27 Guided From Within: How the Spirit Leads Your Everyday Life

🎙️Guided From Within: How the Spirit Leads Your Everyday Life

In this episode, we explore what it actually looks like to live guided by the Spirit from the inside out. Not driven by fear. Not bracing for impact. Not constantly evaluating yourself. But learning to recognize the tone, texture, and presence of the Spirit’s guidance in real time.

We’ll talk about:

• the shift from external rules to inner wisdom
• the four internal “voices” and how to discern them
• why inner guidance feels scary at first
• how the Spirit leads through peace, wisdom, and renewed desire
• what Spirit-led living feels like in everyday decisions

If you’ve ever wondered, “How do I know if this is God or just me?” — this episode will bring clarity, gentleness, and a whole lot of relief.

Settle in. Take a breath. Let’s walk this out together.

Transcript

Lisa Meador 0:42

Welcome back to Outside the Pulpit. Today we're stepping into an incredibly freeing conversation. Last time we were together, we talked about why guardrails help us early in our walk with the Lord and why they eventually become too small for the life He is forming in us. I equated it to training wheels, right? You know, training wheels aren't meant to stay on the bike forever. So today we're going to go a little bit deeper. You know, sometimes when I come to you guys, I have a whole lot of scripture and I give all the references and everything. And sometimes I only have a few scriptures, and then there's sometimes I may not even have one at all. And uh and I don't always give the scripture reference. So there you go. But I want you to know that these are things that the Lord has worked in my spirit, and I'm sharing them with you because I want you to understand yourself better. I want you to know where you're going in your walk with the Lord. So today we're going to talk a bit more about what it means to live guided from within, right? Guided from the Spirit of Christ instead of living braced, afraid, hyper alert, or constantly evaluating evaluating yourself. Oh my goodness, y'all. Every time I list things out, I have all these things pop in my head of stories I could tell you. I don't know if I will or not. We'll see how it goes as I get on into this. But oh my goodness, I think y'all would fall out if you heard some of the things. That constantly evaluating yourself. Oh man, I lived under that microscope for so long. But hallelujah, I am free from it now. And that is where I want you to go as well. Not led by fear, not led by your patterns, not led by fallen impulses, but led gently, confidently, and peacefully by the Spirit of God that dwells within you. So today, where the guardrails conversation meets real everyday life. So let's dive in, okay? So there's a moment in spiritual growth where the external scaffolding, the rules, the lists, the guardrails begins to fall away. Not because you're rebellious and not because you no longer care about holiness, but because God is moving you from monitoring to maturity. He's moving you from fear to discernment and external rules to internal wisdom, and away from self-policing to spirit listening. Man, I already said a whole lot right there. You may have to stop and rewind it because I'm not going to try to say it again. But this shift was actually prophesied long before Jesus came. And that's in Jeremiah 31, he says, I will put my law within them, and on their hearts I will write it. That's inside out formation. Paul says it too, 2 Corinthians 3, you are a letter written on tablets, excuse me, not written on tablets of stone, but on human hearts. That's so beautiful, isn't it? I keep trying to tell y'all we're human and we're going to be human until the day we die. I know y'all are tired of hearing it, but you know, we got to get accustomed to this. The Christian life was never meant to be managed externally. It was always meant to be lived from the inside. Now hold up. Right here, y'all just stop. Y'all just don't get carried away now. I'm just going to tell you, I believe in the structure of the church. I believe in leadership of the church. I believe in all of that. So that's not what I'm talking about here. So before y'all get ready to click out or, you know, find something to pick about, I'm going to call your hand on it right here. Now I believe in the order and the structure of the church, and I believe in spiritual leadership. So y'all can just take that little, take that little ball home with you and go play with it yourself because it doesn't have a part in this conversation. I'm talking about your individual walk with the Lord. Okay. And it was always meant to be lived from the inside. So to understand how the Spirit guides us, we first have to understand what's going on inside of us. And not everything within you is coming from the same place. You know, y'all have heard me talk about this. I'm serious, y'all. I mean, recently I'm sure you can find a recording somewhere where I said something to the effect of spirit versus carnal, spirit versus carnal, you know, which voice is talking. And yes, there is a good bit of truth to that, but I have learned something else, another layer of this that has so deeply changed my understanding of my walk with the Lord. That's why I am making this podcast because I want to share this information with you. So let's just revisit these categories that I brought up last time. Look, like I said, I'm not trying to make a doctrine and you know, out of this. I'm only trying to come up with words that I have vocabulary where I can express what God has worked in me. And this is what I've come up with. So, you know, choose to look at it how you will, but there's a human desire, okay? And this is your created goodness, longing, joy, connection, beauty, rest, all of this, y'all, all of this. God called very good. All right, let's go on. There's patterned desire, okay? This is shaped by external things: childhood, trauma, fear, hypervigilance, self-protection. You know, all of many of us were affected by so many things we don't even know it. We don't even realize it until God starts uncovering it. It's not sinful and it's not holy. It's just unhealed. It really is that simple, y'all. It really is, and we don't need to keep carrying it. Now, here's the fallen desire. That's that old carnal mind, that flesh that always opposes God. It's self-centered, it's impulsive, short-sighted, rebellious. It needs surrender, but not shame. How about that? It just needs to surrender to the Spirit of God. All right, spirit-renewed desire. Oh, that's the most beautiful, right? This is where God forms love, patience, peace, self-control, goodness, gentleness. This is transformation, not behavior management. This is the fruit of the spirit. This is not behavior management because it truly comes from within. That's why scripture says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. See, that transformation within causes you to speak with and act with love, causes a patience to be demonstrated in your life that you never even dreamed possible. Gives you that peace that goes beyond all understanding. Gives you a self-control, especially. Look, what a great example if you've ever been an addict and now you have self-control. See, that comes from the working of his spirit within, not man-made rules, but that spirit of God transforming you from within. That goodness and gentleness, see, those are not attributes that we would just default to, but the Spirit of God creates those within us. And that doesn't come from a rule book. And it's demonstrated behind closed doors when nobody else is around. So if you're kicking the cat in private, nobody knows about it. And that's a good indication that something might need to be worked out within your spirit. But anyway, let me get back on track, okay? So for people raised in a guardrail Christianity, freedom feels foreign and it can feel unsettling and it can feel dangerous. Boy, I have witnessed this, you guys. I've been in around church the majority of my life, but I've sure been up close and personal the last 44 years. Bud, I have seen it. And I'm telling you guys, I have witnessed it, all of this, because fear has been people's safety. Monitoring has been people's compass. Hypervigilance has been their wisdom. Embracing has been the norm. So when God begins to lead internally and different from what traditions have taught, it can trigger, what if I miss here, God? What if I get this wrong? What if this is just me? What if I can't trust myself? You guys, come on. I want you to listen to me. The spirit does not lead you by fear of getting it wrong. The spirit leads you by forming Christ within you. Let's make this real simple, okay? And this is where we can all begin to breathe a little bit, maybe. There is this fallen desire, okay? That fallen desire feels urgent, it feels impulsive, self-serving, short-sighted, immediate gratification. The tone is do this now or else, right? That pattern desire, okay. That could feel tight, it can feel anxious. Hey, this is so true for me. It could feel familiar. I can tell y'all it did for me. It can feel protective, it can feel heavy. Oh, it can feel like bracing inside your body. The tone is stay safe. Man, I lived for a long time with like the feeling of like my hands were on the side of a slide and I just couldn't let go. Oh my goodness, are y'all gonna start worrying about Sister Lisa now? It's okay. God's healed me. That was a time in the past. I'm good now. That's why I can minister from this place. I'm just relating to you some of what it looked like for me. But that human desire, oh man, that just feels warm. It feels grounded, it feels steady, it feels reflective, simple, connected. That tone is, ooh, I'm made for this. That's where you feel at home. That spirit renewed desire feels peaceful and patient, spacious, wise, aligned, life-giving. That tone is, come with me. Come on, I want to show you something. Come with me. So you can notice there's no fear in the spirit's tone. There's no bracing, there's no threats, there's no panic, none of that. So let's move into this new section, this new way of living. This is where theology meets the kitchen table. This is where spiritual maturity becomes practical and inner guidance becomes your daily guidance. Isn't that what you're looking for? Let's look at how the spirit leads without fear, without striving, and without bracing. Colossians 3 tells us, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. So peace is not the absence of conflict, you guys. Listen, it's not the absence of conflict. We're all going to face stuff, but it's the presence of being aligned or in tune with his spirit. So spirit-led decisions, they feel steady, they feel grounded, they don't feel reactive, right? They feel very wide and open and not frantic. Even when the decision is hard. Look, there's an internal struggle going on. You know the decision is simple. It may not be easy, but it is simple. And once you make that decision that you're going to follow that inner voice, every one of you knows, you know that inner peace comes. Now, your outer man might take a minute because it's like, oh boy, this is gonna cause persecution. This is gonna cause a hardship on my natural man. You know, yeah, it might have a bit of a reaction, but that inner man, that's where that peace is. And that's what gives you the strength and the confidence to go on into the situation. Okay. So if something requires fear to motivate you, that is not the spirit. If something requires fear to motivate you, it's not the spirit. Urgency is one of the clearest markers of the flesh and fear-based patterns. Wisdom sounds like you have time to think. You can sit with this, you can mull it over, you can weigh it out, you can let your heart settle, you can look deeper, you don't have to be afraid of that. And this will be very clear when it's time. So God's not threatened by time, but fear is. Are y'all starting to get a picture here? Not every desire is bad, not every desire is holy, but spirit renewed desire has a recognizable feel. It's like a gentle leaning. This feels right for me. It's just like settling in. It feels like this is who I'm becoming. This lines up with Christ's nature within me. So it's most of the time, at least for me, it's not loud or dramatic, but it certainly is subtle and it certainly is strong. People talk about feeling a check in their spirit, but most Christians were trained to interpret all discomfort as God. A check feels like a pause, a moment of clarity, maybe, a quiet hesitation, a soft redirect, but dread? I don't know, y'all. Terror, bracing, that's patterned fear, not discernment. First John 4 says, there is no fear in love. Love is the environment of God's guidance. Love. When the Spirit leads, you feel valued, you feel held, you feel invited, you feel considered, you feel known. When fear leads, you feel punished, you feel rushed, judged, or threatened. Love leads very differently. Y'all, we've been patterned so in the church, and God's trying to unpattern us right now and create his patterns within us. Sometimes he speaks very quietly by maybe just letting your shoulders relax, letting your jaw unclench, or your breath deepen, your thoughts slow down. Boy, wouldn't that be a welcome thing, right? Your perspective widened. I love it when that happens. When I begin to see new horizons and new options, I absolutely love that. And that is him. You don't need the bracing anymore. You don't need it. I'm going to shift gears here a second and share with you how you can begin practicing this in your daily life. So first thing you're going to do is just pause, just stop. Not for a long time, just stop. Just enough for your nervous system to exhale. Next, I want you to ask yourself something. Which part of me is speaking right now? What's driving me? Is it just my human desire for connection or whatever it is? Is it a patterned behavior? Is it my fallen behavior? Or is it my spirit renewed? Look, y'all, this is where we exercise our discernment so that we can learn, you know, what's what's serving us and what's moving us towards God and what's not. So you but you gotta slow down and you gotta listen to what's happening. And then I want you to let peace rule that decision. If that peace is absent, I want you to pause and try again. Notice that tone. Notice what's happening here. Is it fear, urgency, shame? Is it pressure? Is it bracing? All of these things. No, no, no, no. That's not the spirit of God. But you begin to settle and feel wisdom, love, clarity, gentleness, stillness. Oh my goodness, I can feel it just as I speak it. That's the spirit. And you will begin to know his tone. You know, one of the things, one of the first things, actually, I gotta say, it is the very first thing my husband ever taught me when I went, when I heard him minister, this is how he ministered. And boy, has that thing held true for all these years. You have to know the voice of God for yourself. You cannot let others dictate what is the voice of God within you. You must learn your own self. You must be able to tap into that. You must be able to discern what is his wisdom, his love, his clarity, his stillness, and how does it speak to you? How does it lead you? Begin to understand his tone and what it feels like to understand him and to be in relationship with him because this is what he wants. He will so magnify all the areas of your life. This is such a key point in your growth in him. And that's one of the first things that my husband taught when I first met him. And boy, as I said a minute ago, that thing landed in me and it has served me well all these years, and I want to pass it on to you today. So as we close, I would just want to speak directly to that part of you that's been afraid of freedom. You do not have to brace anymore. You don't have to monitor yourself anymore. It's exhausting to do that. And I'm telling you, you're never gonna live up to any standard that's presented to you, not from anybody. All of those standards that are presented to you, you're never gonna measure up. Even when it looks, you know, good or biblical or what have you. I'm telling you, as soon as man puts his spin on it, it's over. So you don't have to monitor yourself and you don't have to live guarded inside your own body. You need to be able to live free inside your own body. Jesus Christ is within you. His spirit is leading you, and he leads through peace, wisdom, love, and quiet clarity. And quietness and confidence is your strength. The guardrails helped you when you needed them, and that's great. But they're no longer your source of safety, or they don't have to be. Maturity awaits you. The Spirit of God is your security, and He is good at leading you. Aren't you ready for the inner work of the Spirit to become your everyday experience? Well, it can. Thank you for joining me today. Until next time.