How to Be Led by the Spirit of God, Part 3 — Your Spirit Is New, Your Soul Must Be Renewed

How to be led by the Spirit of God depends on knowing which part of you God speaks to. In this third message of the series, Dr. William P. Hohman teaches that the Holy Spirit leads through your born-again spirit, not through your soul, and that the soul (your mind, will and emotions) was not made new at salvation. It has to be renewed by the Word of God, and that is a process every believer is responsible for.

This message builds on How to Be Led by the Spirit of God, Part 2 — The Spirit of Man Is the Lamp of the Lord, part two of the series. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, the Scriptures he uses (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps for following the Holy Spirit this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message comes from a Sunday service at New Testament Church, posted on June 1, 2020. Before the teaching, Dr. Hohman speaks about the law of reciprocity: the measure you use in giving is the measure you receive back, and seeking God’s kingdom first comes before everything else. He also reminds the church that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6), so believers should come to Him expecting.

He then explains why he keeps teaching on this subject. Travelling around the world, he finds a common lack of instruction on how to be led by the Spirit of God, even among saved ministers, and too many believers who live out of their own feelings instead of the truth.

Trust That Obeys: The Pastor at the Door

The foundation text for the series is Proverbs 3:5–6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” Dr. Hohman urges everyone to own a Bible they can write in; he has worn out about half a dozen and plans to pass them on to his grandchildren.

Trust, he explains, begins when we start doing what God says, and it grows when opposition comes and God fights for us. Simply believing that Jesus exists is not enough, since even the demons believe and tremble (James 2:19). Real trust says: God said it, so I will apply it, even when my mind is fighting against the step.

He illustrates this with a story from his street-preaching days more than thirty years ago. He had sent new converts to a small church, and he later heard that its pastor was speaking badly about him. Months afterward, driving into that town on the way to a home group, the Lord told him to go to the pastor’s house and make things right. Fear gripped him, and he argued that he was in a hurry.

The Lord answered with Scripture: Matthew 5:23–24, leave your gift at the altar and first be reconciled to your brother. That, he says, is being led by the Holy Spirit: not by a voice or an emotion alone, but by truth. Right then a young man walked out of a side street and turned out to live next door to the pastor.

When the pastor opened the door, he went pale. Dr. Hohman asked forgiveness for anything he might have done, and the man broke down weeping, saying “it was me, it was me.” They hugged, and before he left the pastor handed him a jar of coins holding 98 dollars, almost exactly the 100 dollars he had been believing God for to buy a children’s ministry prop.

How to Be Led by the Spirit of God Starts With Your Spirit

Romans 8:14 says that as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. If you are born again, Dr. Hohman points out, the Holy Spirit has already led you once: He drew you into the kingdom. Jesus said that we did not choose Him; He chose us and appointed us to bear fruit (John 15:16).

The problem, he says, is that many believers assume every thought in their head and every feeling in their heart is now God. That is far from the truth, and the rest of the sermon explains why. It starts with how God made us. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 prays that our whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless, and he has the church declare, “I am a spirit, I have a soul and I live in this body.”

Paul shows the spirit is the real person. In Philippians 1:23–24 he is torn between departing to be with Christ, which is far better, and remaining in the flesh for the church’s sake. Dr. Hohman stresses that phrase: not just okay, but far better. Paul also writes that though the outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16), and Peter calls it the hidden person of the heart (1 Peter 3:4).

He separates eternal life from simply existing forever. Everyone will exist forever, but eternal life is the quality of God’s own life. Hell’s torment, he says, is the total absence of God’s presence, and Satan is not its keeper but will be tormented there too.

The key verse for this message is Proverbs 20:27: “The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord.” God guides us by our spirit, not by our emotions. The Holy Spirit will never violate a person’s will, so no one can honestly say God made them do something. If your feelings are hurt and you sense God telling you to cut someone off, he asks, why would the same God who said to turn the other cheek contradict His own Word?

Your Soul Was Not Made New Yet

The soul, Dr. Hohman says, is a powerful thing. He gives a familiar example: decide to fast because God asked you to, and suddenly you have never been so hungry in your life. That is not God and not even the devil. It is an unrenewed soul, the flesh, pulling against what God said. When a new believer treats every impulse as the voice of God, the result is “all kinds of wrong.”

A renewed mind can watch troubling news without being seized by its emotion. Jesus could say that His judgment was just because nothing from this world had a hold on His soul, so He walked through problems that would have overwhelmed others.

At salvation, he explains, God changed your spirit, not your soul. Now your soul is your responsibility. He uses Gideon’s three hundred men, who carried lights hidden inside clay pots and broke them so the light could shine (Judges 7:16–20). The breaking of the pots pictures the breaking of the hard shell of corruption on our souls, so that the lamp of the Lord in our spirit can shine with power and change circumstances.

Pride resists that breaking. The answer is to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God so He can lift you up in due time (1 Peter 5:6).

He admits he sometimes cringes when a minister says “God said” something that four or five Scriptures plainly contradict. A minister like that, he warns, is not ministering the gospel but his own soul, emotions and experiences. He also corrects what he was taught growing up in a denominational church, that the spirit and the soul are the same thing. They are as different as your hand and your foot: both are part of you, with entirely different functions.

The Implanted Word Saves Your Soul

The central text is James 1:21: lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. Dr. Hohman notes that James is writing to Christians, not to the world. Born-again people still need their souls saved.

He explains the Greek behind “superfluity of naughtiness” as a whirlpool: the churning mental state you are in when a decision presses on you and your thoughts go round and round. Lay that whirlpool of garbage aside, he says, and stop leaning on it. Instead, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5) and study to show yourself approved, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

Meekness, he teaches, means being teachable. The word translated “save” carries the ideas of being healed, delivered, supported, strengthened and made whole. When you receive the implanted word with a teachable heart, it reaches your soul, which in general terms is your mind, your will and your emotions. You lay down your will to do His, your thinking to think His thoughts, and you stop letting emotions run your life.

He points to the disciples in the storm on the lake. The boat was filling with water while Jesus slept, and they accused Him of not caring. He asked them, “Where is your faith?” (Luke 8:22–25). They were bound by their emotions. Jesus was not, and He wants us free of that bondage too.

That is also how he reads Jesus’ words that anyone who loves family, house or land more than Him is not worthy of Him (Matthew 10:37). It does not mean you are a bad person or going to hell. It means you are not built right to receive what God has for you. 3 John 2 ties prosperity and health to the prosperity of the soul, and he has the church repeat, “the saving of the soul is a process.”

Reading James 1:18–21 together, he points out that God brought us forth by the word of truth. The same word of truth that gave birth to your spirit is what saves your soul, which is why we must be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath.

Renewed, Not Replaced

Dr. Hohman compares an unrenewed soul to a young child whose emotions are still unravelled. You comfort a frightened child, but you do not coddle them; you teach them how not to be afraid. God did the same with him at the pastor’s door. His soul had to be dealt with, and once he obeyed, it got easier. David said it this way: He restores my soul (Psalm 23:3).

Romans 12:1–2 calls us to present our bodies a living sacrifice and to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. He explains that “bodies” there means every element of your makeup, not just flesh and blood. It is a continual laying down, and he notes one translation calls it your form of worship: you obey even when your mind is screaming against it.

Then he contrasts 2 Corinthians 5:17, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” with the renewal of the soul. He says the Greek has two words for new: one for something brand new that never existed before, and one for something old made fresh again. Your spirit is the first kind. Your soul is the second.

His illustration is a pair of second-hand chairs. Early in the ministry, when he earned about a hundred dollars a month, Mary, a volunteer secretary, asked for seats in the waiting area. He and Pam found two worn cricket judge’s chairs for about thirty dollars. While he was away ministering, Mary had them refinished and reupholstered. They looked brand new, but they were the same chairs, renewed. That, he says, is what has to happen to your soul.

The table below summarizes how he distinguishes the two parts of a believer in this message.

Test Every Leading by the Word

Romans 8:16 says the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Dr. Hohman says the Holy Spirit bore witness when you were born again, and He bears witness again whenever you start applying what God says. When you pass through the waters and the fire, He is with you (Isaiah 43:2). He does not say run; He says keep walking.

As the hardness is laid aside, the light of your spirit shines and God opens doors you could never have opened yourself. He recalls a week in Wales when a whole satanic group was saved after a little girl said the Lord wanted her to tell everyone about the Holy Spirit.

A newspaper, he jokes, is only good for the bottom of a birdcage the next day, but the Bible will still be true if the Lord tarries a million years. The Holy Spirit will never contradict what is written. If you think you are hearing from the Lord, ask Him to show you in the Scriptures, because every word is established by two or three witnesses (2 Corinthians 13:1). One verse pulled out of context, he warns, is how cults are born.

He tells how the Lord once led him and Pam to give away everything they owned. It was not easy, and he waited for confirmation, first through Pam and then through his pastor, who after two weeks of prayer said he could not deny it was God.

When Peter tried to talk Jesus out of the cross, Jesus said, “Get behind Me, Satan,” because Peter was mindful of the things of men (Matthew 16:23). A living sacrifice, Dr. Hohman says, always leads to resurrection life and power we can pass on to others. He closes by leading the church in a prayer for forgiveness and help to grow.

Following the Holy Spirit This Week

Here are practical steps drawn from this message on how to be led by the Spirit of God:

• Get a Bible you can write in. Note what God shows you so your Bible becomes a record of His leading.
• Obey the uncomfortable prompting. If someone has something against you, go and make it right before you bring your gift.
• Do not trust every thought. Treat hunger, hurt feelings and strong emotions as your soul speaking until the Word confirms otherwise.
• Receive the Word with meekness. Stay teachable under the ministry God has placed over you.
• Ask for chapter and verse. Look for two or three witnesses in Scripture before you act on what you believe you heard.
• Keep renewing your soul. Present every part of yourself to God as a living sacrifice, day by day.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Welcome and opening prayer
• 8:41 The law of reciprocity in giving
• 37:36 Come to God expecting
• 38:41 Why this series matters
• 41:48 Proverbs 3:5–6 and real trust
• 44:42 Sent to the pastor’s door
• 48:27 The jar of coins
• 50:22 Spirit, soul and body
• 53:37 The inward man and the hidden man
• 55:58 Proverbs 20:27: the lamp of the Lord
• 57:05 The power of an unrenewed soul
• 1:00:35 Gideon’s clay pots
• 1:03:56 Spirit and soul are not the same
• 1:07:45 Meekness and the implanted word
• 1:10:16 The saving of the soul is a process
• 1:13:48 Psalm 23 and Romans 12
• 1:17:31 Two Greek words for new
• 1:19:44 The reupholstered chairs
• 1:21:41 The Spirit bears witness
• 1:23:58 The Spirit never contradicts the Word
• 1:26:05 Living sacrifice and resurrection power
• 1:29:33 Closing prayer and worship

How to Be Led by the Spirit of God Series

This message is part of a six-part teaching series. Start from the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:

• First message: How to Be Led by the Spirit of God, Part 1 — Born Again by the Holy Spirit’s Leading
• Previous: How to Be Led by the Spirit of God, Part 2 — The Spirit of Man Is the Lamp of the Lord
• You are here: How to Be Led by the Spirit of God, Part 3 — Your Spirit Is New, Your Soul Must Be Renewed
• Next: How to Be Led by the Spirit of God, Part 4 — The Spirit Leads and the Word Renews the Soul

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Holy Spirit ever force someone to act?

No. Dr. Hohman teaches that the Holy Spirit will never violate a person’s will. He jokes about the old comedy line that the devil made me do it, and says God does not make anyone do anything either. If God forced obedience, he reasons, He would simply stop everyone from sinning. Instead, He leads, and we choose whether to follow, which is why the soul’s cooperation matters so much in this series.

If I am born again, why do I still struggle?

Because the new birth changed your spirit, not your soul. Dr. Hohman says your soul still carries habits, emotions and ways of thinking from the world, and renewing it is up to you as you obey the Word. He compares it to a child learning not to be afraid: God comforts you but does not coddle you, and each step of obedience makes the next one easier.

Why does church and Bible training matter so much here?

Dr. Hohman connects them directly to the renewal of the soul. Church, Bible college and submitted relationships are where believers learn to rightly divide the word of truth. He warns that ministers who never humble themselves to be taught end up ministering their own feelings and experiences, and that is how deception starts among Christians. Being teachable, he says, is what meekness means.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• Proverbs 3:5–6 — trust in the Lord with all your heart
• Proverbs 20:27 — the spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord
• Romans 8:14 — led by the Spirit of God
• 1 Thessalonians 5:23 — spirit, soul and body
• James 1:18–21 — the implanted word saves your soul
• Romans 12:1–2 — transformed by the renewing of your mind
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 — a new creation
• Matthew 5:23–24 — first be reconciled
• 2 Corinthians 13:1 — two or three witnesses

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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