The Holy Spirit plays an active role in the lives of believers from salvation to glorification. Sometimes, it’s not always evident or clear what that role is. Over the next few weeks we’ll take a closer look at what He does, how He helps us and why Jesus said it was to our advantage that He go away and the Holy Spirit comes (John 15:7). This week we’ll look at how the Holy Spirit helps in our understanding.
If you know anything at all about God and His word, it’s because the Spirit helped you understand it. It’s that simple. Paul explains:
Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. … But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually (1 Corinthians 2:12, 14).
God wants us to know as much as we can about this great salvation Christ has made possible (and we learned last week that the Spirit helps accomplish). Paul’s words also help us see why things that are obvious to us just don’t click with unbelievers. They don’t have the Spirit.
How does the Spirit accomplish this? Let’s look at some specific ways mentioned in Scripture.
The Spirit teaches and reminds us.
In the Upper Room, Jesus explained to His disciples, But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you (John 14:26).
Jesus knew He was dropping a ton of new information of incredible theological significance on His guys, and He knew the trauma of His death would devastate them– and make it hard to remember any of the good stuff. His words in John 14:26 were intended to reassure them that they didn’t have to get it all that night. The Holy Spirit would help them recall not just the Upper Room revelations, but all of Jesus’s words. Not only that, He expands on what Jesus told them. You see this in the New Testament letters as Paul and Peter and John and others fill out and apply Jesus’s teachings.
The Spirit searches and reveals to us.
Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:10-11).
God is infinite and cannot be known by finite beings such as ourselves unless He chooses to reveal Himself. The Spirit does that for us. He determines what we need to know, what we can handle, and then He makes that clear to us.
Now in our postmodern and post-postmodern thinking, meaning is assigned by the individual. In other words, I cannot know what a painter or an author meant in his work. Therefore, I ascribe whatever meaning I find which aligns with my experience and my truth. That’s not how God or His truth works. We need the Holy Spirit to help us understand, or else we’ll come up with some very wrong ideas about God.
The Spirit inspires and interprets Scripture for us.
Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21).
God’s word is not like any other collected writings. The very words were superintended by the Holy Spirit, so God’s thoughts, His promises, His commands were properly communicated to us. Then God goes one step further and ensures the Holy Spirit interprets those words for us as well.
In fact, Hebrews 3:7-16 gives an example of how that works. The writer takes some Old Testament verses from Psalm 95, rightly attributes the authorship to the Holy Spirit and then interprets and applies them for the readers. The Holy Spirit repeats that process for us when we read Scripture. Sometimes that happens instantaneously. Sometimes it takes more prayer, study, and patience. But it’s always the Spirit’s work.
Now you know what you know is all because of the Holy Spirit helps our understanding!
Next week we’ll see how the Spirit helps our walk.