The Inward Witness The Witness in your Spirit

The Inward Witness The Witness in your Spirit The check in your spirit. The conviction in your spirit. The agreement in your spirit. Know that you Know How do you know. The unexplainable. Fleeced with Fleeces The origin of the fleece. The faults of the fleece. The God of this world. Following the Witness Not always your will. It seems so natural. Never in a hurry. Act on time.

The Inward Witness A man and wife" become one flesh through the act of marriage. This thought is the context for this Scripture. Thus, in the same way that a man and wife become one flesh physically, so the believer and the Holy Spirit become one spiritually. Two Become One The best words in the modern language for this are: the two become laminated, cemented or glued together. God the Holy Spirit and me spirit of a believer are laminated together in me closest union mar can possibly exist between two persons.

The Inward Witness The Primary Way The inner witness is the primary way in which the Holy Spirit leads us! The born-again believer is a new breed of species that has never' ' existed before. It is important to realize this if we want to be led by the Spirit. The believer does not depend on the leading of any man, prophet or seer. Neither does he need to hear voices, or see angels or special visions and appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ to be "led".

The Inward Witness The Home of the Spirit The words "abide with you" means to be "at home with you!“ We are not His temporary dwelling place, neither are we His visiting place. We are His permanent dwelling place. Beyond that we are not just His dwelling place for this age and time - we are His eternal dwelling place.

The Inward Witness Get Used to Him We have inside information, revelation and guidance. We do not have to have an external communication from the outside. Hardhearted It is time only when we are dull of hearing the Holy Spirit within us that we need to be shocked into reality in through a prophet, a man of God, an appearance of the Lord or an angel, etc. .

The Inward Witness Get used to LISTENING to Him Get used to HEARING Him The Holy Spirit is constantly giving instructions, commands and directions. The problem is that we are not always tuned in to listening and hearing what He says. Get used to OBEYING the Holy Spirit

The Inward Witness Listen to your Spirit The problem for most Christians is that although they have been translated from the domain of the devil into the kingdom of the beloved Son, they still carry the old habit of depending on their own understanding, logic and reason. Your Heart, not your Head We think that those suggestions and thoughts from the spirit are foolish and ridiculous, so we write them off as empty imaginations. We reach the point of getting used to not listening, don't!

The Inward Witness Challenging Ideas The reason we relegate the instructions of the Spirit to foolishness is that. . . They challenge our areas of comfort lead us into untested and unknown territory which we have never before ventured into - beyond the limits of our experience. The Holy Spirit wants to be your sole source of dependence. He wants the Lord Jesus Christ to be glorified and He wants the power of God to be manifested.

The Inward Witness The Witness in your Spirit This is what the Lord Jesus told Kenneth Hagin that night. He also said that the major way that the children of God are to be led is by the inner witness. The Lord told him that this would be the last time He would lead him by a physical manifestation. From that time on it would be by the inward witness. The Check in your Spirit n Acts 16: 6, 7 “Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were FORBIDDEN BY THE HOLY SPIRIT to preach the Word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia. BUT THE SPIRIT DID NOT PERMIT THEM”.

The Inward Witness Intuitively, deep down in the inner mart, apart from intellectual knowledge, the Holy Spirit says "no" to our plans and intentions. There seems to be a red light or a stop signal which is almost inexplicable. There is a sense of – n n n Foreboding Fear Uneasiness Discomfort Disagreement These are some of the things you might experience. Take them seriously and do not ignore these checks in your spirit. Many a person would have been saved from calamity, disaster and loss if they would have learned to obey the Spirit in this way

The Inward Witness Ignore Outward Appearance We are so trained in the senses that we would rather believe what our eyes and ears tell us. It looks so good and it sounds so good! Everything points to it! All the circumstances seem right! But what does your heart say?

The Inward Witness The Conviction in Your Spirit Here we see the other side of the coin. The warnings came by the gift of prophecy and by the ministry of the prophet, revealing that the circumstances would be contrary to those expected, arid that things would go wrong. Yet, in the midst of this, there was an inner witness to go to Jerusalem. Again, there was a sense of n n n Urgency Pressure Rightness These are things that accompany conviction

The Inward Witness Compelled - Nor Driven A driving spirit is devilish and comes with a constant sense of discontentment. When the Holy Spirit compels, it is still open to choice and brings a deep down sense of "I am doing the right thing". There is contentment and satisfaction. A driven person actually goes against the inner witness, and is in most cases forced, either by circumstantial pressure or by peer pressure to go against the inner convictions of the heart.

The Inward Witness The Agreement in your Spirit This comes when there is harmony between the Holy Spirit and us as to our choice of action. This will come with a sense of – n n Peace Restfulness Easiness Tranquility

The Inward Witness Know that you Know The principle of assurance deep within is at work in the leading of the Holy Spirit within. It is because the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit. n 1 John 5: 10 “ He who believes in the Son of God has this witness In himself “. The sons of God can expect to be led by the Spirit of God. This is a benefit of being in the household of God!

The Inward Witness The Principle of Assurance In the same way that a baby has no doubt that it is born, so every child of God has assurance of being born again. There is no doubt in the matter. The assurance is the Holy Spirit speaking within. How do you know? The most important thing in our lives is to become a child of God. How do you know that you are a child of God? Not because someone prophesied someone said, "I feel like you do" you had a vision

The Inward Witness The Unexplainable It is like explaining what falling in love is like to someone who has never fallen in love. It is like explaining your most ecstatic feeling in fine detail. Only you know what it is like by experience. After the Experience There is contact - Spirit to spirit - and thus the person is qualified to testify to an event that was experienced between two parties.

The Inward Witness The Fruit The results are the test of the experienced communication. Fleeced with Fleeces Obedience requires instructions, directions and commands. We notice here that God removed the stony, hard heart - the one that is insensitive and dull to the Holy Spirit.

The Inward Witness The Heart of Flesh We have a new heart and a new spirit and God has put His Spirit within us that we may do what he says, but this requires a listening and hearing heart. The Origin of the Fleece 1. Judges 6: 36 -40 “ Then Gideon said to God: If you will save Israel by my hand as You have said - Look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as You have said. And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. Then Gideon said to God; Do not be angry with me, and let me - speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece, let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on the ground.

The Inward Witness The Faults of the Fleece This is the only occasion in the Scripture that the word fleece is use and many believers have taken this as the way in which they are "led by the Spirit". The Bible does not say, "as many as are led by fleeces. . . “ It is an External Sign We are full of the Holy Spirit and we have a soft heart that is sensitive to the Holy Spirit. All we need is a sensitive hearing spirit.

The Inward Witness It has the Wrong Motivation n Motivated by Unbelief The phrase "as you have said“ appears twice in this account. Gideon was wondering whether he would really be protected by God. If Notice the doubt in the phrase "if you will save Israel. . . " If God said so, there should not have been any doubt at all! But Gideon was unsure of the ways of God and he had never seen the faithfulness of God in action.

The Inward Witness The Threat of God's Anger Gideon was afraid that he was stirring up God's anger. This is the result of unbelief and doubt. The Result of Ignorance Gideon, we must remember, was filled with fear and cowardice. He was afraid of the oppressor and he was hiding. Imagine threat complex at being told that he would be the one who would save Israel.

The Inward Witness The God of this World The devil is the god of this world. Satan can set up a wonderful set of circumstances to make us believe that it is God intended to send the Holy Spirit to be our guide, teacher, helper and comforter. Under the Old Covenant they needed prophets, . . . visions, appearances and fleeces.

The Inward Witness Following the Witness The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord - he lights the candle to illuminate us! He brings light when we are in the dark not knowing where we are or where we are going to. Not always your Will Jesus Christ had His garden of Gethsemane experience where He said, "Not my will, but your will be done". This is why it often takes so long to hear and obey. We go through times of n n n Reasoning Fear Doubt

The Inward Witness If it is not your Will Where did the idea and thought originate? Was it to your benefit? You cannot say "It was just me!" Was it? Is if for the Good of Others Then you can be sure it is of the Holy Spirit!

The Inward Witness It Seems so Natural If the Holy Spirit is at home in you and you are at home with the Holy Spirit, it will seem like your idea and thoughts. Never in A Hurry Most of the time we are too slow to move, but there are times we rush off without the full assurance. Pastor Yonggi Cho was instructed to appoint women as Cell Leaders by the Holy Spirit. When he implemented the plan, the whole strategy fell flat and he was about to blame the Lord, until God pointed out that he had rushed off before the full revelation was received.

The Inward Witness God is Eternal This is the place where there is no There is no rush - you will know the time. Relax in the leading of the Holy Spirit. Who is never too early or too late tomorrow or yesterday. Act in Time How will you know it was right unless you act on it? A tortoise does not move forward unless it sticks its head out. Make an adventure of it and follow your heart, not your head.

The Inward Witness Without "Sense" Evidence Become skilled and sensitive. The reason why we ignore the inner witness is often because we wait for something in the sense realm to happen. We look for the sensational and miss the supernatural.