BookClub- How You can Be Led by the Spirit of God- Kenneth E Hagins Pt 11

Dear BookClub Reader, Welcome to another edition of BookClub. If this is your first time on BookClub, you are welcome to another edition of BookClub, we are still reading Kenneth E. Hagins Book- How You Can Be Led by the Spirit of God. If you missed the past editions click  Pt 1,  Pt 2 , Pt 3, Pt 4, Pt 5 , Pt 6 , Pt 7 , Pt 8  , Pt 9 and Pt 10 before you proceed to today's edition.

This is one thing we all should desire as Christians because the bible says that 'as many as are led by the spirit of God are the sons of God'. The leading of the Spirit is the guarantee of our Eternal Life.

The entire book will not be published but every chapter will be previewed and I strongly recommend that you get a hard copy for future references.

Ensure that you do not miss any part of this book reading. Enjoy!

 

Chapter 26: Guidance Through Visions

There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him....

—Acts 10:1-3

Sometimes God leads through visions.

Cornelius was a devout man, but he was not born again. He did not know about Jesus. He was a Jewish proselyte. The angel who appeared to him in this vision could not preach the gospel to him. Cornelius saw an angel in a vision. Angels also have the ability, as God permits, to take upon themselves a visible form which can be seen with the natural eye, just as you can see a physical person Hebrews 13:2.

The scripture calls Cornelius' experience a vision (Acts 10:3). It was a spiritual vision. Cornelius saw into the spirit world, and there are angels out there in the spirit world.

There are three kinds of visions: spiritual visions, trances, and open visions.

In a spiritual vision, you see with the eyes of your spirit—not with your physical eye. When Paul saw the Lord in Acts 9, it was a spiritual vision. He did not see Him with his physical eyes Acts 9:8.

The second type of vision is when one falls into a trance. Cornelius did not fall into a trance—but Peter did. Acts 10:9-11When one falls into a trance, his physical senses are suspended. He does not know where he is right at the moment. He is not unconscious, but he does not know what is going on around him. He is more conscious of spiritual things than physical things.

The third type of vision is what I call an open vision. The vision that occurred in El Paso in 1959 (which I have referred to in this book), was an open vision. My eyes were wide open. My physical senses were intact. I did not fall into a trance. Jesus walked into my room. I saw Him with my physical eyes.

There were different types of visions in the Acts of the Apostles. There are different types of visions now.

Some church people admit that God spoke to the apostles such as Peter, but they say that such divine visitations were only for the apostles. But Philip was not an apostle. He was elected as a deacon first (Acts 6:5). The highest office he ever filled was that of the evangelist (Acts 21:8). Isn't it sad that in the church world we have been robbed of the blessings and the supernatural manifestations we should have had because people closed the book on the supernatural and said, "That was just for the apostles. All that ceased when the apostles of the New Testament died."

Ananias was not a deacon. He was just a disciple. He was what we would call a  layman. Yet the Lord used him Acts 9:10-12. We should all put ourselves in a position where God can use us as He sees fit. We don't have to wait for a vision before we do something for God. God may give us a vision, or He may not. An angel may appear to us, or one may not.

Be content, if it is all you ever have, to follow the inward witness. But educate and train and develop your human spirit so that inward witness becomes more and more real to you. Then, if God sees fit for supernatural visitations and manifestations, just thank God for them. Know that the angels of God are with you. Your angel is with you whether you ever see him or not.

Chapter 27: Listen to Your Heart

Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them, And said unto them, Sirs, I PERCEIVE that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives.

—Acts 27:9,10

Paul did not say, "The Lord told me" that this voyage will be with much hurt and damage. He simply said, "I perceive" that it will. In his spirit, Paul had an inward perception, an inward premonition, an inward witness that the voyage would be dangerous. This is the primary way God leads all of us.

Paul did not perceive it mentally. He did not have some kind of "vibration" or psychic experience. I don't like this "vibration" business. Spiritual perceptions are not in the psychic realm. You do not find psychic phenomenon in the Bible. Also, Paul did not perceive this physically. In his spirit he had a witness.

That belongs to all of us. The Holy Spirit abiding in our spirits must communicate with us through our spirits—not through our minds. That is why your spirit knows things your head doesn't know. But we have not been taught to listen to our spirits. And sometimes we are reluctant to do so.

The reason that we as Spirit-filled believers continually miss it, make mistakes, and fail is because our spirits, which should guide us, are kept locked away in prison, so to speak. Knowledge, or intellect, has taken the throne.

Any person who shuts his spirit away and never listens to it—because the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord—becomes crippled in life and becomes an easy prey to selfish and designing people.

If we as individuals would have listened to our hearts—to an inward witness, or an inward voice—we would not have done some things we did.

But just because you make a mistake, don't quit. You don't quit physically just because you make a mistake. If the phone rings in the middle of the night and you stumble over a stool and fall down trying to answer it, you don't just lie there. You get up and answer the phone. Just because you bust your shins or stub your toe physically, you don't quit. And just because you bust your shins or stub your toe spiritually, you don't quit either.

As I said, the person who keeps his spirit shut away and never listens to it becomes crippled in life. The person who listens to his spirit is the man or woman, boy or girl who climbs to the top!

If Christians would just check up on the inside of them, in most of the affairs of life, they would know what to do.

You do not need to seek guidance when the Bible has already told you what to do. Go ahead and do it. The Bible tells you how to act in every circumstance of life. It tells husbands how to treat wives. It tells wives how to treat husbands. It tells parents how to treat their children. It tells children how to respond to their parents. The Bible tells all of us to walk in love—divine love. And that divine love, which seeks not its own, is also a matter of the heart.

The next edition of BookClub is the last two chapters of this book- How You Can Be Led By the Spirit of God by Kenneth E. Hagins.