After a child of God thinks that something is the prompting of the Holy Spirit, for
thing we know: what we "feel" to do when we are stirred up is merely an impression we have in our feelings; it does not result in any assurance on our part. God is patient; He is not hasty to accomplish what He wants to do. This is why He spoke through the prophet Isaiah, "He who believes will not hasten away" (Isa. 28:16). Therefore, He takes time to prompt us. Nine times out of ten, sudden feelings are not His will. Impulses from Satan are in reality very different from the prompting of the Holy Spirit; the two are actually opposite each other. Outwardly, it is difficult for believers to differentiate between the two because Satan will not cause us to completely fall into sin; he will only turn us away from God's will. Sometimes he holds us back so that we fall short; at other times, he urges us on, so that we become too much. He disguises himself as the angel of light and speaks to our ears, confusing the small voice of the Holy Spirit. God's children should be experienced in distinguishing the suggestions of Satan from the revelations of the Holy Spirit. Satan's impulses always come suddenly. His way with Christians is to come in the way of a blitz. The prompting of the Holy Spirit, on the other hand, first gives us a revelation and then enlightens our mind. Satan's impulses put many reasons and methods into our mind before asking us to actually perform some tasks. His initial work is to inject seeds of thoughts into the believers' mind. These thoughts are sudden and always come with many reasonings. Many times, we think that this is the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit spreads out from within, while Satan's work breaks in from the outside. Therefore, as God's children, we should never consider sudden thoughts to be His will. We should be careful, steady, and wait until everything is settled before we do anything. As to outward sudden stirrings and promptings, we should be particularly careful, because nine times out of ten they are not promptings of the Holy Spirit.
2. The Teaching of the Bible After a child of God thinks that something is the prompting of the Holy Spirit, for the sake of safety, he should verify what he is about to do with the biblical teaching. Biblical teaching does not refer to isolated verses in the Bible taken out of their context. Many believers act in a haphazard way; they read one or two verses and consider them to be God's ordained will for them. Sometimes they pray piously and then open the Bible to read a few verses randomly. If they come across a word that fits their circumstances, they consider that as God's will. They
will move, stop, go, or turn based on these verses. If they unfortunately find some contrary indications, or if verses they read have nothing to do with their affairs, they think that God has not said anything to them, or they unnaturally interpret the passage to make it fit into their situation. Then they base their decisions on this method. This is very dangerous. It is difficult to expect a person who does not understand the Bible to be free from error! What does it mean that a believer has to understand the teaching of the Bible when he does things? The teaching of the Bible refers to the common testimony of the whole Bible. One should consider how the whole Bible deals with the question at hand. Indeed, he should consider how it deals with all the problems that he encounters. One has to understand what the Old and New Testaments say about the matter. He has to understand how the question was dealt with in the age of the patriarchs, the age of the law, and the age of grace. It is by this that we know that we do not follow the judgment of the Old Testament, but the judgment of the New Testament. We do not follow the decision of the patriarchs or the law, but the instructions of grace. But is this not a very difficult thing to do? Who can know these distinctions unless he is a Bible scholar? This is one reason why we have to search the Scriptures. The Bible is a record of God's will for the whole world in all ages. If a believer wants to understand God's will, he must study (not just read) the Bible. The words of the Bible are easy to understand because they are revealed to babes (Matt. 11:25). The Bible is God's complete revelation. It has clear explanations concerning His plan, His ways, His will, and all other kinds of questions. God gave the Bible to His people with the expectation that they would understand all of His will. Therefore, if believers do not study the Bible and instead just complain that they do not understand God's will, they have no excuse. Sometimes the matter may be great and difficult, and we cannot find the biblical teaching concerning it. At such times, we should consult spiritually matured believers. The Lord can often teach us through these ones. We should not overvalue man's words; we should still "discern" (1 Cor. 14:29) and decide if they are scriptural. If we do not search the Scriptures and do not consult with spiritual believers, it is very likely that we will fall into error if we only grasp one or two verses and consider them to be God's will and act accordingly. The importance of obedience to the word of the Bible can be seen in a contrast between the temptation in the garden of Eden and the temptation in the wilderness. In those two temptations, one person was defeated while the other