Christian Living

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How Do I Know If The Pastor Is Being Directed By The Holy Spirit?

●Introduction

●Is He Born-Again?

●Is He Filled With the Spirit?

●What Is In the Content of His Teachings?

INTRODUCTION

What does it mean to be able to recognize a Spirit-filled pastor?

Depending on who is asked, will determine the answer.

Some would say that a Spirit-filled pastor is one:

a. who wears a collar.
b. who is not married, thus being able to devote themselves entirely to God.
c. who speaks with lofty words, mesmerizing everyone who listens.
d. whose ministry is devoted to helping others.
e. whose salary is not extreme.
f. who teaches about the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
g. who observes and advocates ritualistic practices.
h. who greets the congregation at the door, when the service is over.
i. who marries others and presides at funerals.

While a Spirit-filled pastor might exhibit one or more of the qualities mentioned above, none of the qualities in and of themselves can allow us to determine beyond a shadow of a doubt that the pastor is Spirit-filled.

In order to be able to determine whether a pastor is being directed by the Holy Spirit, we first have to know if he is filled with the Holy Spirit.

A. What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

Be filled with the Spirit:
Paul is instructing the believers at Ephesus that they should not be continually controlled by the consumption of wine, but be filled with the Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit

To be filled with the Spirit means that the Holy Spirit fills the believer with Himself, when the believer is yielded to Him.

This filling means that the believer is able to experience the Spirit’s presence (power) and manifest His fruit (e.g. love, joy, peace, etc.). This fruit is a divine love, a divine peace, and a divine joy, etc. and not a human love, a human peace, or a human joy, etc.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Galatians 5:22-24

This fruit expresses a Godly nature to others. Divine love evidences self-sacrifice for the benefit of the one loved. Divine joy is of a rejoicing within that is not dependent on circumstances. Divine peace seeks reconciliation between offending parties. Divine longsuffering patiently endures wrong while under ill-treatment without anger or thought of revenge. Divine gentleness gives graciously without strings attached. Divine faith is being faithful to God’s promises. Divine meekness involves compliance to the teaching of the word. Divine temperance involves a mastery of one’s desires and impulses.
There are additional evidences of this fruit that will be looked at in the scripture sections which follow.

In order to be filled with the Spirit a person must have the Holy Spirit indwelling them.

B. How does a person receive the Holy Spirit?

How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace:
They must repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ as to who He is what He has accomplished. This is called the gospel message.

Acts 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Ephesians 1:12-13

Here is the first condition concerning how do we know if the pastor is being directed by the Holy Spirit?

He must be born-again.

This same idea holds true for every member of the assembly. None of them can be filled with the Spirit without receiving Him into their life.

So, one of the things to look for in your determination as to whether the pastor is being directed by the Spirit is, does he preach the gospel?

C. How does one know if the pastor is preaching the gospel?

By simply listening to what the pastor says in his teachings.

Usually, but not always, the gospel news is presented after the pastor gives the teaching.
The pastor will let the listeners know that God wants to come into their life and indwell by means of the person of the Holy Spirit.
He will tell them that they initially need to repent, to acknowledge and turn from their sins to belief in Christ. This acknowledgement of sins means that they agree that their lifestyle (e.g. adultery, lying, cheating, stealing, homosexuality, extortion, etc.) is sinful. Certain sins are not to be omitted from being mentioned, because they are considered acceptable based on societal norms.
After which they are to profess belief in Christ that he is one of the members of the trinity, who as God pre-existed time; came to the earth and took on the form of a man, being born of a virgin (no sin nature); lived a sinless life; listened to and obeyed the directives of his Father; went to the cross and paid for the penalty of and forgave the sins of the whole world; rose from the dead after 3 days, never to die again, walked the earth in his resurrection body for 40 days witnessing to over 500 people; and ascended into heaven to be seated at the right hand of God the Father.
If they have repented and professed believe in Christ they will receive the indwelling Holy Spirit.

If you don’t hear the gospel being mentioned, then it is likely that the Holy Spirit is not indwelling or directing (filling) the pastor.
While this is not an absolute it should be a cause for concern that something else has taken the place of the gospel news.

What follows next concerns the teaching of the pastor.

D. What should the content of the pastor’s teaching be about?

Sometimes the pastor will teach on certain people in the bible; at other times he will teach on a topic (e.g. forgiveness, sanctification, redemption, etc.); and on other occasions he will address sin (mental, verbal, overt), indicating the need to confess it to God the Father, and then apply (meditate upon) the divine prescription of thought in this area of weakness.

The believer should be taught to put off concerning the former conversation (manner of life) the old man (as we were concerning our thoughts, feeling, and actions). In order to put off these thoughts, feelings, and actions we need teaching that clearly identifies these sinful tendencies.
The bible describes sinful actions in many of its passages.
In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 a believer is to put off fornication (sex outside of marriage), idolatry (worshiping the image of a deity; a worshipper of false gods), adultery (sex with someone other than your husband or wife), effeminate (the passive male partner in homosexual intercourse), and abusers of themselves with mankind (the active male partner in homosexual intercourse).

Ephesians 4:22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you
1 Corinthians 6:9-11

If they have committed such sins, then they should be taught to confess them to God the Father.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

After which they should be taught to put on the new man whom they have become at salvation, which is to be renewed in knowledge (to know oneself in the light of God). While it’s true that this renewal should include teachings on the many people of the bible; on the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ; on the many topics (e.g. forgiveness, the gifts of the Spirit, eternal security, etc.), it should also include thoughts that provide for us a divine perspective in the areas of our weaknesses.
The reason for this renewal-of-mind-teaching is so that the believer is not continually controlled by the passions or propensities of the sin nature, but by the power, promptings, and divine influences of the Holy Spirit.

Colossians 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Here are some examples of addressing weakness by means of applying divine viewpoint.

If someone has injured us in our character, person, or property how should we respond?

The natural tendency might be to get back at the person by injuring their character, person, or property.
The divine prescription is to not injure or hurt others according to 1 Corinthians 13:6.

Rejoiceth not in iniquity…

Another example of addressing weakness is if we have become aware of a fellow believer’s sin firsthand how should we address it?
The natural tendency might be to tell everyone else about it.
The divine prescription should be to go to the believer alone to restore, and to not make their sin the subject of conversation with others.

1 Corinthians 13:7 Beareth all things…

E. How do I know if the pastor’s teaching is being directed by the Holy Spirit?

It will be comprised of the various teachings which we just mentioned.

In summary, the pastor’s teaching should talk about: the various people of the bible; Christ’s birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension; biblical topics; the gospel; personal sanctification which involves teaching about sinful behavior, the need to confess personal sin to God the Father, and apply (meditate upon) God’s viewpoint (divine prescription) for the particular area of weakness.
Remember, the teaching on sinful behavior should not be compromised by societal views. If any sinful kind of behavior is promoted or tolerated in the assembly, then another gospel is being presented. If this is indeed the case, then the assembly is being taught to continue to live according to the propensities of the old sin nature and not according to the influences of the Spirit.

This will inhibit the divine influences of the Spirit from influencing the assembly and thus will impact the corporate anointing.

When new people come to the assembly they will witness the same sinful behaviors operating in those who have become born-again Christians.

And church will simply be a place where people will be allowed to live in any kind of sin while proclaiming the name of God.

If the pastor is born-again, preaches the gospel, teaches about various people along with various topics, and clearly enunciates sinful behavior while communicating the need to confess known sin to God the Father and the necessity of putting on the new mind that contains new thoughts in any area of weakness, then it appears that you might just have hit a home run.

As we continue in this study hopefully we will learn a lot more about this question, how do I know if the pastor is being directed by the Holy Spirit?

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