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"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:23).

What does the phrase sanctify you wholly mean? It means to separate you completely unto God. God is concerned that all three of your life's areas - the spirit, the soul and the body—be separated unto Him. He is going to give you two or three witnesses and ample direction in each of these parts of your being in order to guide and direct your life.

How does God communicate direction to your spirit man? The primary and most basic way is through His Word.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
(2 Tim. 3:16-17)
This is our standard of evaluation. The Bible is a book of principles: You are not supposed to kill. You are not supposed to commit adultery. You are not supposed to lie. You are not supposed to backbite and gossip. It gives you standards, principles you are to abide by, which will give general direction to your life. However, it does not always deal with the specifics.

For example, you may have two or three decisions to make—whether to buy this house or that house, take this job or that job, marry this person or that person and so forth. Houses, jobs and spouses are all fine with God - having them agrees with His Word - but you need specific direction.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.
(Rom. 8:14-16)
This is what we refer to as "the inward witness," and this is how you receive more specific direction for your life.

It is like that settled feeling you get when you turn to your best friend and ask, "Do you agree with this?" and he or she says, "Yes, most definitely."

When you sense an inward witness, you come into agreement with the Spirit who lives inside you. You feel settled and comfortable because the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit.

There are other ways God speaks to us in the soulish realm and the physical realm to help clarify the times we are not really sure we have received an inward witness.

But let me say this: the Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He does not push. He does not pressure. If you feel pressured or pushed, it isn't God. The Bible says haste is sin. If you are feeling pushed into a situation because it just won't wait - the deal is so good, the job is just perfect, a man like that doesn't come around twice - just say, "See you later." Because God does not push, and He does not pressure.

The Holy Spirit will give you a sense of peace and knowing and quiet confidence. If you do not have peace about a situation, don't move on it. Wait until you are sure the direction you receive does bring an inner witness and a lasting peace, and then take action. The Word of God is your measuring stick, and it gives you general direction; the inward witness gives you specific direction.

We have said that as three-part beings we have a soul. Our soul consists of our mind, our will and our emotions, and it is our will that is the decision-maker. The weighing, measuring, and evaluating part of the soul is our mind, or our intellect.

God gave you your mind to use. That may sound like a foolish thing to say, but a lot of us turn our minds off when we are born again, because we hear so much about the carnal mind. God never said the mind was bad; He said it was bad for your mind to be ruled by the flesh. You have to use your mind.

God gave us our ability to reason, to weigh, to measure and to evaluate. God gave us common sense. He does not expect us to float around on a little faith cloud and never use our minds. In fact, in Isaiah 1:18, God said, "Come now, and let us reason together."

Copyright © Mac Hammond Ministries
All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Author Biography

Mac Hammond
Web site: Mac Hammond
 
Mac Hammond is the senior pastor of Living Word, a large and growing church in Brooklyn Park (a suburb of Minneapolis), Minnesota. He is the host of the Winner’s Minute, which is seen locally in the Minneapolis area on KMSP Channel 9 at 6:44 a.m. and 11:11 a.m. He is also the host of the Winner's Way broadcast and author of several internationally distributed books. Mac is broadly acclaimed for his ability to apply the principles of the Bible to practical situations and the challenges of daily living.
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