How To Be Led by the Spirit – 1 Samuel 10:6-7

“The Spirit of the Lord will control you, you will prophesy with them, and you will be transformed into a different person. When these signs have happened to you, do whatever your circumstances require because God is with you.” (1 Samuel 10:6-7, HCSB)

In these verses the prophet Samuel is giving Saul instructions on the first thing he should do after he was chosen as the first king of Israel.

After his selection as Israel’s first king, Saul was anointed or filled with the Holy Spirit. In fact, it was this anointing of God’s Spirit that validated Saul’s kingship!

This infilling of the Holy Spirit not only empowered Saul to prophesy alongside a group of prophets, but this infilling would change his life so dramatically that he would be like a different person!

When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you are transformed into a different person. Instead of doing what pleases you, you want to do what pleases God. You become an agent of God’s will. And, as an agent of God’s will, you are to be guided and led by the Holy Spirit.

So how does this happen? How are we led by the Spirit?

Samuel’s charge to Saul in these verses may give us a clue. Samuel told Saul that since God was now with him (because of the anointing of the Holy Spirit), he should do whatever the circumstances he encounters require. This instruction seems to indicate that the anointing of the Holy Spirit Saul had received would enable him to make the right choices to do God’s will.

When circumstances arise that require us to make the right choices to do God’s will, the Holy Spirit will show us what to do. It’s called discernment!

And discernment of God’s will seems to be the primary enabling power that the Holy Spirit grants us when He indwells: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatsoever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, because He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13-14).

When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, it doesn’t mean you lose your ability to make judgments and decisions. It just means that now you are enabled to make judgments and decisions that are according to God’s will!

When you are filled with the Holy spirit, It doesn’t mean that God tells you every move to make. It means you live your life looking to see where God is working in your life and in the events surrounding your life and then discern what choices to make.

Where we go wrong is by trying to get ahead of the Holy Spirit. We try to manipulate circumstances and make things happen the way we want them to happen rather than waiting to see what God is doing.

But as agents of God’s will, as people filled with the Holy Spirit, it’s our responsibility to see how God is moving and then make the right choices to do His will in our lives. Henry Blackaby says in his book, Experiencing God, that we should find out where God is at work and then joining Him in His work.

Just as Samuel told Saul he would know what to do “because God is with you,” in the same way, because we are filled with God’s Spirit and the agents of His will, then God sanctions the things we do in His name (that is, according to His will).

In other words, if God’s Spirit dwells in you, then God is with you and you can accomplish His will through your life and the choices you make.

Then you become a different person, a person who is being led by the Spirit!

“Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,f so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2, HCSB).