy Spirit!
On face value, it “seems good” and supposedly avoids error and foolishness, but they miss the point.

They may say that you have to ask elders, share what we believe the Lord is telling us and that it may be allowed sometime later, usually after their own programs and agendas have finished.

That is totally wrong. If, for example, someone received a word of knowledge that a person present at that moment is suffering in agony because of an illness, such an approach forces the sick person to undergo unnecessary pain for what reason—to satisfy someone’s ego? They might not be healed, because the moment is gone!

They have not correctly divided (orthotomeō) the word of truth.
If we can ”rightly divide it”, we can dissect it incorrectly.
That happens when the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is not present and according to Paul, all scripture is inspired by Him!

That church was full of problems. Sometimes it was like attending a circus. Men sat on one side of the building and women on the other and they were all talking across each other. Several people were prophesying at the same time and Paul was not telling them to wait until the end of the meeting, because that moment would be over, perhaps lost! He was not saying that they must have 2 or 3 and no more. He was showing them that they could take turns—one after another.

One person can tune into the Holy Spirit and start sharing and whilst this is happening, the Holy Spirit could start speaking to another person. The answer is simple. The first man can simply stand aside and allow the fresh impartation to come—and what is amazing is that the first person suddenly seems to stop as if the anointing lifts off him or her and rests on someone else who then resumes seamlessly from where the first stopped. This in itself gives wonderful confirmation that everyone is attuned to the Spirit.

The Holy spirit is blowing—as He listeth. He comes and He goes and when He decides to move, He give us a window of opportunity and then moves on. We follow.

We cannot tell Him, ”Not yet. We are busy. We have our order of service. Wait until we have finished.”
That is quenching the Holy Spirit and Paul tells us not to do that! It grieves Him.

If we offend Him too often, He may leave and never return!
This is a serious matter!

“Elders” and “leaders’ in any church must by definition qualify by God to exercise such authority control.
A pastor must be chosen, anointed and appointed by the Lord in HIS CHURCH and scriptures are very clear on what qualifies any person to occupy any ministry office. The five ascension gift ministries as listed in Ephesians 4 are one example.

Quite frankly, there are far too many people in such offices who should not be there. They are trying to operate under what is called a “barred anointing”.
The Lord takes a dim view of such things and this is evident from what He said in Matthew 7:22.

Many “elders” in churches are not qualified by the Holy Spirit!
They have been appointed by men.
If so, they are out of Divine order.

Paul said to let the prophets speak in turn, suggesting two or three, to avoid confusion and those who are able to prophesy can judge.
The people who do that assessment must be capable of doing so—they also must be able to prophesy.

It is a gift of the Holy Spirit given by Him to those He chooses and when He chooses!

He will not create confusion or do the things that man made teachings intimate. They are often fear based, or are introduced as a control mechanism by the pastor or leader. The attitude is that the subordinates or congregation has to do as they are told.

Such a person acts like a puppeteer dangling others on his puppet strings.

Some people are of course disobedient and rebellious, but truly free people are yielded willingly to the Lord. They do not permit a man to force them into submission. They willingly work together, because they want to, not because they are being coerced into a servitude position. Scriptures tell us that we are all members of the one and same Body of Christ and He is the head.

Psalm133

Psalm133 reveals something interesting, saying:.

Oh, how good, how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in harmony.
It is like fragrant oil on the head that runs down over the beard, over the beard of Aharon, and flows down on the collar of his robes.
It is like the dew of Hermon that settles on the mountains of Tziyon.
For it was there that Adonai ordained the blessing of everlasting life

Unity is not unison. The KJV uses the word unity and unity is yǎ·ḥǎḏ. There are many meanings, including together, wholly, in unity, with each other and being in a state of oneness, each other, a kind of reciprocation between two persons or groups, alike, at the same time, now, all at once, a period of time exactly or virtually the same as another period of time, completeness, fullness and more.

In short, each and every one of us can and should be able to tune in to the one and same Holy Spirit together. He is not divided—we are! Therefore when one person “taps into the source”, others can do likewise. Whatever the Spirit of God wants to do brings us all at the same time to the same place and at the same level. Paul was explaining that and showing us how we can all flow together.

It is like a symphony orchestra when individual musicians all contribute and participate, playing the same composition. The conductor is like the Holy Spirit. He may want a loud trumpet blast, then a drum roll and lead the entire orchestra into a soft and gentle harmony afterwards.

I am not talking about going to extremes and excess. I am talking about mutual respect, dignity and courtesy to each other and to the Holy Spirit who too has feelings and emotions as we do.

When a man demands us to ask for permission without being attuned to the Holy Spirit himself, he is usurping his own authority over that of the Holy Spirit. It is nothing other than pure manipulation, domination and control like that and is not Godly. If taken to the extreme such control is witchcraft—and it exists in the church.

It is much the same way the Pharisees reacted when Jesus healed someone. They demanded who gave Him authority. They became angry when He healed on the Sabbath. Rather than rejoicing to see someone who had been suffering be healed by the Lord, they reacted against it and such reactions are questionable.

Have you heard the term, “Whose or what covering are you under”? It would be better said, “Who is controlling you?”
The legalistic approach is pure foolishness and rude. It is quenching the Holy Spirit and that is dangerous.

He may have moved on by then and someone’s life may suffer because of our man made traditions.

Concerning the matter of being led by the Spirit, that account in Matthew 9 may explain things a little more clearly.
These two blind beggars heard that Jesus was walking by and waited for Him to heal them—but He walked right past them without stopping.

He was not being rude—the Holy Spirit did not tell Him to stop.
They would not give up and this also is a good lesson for us. If we know a truth and have received a revelation or a promise from God, don’t give up. Do what the Lord says and keep doing it until He says otherwise. The man of God told Naaman to dip himself in the Jordan River seven times—not six times or eight times—not a nice clear swimming pool, but the muddy Jordan.

His healing came precisely in the manner and timing as the prophet said.

Matthew 9:27 tells us:
And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us.

The word “followed” is the Greek word akoloutheo, which means to follow after someone or something in a very determined and purposeful manner. Even though these two men had major problems, they were determined to follow Jesus until they got His attention! The verse told us that they were “crying” out.

The word “crying” is the Greek word kradzo, and it means to scream, yell, exclaim, or yell out at the top of their voices like crazy people.

They were screaming as loudly as possible to get Jesus’ attention! We do not have to do that now, but the account is there to tell us something—He just continued walking on as though they weren’t even there. He heard them! It would have been impossible not to have heard that racket.

They pursued Him relentlessly. Sometimes we must become desperate for the answer, even though God knows in advance. Isaiah tells us that God hears us before we call and answers us as we speak, yet we still find that we must press in, pursue Him and like Jacob, not let go until He blesses us.

Perhaps the main reason is that we must know for certain that He alone is our source.

We do not have to beg and plead or do anything religious like fasting, thinking that this gets God’s attention.

Unless He is in it, all that happens is that we get hungry.

Pursuing Jesus relentlessly, they groped along in their darkness, still screaming, following Him all the way to the house where He was staying. He asked them if they believed He was able to heal them.

This is interesting because He knew that they had been doing everything they could to get His attention. I am of the opinion that they had to say that they believed.

I have often found that many people say, “I hope so” when asked similar questions about what they believed.

A person of faith does not ignore facts. They were blind.

He wanted them to believe and say so.

Some people may call that “a faith confession”.

He then touched their eyes and they received their sight. He told them it was according to their faith.

He could have touched their eyes and healed them immediately, but there was a delay.

When we have situations like this, we need to ascertain what is happening. On this occasion, the supposed “delay” was not a delay at all. He was ministering as an ordinary man just like us, but anointed by the Holy spirit.

We are not always immediately aware of His presence, so it could be that our Lord was not yet aware that the anointing had come.

There may be another thing to consider in that they could have been relying on Jesus’ faith and not their own.

If that was the case, He might have deliberately waited for their own faith to be stimulated and applied. If so Jesus may have said, “I don’t sense the anointing to heal right now, so you’re going to have to receive this on your own! Be it unto you according to your faith!”

There are many ways to look at such accounts and leap to conclusions. This is why we need to discard our pre-conceived ideas and ask the Holy Spirit who inspires all scripture, to reveal truth to us. I believe that Jesus didn’t stop to heal the two blind beggars because the Holy Spirit wasn’t leading Him to heal at that exact moment.

What really matters is that they were healed and that everyone was healed in His ministry

And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him and, healed them all. Luke 6:19

When that healing virtue was flowing, everyone got healed, but when it wasn’t flowing, Jesus didn’t attempt to heal.

There are other instances like Luke 5:17 where Jesus was busy teaching the Word of God and He suddenly He sensed that...

…the power of the Lord was present to heal them.

On analysis, this may mean that such power is not always present, but when it is, we need to be tuned in and act or we may miss the moment.

When Jesus sensed the anointing to heal, He put aside His teaching and followed the leading of the Spirit.

Multitudes were healed that day, including the paralytic when a group of friends lowered him down into the room through an opening in the roof of the house.

They had to do that then, not after getting someone’s permission.

This illustrates that Jesus was never locked into set ways of doing things. He was pliable. He was busy teaching and suddenly felt the anointing shift. The power of God was suddenly present to heal the sick and Jesus knew it was time to set aside His preplanned program and go with the flow of the Holy Spirit.

He faithfully followed wherever the Holy Spirit led and He did what the Holy Spirit told Him to do. If the Spirit told Him nothing, then nothing was the right thing for Him to do.
This is a good object lesson for us all. Let’s abandon our set rigid programs! Most times they are there to satisfy our own pride.

In John 5:30, Jesus told of His complete dependency upon the Holy Spirit:

I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just.…

Pay close attention to His words, as I hear, I judge.

He was constantly listening to the voice of the Spirit, waiting for direction to act in a particular way. When the Holy Spirit speaks, we can speak. If He is silent, then we too should be silent.

Have you ever attended a church meeting when the speaker is just talking words for the sake of saying something? It is often lifeless and boring, repetitious and using all kinds of words that only a university graduate understands! Most bible colleges and institutions churn out men and women who are as lost as a goose in a fog, not called by God at all, have no anointing and talk academic terms that seem “spiritual” yet “do nothing”? In Australia, such institutions comply with government controlled curriculum—because students receive financial grants to study.

Their topics are basically identical, concentrating on equipping leaders for careers of influence in business, chaplaincy, counseling, entrepreneurship, teaching, ministry, music and theology. They are all great subjects indeed, but the only problem with such institutions is that they cannot anoint anyone the way the Holy Spirit does.

As a result they do not teach them about the anointing and how to flow with the Holy Spirit.

Alphareticus University and Tabor are two. Check them out!

I studied in such bible colleges and for a doctorate, so am not speaking hearsay. I respect and acknowledge them of course, but they never did, nor can they do what the Spirit of God alone can do. Paul alluded to that in the first few chapters of his letter to the church at Corinth.

When Jesus taught, He amazed everyone. When Peter and John preached, the religious people knew that they had no formal college degrees—but had been with Jesus. How or why did they see that? It was the result of the anointing on their lives. Paul said that he had studied with the very best and had much he could boast of, but regarded all that as nothing, likening it to dung by comparison with the revelation the Holy Spirit gave him. Jesus called Him, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth who would teach us...
I urge you to weigh up what John said in1 John 2, especially from verse 20 onwards and make a judgment.

The Lord was confident of the Spirit’s direction to act: …I judge: and my judgment is just.…

The word “judge” and “judgment” are both from the Greek word krino, a legal term meaning to make a decision on the basis of information, like a jury who has heard all the evidence in a trial and now possesses all the information needed to take action.

This word is used in John 5:30 to let us know that Jesus never acted until He had all the direction He needed from the Spirit. Once that direction was given and Jesus had all the information He needed, He acted.

Because He acted on directions given by the Spirit of God, He was able to say that His actions were always right.

Jesus didn’t go with a preplanned program or act mechanically every time He was confronted with a need. Therefore, we need to learn from His example and depend on the leading of the Holy Spirit just as He did. If we will listen to the Spirit and do what He tells us to do—if we will learn to wait until we hear Him speak—and immediately act on that—we will have powerful results just like Jesus had in His earthly ministry.

I know that I have repeated myself often, but so too does God’s word and we need to “get the message”. Repetition is one way He teaches us! It is called “the law of much mention”.

May we learn how to listen to, recognize the voice of the Lord, obey Him and allow the spirit of truth to do His thing in our lives.

Blessings,

Robert