What Does "Led By or Of the Spirit" Mean?

If you are a professing Christian, you have heard such a sentence as, "I was led by the Spirit."  I've heard it in the form of a question, "Are you led of the Spirit of God?"  It can be put in the negative, "He isn't led of the Spirit," very often speaking of a believer, implying that some believers are led of the Spirit and others are not.

"Led by the Spirit" or "led of the Spirit" are both in the New Testament, each one time.

Romans 8:14, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Galatians 5:18, But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

The Greek words behind "led by" and "led of" are the same.  "By the Spirit" and "of the Spirit" both translate one Greek word, pneumati.  Even though the English translates them differently, they are the identical Greek words in both places.

The Greek word translated "led" is the same in both verses (ago), except in Romans 8:14 it is third person plural and in Galatians 5:18 it is second person plural.  In Romans 8:14, those led are spoken about and in Galatians 5:18, they are spoken to.  This does not change the meaning of "led."

If the language is in scripture, which it is, the language of the above two verses is not intended to be vague, amorphous, or malleable in quality.  It has a meaning and isn't an instrument to be used in whatever way convenient.  It isn't to mean whatever someone wants it to mean.  So what does it mean?

I very often hear "led of" or "led by" the Spirit to be the Holy Spirit speaking to someone directly.  The Holy Spirit informs someone of what he is to do, where he is to go, or how he is to operate.  This is separate from scripture.  This is a common understanding of this phraseology today.  Someone can just make "led by the Spirit" something equivalent to the Holy Spirit telling someone something.

If the Holy Spirit does talk to people and this is His leading, how does He do it?  How does someone know it is the Holy Spirit doing the talking to him?

To be "led of the Spirit," I've also observed of and from others, is about synonymous to be "filled with the Spirit," very little to nothing differentiating the meaning of these two, filled or led.  Do they mean something different?

I've found that the same people who think that being led by the Spirit means the Holy Spirit talks to you, also think that if He isn't talking to you, then you are not led by the Spirit.  If you were to say, the Holy Spirit doesn't still talk to people, they might ask, and they've asked me, "Then how does the Holy Spirit lead you?"  Many people don't think the Holy Spirit can lead you without revealing something to you.  In a technical way, that's called revelation.  They think revelation continues from the Holy Spirit today.

One historical occurrence that got me thinking about being "led by the Spirit" is the story of Joseph Smith and Mormonism.  Part of the Mormon story is that God spoke directly to Joseph Smith, including what Mormons call his first vision in a grove of trees in New York.  As you continue reading the history of LDS (the Mormons, the title:  Latter Day Saints), continued revelation is a big part of their theology.  Many Mormons say God has spoken directly to them.  This is a big part of their understanding, that God can and does keep talking to people, even today.  Almost every split in Mormonism, however, has also been between one group that says God did speak and the other rejecting that He did say something to them.  How do you know?

Late nineteenth and early twentieth century Princeton Theological Seminary theologian, Benjamin (B.B.) Warfield, wrote a large chapter (pp. 151-179) on "The Leading of the Spirit" in his book, The Power of God Unto Salvation.  I recently read an article online that quoted Warfield on this subject.  I agreed. In that chapter, Warfield wrote about the usage in Romans 8:14:

In the preceding context Paul discovers to us our inherent sin in all its festering rottenness. But he discovers to us also the Spirit of God as dwelling in us and forming the principle of a new life. It is by the presence of the Spirit within us alone that the bondage in which we are by nature held to sin is broken; that we are emancipated from sin and are no longer debtors to live according to the flesh. This new principle of life reveals itself in our consciousness as a power claiming regulative influence over our actions; leading us, in a word, into holiness.

In this chapter, Warfield is saying that "led by the Spirit" is referring to or means "sanctification."  He says, "a synonym for sanctification."  He continues:

When we consider this Divine work within our souls with reference to the end of the whole process we call it sanctification; when we consider it with reference to the process itself, as we struggle on day by day in the somewhat devious and always thorny pathway of life, we call it spiritual leading. Thus the “leading of the Holy Spirit” is revealed to us as simply a synonym for sanctification when looked at from the point of view of the pathway itself, through which we are led by the Spirit as we more and more advance toward that conformity to the image of His Son, which God has placed before us as our great goal.

It is not that some believers are led by the Spirit and some are not.  Every believer is led by the Spirit.  Whoever the Lord justifies, He also sanctifies.  Being led by the Spirit isn't something mysterious and inexplicable.  It isn't a unique dosage of the Spirit's power or a higher life with the Spirit.  It is the normal Christian life.  Every believer is led by the Spirit.  It is not a unique experience that someone seeks for and receives as a special blessing for certain believers.

You do know that someone is saved because He is led by the Spirit.  When someone is not led by the Holy Spirit, that is, he isn't being scripturally sanctified, then he also isn't justified.  He's never been saved.  One of the ways you know you've been saved is that you are led by the Spirit of God.  As Romans 8:13 says:

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

Being led by the Spirit in verse 14 is parallel to 'through the Spirit mortifying the deeds of the body' in verse 13.  Those who live after the flesh, they die.  Those who are led by the Spirit, they live.

How does the Holy Spirit sanctify?  He does that through scripture.  Like Jesus said, we're sanctified by the truth, and God's Word is truth (John 17:17-19).

Hearing voices in your head is not being led by the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit does not continue giving new revelations.  The Holy Spirit leads by your following the Words of Christ, which dwell in you richly (Colossians 3:16).  Someone led by the Spirit is characteristically obedient to scripture.  He has a living faith and walks by faith.  Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.