Have you ever heard any one say, when in the throes of having to make a major decision, “You know I have peace about it?” Is there anything to that? Thank God, there is. You can learn to follow the peace of God and learn to flow perfectly in His will. In learning this essential skill, there are three areas in scripture you should take note of, three sets of words for the Spirit led life. Take note of the words, peace, conscience, and the inward witness.

Romans 8:14 (ESV)
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

 Being Led Means ‘Peace’ is Involved

• When the Spirit within leads you, you will get a sense of peace in your heart.

Proverbs 3:17 (ESV)
17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

• ALL her ways, the ways of wisdom lead you into paths of peace.
• Wise moves have peace attached to them.
• There are no leadings from God that do not include peace.
• These leadings ‘feel’ good in your spirit.
• If you are lacking peace…
• If there is agitation, that is a clue.
• Consternation is a signal.
• If there is annoyance within you, that’s a red-flag.
• If there is unrest in your heart, take heed to the warning.
• If you sense the equivalent of any of these ‘anti-peace’ words in your heart…
• …disquiet, uneasiness, unease, restlessness; fretfulness, distress, worry, concern; anxiety, anguish, angst, fear, dread, foreboding; nervousness dissatisfaction, discontentment, turbulence, agitation, upset, turmoil, tumult… etc.
• If you sense any of this in your heart, you do not have peace and that is a leading from God!
• Understand that you can have thoughts that equate to these anti-peace words in your head.
• We are not talking about your head; we are referencing your heart.
• Concerning the things of God…All her paths are peace and none of this anti-peace words.
• The Holy Ghost will lead you in the will of God – that’s a 100% guarantee.
• The Holy Ghost will lead you in wisdom – His direction to you will be the wisest move that can be made at that exact moment.
• The result of His wise leadings will be peace.
• So if you do not have peace, STOP
• Listen to these ‘peace’ verses for a moment…

Isaiah 26:3 (ESV)
3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

Isaiah 32:17–18 (ESV)
17 And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. 18 My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

John 14:27 (ESV)
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Philippians 4:7 (ESV)
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

2 Thessalonians 3:16 (ESV)
16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.

• Do you get the sense that we are supposed to live in an environment of peace?
• …that we are supposed to have peace at all times, in our hearts and in our minds?
• With that thought let us look at…

Letting Peace Guide You

Colossians 3:15 (ESV)
15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

• Let ‘peace’ rule in your heart.
• What does that mean exactly?

DEFINITION: rule/βραβεῖον/brabeion – to be an arbiter, judge, or referee; an umpire; to decide, to determine; to direct, to control, to rule.

• What does this verse imply?
• Plug that definition back into the verse.
• Let the peace of God act as an arbiter in your heart.
• Let the peace of God judge the situation.
• Let the peace of God decide, determine direct, and make a ruling.
• Let the peace of God act as an umpire in your spirit.
• Think about an umpire in the game of baseball.
• What kind of rulings does the umpire make?
• How about whether or not the ball is fair or foul?
• How about safe or out?
• How about ball or strike?
• Notice in each of these sets, there are only two possible calls.
• There are only two choices; that is a clue.
• An umpire in a baseball game either calls you ‘out’ or calls you ‘safe’.
• There is no other call.
• There is no other choice.
• So, taking this over to Spirit of God leadings…
• You either have peace or you have unrest
• If you have peace that means something; it means you are safe
• If you don’t have peace, that also means something; it means your out.
• How simple God made this.

Let’s now look at the word ‘conscience’.

What the Bible Says about the Conscience.

Acts 23:1 (ESV)
1 And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.”

DEFINITION:  conscience/συνείδησις/syneidēsis – the inward faculty of distinguishing right and wrong (Arndt, Danker, and Bauer, 967)

• Notice again the choices: there are only two choices, right and wrong.
• Same thing as when we looked at peace, safe or out.
• So, if your conscience bothers you, this is a clue!
• Let’s look at some ‘conscience verses.

Romans 2:15 (ESV)
15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them

• Notice that your conscience bears witness.
• Who does it bear witness to?
• To You!
• That means that you are supposed to be listening to your conscience.
• Here it is again.

Romans 9:1
I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,

•  There are about 30 verses in the New Testament that contain the word conscience. Here is a sampling.
• Notice these descriptors of conscience…

Acts 24:16 (ESV)
16 So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.

DEFINITION: clear/ἀπρόσκοπος/aproskopos – undamaged or blameless.

1Timothy 1:5
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

1Timothy 3:9
Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

Hebrews 9:9
Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;

• Your conscience can be clear, good, pure, and perfect.
• It stays that way by not overriding your conscience.
• If your conscience bothers you about something, what does that mean?
• It means you don’t have peace about it!
• Now, on the negative side, let’s look at some more verses.

1Timothy 4:2
Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

Titus 1:15
15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.

Hebrews 10:22
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

• Your conscience can be seared, defiled, or evil.
• How does it become that way?
• By constantly overriding it.
• By ignoring the ‘lack of peace’ that you have in your heart.
• If you can sit up there and look at pornography and it not bother you, there is a problem with your conscience; your conscience is seared.
• If you can sit down and drink alcohol until you get drunk and it doesn’t bother you, your conscience is seared.
• The Spirit of God is not going to lead you to get drunk ever.
• The Bible says ‘Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit…
• If you are able to partake of sin and it does not bother your conscience is seared.
• How does a conscious become seared?
• By continually overriding it.
• You override the first time, your conscious lessen in intensity.
• You override the second time, it becomes less again.
• You keep overriding it, it becomes, less and less and less until no no longer sense it; that is what seared means.
• Seared means tough and hardened like leather.
• The problem with a seared conscience is that it is of no use in helping you to determine what is right and what is wrong in situations other than sin areas.
• If you are asking God questions like, ‘Is this job the right job, is this the right purchase, is this the right spouse, etc… if you are asking right and wrong type questions and you desire God’s guidance, it is important to not be trying to ascertain those things with a seared conscience.
• You want your conscience to be supple and sensitive.
• How do unsear it?
• I am glad you asked.
• In order to unsear your heart and return it to a supple sensitive state, you must legalistically obey every prompting in your spirit, no matter how slight.
• The more you do that, the more sensitive you will become and eventually, the condition of your heart will be such that you are easy to be led.

Now, let’s move on to the inward witness.

The Inward Witness

Romans 8:16 (ESV)
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

• What this verse is telling us is that in the most important area, the most important thing that can happen to you, the new birth, the Spirit of God will bear witness.
• Since the Lord lets us know the most important thing ever, that we are children of God by the inward witness, then you can see that the inward witness is the primary way that you are going to be led in the other areas of life.
• Here are some other ‘bear witness’ verses.

1 John 5:10 (KJV)
10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

Romans 9:1 (ESV)
1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit

• How does the inward witness work?
• The exact same way that peace works, the exact same way that the conscience works, there are only two choices.
• Either you have a check in your spirit, a sense that you shouldn’t do a thing.
• It can feel like the exact same thing as the conscience being pricked.
• Or you have a go-ahead good feeling in your spirit, much like having peace in your spirit.
• So look what we can learn by summing this all up…
• You have peace or you have unrest
• Your conscience is clear or it’s bothered.
• You have a positive witness or you have a negative check.
• In each case, only two choices.

Urim And Thummim

• There is an Old Testament counterpart to this area of being led.
• Urim and Thummim were two stones that were put into the breastplate of the High Priest.
• The high priest wore the breastplate of judgement on the front of the ephod, the breastplate was so made as to form a pouch (Ex. 28:16).
• Here it is in Exodus…

Exodus 28:30 (ESV)
30 And in the breastpiece of judgment you shall put the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be on Aaron’s heart, when he goes in before the Lord. Thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the Lord regularly.

• Urim and Thumin were two stones that were used to ascertain God’s will.

Numbers 27:21 (ESV)
21 And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation.”

• Here is another verse.

1 Samuel 28:6 (ESV)
6 And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets.

• Josephus, the Jewish historian, indicates that the stones would illuminate.
• Ant-3-22. “These answers by the oracle of Urim and Thummim, which words signify, light and perfection, or, as the Septuagint render them, revelation and truth, and denote nothing further, that I see, but the shining stones themselves, which were used, in this method of illumination, in revealing the will of God, after a perfect and true manner, to his people Israel:”
• One stone apparently lit for ‘yes’, the other stone for ‘no’
• Josephus also indicates that
• Joshua was tricked by the Gideonites because he didn’t consult Urim and Thummim.
• It deserves here to be remarked, that Saul very rarely, and David very frequently, consulted God by Urim; and that David aimed always to depend, not on his own prudence or abilities but on the Divine direction, contrary to Saul’s practice.
• The point is that God provided a method by which the children of Israel could know God’s will in O.T. days by consulting the Urim and Thummim worn by the high priest.
• People in the Old Testament did not have the Spirit within.
• Urim and Thummim are the Old Testament type of what we have been talking about.
• What is it about two choices, two paths that can help us walk with the Spirit?

Putting It All Together

• The answer to that is this; we can help ourselves in begin led by the Spirit by tailoring our questions into yes or no format.
• By asking ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions of God, we can give peace a chance to answer.
• By asking ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions, we can give the conscience a chance to respond.
• By asking ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions, we can give the inward witness an open door of opportunity.
• Let’s look at some examples here.
• How many of you have ever asked God for direction?
• This is a major part of life.
• Have you ever asked Him for direction, and you didn’t hear anything?
• What if you changed the way that you asked the question?
• Instead of saying, “God where do you want me to go?” which requires much more than a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ to answer.
• What about picking a direction and heading that way and asking the question this way, “God, am I going the right way?”
• As you do so, check your heart and see what is in there.
• Do you have peace?  Then the answer is Yes.
• Check your conscience, does it bother you? Then the answer is no. Check your spirit for the witness. If you have a check, you know what to do.
• Because you rephrased the question, you lined yourself up with the Bible and with the Holy Spirit in your heart and you can action from your within.
• Here is this idea of direction in the Bible.

Psalm 37:23 (KJV)
23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: And he delighteth in his way.

• How are the steps of a good man ordered by the Lord?
• By the witness, by the peace of God, by a clear conscious.
• Take this step, when you are not hearing Him speak words in your heart, when you are praying about things for a while and you are not hearing anything, pick a path and test it out.
• Reduce the complication of your question to allow peace to direct you in your heart.
• This set, peace, conscience, inward witness fits perfectly in getting direction for choices.
• Questions like, ‘Do I do this or not?’
• Is it this way one or that one?
• Look at this principle in real life story from the Word.

1 Samuel 16:1–3 (ESV)
1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” 2 And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ 3 And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.”

1 Samuel 16:6–12 (ESV)
6 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” 7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” 9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” 10 And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” 11 Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” 12 And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”

• Notice these things in this account.
• In verses one through three, the Lord is speaking to Samuel.
• God asked him a question. Samuel responded.
• They are having a conversation.
• They are exchanging words.
• But then the Lord sends Samuel to pick one of the sons of Jesse to be a king.
• He makes seven of Jesse’s sons to pass before him.
• And each singular son separately stands before Samuel and God tells Samuel this is not the one, and this is not the one, on and on for all of the sons until he comes to the last son David.
• Notice that this entire account is based on two choices, yes and no.
• No for the first seven sons, yes for the last son.
• Now ask yourself this question, why didn’t the Lord just tell him which son it was instead of taking him through each and every son?
• The short answer?
• This is a type of the witness.
• It is absolutely how the Spirit within will lead you.
• Align your questions to line up with the Spirit within and you will find that things work better.
• Or saying it another way, the more you come in line with the Bible the better things work.
• So when words are not coming from the Throne for no apparent reason.
• Change how you ask the question.