Have you considered the fact that if you belong to Christ Jesus, that you have the ability to always make the right decision at the right time? It is written in 1 Corinthians 2:16, For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. No, that is not a misprint. We as followers of Christ Jesus, armed with the Holy Spirit, are not only are able to receive instructions from the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us, but we also have “inside information” into every situation we face.

Think about that: “but we have the mind of Christ”. That mind is quick and sharper than a two-edged sword, able in an instant to discern the will of God. But just because we KNOW the will of God in every instance, we still have to FOLLOW His instructions to profit thereby. It is also written in 1 Corinthians 12:1-7,

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

The LORD has not given us His Holy Spirit for us to be failures in life. In fact, He is grooming us to rule and reign with Him in His Kingdom, and what better way to do so than to put His very Spirit in us so that we have the mind of Christ. It goes without saying that God has all wisdom to know what to do in every situation. By giving us His Holy Spirit, we are in constant communication with our heavenly Father. Therefore, in whatever situation we find ourselves, we are already at the advantage because the Greater One is instructing us, not from the outside, but from the INSIDE!

Now, which is better: being led from the outside, like you would use a GPS in your car when you’re in a strange city, or exactly knowing inside of you the correct route to take? I don’t know about you, but I travel a lot, and my GPS has tried to take me down more than a few wrong roads over the years. When that’s about to happen, the Holy Spirit warns me that there is a better route. A few times I relied on the GPS anyway, and yes, it took me the wrong way. I should have listened to the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is my HELPER, He does not drag me by the hair in the path I should go. He still allows me the freedom to CHOOSE. I find if for whatever reason I don’t listen to that “inward witness”, that I pay for it later.

What would you give to be able to always have the “inside track” to every situation? Would you listen, or would you just go ahead and listen to your own mind? I’ve done both, and let me tell you, the “inside witness” of the Holy Spirit will save you a whole lot of trouble in life. There’s trouble enough waiting for you from the devil just because you’re a child of God. From the moment you receive Christ Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you will have a target on you because you have become an enemy of Satan. So you need all the help you can get, right?

I can’t begin to count the number of times that the Holy Spirit has warned me to do this or that, or NOT do this or that over the years. Several times the LORD has actually saved my life by immediately following His instructions. But you won’t always see immediate results of obeying the Holy Spirit. Sometimes He is just setting you up to be at the right place at the right time for a blessing, so that you’re not at the airport when your ship comes in. But He never prompts you to do anything without a reason that will profit you. Sudden obedience is the best kind, for your life may depend on it, and you never know when.

Delayed obedience is the same as disobedience. You may wonder why you never seem to get ahead as a child of God. Ask yourself this simple question: do you believe you have received the Holy Spirit? If so, DO YOU LISTEN AND OBEY IMMEDIATELY? You see, that’s the whole thing. Your heavenly Father loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. But the devil also has a plan for your life, and it’s a terrible plan. To get the “wonderful plan” you must avoid the terrible plan. God knows all the traps the devil has set for you, and He wants to help you avoid them, BUT YOU MUST LISTEN to that “inward witness” of the Holy Spirit.

There are many of you that just keep going around that same old mountain year after year, and you’re getting frustrated with the LORD for not “delivering you”. Well, as a child of God, He has given you the Holy Spirit, and His wisdom to avoid the traps of the devil. Maybe you’re saying, “the mountain is getting taller”. No, the mountain is not getting taller, but you’re wearing a rut in it deeper and deeper every time you go around it again.

We will say you are going for a walk in your neighborhood each day. Down the block there’s a place where the city dug up the sidewalk to reach a water line, and it’s a deep hole. You were walking down the sidewalk looking at your phone and not paying attention to where you were walking, and you fell in the hole and got all muddy and scraped up from the fall. So you finally were able to climb out, and went home and got cleaned up, sore and scraped up.

The next day you went walking again, and again, you were looking at your phone and not paying attention. So guess what? You fell in that hole again, even though the Holy Spirit tried to tell you to pay attention, you didn’t listen, and here you are again. Well, you can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result. If you don’t start paying attention to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, how can you expect God to help you in your messes?

Some of you keep spending money you don’t have, and your finances are a mess. You cannot borrow your way out of debt. You must learn to listen to God so He can help lead you out of debt, and into blessings. Old habits are HARD to break. We are hard-wired to follow the leading of our own mind. But when we receive the Holy Spirit, we must let God “re-wire” us, so we can start being the head instead of the tail, above only and never beneath. It’s a process that can take seconds, or years, depending solely upon our own choices. God chooses to lead us in the RIGHT path, and give us the mind of Christ. But what you do with the mind of Christ is up to you. Like I said before, the Holy Spirit will help you, but He won’t drag you around by your hair. You must learn to LISTEN to Him.

Jesus always made the right choices, even though some of them were very hard on Him. Life will not always be easy for you, but it can always be BLESSED. Be led by the mind of Christ, and the LORD will lead you into your own personal “Promised Land”.