Jesus said in John 16:13 (Amplified), "But when He, the Spirit of truth (the truth giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the truth (the whole full truth). For He will not speak His Own message (on His Own authority) but He will tell whatever He hears (from the Father), (He will give the message that has been given to Him), and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come (that will happen in the future)."
Many Christians, and non-Christians alike, believe that the events in our lives are planned out like a script in a play for us to follow. The truth is that the Holy Spirit will move on us at various times and in different ways. That's why it's so very important for us to learn how to listen and yield to Him. He isn't preprogrammed to do only certain things at certain times, but "He will not speak His Own message (on His Own authority), but will tell whatever He hears from the Father."
We read about the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5:25-34 (Amplified). One of the things that amazes me in this account, is that Jesus didn't know who had drawn the healing from Him. Thus, Verse 30 says, "Jesus, recognizing in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around immediately in the crowd and said, 'Who touched My clothes?'"
The Father had already made the healing available for this woman, without the foreknowledge of Jesus. Jesus had previously said that, "It's not Me Who does the work, but the Father in Me Who does the work." Jesus says the same thing about the Holy Spirit in John 16:13 (Amplified) which says that, "The Holy Spirit will not speak and do as He would of His Own free will, but only what the Father says."
We know that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all One and the same in the fullness of God, but each has a very different role from the Father. The Father will reveal through the Holy Spirit, different things in very different ways and at different times. We might not see the "faith" to be healed in a particular person, but the Father will know they have faith to be healed.
There have been many occasions where I've come to the pulpit ready to preach a certain message when the Holy Spirit will take the meeting in a completely different direction. It wasn't something He revealed to me the day or even the hour before, but only moments before. It wasn't my place to question the change in the service, but to obey His leading. I could have simply ignored His prompting and continued with my planned message, but I would have missed what the Father wanted done. It's almost without exception that every healing, miracle, deliverance and great message came from someone being led by the Holy Spirit.
His voice isn't always what we recognize as a voice, but rather is a "knowing" in your spirit. The Word shows us the difference between our own carnal mind and the mind of the Holy Spirit in Romans 8:5-14 (Amplified). Paul says in Verse 7, "(That is) because the mind of the flesh (with its carnal thoughts and purposes) is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's law, indeed it cannot."
This doesn't mean that the mind is always thinking on sinful things, but only on carnal things. I could have gone right on with my planned sermon when I got to the pulpit, but I would have missed what God had wanted me to do. The carnal mind will not submit to the Spirit. Paul goes on in Verse 14 saying, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." Paul is speaking about mature sons and not simply "Children of God." Many born again Christians are more carnal in their thinking than they are spiritual. We've somehow believed that to "think as the Spirit thinks" is weird or strange, but nothing is further from the truth.
It's true that some in the Church are "spooked" when hearing "Thus saith the Lord," but don't allow those few discourage you from flowing in the Spirit. There have been many times where the Holy Spirit moved me to pray for people in a public venue. Your carnal mind would dismiss this as being foolish and tell you you're making a spectacle of yourself, but I know it was God.
I once prayed over a little girl in a supermarket checkout line. She was deaf in both ears and her mother asked if I would pray for her. I could have easily been carnally minded and said, "Yes, I'll pray for her when I get home." But, the Holy Spirit directed me to lay hands on her right where she was. I have know idea what the other shoppers thought about this or how her mother thought about this, I only know what God thought. Today, that little girl hears perfectly from both ears. I didn't know I would be praying for her when I went shopping. I didn't know who she was, but the Father already knew and gave the message to and through the Holy Spirit.
Did I have to pray for her? No, I could have done something totally different in that instance. Would I still be saved and be a Christian if I hadn't prayed for her? Of course, but that little girl would still be deaf if I hadn't listened to the Holy Spirit. God might have sent someone else to pray for her if I refused to do so. That might or might not be true. I thank God, though, that I had the honor and privilege of being the instrument He used to perform the miracle.
So many times, we allow our own carnal thinking to interfere with the flow of the Spirit of God. Our pride gets in the way because we might appear foolish in the eyes of others. Or, there are times when we're too busy and don't take the time to obey the prompting of the Spirit. We forget that it's no longer our lives, but His life we now live. In His life, there is nothing more important than that little girl.
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