This Is How It Feels To Be Led

See video and hear song by FFH at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxMdFWK65gM

So this is what if feels like to walk the wilderness. This is what if feels like to come undone.
This is what if feels like to loose my confidence, unsure of anything or anyone.
So this is what if feels like to walk the desert sand. And this is what if feels like to hear my name.
To be scared to death ‘cause I'm all alone, but feel love and peace just the same.
And this may not be the road I would choose for me but it still feels right somehow.
’Cause I have never felt you as close to me as I do right now. So this is what if feels like to be led.
So this is what if feels like to just fall apart. To be totally unglued, to find out if I accept my brokenness, I get more of me, I get all of you.
And this may not be the road I would choose for me but it feels just right somehow.
And I have never felt you as close to me as I do right now. So this I what it feels like to be led!
So this is what if feels like to just walk away from everything I thought kept me safe,
to depend just on you for every meal and find it's better this way. Oh it's better this way
And this may not be the road I would choose for me. but it still feels right somehow.
And I have never felt you as close to me as I do right now like I do right now. Like I feel right now.

And this may not be the road I would choose for me but it still feels right somehow
And I have never felt you as close to me as I do right now. So this is what if feels like to be led.
This is what if feels like to be led. So this is what if feels like.

How many of us really like to be “led”?

"It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the LORD" (Zech. 4:6). It is His Spirit that accomplishes the work, not our strength. As we allow His Spirit to lead us, more is accomplished than we could ever do in our own strength.
For God to work through us to accomplish His will, we need to learn how to be led by the Spirit of God. And this don’t mean being led on the major issues only, but on each and every decision we make. Even as small as what clothes we wear, and what gas station we stop in. That's how involved God wants to become in our lives. And often, we really will feel that “this may not be the road I would choose for me”. And this makes us uncomfortable! Really now, depend on Him for every meal?
When the nation of Israel was led out of Egypt, "The LORD went ahead of them. He guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and he provided light at night with a pillar of fire. This allowed them to travel by day or by night" (Ex. 13:21 It is easier to follow when there is a visible leading like that. But, we have the Spirit of God living inside of us now and if we learn to let Him lead us this will be even a even better guide for us to follow.
Paul said in Romans 8:14 " For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God." Therefore, being led by the Spirit is a quality of the children of God. Who are the children of God? We are of course. "But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12).
Jesus Himself was led by the Spirit right from the start of His earthly ministry. "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. (Matt 4:1; Luke 4:1). Jesus is to be our example.
But wait, what if I don't want to be led by the Spirit? After all, if I let the Holy Spirit lead me around all the time, He might make me do things that I don't want to. I'd end up acting strange maybe even “peculiar” as the Bible says, and nobody would want to be around me. Not around peculiar folks!
In one sense, that's true. When we let the Holy Spirit lead and guide us, He will take us out of our comfort zone, and make us do some things that we don't really want to do. It's only through our obedience to the Spirit in allowing Him to take us out of our comfort zone that we will grow. We need to always be trying to become more like Jesus. So, we need to learn to do some things we've never done before. That requires taking some risks, not wild risks, but Spirit led risks.
When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are to make Him Lord over our lives. As Lord, He has a right to everything we are.
Unlike man, God will never abuse that right. Although the Spirit of God leads us so that His purposes may be accomplished, He doesn't use us. When someone uses another, they take something out of them. Whenever God works through us, he imparts something into us.
It is His purposes that are important:
• Some of His purposes are to our benefit.
• Some of His purposes are to help us grow in Him.
• Some of His purposes are for other's benefit.
• Some of His purposes we will never see the result of.
No matter what, by allowing Him to work His will through us, we are blessed.
So, how do we accomplish this? First, we need to understand what it means to be led by the Spirit. If you take a small child into a shopping mall, you hold their hand. They don’t always like this. But you have to, otherwise they might wander off, and get lost. That's what being led by the Spirit is. Allowing Him to lead us by the hand. That way, He can show us where to go, what's safe to do, and keep us away from what is dangerous. But we don’t always like this!
Just as that child is led by its father, our heavenly Father desires to lead us. Just like that small child is led by the parent all the time, so the Spirit wants to lead us all the time. It doesn't do any good to let the Spirit lead us sometimes, then go off on our own and get into trouble.
To be led by the Spirit, we need to hear what the Spirit says. A baby only a couple of weeks old will recognize the sound of its mother's and father's voices. Why? Because that child has heard those voices, and learned that they belong to people who love and care for it. Unfortunately for us, we have more distractions getting in the way of our learning the sound of God's voice. But, if we will take the time to be quiet and listen, we will find that He is talking to us.
It isn't necessary to "be spiritual" to talk to God, just talk to Him. Ask His opinion, He'll be glad to tell it to you, and you can be sure He has an opinion (the right opinion) on everything. Don't just wait for "spiritual" issues to talk to Him, our God is a practical God, concerned with our everyday lives.
God will also use circumstances to lead and guide us. Open and closed doors at the right time are a possible sign from Him. But be careful, Satan can open a door too. When a door opens, we need to ask God if it is the right one. Otherwise, we can walk into an ambush, instead of a blessing.
There are some requirements for being led by the Spirit.
Availability - This is the number one requirement to be led by the Spirit. If we are so busy with our own life, that we don't have time for Him, when will He be able to talk to us? It may take some rearranging of what we think are our priorities for us to become available.
Relationship - Have you ever tried to give advice to someone you don't know. You can be assured, they won't take it. We're no different. Without a true relationship, we're not going to listen to what the Spirit has to say to us. We won't even be able to recognize His voice.
When we are saved, we gain a relationship with the Lord. But He desires for that relationship to continue to grow, until we truly know Him.
We must endeavor to make the Holy Spirit comfortable in our presence. If you work with people who talk about things you aren't interested in, you probably don't spend much extra time with them. Why should we expect God to do otherwise? If all we speak is unbelief and fear, why should He hang around to hear it?
Obedience - If we make ourselves available and listen, God will speak to us. Then we have to do something with what He says. It doesn't matter if we like what He told us or not. In fact, we probably won't. What matters is that we obey.
Taking Chances - When a child learns to walk, they have to take chances. Then when they learn to talk, they have to take more chances. In fact, everything we learn requires us to take chances. And the process of learning includes making mistakes.
When we are learning how to be led by the Spirit, there's a good chance we'll think He said something that He didn't. That's okay, go with it anyway. Wouldn’t it be better to make a mistake in doing more than God said than in doing less than God said? But usually, when we go in the direction that is in God's favor, we've gone the right direction.
Swimming Upstream - For some reason, trying to do what God says may bring opposition. Some well meaning “saint”, who's never themselves taken a chance, will be glad to "straighten you out." It's amazing how Christians can be used by the enemy sometimes.
One of the biggest problems in the church today is complacency. We reach a "comfort zone" in our walk, and don't want to go any farther. Worse than that, we don't want anyone else to go farther, either.
If God's told you something, go with it. Don't listen to man's wisdom, even if it comes from another Christian. If you are earnestly seeking Him, and trying to do His will, He won't let you get off track. You might start to veer off a little from time to time, but He will get you right back on.

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