How to Be Led by the Holy Spirit

The way the Holy Spirit directs us is often totally contrary to natural reason or wisdom. Paul states this paradox very clearly in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 12 through 14.

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God.”

Notice there are two sources of spirits: one from God, one from this present world order. The one that comes from this world order is not the Spirit of God. It’s another kind of spirit.

Paul goes on,

“Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”

So, the wisdom that comes by the Holy Spirit is not couched in the language of human wisdom. I have to confess, I sometimes get nervous when I hear a preacher extensively quoting and using the language of such disciplines as psychiatry or psychology. They are all right in their place, but they are not the words that God uses to release divine wisdom.

Paul goes on to say,

“But a natural man, a man who’s limited to his own natural understanding without the Holy Spirit, does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”

So, while we are merely in our own natural reasoning and understanding, no matter how highly educated, or sophisticated, or cultivated we may be, we cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. In fact, they are foolishness to us. That doesn't mean they're foolish, but it means they seem foolish to us.

You see, God is not impressed by the wisdom of this world. Listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:18 through 20.

“For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

See, the message doesn't change, it's our response. If we receive it in the natural, it’s foolishness. If we let the Holy Spirit interpret it to us, it becomes the power of God. Paul goes on,

“For it is written,”

he’s quoting from the Old Testament,

“‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.’”

That’s God speaking.

Then he, Paul asks,

“Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”

That’s a very solemn thought today because so much of the church is bowing before the altar of the wisdom of this world, but God has made that foolish. Paul goes on again, the same theme, in 1 Corinthians 3:18 through 20.

“Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become foolish, that he may become wise.”

Now perhaps I can interject a word of personal testimony.

I had the privilege of a very elaborate, advanced education in Britain, and my special field of study was what Paul calls the wisdom of this world, which was philosophy, and primarily Greek philosophy, the very thing Paul had in mind when he wrote this epistle. And I have to say that when I came to God and knew Him, I had to become a fool first before I could begin to enter into the wisdom of God. So, if any man seems to be wise in this world, Paul says, the first thing he has to do is to become a fool in his own eyes and in the eyes of others, that he may become truly wise.

Paul goes on again,

“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, ‘He,’ God, ‘is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness.’ And again, ‘The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.’”

And then Paul kind of sums all this up with one hammer blow in 1 Corinthians 8:2, where he says,

“If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know.”

Paul says the kind of natural knowledge you have does not fit in with God’s revelation. The first thing you have to do is to come to the end of all that natural reasoning and reliance on your own intellect and your education, humble and abase your mind before God, and acknowledge that what you have is not divine wisdom, and then the Holy Spirit will begin to impart to you divine wisdom. But there is this process of self-humbling that has to take place first. And I think the people who find it hardest in this world to humble themselves before God are intellectuals. I think the cultivation of the intellect strengthens pride in man perhaps more than any other. Wealth tends to make people proud, political power tends to make people proud. There are various things. Personal beauty tends to make people proud, but I think the strongest fortress of pride in natural man is that which comes through the cultivation of his own intellect.

You see, it isn't that God doesn't have any wisdom. God indeed is the source of all true wisdom, and He makes this available to His people. But God has another kind of wisdom. The key to God’s wisdom is the cross. You see, the cross, to natural thinking, is the sum total of God’s foolishness. He sent His Son into the world to save the world, and He allowed His Son to be seized by sinners, given a false trial, condemned to death, and die in agony and shame. What could be more foolish than that if you are seeking to release your power to save mankind? But Paul says, in actual fact, the cross, what happened on that, is the key to all wisdom and all power that comes from God. This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:4 through 8. You’ll notice nearly all my quotations are from 1 Corinthians, because it’s in that particular epistle that Paul nails down the wisdom of this world and shows what it really is.

Paul says,

“My message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit,”

the Holy Spirit,

“and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.”

That’s so important. Now, a generation ago, I studied contemporary philosophy, what was contemporary in those days. The real exciting thing in those days was what they called linguistic philosophy. And I sat at the feet of the best known of all the professors, Ludwig Wittgenstein. I was his pupil for 2 years. But I have to tell you today, all that’s out of date. It’s completely changed. So, if I had based my faith on that kind of wisdom today, I’d have no basis for it, do you see? So, it’s not a safe basis for your faith. Your faith has got to be based on the power of God, not on human wisdom, because the power of God doesn't change.

Then Paul goes on to say,

“Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery.”

Oh, I love that. God’s wisdom in a mystery. God has wisdom, secret, hidden wisdom of God. You see, as a philosopher, that’s what I was really looking for. I was looking for wisdom. The word philosophy means the love of wisdom. And I was searching and searching for it, but I was frustrated. I couldn't find it. But then one day, by God’s grace and mercy, I came to the place where the door opens to God’s secret, hidden wisdom. This is what Paul says about it. I can never read these words without getting excited.

“We speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory.”

That’s an exciting statement, you have to admit, that God has a wisdom which He ordained before creation. And the purpose of His wisdom, listen to this, the purpose of His wisdom is to bring us to His glory. That’s an astonishing statement. No human mind could ever have worked out a system like that. It has to be from God. And then Paul goes on about this wisdom,

“The wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

You see, the door to this secret, hidden wisdom is the cross.

To the natural man, Paul says, the word of the cross is foolishness. Oh, I can remember how foolish it seemed to me when I first heard it. Everything in me revolted against it. What a horrible picture. A naked man dying in agony on a cross. How could God be behind such a scene as that? What does that have to offer to us? But then the Holy Spirit opened my understanding. I had a personal encounter with the man who hung on the cross, and I found that the cross is the doorway, and the only doorway, to the secret, hidden wisdom of God. But to come to that doorway, before you become wise in that wisdom, you have to become foolish in the natural wisdom. Paul said,

“If any man seems to be wise, let him become a fool that he may be wise.”

I know very, very well from personal experience how true that is. I know what that’s like, because I had cultivated my intellect intensively, and I had to lay all of that down to find the wisdom that comes through the cross.