Supernatural Biblical Guidance 3
The Holy Spirit, Your Inner Umpire, Part Two

by Pastor John Hamel

"Success is always the result of following the leading of the Holy Spirit." Dr. Kenneth E. Hagin

“...let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds] ...” (Colossians 3:15 Amplified Bible)

Let me take you back to lesson one of this fifteen part series on “Supernatural Biblical Guidance.”  

We talked about being created in the image of God.  We saw that God is a Spirit and that every human being ever birthed into the Earth is also a spirit.  Man is not a body.  Man is not a soul.  Man is a spirit. 

God is not a body.  God is not a soul.  God is a Spirit.  

God does not contact man through man’s body because the body lives in the physical realm and God lives in the spirit realm.  

God does not contact man through his soul because man’s soul is the intellectual realm and God does not live in the intellectual realm.  

God contacts man through man’s spirit because the spirit realm is where God lives.  

We gave you ample Scriptural support for these Bible facts.

In our last lesson we studied the primary way that the Holy Spirit communicates with man through the spirit realm.  It would be good to review here. 

The Holy Spirit Is Our "Inner" Umpire

The Apostle Paul made reference to his “perception” that the journey he was embarking upon was to be with much damage and loss. (Acts 27)  He was absolutely right, of course.  He was “picking up” signals from the Holy Spirit within.  

Paul also referred to this inner perception as the “Umpire.”  Everyone knows what an umpire does.  He keeps an eye on the players, making sure that they stay within certain safe parameters. 

We talked about the inner gyroscope commonly used in the maritime and aviation industries.  Pilots train for years enabling themselves to develop a greater trust in their instruments than what their bodies are telling them, particularly the inner ear.  Override the instruments and it spells trouble every time. 

We talked about the importance of not taking the path of least resistance, allowing others to guide us when the Holy Spirit wants to guide us directly. 

We also saw the importance of not insisting on more spectacular forms of supernatural guidance as Biblical as they are.  The “Inner Witness” is the primary way the Holy Spirit wants us to train ourselves to be led. 

Putting the Holy Spirit in Position to Answer You

We must be very careful to not be led by “open doors.”  Satan is the god of this world and he can open doors as easily as God can. (2Corinthians 4:4)  Many well meaning Pastors have accepted Pastorates that were not the will of God for them, simply because “the door was open.”  Not only does the Pastor get out of the will of God by doing this, but the people who follow him also end up missing God and being robbed of His blessings. 

It is so important to never be led by outward circumstances, pressing needs, pay increases, well-meaning counselors, etc.  I used the illustration of Maine and Idaho potatoes.  How off course it would be for me to tell the Holy Spirit, “I’m going to the grocery store.  If they have Maine potatoes, I’m moving to Maine.  If they have Idaho potatoes, I’m moving to Idaho.”  That might work for Mr. Potato Head but it will never work for true Believers. 

I gave the illustration of making my own decision to move to either Maine or Idaho.  Let us just say Maine in this case.  I inform the Holy Spirit of my decision and then I wait until I get “peace” or “unrest,” the “green light” or the “red light,” an inner perception of “Yes” or an inner perception of “No.”  Then I act on what I perceive from within and it leads me to success. 

I always put the Holy Spirit in position to where He only has to bear witness with my spirit as to whether I am making a right or a wrong decision.  If I think He is prompting me to do something, I tell Him so.  I’ll say, “I’m impressed that You are telling me to do thus and such.  I am making the decision to do so.  Now I’m going to give it some time and I’m going to see exactly how You bear witness with my spirit.  If I have unrest it was not You.  If I have absolute, total peace, I know You are speaking to me.  I will obey You and by doing so, I will prosper.”  This is so simple even a child can do it.  Problem is, too many Believers don’t want to do it. 

You Must "Let" the Holy Spirit Guide You

The Apostle Paul said, “Let the peace … act as Umpire continually … deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds.” (Colossians 3:15, Amplified Bible) 

We must make the decision to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us in this way.  He will not force us.  He will simply “impress” us.  Even if He should choose to use higher forms of supernatural guidance with us such as His inner voice, His audible voice, dreams, visions, prophecy or Angelic visitation, we must always have peace about them.  If any of these forms of guidance should come to you and it is not in line with the Written Word of God and you have unrest in your spirit, do not listen to it.  It was not the Holy Spirit. 

Someone once said, “The Holy Spirit told me to divorce my wife and to believe Him for Bro. So and So’s wife to come to me.”  We would have to say that was not the Holy Spirit.  The Bible says God hates divorce. (Malachi 2:16)  Therefore, that guidance is not in line with the Written Word of God and if the individual were sensitive to the Holy Spirit at all, they would know down in their spirit, or in their “gut” as the world says, that there is something seriously wrong with such flaky demonic guidance.

Inner Peace Vs. Relief in the Flesh

We studied how baby Christians often make wrong, unscriptural decisions thinking they are actually being led by the Holy Spirit.  By the way, you can be saved and sixty and still be a baby Christian.  We gave you the illustration of the individual who becomes convicted by the Pastor preaching the strong meat of God’s Word, so they bail out looking for another Church where the Pastor is serving up stone soup.  

They use the excuse “I had peace about leaving that Church,” when really they should be saying, “I come under such strong conviction by that Pastor’s preaching against sin that I couldn’t stand it because I didn’t want to change.  He makes my disobedient flesh crawl.  As soon as I left that Holy man's presence my flesh stopped bothering me and I feel good again.” 

There is a major difference between the peace of the Holy Spirit guiding you and relief in the flesh guiding you.  The Holy Spirit always leads us out of trouble.  The flesh always leads us into trouble. (Galatians 6:8)  

This completes our review. So let us now move on to some personal illustrations that will bring further clarity to how the inner witness works.

How the Inner Witness Literally Saved My Life

I could give endless illustrations of the Holy Spirit guiding me through inner perceptions from within my human spirit.  

One such illustration is as follows.  

I have a younger brother who is an avid motorcycle enthusiast.  I would often borrow a motorcycle from him for the express purpose of riding and praying in tongues to keep my spirit-man built up. I always figured if someone can serve the devil on a motorcycle, why couldn't they serve God on one even better?  

One day after a rainfall in Southern California, I took one of his motorcycles up into the Santa Ynez Mountain Range in Santa Barbara.  As I got to the top of the mountain range, the road severely twisted and turned.  There were some mudslides to traverse as a result of the recent rain, yet the road was mostly dry and safe. 

After about forty-five minutes of smooth sailing, suddenly I began to have complete unrest about continuing any further on my drive.  

Deep down inside, almost behind my belly button for lack of a better description, I began to feel a knot being tied.

My gut was telling me something was not right.  

It was the inner Umpire, the Holy Spirit telling me something was wrong.  I had “unrest” about continuing with my ride through the dangerous mountain pass.  

On the inside I suddenly went from a green light to a red light about continuing, and I knew I was to pull the motorcycle over immediately.  

Outwardly there were no indications of any danger or problem.  The sun was shining.  The road was reasonably dry but there was a mudslide caused by the recent rain just ahead of me.  It was blocking my side of the road as I approached.  

The mudslide did not go all the way across the road and my intention was to carefully drive on the opposite side of the road to avoid the mudslide.  

As I approached the mudslide my inner perception of impending danger increased to the point where I realized I must immediately pull over. 

There was a recess cut into the mudslide just big enough for me to pull into and abruptly stop. 

At the very same moment that I stopped, an oncoming vehicle came speeding around the front of the mudslide where seconds earlier I was headed.  The driver had his head tilted back, guzzling a can of beer.  He was obviously intoxicated, judging by his rate of speed on the treacherous mountain road.  

He sped past me never even noticing that I was sitting there safely tucked into the mudslide.  

Had I overridden the Holy Spirit's red light, continuing with my plan to carefully drive around the mudslide on the wrong side of the road, I would not be sharing this testimony with you today.  

Had I continued forging on in spite of the Holy Spirit's strong inner warning, what I often call His "red light," telling me not to do so, I would have literally had a head-on collision within a matter of a few seconds with a drunk driver. 

There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the collision would have killed me instantly and my motorcycle riding days would be over.

I would have been jet-skiing across the Jordan. 

This is how serious a matter it is to always listen to the inner perceptions of the Holy Spirit, no matter how perfect things appear to be outwardly.  

The Holy Spirit knows things we simply do not know.

"Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself: but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come." (John 16:13)

Supernatural Inward Guidance Concerning Compromised Ministries  

The Body of Christ must have so much more confidence in the inner witness of the Holy Spirit than we have had in the past.  He will never lead us into trouble.  He will only lead us out of trouble and into the perfect will of God. 

We have all watched many “big name” Ministries collapse in past years.  

As a result, untold thousands have wrongly quit on God and stopped supporting all Ministry outreaches, crying, “You just can’t trust anyone anymore.”  

Yes, you can.  

You can trust the inner witness of the Holy Spirit.  You can trust His green light and His red light if only you will obey it. 

There were three very prominent television Ministries that collapsed during the 1980’s and 1990’s.  

I was actually slain in the spirit for three days,  Born Again and supernaturally delivered from drug and alcohol addiction under one of these Ministries.  

In all three cases, prior to any outward hint of a problem with any one of them, the Holy Spirit began to bear witness with my spirit that I was to separate myself from each of these Ministries.  Initially, He never did tell me why.  He only continued to bear witness with my spirit that something was very wrong.  

Every time I listened to one of these Ministers or moved to support them, I knew to not do so.  

I had continual unrest, the Holy Spirit's red light, about involvement with each of them.  Every time one of them came on the television, I would experience unrest down in my belly.

Only once I shut the television off would peace return.  

I knew the Holy Spirit was telling me something was very wrong with each of them.  

Sure enough, one at a time, each of them fell as a result of financial, sexual or pride problems.  

I did not experience unrest concerning all three of these Ministries because I am some sort of spiritual giant, for I am not.  

I began to pick this up in my spirit simply because I have disciplined myself for decades to pray in the Spirit regularly.  This has kept my spirit sensitized and it will keep your spirit sensitized, as well.  

The Christian people who turned away from God and from supporting all Ministries as a result of the fall of these three Ministries, have only revealed their insensitivity to the Holy Spirit and their ignorance of God’s primary form of supernatural guidance.  

Whenever you put on the television, a DVD, turn on the radio, go to the Internet or pick up a book, magazine, tape or CD and anxiety or unrest comes into your spirit, mild or strong, shut it off or put it down.  

There is something there that will hurt you or mislead you.  The Holy Spirit is trying to protect you.

Again, the Holy Spirit Cautioned My Spirit 

In 1999 I began to once again experience an inner knowing to be very careful with a certain Minister.  This time it was concerning a notable, national Word of Faith television Preacher from Texas.  

This inner prompting of the Holy Spirit was not as sharp and distinct as the day the Holy Spirit was urgently pressing upon me to pull my motorcycle off the road immediately. 

Nor was it even as strong as it was in the 80's and early 90's when the Holy Spirit began to bear witness with my spirit to separate myself from each of those three Ministries.  

It did not have to be quite so strong this time.  

By now I was much more experienced at picking up even the gentlest inner prompting of the Holy Spirit that something might be wrong.

For twelve years this gentle inward prompting continued in my spirit concerning this Minister. 

I knew to be very careful with this television Minister in whom I once had great confidence, particularly when I was a baby Christian.

I obeyed the Holy Spirit and stopped listening to the Minister altogether. 

To use a popular expression, "Lo and behold."  

After nearly twelve years of the Holy Spirit bearing witness with my spirit to be very careful with this individual, I discovered the following.  

In 1999, at the same time the Holy Spirit had begun to inwardly warn me about him, this Minister had been corrected by his spiritual father along with nearly two dozen other popular prosperity Preachers.  

I discovered that Dr. Kenneth E. Hagin had called them all to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, to correct them and to encourage them to repent and to make adjustments concerning their un-Biblical prosperity teachings.  

For the most part, none of those present, including this specific Minister from Texas, received Dr. Hagin's correction.  They all continued preaching and teaching their false prosperity doctrines.  There was too much to lose financially for them to receive Dr. Hagin's correction and pull their Ministries back in line with the Bible.

Sadly, many of them began to experience decrease, hardship, loss of respect and in some cases even tragedies occurred.  

The one notable Minister from Texas, considered to be the key Ministry leader, began to be deceived by seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.  He caused great division amongst Protestants, in the world of Faith Ministry, by trying to force a unity issue between the Catholic and Protestant Churches.  As a result, he not only lost respect, but his close friend of many years who served as a liaison between the notable Minister and Pope Francis, lost his life through the allowed judgment of God concerning the matter.

Also, as a result the popular Minister from Texas lost the support of many, disgraced himself and continues to bear the mark of his rebellion stemming from the 1999 rejection of his spiritual father's Biblical counsel.

This Minister who was once held in such high esteem by so very many in the world of Faith teaching had now fallen into shame and disgrace. All because he was unwilling to accept correction from his spiritual father, humble himself, correct his doctrine and simply move on with the true things of God.

Twelve years earlier, at the same time of his rejecting correction from his spiritual father, the Holy Spirit began to gently bear witness with my spirit that I was to no longer listen to this Minister.  

Because of my past experiences with the inward witness of the Holy Spirit, I knew to listen.  I obeyed that inner knowing.  

Outwardly, for a 12-year period, there seemed to be no reason to follow that inward witness.  However, I remained faithful to it and stayed clear of this Minister. 

I soon discovered that twelve years earlier this once trusted man of God had disobeyed his spiritual father and the Bible and chose to remain in sin.

Once again the Holy Spirit had kept me from following a compromised Minister into error.

Trust the Holy Spirit's Inner Promptings Always - No Matter What

On September 11, 2001, Shenksville, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. and New York City came under a devastating attack of Muslim terrorists. The terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners filled with passengers.  They flew them into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and into the ground in Pennsylvania. Over three thousand human beings lost their lives that day, including eleven unborn children, either on one of four hijacked planes, on the ground or in those buildings.  

On the morning of those Muslim terrorist attacks a Spirit-filled Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ was engineering one of the underground subway trains that made regular stops directly beneath the World Trade Center.  The World Trade Center had already come under attack as he was driving his train there as his next stop.  He had no knowledge whatsoever of what was happening above ground.

The train engineer reports that for some reason he had a big knowing in his gut to stop the train immediately. He had a big "red light" in his spirit about proceeding any further towards his Twin Tower's destination.  

His first thought was if he stopped the train without being signaled to do so from his above ground dispatcher, he would lose his job.  It is an extremely dangerous thing to stop an underground train without being signaled to do so because other trains could come along and slam into it in the dark.  

However, this Spirit-filled engineer was so overwhelmed with the inner knowing to stop the train and to stop the train immediately, he obeyed that inner prompting.  

The train engineer applied the brakes, stopping the train which was headed for the Twin Towers underground station and just sat there.  

He later realized had he overridden the inner prompting of the Holy Spirit, the strong "red light" of the Holy Spirit and continued on, he would have driven himself and his trainload of passengers directly under one of the Twin Towers at precisely the same time it was collapsing into itself.  

The Spirit-filled engineer's prompt obedience to the Inner Witness of the Holy Spirit - the lack of a "green light" and the strong presence of a "red light" within - not only saved his life but hundreds of other lives that fateful morning in 2001. 

For whatever reason the Holy Spirit might be guiding you through the inner witness, we want to encourage you to obey Him at all times - no matter what.  

Maybe He is trying to protect your life.  Maybe He is trying to keep you from marrying the wrong person.  Maybe He is trying to lead you into prosperity.  Possibly He is guiding you into a major change of direction in your life.  

Do not allow outward circumstances to keep you from obeying Him.  

Possibly He has been impressing you for months or even years that something specific is coming into your life.  Just rest and let Him work out the details.

If He is giving you His "green light" to proceed with something, by all means proceed.   

If He is giving you His inner "red light" about proceeding, apply the brakes immediately

Presently I am trusting God to work out something that He began to impress upon my spirit well over two decades ago as of the time of this writing.  Outwardly it seems that it will never happen.  The obstacles appear to be insurmountable.  But I have learned from past experiences with the inner witness of the Holy Spirit that as I continue to seek Him for wisdom, obeying Him every step of the way, obstacles will be removed and I will soon be rejoicing that I trusted Him.  

I am going to continue to pray out the will of God in other Tongues in this matter. (Romans 8:26-28)  I refuse to ignore the Holy Spirit’s promptings no matter how impossible the situation appears, no matter how many millions of dollars it is going to take.  If I do that I will grieve Him and He will stop dealing with me about the matter.  Then I really will miss the will of God for my life and that is never a good thing. 

Let me say in closing, before moving on to some of the more spectacular forms of guidance, that we must never tell the Holy Spirit how to guide us.  We must never insist on a cloud by day and a fire by night just because that is how Israel was led in the wilderness.  They did not have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them.  This is why the Holy Spirit appeared to them as a cloud by day and as fire by night. 

If you are Born Again, the Holy Spirit lives within you to a degree.  

If you have received the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, He lives in you in His fullness.  

The cloud and the fire now live on the inside of you. (1Corinthians 3:16; 2Corinthians 6:16; John 16:13

If you perceive the Holy Spirit is telling you to do something, put Him in position to where He only has to answer you “Yes” or “No.”  You do this by making a decision and not moving out on it until He tells you that you have made a right decision.  

Keep in mind “peace,” the Holy Spirit's green light, is His “Yes,” and “unrest,” the Holy spirit's red light, is His “No.” 

Someone said, “That’s just too simple.”  

To which I say, “Simple indeed, yet very profound.  Not very spectacular, yet very supernatural."  

Remember, Adam and Eve got into trouble by overriding the simplicity of God’s instruction and here we all are today. 

Don't let this happen to you.

"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." (2 Corinthians 11:3)

Be Blessed ... John and Barbara Hamel

 

 

How to Be Born Again (Receive Christ as Your Savior)

 

How to Receive The Holy Spirit & Power

 

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