How to be led by the Spirit of God #1

Led by Spirit Overview

In this foundational message from New Testament Church, Pastor William Holman opens a new teaching series on how to be led by the Holy Spirit. Building on the conclusion of the previous Crazy Faith series, Pastor Holman establishes that being truly guided by the Spirit is not a passive, spectator experience but an active, kingdom-building walk of obedience. He roots the entire message in Proverbs 3:5-6, calling believers to trust God completely and refuse to lean on their own understanding, their finances, their relationships, or any earthly resource. Drawing from Genesis 2:7, he explores how God breathed the very breath of life into Adam, giving humanity a soul and intellect not to be relied upon independently but to be continually surrendered to the Creator. Pastor Holman also references Romans 8:19-21 to show that all of creation is eagerly waiting for the sons of God to walk in Spirit-led liberty. Through personal testimony, including giving away his home in obedience to God, and a vivid account of casting out demons at a meeting, he demonstrates that the Holy Spirit leads believers into action, cooperation, and fearless engagement with a corrupted world.

Led by Spirit Outline

• 0:00:00 – Opening Worship and Welcome: The service opens with congregational worship drawn from Psalm 34:1-3, with Pastor encouraging believers to magnify the Lord extravagantly and beyond what the flesh feels.
• 0:18:00 – Tithes, Offerings, and Ministry Updates: Pastor shares ministry needs including a church building project in West Africa, Bible College development in Togo, and a food distribution ministry that grew dramatically during the COVID lockdown season.
• 0:38:00 – Honoring Special Guests and Community Testimony: Pastor recognizes missionary couple Tom and Hyung Marks who sacrificed a year to serve the school and church, illustrating the love of God through willing and obedient service.
• 0:55:00 – Transition Into the New Series: Pastor formally introduces the series on being led by the Holy Spirit, explaining that recognizing past leading by the Spirit builds faith and confidence to follow Him more consistently.
• 1:02:00 – Foundation Scripture: Proverbs 3:5-6: The central text is unpacked: trusting God with all the heart, refusing to lean on any earthly provision or personal intellect, and acknowledging Him in every area of life so He can direct the path.
• 1:10:00 – Genesis 2:7 and the Breath of Life: Pastor examines the creation of man, showing that God breathed a soul and intellect into Adam not so man would depend on himself but so he would remain dependent on the One who gave it.
• 1:18:00 – Romans 8:19-21 and Creation’s Longing: All corrupted creation groans and waits for the manifestation of Spirit-led sons of God who walk in glorious liberty, demonstrating kingdom power in a fallen world.
• 1:25:00 – Personal Testimony: Giving Up Everything: Pastor shares the story of surrendering his home and possessions in obedience to God, describing how agreement with his wife and confirmation from his pastor preceded the act of faith.
• 1:32:00 – John 3:3-8 and the New Birth: Jesus explains to Nicodemus that being born again by water and Spirit is the entry point into the kingdom, and that the Spirit-led life moves like the wind, unpredictable yet unmistakably real.
• 1:38:00 – Participants Not Spectators: Pastor closes with the exhortation that God leads His people to do and accomplish, not merely to sit and observe, and that perfect love casting out fear is activated by active obedience.

Scripture References

Psalm 34:1-3, Proverbs 3:5-6, Genesis 2:7, Romans 8:19-21, Matthew 5:5, Matthew 6:33, 1 John 3:17, John 3:3-8

Key Takeaways

• Being led by the Holy Spirit is an active, kingdom-building lifestyle, not a passive or spectator experience inside the church walls.
• Proverbs 3:5-6 calls every believer to trust God completely and refuse to lean on money, relationships, jobs, or even God-given gifts as their source of security.
• God breathed a soul and intellect into Adam not so humanity would be self-sufficient but so mankind would remain utterly dependent on the Creator who gave those gifts.
• All of creation is earnestly waiting for Spirit-led sons of God to walk in the glorious liberty that breaks the bondage of corruption in the earth.
• The more a believer is actively doing what God asks, the less vulnerable they become to fear, because perfect love cast out fear is activated through obedience.
• Major steps of obedience, like giving away a home or leaving a career, require patient confirmation through personal prayer, spousal agreement, and pastoral counsel before acting.
• The world is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity but for a bold demonstration of it, and that demonstration comes only through people genuinely led by the Holy Spirit.

Led by Spirit Notes

The Central Call: Trust Over Self-Reliance

The entire teaching rests on Proverbs 3:5-6, which Pastor Holman describes as the master key to Spirit-led living. The instruction is sweeping: do not lean on money, on a job, on a spouse, on government, or even on the God-given intellect breathed into humanity at creation. Every good thing God provides is meant to be enjoyed but never depended upon as a source. When a believer transfers their reliance from earthly provision back to the Giver of all things, God takes personal responsibility to make their paths straight. This is the foundation on which every subsequent lesson in this series is built.

Genesis 2:7 and the Purpose of the Human Soul

Pastor Holman draws a striking insight from the creation account. When God breathed into Adam, the Hebrew word Neshama points to the life of a soul and intellect, a divine inspiration that animated a body of clay. That intellect was never designed to function independently from God. The moment Adam and Eve chose self-reliance over God-reliance, corruption entered both the human soul and all of creation. This explains why Proverbs warns against leaning on your own understanding. The very faculty God gave us for reasoning is the one most prone to leading us away from Him when disconnected from the Spirit.

A Personal Testimony of Radical Obedience

One of the most gripping moments in the message is Pastor Holman recounting how he and his wife gave away their home and all their possessions in response to a clear direction from God. Critically, this act did not happen overnight. The Lord spoke to him first, he shared it with his wife without pressure, she prayed for two months before agreeing independently, and then both sought confirmation from their pastor. This multi-step process of agreement and counsel is offered as a model for how Spirit-led decisions should be tested before acted upon, protecting believers from presumption while remaining open to radical faith.

Casting Out Demons and Fearless Endurance

Pastor shares a vivid account from a ministry meeting where he was asked to cast demons out of a woman. For fifteen minutes nothing visible happened, and the manifestations seemed to intensify. The breakthrough came when he declared to the demonic presence that he had all eternity and would not stop. Immediately the woman’s eyes cleared and she began praising Jesus. This story is used to illustrate what a Spirit-led, fear-free believer looks like to a watching world. Steadfastness and refusal to be moved, not eloquence or performance, is what creation is waiting to see demonstrated by the sons and daughters of God.

Creation Groans for Spirit-Led Believers

Romans 8:19-21 provides the cosmic backdrop for this series. Paul writes that all of creation was subjected to futility through Adam’s fall but holds onto hope because it will one day be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Pastor Holman connects this directly to Spirit-led living, arguing that when believers willingly yield to the Holy Spirit, something moves in the created order around them. This is not abstract theology but a lived reality, demonstrated through open doors in ministry, unexpected provision, and the transformation of communities touched by obedient followers of Christ.

John 3 and the Wind-Like Nature of the Spirit

To close the foundational portion of the teaching, Pastor turns to Jesus’s night conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. The new birth is the entry point into Spirit-led living, and Jesus describes the Spirit-born life as being like the wind: audible, real, powerful, yet impossible to predict or control by human calculation. This is precisely why leaning on personal understanding fails the born-again believer. The Spirit does not follow human logic or natural probability. He moves where He wishes, and the believer’s role is to remain sensitive, yielded, and willing to go wherever that wind is blowing.

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