The old saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink,” was supposedly penned back in the 1500s as a way to explain you can give someone some great advice and truths, but just because they now have heard it doesn’t mean they will choose to take the advice or adhere to the help that is offered. We are all a horse in a sense being led one way or another. Some think that becoming a “wild horse” is the way to be basically being led by one’s own inner desires. In essence as I recently preached we have one of two beings on the throne of our life. We can be deceived into thinking we are on the throne making our own decisions, but what may be to some’s surprise is that if Christ is not on the throne then Satan is.
This may be a hard concept to think about but if that is the only two options then one has to be true. The Bible is full of examples of knowing which one is true. In the Book of Romans specifically in chapter 8 the apostle Paul wrote about being “led by the Spirit.” Within the verses one can read that if we are not being led by the Spirit of God that can dwell within us then we are being led by the “flesh,” which is a way of saying being led by our own sinful desires that will always and only lead away from God. Being led by this is being led to becoming spiritually weaker and eventually leads to spiritual death and/or the total choice to be eternally separated from God.
Once we get to a point in our life that we can fully submit or yield our control to God we will have the strength given only by Jesus to mortify (put to death) the deeds of the flesh. We become able through the Spirit to manage our life in a way that is in alignment with God’s will. I recently read in a study Bible footnote that there are 4 parts to knowing we are led by the Spirit.
One of the first things we will have surrendered. “Putting our hands up, or letting go of the wheel” to let God take control of the direction. The second thing is trusting that God knows best. It is like coming to a forest we have never been to and choosing to meander through it with no guidance instead of making a decision to go on a path led by a tour guide who knows the way whose father made the trail and map.
The third thing is obeying what we had chosen to trust. Trust is more of an inward decision where obedience is “doing and going” where we are led. I could say that I trust a tour guide to get me through a forest, but only if I choose to go along with him and do what he says would I be obeying his guidance. Lastly, the fourth thing in being guided by the Spirit is we will be aligned with God’s will. If at any time our life is not aligned with Biblical truth we are “off course” and can know we have been listening to the wrong guide.
written 8-22-26 ~TRS
Rays of Hope 