Many Christians spend great deal of time and effort trying to determine God’s will for them in a particular situation, often requiring a decision for what they face. They seek instruction or guidance from the Lord as to what they should do in the matter at hand. His will for how we operate our lives is seen in Paul’s epistles, but many fail to note how Paul points us to the ever-present “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” within us. They live as though it were still “time past” under external Laws when men of God didn’t have the indwelling organic “Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” They seek to live by outer guidance for God’s will. This is not God’s way today in this age since the Cross, since we have His word and He lives IN US.

Today we live in Paul’s “But Now.” “Now the Lord is that spirit” (2Cor 3:17) who indwells every believer

“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this ‘mystery’ (God’s revealed secret plan) among the Gentiles; which is Christ IN you, the hope of glory (the expression His life and will):” (Col. 1:27)

• I find that most often in my life He by His Spirit rarely guides me by impressing me with what He does want me to do; I am free to do what inwardly sense, as it is in accord with the written word. I’m free to live in accord with the sense of Christ life within me! We learn to sharpen our sense of His life.
• He is faithful in us to let us know what He does not want us to do.

We have an example of this from our prior life when we automatically served the Sin-nature of the flesh. I formerly automatically and spontaneously functioned as a sinner quite naturally, as a self-loving and self-seeking person as a self-reliant self-getter. I just did what I reasoned and wanted to do. But now, my proper living and doing is to be in accord with a similar automatic and spontaneous sense that works to prompt or restrain me. Now, by His life within us, we have an innate sense that prompts or restrains us, guiding us without bells and whistles. Now we are absolutely free “to live, move and have our being in Christ” (Act 17:28) who is now our innermost “life” (Col 3:4a).

Now, we as believers clearly know what we are NOT to do by the inward restraining sense that we have by Christ’s indwelling “spirit of life.” This I call His “no”! Note that all believers do hear Him. Jesus said, “He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.” (John 8:47). We must learn to recognize, perceive, and obey His “no”! This will save us and those around us much pain.

This “NO” is an inward restraint, an inner awareness, as an intuitive sense. It’s most commonly known to us as the “conscience” of our spirit that speaks into our mind’s consciousness. We innately know when and what we should not do, pursue, or say this or that. We all have this awareness by a sense of limitation, a heaviness, an inner restraining sense as we consider “doing” or “saying” this or that.

Most often the sense of “no” in our conscience is contrary to what we in ourselves would “want to do” in the matter. The word “conscience” in Greek is “sundenesis,” meaning “a co-perception.” This is an indwelling sense is deeper than our mind and entirely a function that we have by Christ Spirit speaking in us, guiding us according to His will.  “For it is God which worketh IN you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)

When we agree with the Lord’s restraining sense within us, we are then ‘dying to self-rule.’ That dying to self-rule then permits His life to come forth and accomplish whatever He wants…  through us.

What about any ongoing sins in the believer’s life?

We do not need to fear our sinful failure. Our occasional failures do not invalidate who we are as God’s child. We always have God as Father and Christ as “our life” whether we succeed or fail at obeying His will. Humanly, my own physical sons are mine because my life remains within them, be they good or bad sons. We have His life in our frail “earthen vessel” (2Cor 4:7), so yes, at times we fail by choosing to live as an independent self; leaving who we really are in Christ to seek our own way.  “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 14:12). So, we at times turn away from the Lord within our spirit, yet we always remain a child of our Father by His life-seed within us Being “Sealed with the Spirit” (Eph. 1:13); my salvation and union with him is eternally secure. 

My being born the first time, physically, never was dependent upon anything I did. It was the result of the procreative work of my earthly father and mother. Likewise, my heavenly Father brought me to be who I am “in Christ” entirely by His work through Christ cross… for me … then depositing His life in me as my new life. All I did was to “receive Him (Jesus)” (John 1:12) as the Father’s only begotten Son, as His life-giving “Seed, which is Christ” into the womb of my human spirit (1Peter 1:23, Gal 3:16). I was thereby regenerated in my spirit by Christ’s “Spirit of life.”

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” (Titus 3:5 (KJV)

“But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” 1 Corinthians 6:17 (KJV)

Sometimes we may turn away from the Lord’s restraining sense within us, but then we bear the natural consequences of our independent choices. We should ultimately learn not to go against that sense of restraint within us… saving us much pain. At the first sign of inward distress we should immediately turn our heart to Him and abide our soul in union with “Christ who is our life” (Col 3:4a). Recall the story of the prodigal son who ultimately “came to himself” and returned to his father. We should learn to return to the Lord in the face of our failures, knowing we can never be condemned by God Our Father (cf. Rom 8:1).

The Father’s life in Christ is now in our spirit and that’s where we are to abide, in blessed union with Him. We must ultimately return to who we are at our core as the regenerated “children of God.” In our spirit we enjoy His one “Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2), as “our life” (Col 3:4, 1:27) with His power and guidance.

At our rebirth Christ’s indwelling resurrected Spirit swallowed up our human spirit, such that we are now “one spirit” with him (1Cor 6:17). Paul very often refers to this “one spirit” in us as “the spirit” (Rom. 1:9). We are eternally mingled Spirit to spirit (John 3:6). This is God dwelling IN us, as the new us!

Our spirit now is spontaneously and eternally alive by Christ in us. God’s life in us is spontaneous, innate, and intuitive by Christ’s “Spirit of life” and “nature” (2Pet 1:4). We thereby have His ‘unspoken yes’ as we “live and move and have our being in Him.” (Acts 17:28) We’re now free to live, as our spirit permits us.

Life always flows spontaneously. A tree lacking the life-flow of its sap is dead. Likewise, Christ is our life is always flowing within us, spontaneously. We’ll ultimately learn to obey the inner, intuitive sense that we have by His Spirit in our spirit. Know that what we sense may be contrary to the logic of our mind; after all, it’s of a life that’s deeper than our soul’s mind – it is Christ alive within our “spirit of man.” The life we have of Him within our spirit is spontaneous. We have the ‘inner anointing’ of His Spirit within us, by which we “know all things” (cf. 1John 2:20, 27) pertaining to our life. His indwelling Spirit and written word “teach us” and “is the truth.” We can simply abide in His unspoken yes by living life moment by moment in accord with (staying obedient to) His life-flow within us (Rom 8:4).

Our awareness of His unspoken yes within is much the same as when we are physically healthy. When we are healthy physically and all is well, we’re not conscious of any restraint in our body, we simply move spontaneously until we recognize that we are ill or injured - then we feel the limiting sense of discomfort or restraint in body. It’s that way when we “walk in (by) the Spirit.” (Gal 5:16, 18, 25) … in His liberty and by His inward restraining.

‘God’s unspoken Yes’ is most often without a conscious sense; but His “No” is known to us by a conscious perceptive sense within us, that sense is felt by us as a heaviness, a knot in our gut, or simply an inner sense of restraint, whereby we just know that we should not do this or that.

Ours then, is always to obey this innermost living Word (sense), which is Christ speaking within us, but note that He will never lead us contrary to the “rightly divided” written “word of truth.” We should yield to Him, knowing that His will is His eternal best for us, no matter how it appears to us.