Thursday: The Holy Spirit and the Word
The Holy Spirit, who has revealed and inspired the content of the Bible to human beings, will never lead us contrary to God’s Word in any way.
Read John 5:39, John 5:46-47 and John 7:38. What authority does Jesus refer to in these texts? How does the Bible confirm that Jesus is the Messiah?
image © Linda Lovett from GoodSalt.com
Some people claim to have received special “revelations” and instructions from the Holy Spirit that go against the clear message of the Bible. For them the Holy Spirit has attained a higher authority than God’s Word. Whenever the inspired and Written Word of God is nullified and its clear message is evaded, we walk on dangerous ground and do not follow the leading of God’s Spirit. The Bible only is our spiritual safeguard. It alone is a reliable norm for all matters of faith and practice.
“Through the Scriptures the Holy Spirit speaks to the mind, and impresses truth upon the heart. Thus He exposes error, and expels it from the soul. It is by the Spirit of truth, working through the word of God, that Christ subdues His chosen people to Himself.” – Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 671.
Ellen G. White has made it abundantly clear that “the Spirit was not given-nor can it ever be bestowed-to supersede the Bible; for the Scriptures explicitly state that the word of God is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested.” – Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 9.
The Holy Spirit is never given to replace the Word of God. He rather works in harmony with and through the Bible to draw us to Christ, thus making the Bible the only norm for authentic biblical spirituality. We can be sure that when someone comes making claims that are in contradiction to the Word of God, that person is not speaking the truth. We can’t judge hearts or motives. We can, though, judge theology, and the only standard we have to judge it is the Word of God.
| What are some of the teachings that people are trying to promote in the church that are clearly contrary to the Word of God? What should our response be to (1) the people promoting these errors; (2) the errors themselves? |
(32)
Theology:Gen 2:7;God gave another speaking Spirit as soon as He breath into Adam and was a living soul.
Yes, the life to worship Him. Not for speaking in His behalf.
By allowing the Holy spirit to be our guide, we are upholding the sanctity of the word.
its through the word that Holy Spirit can direct us.
The Holy Spirit is there to help us understand the word.
The Holy Spirit is our guiding star a mighty force.
Lord you have not left us without a mirror, you have given us your holy word to dirext our intelligence and path. May you impress upon our hearts to allow your spirit to lead and mold us as we delve into the study of Scripture. Your will be done in us is my prayer Lord.
If God is three in one, how can one part be against the other? Why would not be an agreement among them? The spirit who leads us against any Bible principle certainly does not come from God...
However, I must worry only about which spirit is leading my own judgement, while facing my thoughts and actions in the light of the Scriptures and with much prayer!
God is great! that we are not left in darkness about Him and His mighty power.
The Holy Spirit is our guide in all things. He is given to us as a "lamp unto our feet and a light for our paths". Psalm 119:105. Why do I say that? Because all scripture came by the inspiration of God though the Holy Spirit. He is that small still voice that says, " this is the way, walk in it". Isaiah 30:21. (NIV) If we would but listen to Him how much less our troubled circumstances and challenges would be. God is Great, and greatly to be Praised. Thank You God for The Holy Spirit.
Does the HS come in portions? I usually hear people pray for a double portion of the HS.
My second question is are other writing inspired through the HS, if so how do we know?
The most important thing is, are we inspired by the Holy Spirit when we read whatever we read? If something is not inspired by the Holy Spirit then we will not be any more interested in it than the Holy Spirit leads us to be. Similar to a movie or music or any other experience.
I think the Holy Spirit comes whenever we open our hearts and give Him entrence into our hearts. When we do this He is in this issue guiding us. When we don't choose Him we are on our own. Jesus said, "Watch and pray lest you fall into temptation."
I am thankful to Jesus Christ, for praying (before he ascended to his father) that he (God) would send the Holy Spirit to interpret Scripture for us!
The truth of the Bible is clearly addressed by the psalmist when he asserts: "Thy word is true from the beginning....." (Psalm 119: 160). And Christ in John 17:17 assures us that God’s Word is truth. The role of the Holy Spirit is to guide us in all the truth, the truth about Christ contained in the Word of God. Clearly, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is Christ-centered as He calls attention to Christ. Therefore, it is impossible for the Spirit to teach us or guide us to anything contrary to the Word of God. Langat is correct, we are not left to grope in darkness about the Word and the Holy Ghost.
One of the recurrent themes cropping up in the comments about this lesson is that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. Perhaps it is just an artifact of growing old in the church but I have seen enough arguments about so-called truth in the church by people who I regard as deeply spiritual to make me a cynical old man. (I am not really old - just old enough to be regarded as too old by some people)
I grew up in church atmosphere that argued at length and with some vigour about the nature of Christ. Both sides claimed to have studied the issue exhaustively, praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and both claiming that their prayers had been answered. The same has been true on a number of other issues, some of which I have taken sides, and others I have left alone. Some issues still remain hot debatable topics and without mentioning them, they have the potential to split the church.
Clearly praying for the Holy Spirit, has not worked and it would do us well to step back for a moment and ask what we are really praying for. I am going to suggest that a lot of our prayers for the guidance of the Holy Spirit have been selfish. At the back of our minds we are praying in the hope that the Holy Spirit is going to work on the minds of those we disagree with and the Holy Spirit is going to convince them to come around to our point of view.
Such an attitude is clearly wrong and rather selfish. Unless we are willing to be led by the Holy Spirit ourselves, there is no way we can effectively pray for the Holy Spirit to lead others.
There are some who have a fairly clearly defined set of "truth values" in mind when it comes to discussions such as this. I hope that my little illustration above will give some pause for thought. Not all facts (I am purposely avoiding the word truth) in the Bible are as crystal clear as some people suggest. Truth (I am using the word purposely here) is a commitment to a journey that is willing to change perspectives and willing to see that others have a different perspective, in order to establish a better understanding. The schism we see in the church is often the result of firmly fixed perspectives that people are unwilling to change. (My wife is convinced that I have reached that age of stubbornness already -grin) Could it be that some of the things that we differ so heatedly on, are simply not that important? Perhaps our prayer for the Holy Spirit, should be that it will guide us with a spirit of tolerance and willingness to understand others.
If we are not following the simple truth of John 13: 34-35 "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." then perhaps our prayer for the Holy Spirit should be to lead us into that truth.
Thanks for this, Maurice.
Along with John 13:34-35, I believe we often forget that Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." (John 14:6) What that tells me is that being a follower of Christ is more about relationships than about being factually correct.
I suspect that Satan has all the "right facts." What He lacks is a relationship with the Savior.
I also remember that pride is listed as one of the characteristics God "hates." (See Prov 8:13) And engaging in the "I'm right - you're wrong" type of theological arguments is generally a matter of indulging in spiritual pride.
By contrast, note what is repeated at least three times in the Bible: Psalm 34:18, Psalm 51:17, Isaiah 57:15.
I believe there will be people in heaven who will wonder how they got there. They may have been completely "wrong" in belief, but "right" in their hearts, having loving and "contrite" hearts, open to the Spirit's leading. (The word "contrite" literally means "crushed" - leaving no room for pride.)
Amen Inge
Maurice, Excellent points. I see nothing else to add. It makes me think of two opposing teams of sport that both pray before the game that God will see to it that they win. I also like the comments of Dr. Frank Hasel. 1John3:24 and 1Cor 6:11 relate, The Holy Spirit works in conjunction with The Father and the Son. We will probably touch a lot of bases and opinions this quarter.
Thank you so much for what you have shared.
Thank you
I would like to emphasize the importance of your last paragraph by quoting John Wesley: "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things, charity."
Maurice, you sound like an Adventist with a lot of experience. I believe that the Holy Spirit brings basic motivations like the Love of God as opposed to our selfishness. Without God's Love our whole system of thought is wrong. Selfishness is not a basis for truth. It is likely to be subjective and based on feelings to find truth. Love is based on truth being a principle able to grasp truth and to see objectively.
There have been many false beliefs that have come up over the years. The most recent falsehood I've been exposed to had to do with the nature of the Holy Spirit.
The teaching was a false idea of a hierarchy in the Godhead and the 'creation' of the Son.
Those teaching it didn't take too well to the simple truth involving what scripture says concerning the unity and relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
They became silent and nonresponsive.
I believe stating simple truths revealed for us and our children (Deuteronomy 29:29) is the best verbal response. Intercession in sincere prayer for those who are mislead is even more important. Arguing the point is not a Christ-like option, besides it rarely changes anything.
I have found it necessary to separate myself at times from falsehood and those teaching it. By the power of the Spirit of God ONLY are we safe to discern truth and error.
Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot know the things of God. We need His help to understand God\'s will and His thoughts. And any spirit which tells us or teaches us something that is contrary to the Word of God, that is a spirit of error, not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks the things He hears from the Father and the Son. The apostle John warns us, \"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world\" (1 John 4:1). Just as there are false gods, false Christs and false prophets, there are false spirits. We have to prayerfully read the Word of God and with the Holy Spirit\'s help. And we must be willing to accept whatever light the God reveals to us. I remember once after I read in Daniel 9:27 that the Messiah was cut off in the middle of the week, I thought that this meant that Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday. Shortly after that, a church member called and she cleared up this misunderstanding for me, telling me that this was a prophetic week. It was part of the seventy weeks. I knew that God had impressed her to call me and share the truth so that I would not continue to believe a lie. Years later another church member believed in the Wednesday crucifixion and I was able to share my experience with her. God will always intervene and bring His truth to us but we must be willing to accept that truth instead of hold on to what we think is truth.
I believe that the Scripture IS the inspired communication of God to humans for our own benefit, as 2 Tim 3:16-17 reveals...BUT...isn't communication a transaction between TWO beings? Can one communicate with another, who's not yet conceived/born or who is dead? Although people do the latter, absolutely no one does the former because that concept is beyond ludicrous! What about two beings who each speak a single language that is not the same. How do they communicate? Is there a human abnormality that makes one individual speak one language and another something completely different? (for example, Mandarin and Arabic sound and look so different!). While I'm certainly no brain expert, I've observed enough to know factually that a brain is central for language. What's my point? When God communicates with humans, He is interacting with an organ He created and "hard-wired" for language(s). I'm amazed that babies, without formal instruction, assimilate the complexities of language pretty much within their first five years!
As we study this quarter's theme of the Holy Spirit, I encourage us to consider the practical applications of inspiration. What did "inspiration" actually perform in the "moving" of "holy men of God" who wrote Scripture (2 Pt 1:20-21--Peter...really?)? What actually occurred when God confounded human language (Gen 11:6-7)? Why does God find the speech of even some "good" persons (Job 1:8; Mt 16:17) sometimes offensive (Job 38:2; Mt 16:23)? Are there forces we don't understand "inspiring" our speech (Job 2:4-5, 9; James 3:8)? Can we rise to God's perfection simply by the exercise of our choice (James 3:2; Ps 19:14)? Or do we need the intervention of the Divine Creator (Jn 3:5-6; Ps 141:1-4; Ps 51:10)?
The quarterly's author might have missed an opportunity to place a greater emphasis on THE Word (Jn 1:1, even though he touches it in next Thursday's lesson). I find encouragement for the weakness of my own flesh in contemplation of the Holy Spirit's actions in the life of THE Word. The Holy Spirit in fulfillment of prophecy (Isaiah 42:1; Mt 12:17-18) gave birth to THE Son of God (Mt 1:18) and lead in His life so effectively (Mt 4:1) that He's been able to give birth to even more sons of God (Mt 12:28; Jn 1:12,33)! No birth...no brain...no comprehension of even God's speech. Is He not worthy of our praise (Ps 145: 1-2, 8-10)?!!