Guided by the Holy Spirit
Welcome to the Holy Spirit Untethered. My name's Amber Beals, and it is my job and my mission to allow the Holy Spirit to speak through me, to help demystify who He is, what his role is, and to deeply encourage you to seek a relationship with him. Alright. Let's get started. Hey, guys.
Amber:Welcome back to Holy Spirit Untethered. I'm Amber. I'm your host, and I hope that you really enjoyed my last episode. If you haven't already, go check it out. That's with Estella, and we talk about unlocking spiritual gifts and kinda getting more of a deeper understanding of what spiritual gifts are and how we use them.
Amber:And it also gets a little personal because she speaks into my life, and I thought it was a really good example of how spiritual gifts can help build up the church. Like her spiritual gift of word of knowledge, and and I would say prophecy helped me kinda get me out of my funk. And we recorded that episode a little while ago. And during that time, right, even the day that we recorded it, like, I was going through some stuff, and it was, it was different. And, it was it was hard, and I couldn't really pinpoint what it was and what that funk was and why I was going through it.
Amber:But the words that she said to me in that podcast were just super uplifting, and it kinda just opened my eyes to allow me to see what was really going on and that I need to just stop looking inward and just look up to the Lord and which seems so obvious. It really does. But when you're in it, it's not obvious. When you're in it, everything is foggy. You're just looking inward, and you can't see the forest through the trees.
Amber:And sometimes you just need somebody to be like, hey, it's okay. Look up. Like, you got this. Well, actually, you don't got this. Lord's got this.
Amber:You just need to depend on him. And it's always a good reminder even if you are further along in your spiritual journey, like, it's always the small things that you tend to forget. So if you haven't already, again, please go check it out. That's my last episode. That's episode 13 with Estella Pineda, and a shout out to Estella again.
Amber:Thank you so much for being on the podcast and being such an amazing guest and just an influence in my own life. She's so great. So, yeah, go check it out. But for today, we are gonna be diving into Holy Spirit being our guide. And I touched on the Holy Spirit being our counselor a couple episodes ago, and the Holy Spirit really put it on my heart a couple days ago that he was like, okay, I want you to talk about what the difference is between being a counselor and being a guide, and how I do that in your life.
Amber:So that's what we're doing today. But before we get started, let's go ahead and say a prayer. So if you if it's safe to do so, please go ahead and, pray with me. Dear heavenly father, I just thank you so much for this opportunity to be on here, Lord. I just thank you so much for everybody that's listening to this podcast, whether it's right when it comes out or years down the road, Lord.
Amber:I just pray a blessing over every single person that listens to this podcast, Lord. I just pray you would prepare all of our hearts to receive this message. Holy Spirit, I pray you'd speak through me. Allow me to be the vessel so that your words can come through and mine fall away, Lord. And I just pray that this episode does what it needs to do.
Amber:And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay. So I kinda wanna start first with the definition and then the difference between guidance or being a guide and being a counselor counseling. And so I did a little Google search, and I got an AI overview.
Amber:You know, you gotta love AI and then hate it. Like, I don't it makes our lives easier in some ways, and then in other ways, not so much. But in this instance, it's actually helping me out. So according to the Google AI, it says guidance. Guidance helps people discover their needs, develop their life purpose, and make wise choices.
Amber:Guidance can also help people adapt to new environments, improve their self understanding, and make the most of their talents. So that's guidance. And then counseling is counseling helps people solve problems, prevent future problems, and develop personally, socially, emotionally, educationally, and vocationally. So you develop in all of those areas. Counseling can also help people explore their feelings and beliefs, work through challenging memories, and set personal goals.
Amber:When I talked about Holy Spirit being a counselor, I had mentioned that he knows everything. Right? The Holy Spirit knows what your future looks like. He knows what your past is. He's there in the present.
Amber:He's there for every moment of every day experiencing life with you. That's his covenant. That's his promise, and he doesn't go back on that. And when you're going through something, he counsels you through it. So here it says says helps people solve problems and prevent future problems and develop in all these areas of their lives.
Amber:So the Lord and the Holy Spirit, they definitely do that. Right? He definitely helps you because he and gives you the right advice, the right counseling to get through whatever situation that you're going through because he's already seen you through it. Like, he's already knows the outcome. He already knows.
Amber:And so he's helping you through support and through wisdom by counseling you through these times, through the situation. So with guidance, to me, it's more of a leveling up. Like, counseling is more when you're going through trials or you're going through something. Guidance is like, okay. What's the next step?
Amber:How do I make you more like Jesus? What do we need to do to level your relationship with Jesus up? Like it says, it helps people discover their needs, develop their life purpose, and make wise choices. It also helps people adapt to new environments, improve their self understanding, and make the most of their talents. So the Holy Spirit is there as a guide to get you through this life, but not just get you through, to help you thrive and be fully dependent on Jesus, to be fully dependent on his life and his blessings and his resources, and just being fully dependent just on him in general.
Amber:That is what it means to be a guide. And I have a couple of scripture examples, so I'd like to go through that with you. So I am in Luke, and this is when Jesus gets baptized, water baptized. So Jesus goes to John the Baptist, and he asked John the Baptist to baptize him in water. And John the Baptist is like, what?
Amber:I'm not even worthy to strap your sandals on your feet. And he's like, no. We need to do this. I need to be water baptized. So so he does that.
Amber:And after he gets baptized, you know, it says, Luke chapter 3 verse, we'll just start in 21. When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized. And while he prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, you are my beloved son. In you, I am well pleased.
Amber:So that happens, and then I'm gonna skip down to chapter 4 verse 1, because the rest of chapter 3, it just goes about the genealogy of Jesus, and that's just like a lot of things. We don't need to go through that. So in chapter 4 verse 1, it says, then Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness. And this is when Jesus gets tempted. So this is when he doesn't eat or drink.
Amber:He fasts for 40 days, and then Satan tempts him with bread and, you know, the world, and Jesus he passes that test. Right? So what I really wanna focus on is that it says Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan. So he went to the Jordan to get baptized. That is where he was baptized in the river Jordan by John the Baptist and was led by the spirit into the wilderness.
Amber:So the Holy Spirit led him there. He was being filled with the Holy Spirit, so he's being filled by the Holy Spirit. And then he was led or guided by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, and this was so that he could be tested. And it was important for Jesus to be tested because he needed to experience everything that we humans experience in terms of being tempted. He was tempted with all the things that the enemy tempts with us today, food, power, greed, all the things.
Amber:He was tempted, so he knew how to navigate that and how to avoid or just say no. You know, the scriptures say that the lord always provides a way out whenever you're tempted. There's always a way out, And Jesus found that way out, and that was through scripture. Like, he spoke to the enemy and said and just repeated scripture and said no. And so the Holy Spirit led him there to the wilderness to level him up because he was about to go through his ministry.
Amber:He gets baptized, and this is the beginning of his 3 year ministry before he gets crucified. So he gets baptized in water. He gets baptized in the spirit because he's being filled with the spirit, and the spirit leads him into the wilderness. And if Jesus had to go through a wilderness to be prepared for his ministry, then we're all gonna experience that. I mean, we can look to Jesus as an example of our own lives of how to live, but also the things he went through, we're gonna go through similar things.
Amber:Like Jesus says that we're gonna have trials. It's not gonna be all hunky dory for Christians. Like, the Christian life is hard, but it can still be filled with joy. Even though your circumstance is tough, even though your circumstance is not the most fun thing to go through, you can still have joy because you live because he lives in you. Jesus overcame the world.
Amber:You can overcome the world and you cannot only overcome it, but do it with joy. Do it with the living God, the Holy Spirit, the one that's with you. And that's just, that's just amazing. I think that's amazing. So he was being filled with the Holy Spirit and was led by the spirit into the wilderness.
Amber:So he goes to the temptation. He goes through 40 days of not eating, not drinking. He's tempted. And then after that, he passes. And when, I wanna go to verse 13, it says, chapter 4 verse 13.
Amber:Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. So basically, Satan gave up because Jesus was not relenting. He was super weak because he hadn't eaten, he hadn't drink in in 40 days, and Satan wasn't able to get him to say yes to any of his tests, so he left. Now we pick up in verse 14. Then Jesus returned in power of the spirit to Galilee, and the news of him went throughout all the surrounding region, and he taught in their synagogues being glorified by all.
Amber:So let me repeat verse 1 in chapter 4. Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness. And then we jump to verse 14. It says, then Jesus returned in power of the spirit to Galilee. So being in the wilderness, being tempted, he wasn't alone.
Amber:Jesus had the Holy Spirit with him, being tempted with him. The Holy Spirit was giving him the power to be able to say no to Satan, to be able to say no to every temptation. And the same is true for you and I. When you're being tempted, maybe you can't say no to the things that you're being tempted by, but the Holy Spirit can. And that's when we need to fully depend on the Holy Spirit to say no, not in our own power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amber:That is how we get through these situations. That is how we get through the wilderness. But the Holy Spirit guides you to the wilderness. The Holy Spirit knows you need to go through the wilderness so that he can strip away those impurities, so that he can cleanse you, so that he can make you more holy, he can make you more righteous, he can make you more like Jesus. That's the goal.
Amber:The Holy Spirit is there to convict you, and conviction is good. If you hear conviction, that means the Holy Spirit is communicating with you. The Holy Spirit is alive and well and is talking to you. That means you hear him. A lot of people, they go through your life and they don't hear anything, and they wonder why they don't feel close.
Amber:It's because you have to engage the Holy Spirit. You have to let him counsel you through the tough times, but you also have to let him guide you to the tough times so that you can be filled with power when you come out of those tough times. Jesus came out of the wilderness. He returned in the power of the Holy Spirit. He was now empowered.
Amber:He was now able to complete the purpose and the mission that the Lord had on his life, to do his 3 years of ministry, to be able to touch the people that he needed to touch, to heal the people that needed to be healed, and to ultimately put in place the new covenant. He was the new covenant. He became flesh. He is the word that became flesh so that he could experience everything that we do. I mean, just think about that for a second.
Amber:He is God, like, God of the universe. He created everything. He's outside of time, and he decided because he loves you so much, and he wanted to create a way for us to spend eternity with him. He became flesh. He became one like one of the ones he created.
Amber:He lowered himself to be just like you and I and experience hunger, experience suffering, experience pain, experience betrayal, all of the things that you and I go through in everyday life. He didn't have to do that. He's God, He doesn't have to do all those things. But He did so willingly, just so that we had an opportunity to live with Him in eternity, so that he could mend the sin in the world. That original sin that broke his original design, he put into place from the beginning, since Adam and Eve.
Amber:Knowing that they would disobey, knowing that they would eat that fruit, he banished them out of the garden because there were 2 trees, the knowledge of good and evil, and then there was the one, the tree of life, which means that if they ate of that tree, they wouldn't have been able to die, which means they couldn't pay the penalty for sin. So that's why he kicked them out of the garden so that he could rectify what they did. He put that plan in motion from the beginning, which is pretty crazy. Like, that's amazing that he did that, that he loved us enough to put a plan in motion so that he could rectify it years years years years, 100 of 1000 of years later. But for the God that's outside of time, he made it happen.
Amber:That's how much he loves you and I, is making himself become human and god at the same time, live a human life without sin so that he could become the ultimate sacrifice so that we can live with him in heaven. That's just mind blowing. Anyway, I'm gonna jump over to Acts. No. Acts chapter 1 verse.
Amber:I'm gonna read 7 and 8. It says, and he said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. This is Jesus talking about the Holy Spirit. He's talking about you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, just like the Holy Spirit came upon him when he got baptized, just like he was empowered after the wilderness. And it says back in Luke chapter 4 verse 14, then Jesus returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee, and the news of him went throughout all the surrounding region.
Amber:The same thing is for you and I. But what you and back in acts chapter 8, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem. And if we go back to Luke, it says, Jesus returned the power of the spirit to Galilee, and the news of him spread throughout the surrounding region. He was with he started witnessing. That was after he became in power, he started witnessing.
Amber:We have that same calling. Every single believer has that same calling to be witnesses of the Lord. I mean, scriptures say they will know us by our love. That's how we are supposed to stand out from everybody else. We're supposed to love like Jesus, and we can only do that when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.
Amber:When he comes upon you, that is how you do it. That is how you live this life. You can't do it by your own. You can't do it in your own flesh. Trust me.
Amber:Like, it's it's rough. It's it's it's rough out here. Okay? Do trying to do it out of the flesh. And even when you have the holy spirit, you have to learn to die to your flesh every single day.
Amber:And that's that that takes a lot of discipline. That's, when the fruit of the spirit comes into play in terms of self control and all the things. That's the evidence that the Holy Spirit is working in you, that you are allowing the Holy Spirit to guide you. You have to listen. You have to obey.
Amber:You have to be in a place of, Holy Spirit, I trust you. Holy Spirit, my desire is to be more like you, is to be more like Jesus, is to love people the way that you love people. Holy Spirit, renew my mind. Allow me to be more like Jesus. Let me love on people the way that you love on people.
Amber:Help me see people the way that you do. Give me the patience and the love and the gentleness and kindness and all your fruits so that I can properly do my mission so that I can be a vessel for you to use so that I can be a witness to you. And it says in acts, you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. That is our calling. We're supposed to be witnesses to him.
Amber:And even if that's just in your own community, maybe that's just in your job. Do it. Do it well. And the only way you can do it is if you completely lean on the Holy Spirit and allow him to guide you through those things. And sometimes he's gonna guide you into hardship.
Amber:It's gonna happen. Like you can expect it to happen, but you can also expect that he's gonna be there through every single situation, every single moment. I say that a lot. And it's funny because the other day I was praying and the Holy Spirit, he put it on my heart and said, you know, you say that a lot, where you know that I experience every single thing that you go through, but I need you to believe it. Like, you say it a lot and you think you believe it, but I need you to believe it in your heart.
Amber:And that touched me because, you know, going through my recent miscarriage, he was telling me, he's like, I was there in the hospital with you. I was there when you were crying in your bed. I was there when you were doubting everything. I wept with you. I wept with you.
Amber:I grieve with you. And I wanna encourage everyone listening to this podcast that maybe you're going through something, and you feel like you're alone, or you feel like no way God can understand that. God was man. He experienced everything that we experience, and he suffers with us. He doesn't want these bad things to happen.
Amber:He allows some of these things to happen, and there's a reason for everything. And even though we might not understand that now, I believe we will. I believe on judgment day, we're gonna be able to see all the bad, but all the good too. I think I believe we're gonna see all the ripples that we make and the reasons why we went through the things that we did, the reason why the Holy Spirit guided you through that season. It's because he was leveling you up.
Amber:It was for building the kingdom. Sometimes it's not always about you. Sometimes it's about the kingdom. Sometimes it's about being that witness, building up the kingdom, touching his people, and allowing the body of Christ to grow. Not just grow with more people, but grow stronger in their faith.
Amber:The Holy Spirit helps guide you and grow your faith. Only Christ can grow your faith, but you have to pray for it. Ask Him. It's that constant communication. The Holy Spirit can only guide you if you actually engage with Him.
Amber:He's a gentleman. He's not going to force you to go through things unless you engage Him. You have to talk to Him, ask Him questions, ask Him to renew your mind, ask Him to reveal things to you in your life that are preventing you from growing, that are a hindrance, that are things that you need to go through, that are things that you need to address. That's what he's there for. He's there to guide you through that.
Amber:In the definition that I had read, it says guidance helps people discover their needs, develop their life purpose, and make wise choices. The Holy Spirit helps you discover your needs and develop your life purpose. He's there to reveal to you what your mission is, what it is that you need to do in this life, and he reveals to you what matters in this life. And he helps you make wise choices to get there. Because I don't know about you, but sometimes I make some stupid choices.
Amber:I think we've all been there. He also helps you adapt to new environments. So when he brings you through that wilderness, when he guides you through the wilderness or those those trying times, he helps you adapt. He helps you be able to endure all the things. He knows you going through this situation is going to get you where you need to be so that you can help someone else in the future, or so that you learn new skills so that you can go through something else in the future.
Amber:Guiding you also helps you make the most of your talents. So the Holy Spirit will reveal to you what you're naturally gifted in. He's gonna help you develop those talents even more so that he can use them to build his kingdom. He can use them to build you and to develop your relationship with him. Remember, he is jealous for your time.
Amber:He is so jealous for you and your time. And so I think it's so important that you be intentional with separating time for him, whether that be in the morning or at night, or maybe it's during the day. I mean, Paul says, pray without ceasing. That's that's that's a lot. That's a lot.
Amber:So for me, I know I have to be super intentional about that and be like, okay, Holy Spirit. Yes. Help me do this. Holy Spirit, I don't like doing this. Help me gain a new vision on how to do this or a new perspective that makes me a little bit more excited to do this.
Amber:And he will. He wants you to invite him into every aspect of your life because he is experiencing every aspect of your life. And he's feeling all your feelings and your emotions and all the grievances and all the annoyances. He's there for every bit of it, but he wants you to talk to him about it. The more you invite him in, the more he can guide you properly.
Amber:Rather than just running to him to be a counselor because you're going through something, invite him to be a guide so that maybe you can prevent some of that and learn it just from him instead of through experience. Experience isn't always the best teacher. Sometimes you could just read it in a book, but the Holy Spirit will know which one you need to learn by, whether it is something you need to go through in order to learn it, or if you can learn learn it through somebody else's experience. He knows what's best because, well, he's God. Right?
Amber:So I just wanna encourage you, the Holy Spirit is your guide. He's guiding you through life. He's guiding you to be more like Jesus. He's transforming you. He's taking away the things that don't serve you anymore.
Amber:And sometimes that hurts because we get comfortable with the way that we we live or our habits or whatever we get comfortable. And I'm I'm preaching to myself right now. Like, I I have lots of things that I'm just like super comfortable and I don't really wanna change that. Can we just leave that there? And the Holy Spirit is like, no, We gotta address it.
Amber:We've been addressing it for years now. Like, we gotta keep going. And it it's a struggle. You know, it's hard, but I believe it's worth it. And the holy spirit keeps encouraging.
Amber:And thank the Lord, the holy spirit is very patient. Because, man, I don't know if I would be as patient as I am with myself as he is with me. Because, yeah, I feel like sometimes I just need a slap in the head. Like, what are you doing? And the holy spirit, it's like, it's okay.
Amber:Give yourself grace. It's fine. Like, yes, it needs to be addressed, but, you know, you are going through x, y, and z. It's okay. Like, we'll get through it.
Amber:I just need you to depend on me. And so we just have to be reminded of that. And I think it needs to be a daily reminder of, like, I need to fully depend on the holy spirit. Like, I can't do this by my own power. Like, if I do, it's gonna be sloppy and it's it's barely gonna work.
Amber:Probably won't even work. It's just an illusion that it works. Like, the holy spirit is the only thing. He is the only person that can make it work, and we just need to learn to depend on him and allow him to work through us, allow him to use our voice, to use just us as a vessel. And that takes practice.
Amber:It takes practice and we're going to fail. It's going to happen, but it just like he has grace for us, so we need to have grace for ourselves sometimes. And just know that, you know, we are going up, the line is going up. It's just kind of, sometimes it goes down, but overall we are going up and allowing us to be more like Jesus. And he transforms us and he does all these things and it's, it's amazing, but it's such a journey.
Amber:It's a process. And so remember to have a grace for yourself. Anyway, I hope this message blesses you. I hope that you find this encouraging, that you take something away from it. And, yeah, I I hope you enjoy it.
Amber:I do wanna ask if you can, whatever platform that you're listening on, please leave a review. Please leave me a review and write something nice. I prefer something nice. If you have something bad to say, maybe just email me. But, yeah, I need some new reviews.
Amber:I have a couple on Apple. If you listen on Spotify, that would be great just to write a review on Spotify. It really helps me out and get this message out to all the people. So alright, guys. I thank you so much, and I'll see you next week.
