Copyright 2005 Daniel N Brown

The Bible tells us that we need to be led by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:12-14, Galatians 5:16-25). Therefore, it is necessary for us to discern the prompting and guidance of the Holy Spirit if we are to live successful lives.

Getting to know God better is ultimately the key to hearing from, and being led by Him.

1. Spend time alone with Him in prayer and Bible reading. This should be a priority, not a chore that you grudgingly do if you happen to have some spare time.

2. During your time alone with God, don't expect to feel something. We are to live by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7), not by feelings.

3. Make sure that the Bible version you are using is easy for you to read, otherwise you will become discouraged very quickly. Your local Christian bookstore can show you several versions of the Bible and discuss their strengths and weaknesses.

4. Expect Him to speak to you. Sometimes you will get an immediate response, but most of the time you will need to wait for awhile and keep watching for the answer in whatever manner God chooses to speak to you.

5. Listen to your conscience and be quick to obey if you should lose your peace about something. If you ignore your conscience, you run the risk of your conscience becoming "corrupted" (Titus 1:15) and "seared as with a hot iron" (1 Timothy 4:2), and it will be more difficult to hear from God.

The apostle Paul wrote about our consciences frequently. He said that he kept a clear conscience before God (Acts 23:1, 24:16, 1 Corinthians 4:4, 2 Timothy 1:3,) and he said that we should do the same (Romans 13:5, 1 Timothy 1:5, 19, 3:9) so that we don't shipwreck our faith. We can know that we are hearing from God by listening to our conscience.

~ "I speak the truth in Christ--I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 9:1).

~ "Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God" (2 Corinthians 1:12).

~ Our consciences "bear witness" to the truth (Romans 2:15), because the truth is "plain to our conscience" (2 Corinthians 5:11), and the "the Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit" (Romans 8:16) to confirm the truth.

If we learn to obey our conscience and let peace be our umpire, we will be able to let God lead our daily lives and assure ourselves of success and prosperity.