Pastor Jason Anderson - Audio

Today I want to talk to you about being Spirit-led

through divine inspiration, a supernatural visitation for your distinct

and unique life experience, a personalized message to you from God. The

Holy Spirit's primary way of leading is by teaching us the word of God.

He also leads us through our desires. He gives us the desires of our

heart; in other words, the reason He wants to fulfill the desire in your

heart is because He put it in there. It's part of His way to get you to

want to do what He wants you to do. But today I want to talk to you

about the daily leading of the Spirit through every facet of life that

comes to us by the Spirit's direct messaging, the specific and direct

communication from the Holy Spirit that is for your personal and

distinct life destination. There is a leading available to Christians

that many are completely missing, either because they are unaware, or

not listening and trusting. Or they think the Holy Spirit is some far

away, distant conceptual God that has no possibility of being actually

real to them. Think of it this way, God's Word is leading all of us; it

is like a group text for all of us. It's like a FB post. Instagram. But

He is also direct messaging you. Here's His group text for us today:

John 16:12-13 (NKJV) "I have much more to say to you, more than you can

now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you

into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only

what he hears, and HE WILL TELL YOU WHAT IS YET TO COME." It's like a

Direct Message – a personal text just for you. "Turn here, go back, talk

to that person, lock your car, move your purse." The Holy Spirit's gonna

help you at work, "Say this." You're a mechanic, "Check that." Or you

have a dream and your all, "Whoa! That was from God!" So today I want to

talk to you about this voice, about the nudges, the Divine visitations,

the dreams, the visions... the WHAT IS TO COME stuff!

Today I want to talk to you about distractions. We are

so busy. And so busy and so many distractions sometimes leaves no room

for God's plan. We just don't have time for that right now. God's trying

to put his plan in motion, but there just aren't any seats left on your

bus. The movie in our mind is sold out. Jesus talks about this in the

parable of the sower and the seed. One of the types that didn't really

get the life-changing word of God just had too much going on; too many

things distracted them from producing what God had given. The boss comes

in with a new project and it gets put on the bottom of the pile of what

I'm doing. But is everything we are doing producing? Or maybe some of my

busy is just that, busy. I believe too many Christians are being pulled

off God's path by distractions.

Today I want to talk to you about graduating to the next

level. Every May students are graduating - my daughter is graduating

high school this year. At the graduation there are speeches given about

the new opportunities facing the graduates. You can become anything. The

world is an oyster. For college graduates, they have been studying for a

particular career; new information has been preparing them to be

released into purpose – engineer, microbiologist, accountant. The

definition of graduating is to pass from one stage of experience to a

higher one. Promotion to a higher place resulting from study,

preparation, and testing to determine readiness. The Holy Spirit is our

teacher. We are called to understanding. The Spirit leads us by

revealing to us, through the Word, moving us along in our

purpose.

"Let's get together for coffee." I love that phrase. We

do it at our daily show, "Wake Up." Coffee is something that can be

shared in so many ways. That friend you haven't seen in 10 years, "Let's

catch up over coffee." Your spouse, "You wanna go get a cup of coffee?"

Your best friend, "Let's meet up tomorrow for coffee." A new client, a

possible important contact, that new possible love interest… and asking

her out to dinner is too aggressive, but coffee, we could do coffee. You

sit across from each other, your friend, your sister, your spouse, no

real agenda, just chatting. Relaxed, breathing in life, drinking in

relationship, laughing, sharing coffee, a new joke, sharing problems,

stories of weariness, stories of victory, sharing opinions, sharing

advice. What if you could have coffee with some women of the Bible,

heroes from ancient times? What would they tell you? What would they

say? Today we will have coffee with six different women of the Bible, to

listen to what they might say to you and me. What advice would they

offer us? What stories might they share? Sarah, Leah, Jehosheba, Hannah,

Deborah, and one whose name we don't even know.

Today I want to take you all off roading - today we talk

about getting off the beaten path and trail blazing. Did you know the

Spirit desires for you to go off road, to think different, to live

different, to go a different road? Did you know that the Spirit led

Jesus into the wilderness - took Him off road. Jesus' whole life was

spent going off road, He did things differently, He wasn't with the

pack. He didn't succumb to the pressures of what everyone else thought

or said. The Bible doesn't use the normal paths, it doesn't work on the

9-lane freeway. The Bible takes us right over the water, it moves the

mountain out of our way, the word of God isn't saying what the world is

saying. It's a completely different way of living life, and has a

completely better destination. We love the guys who pave new ways,

discoverers. They reject status quo, they go against the grain. The

world is flat, you'll fall off the edge, but Columbus sails on. Famous

men and women, whose name we still remember, discovered, pursued ideas

that were rejected. Einstein claimed light was made up of particles,

although it had already been proven light was a wave. Galileo fought

even against the pope for his belief in heliocentrism, that the earth

and planets revolve around the sun, Neil Armstrong the first man to step

on the moon. Discoverers, off the path, marching to the beat of a

different drum.

Today I want to talk to you about being led by the

Spirit, specifically, the breath of God. The breath of God is the

revealer of God's word, bringing us revelation. Often in the Bible the

breath of God is a metaphor for the Holy Spirit. The same word for

Spirit is used for breath in both Greek and Hebrew, New Testament and

Old. God is wanting to show us that His Spirit is like Him breathing. In

Exodus 15, the Israelites are singing a song about God parting the seas,

and they say something interesting. Exodus 15:8 (ISV) says, "By the

breath of your nostrils the waters were piled up, the flowing waters

stood up like a hill, the deep waters congealed in the heart of the

sea." The breath here broke something off to reveal something that was

already there. It describes these deep waters as thickening in the heart

of the sea - something hidden in the deep. Listen to David sing about

the breath of God 2 Samuel 22:16 (NKJV), "Then the channels of the sea

were seen, The foundations of the world were uncovered, At the rebuke of

the LORD, At the blast of the breath of His nostrils." Ruwach - what's

the breath doing? Uncovering, showing us what's in the deep hidden

places. God's breath here is a revealer, an uncoverer. It travels/comes

with a rebuke; the word comes and rebukes something off of you, and

reveals, uncovers things that were hidden before come to light. Consider

you, full of the Spirit of God and a new creation. God's word is full of

revelation. Principle and power are there, and His breath reveals what

is hidden. Paul said to be Spirit-led, and Jesus said the Spirit is our

teacher. A teacher is leading us.

Today I want to talk to you about God's desire to raise

us up. I call it, "the resurrected King is resurrecting me." God has

jumped through a lot of hoops to position us to be raised up. We all

have been in low places, at the base of a mountain looking up. How will

I get my family back on track? The marriage is on the rocks man, and so

we dig around, and try and get a footing, trying to fix things, patch up

the sinking ship. But God's desire is for you to be raised to the top of

the mountain, great marriage, promoted in the job. Your business has

been struggling, but God wants to raise it up to the highest, most

successful business. He says in Deuteronomy 28:1 (NKJV), "Now it shall

come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to

observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that

the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. I

like how it says it in the NET in Deuteronomy 26:19, "Then he will

elevate you above all the nations he has made and you will receive

praise, fame, and honor. You will be a people holy to the LORD your God,

as he has said." His desires, His strength, His thoughts, His wisdom,

His emotions, His favor, His victory, His armor, His sword, His

authority, His promises, His angels to serve you. He wants to elevate

you. Who is okay with God elevating them some today?

Today I want to talk to you about the winds of change.

Change is inevitable, and though most resist it, it is happening. The

Holy Spirit is the "winds of change" in your life. Isaiah 27:8 (NKJV)

says you contended with it. He removes it by His rough wind in the day

of the east wind (spirit). God has fixed the system that was broken by

putting His Spirit in you. Now there was lots of other stuff in you when

that Spirit came in, but according to Romans 8, you are controlled by

the Spirit. He tells you what to do, and you're all, "I don't want to do

that." So he changes your desire. Now you do want to do it. You think,

"I'm going to lose who I am." NO! You are becoming who God created you

to be. Some of you will change easily. Maybe worry was a very small part

of your life and it fell off easily. Maybe it's easy for you to be happy

and unoffendable. But are there stronger places in our life that resist

change? My wife wants to change me. I had no idea why she married me at

first, but after we got married I realized she was getting someone she

could possibly fix into a workable husband. We sometimes resist change.

We say, "Well, not me, I'm not doing that. I'll never be that guy."

Maybe it's a quality you always hated in someone else. You've said, "Man

I will never do that." "I'm not angry, I'm just a guy." "I'm not

jealous, I'm just in love." "I don't ever want to be the boss, that's

just not me, I don't need the hassle." "I don't need God's riches, I'm

happy with meager means." (Which may be exactly why God has laid up

riches for you, it's for His kingdom.) I don't want to be raised up, I

don't want my name made great, I don't need that. I'm fine being where I

am. I can't talk in front of people. I'm a background person. There are

strongholds in our old life that are set to resist the change God is

bringing. I want to talk about how God is winning that war as well. You

see, you are not going to change you. Today instead you are going to

learn how to receive His change for you.

Today I want to talk to you about desire's gate. We are

discussing being led by the Spirit, and looking specifically at the

Spirit of God as the wind of God. Exodus 14:21 (NKJV) says, "Then Moses

stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go

back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry

land, and the waters were divided." God implants His desire in our life,

so that we want to do what He wants us to do. He fills us up to the full

so that as we run our race, regardless of the resistance, tough days,

obstacles, we enjoy what we are doing. "What can I do for you, God?" He

says, "What do you want to do for me?" Certainly you have wrong desires,

well you always have, but now you have some right ones, so that serving

God is anything but a chore. I love what I do. Romans 8 says that the

Spirit nature desires to do certain things, this is burning in you, it's

your desire now. There is a problem, though. Many Christians are

skipping through desire's gate, leaving too soon. They want to be

spirit-led, but they forget that means that God's Spirit goes before

them, and they follow. They feel that desire and run ahead early. It's

like wanting to eat some steak, man you want it, you desire it so bad,

you're so hungry, but you gotta wait till it's done cooking. There is a

timing to pay attention to. The desire hits, but it is in the waiting

that we grow on the inside, grow so that we can succeed in the race. You

feel that burning to get started on a business, so you run into a

partnership that is wrong. You get wrecked and you wonder where God is.

You want to get married so bad that you take the first one instead of

the right one. You feel the wind pushing you to a new position, a new

company, but you quit earl, and the new job isn't ready yet, and quite

frankly, neither are you. You feel so passionate about starting that

ministry, and God has called you to it, but you start early, you weren't

ready, and everyone involved ends up hurt. Where was God? He was in it,

but not yet.

Today I want to talk to you about being led by the

Spirit - the wind of God. The Holy Spirit in the Bible is often

described as wind. Like wind, the Spirit is invisible, and yet we can

feel it. Wind opens the sails and powers the boat to distant lands, and

we want our ships to go where the wind of God sends. So many Christians

desire to hear God's voice, "Just tell me where to go God! I'll go." Or

we say, "Just tell me what I'm supposed to be doing and I will do it."

Can I surprise you? This is not how the Spirit leads. The Spirit leads

in a much deeper and more effective way than this. In fact, the Spirit

is leading you right now, you were led here today. And so here's the

problem, so many Christians are feeling completely unled, like they're

the only ones not being led, searching for direction, destiny, "God just

tell me what to do and I'll do it." I just want to hear your voice, turn

here, turn there, marry him, what do I do? Over the next few weeks we

are really going to look at the Spirit of God with a fresh perspective.

Today I want to bring you peace when it comes to being led by the

spirit. I want to get us into rest, to know you actually are already

being led. God knows how to work this thing, and He isn't making His

will some unimaginable hard to find mystery. There isn't a treasure map.

In fact, you were led many times last week. You are led by the Spirit,

you may just not have known it, let me reveal it to you today. We start

here: Romans 8:9 (NLT) "But you are not controlled by your sinful

nature. You are controlled by the Spirit (pneuma) if you have the Spirit

of God living in you." You see, you are being led by the Spirit, let me

show you what God has done.