THE SPIRIT COMMUNICATES THROUGH THE SCRIPTURES HE AUTHORED

Sadly, many Christians either denigrate or entirely reject the Scriptures in favor of the “leading of the Holy Spirit,” as if they are at liberty to choose the Spirit and reject His Word. To justify their rejection of the Scriptures, they often cite the Scriptures, for example:

·       But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. (1 John 2:20)

They reason from this that since they already have all knowledge through the Spirit, they no longer need the Scriptures. However, as a result of this misunderstanding, they reject the Word of God, the language and revelation of the Holy Spirit.

Instead, Paul and the other Apostles knew that they had been writing Scriptures by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:37) and for a necessary reason:

• Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (1 Peter 1:10-12)

• For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21)

·       And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

·       If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 14:37)

If they had been writing at the “command of the Lord,” the Spirit, how then can we turn our back on what they had written to us? If all that we need is the anointing of the Spirit, why would John have even bothered to write to tell the Church that all they needed was the anointing of the Spirit? He wouldn’t have! Instead, he concluded his Spirit inspired letter:

·       And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. (1 John 5:20)

This understanding has been given to us through the Word, imparted by the Spirit through the Apostles. That’s the reason that John had been writing. If all they needed was the Spirit, John had been wasting his time writing letters to them. The Word along with the Spirit were essential for the growth of the Church, and John knew that he had been writing the Words of the Spirit (Revelation 22:18-19).

Similarly, when Jesus gave His final commission to His Apostles, He sent them out bearing His Word (Matthew 28:18-20). Nowhere does He or any of His Apostles tell their disciples, “Only be guided by the Spirit apart from the written Word.” Instead, the Scriptures consistently warn us to constantly feed upon the Word:

·       For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:12-14; 1 Peter 2:2; Ephesians 4:13; Romans 12:2; Colossians 3:10)

Scripture was never regarded as an option but as essential growth food, ministered by the Spirit. The apostles also depended upon the Spirit to illuminate the Word for the people of God, as Paul had written to Timothy:

·       Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. (2 Timothy 2:7)

The Spirit also animates and interprets the very Scriptures He had authored:

·       And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:13-14)

Without the Spirit illuminating the Scriptures, they seem foolish to the unconverted. They remain only as a collection of words. Israel hadn’t received the Spirit. Therefore, the Scriptures were also foolish to them. It was as if they had a blinding veil of their hearts and minds:

·       But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed [by the Spirit]. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:14-18)

The Spirit frees us from the darkness to reveal to us the Light of Christ (John 3:19-21). Why would the Spirit give us the Scriptures and illuminate our understanding of them if it is enough for Him to teach us without them, as many claim? Perhaps because we are very fallible and require more than one Witness? Perhaps also because there could never be unity within the Body of Christ if everyone was just receiving their own private revelations from the Spirit. In this case, there would be no way to definitively judge, among the many voices, the genuine Word of the Spirit – no way to know with any assurance the truth from the deception.

We tend to be spiritually blind and require the Spirit to illuminate His Word for us. Therefore, David had prayed:

·       Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. (Psalm 119:18)

David understood that for the Word to transform, it had to be wielded by the Spirit. For Jesus, this reality was more than a prayer. After His resurrection, He opened the minds and hearts of His disciples to understand the Word:

·       Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. (Luke 24:44-45)

He consistently pointed His disciples back to the authority of the Word, even though the very Words He had been speaking are the Scriptures themselves! Is it unusual for the Lord to open our minds the Scriptures? Hardly! The Gospel doesn’t convince hearts from our mental reasoning alone. Instead, it is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16) by the Spirit who opens our hearts to receive the Gospel. He opened up the mind of Lydia so that she could understand Paul’s Gospel message (Acts 16:14). Paul informed the Corinthian Church and they were the product of His preaching but also of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:3). This is because the Scriptures are the “sword of the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:17). Clearly, the Spirit works in conjunction with the Word. He doesn’t discard the Word but validates it.

While the Holy Spirit can work independently of the Word, it serves as His weapon, His sword to cut asunder the veil of darkness and to implant the Word.

Yet, when we venerate God’s Word, we are often accused of idolatry, as if the Scriptures are our idol. However, the only way to love God is to abide in His Word (John 15:7-14; 14:21-24), as Jesus had answered Satan, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3:

·       “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)

Scripture does not allow us to separate God from the truth of His Word. Consistently, Jesus directed us to live by His every Word, not just the words that pleased us. The two are inseparable. To love God is to love His Word. To hate Him is to dismiss or hate His Word. To trust in God is to trust in His Word:

• I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I put my hope. (Psalm 130:5-6)

To hope in the Lord is to hope in the promises of His Word. Consequently, I do not place my hope in becoming rich and famous, simply because His Word doesn’t promise us this. From the next Psalm, it seems that the Word of God and God Himself are exalted to the same degree:

• I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name [God Himself] and your word. (Psalm 138:2)

To despise the Lord’s Word is the same thing as despising the Lord:

·       "But anyone who sins defiantly…blasphemes the LORD, and that person must be cut off from his people. Because he has despised the LORD's word and broken his commands, that person must surely be cut off; his guilt remains on him" (Numbers 15:30-31).

The Prophet Nathan delivered the same message to David. When David killed Uriah, he not only despised the Word of the Lord, he also despised the Lord:

·        “Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own” (2 Samuel 12:9-10).

Consequently, we are not at liberty to reject the Word of God, the “sword of the Spirit,” without also rejecting the One who wields this sword, the Spirit Himself. In light of the inseparable relationship between the Spirit and His Word, Richard Lovelace had written:

• But by the power of the Spirit of truth [the Scriptures] can be the medium of conveying to us the mind of Christ. The Christian who wants to encounter God without listening to what he has to say may remain in the condition of a smiling sub-literate and the disobedient two-year-old. (Dynamics of Spiritual Life, 282)

I am convinced that without the mind of Christ, the shield of the faith, we will soon be overcome by the arrows of our enemy, Satan (Ephesians 6:16).

Returning to 1 John 2:20, it is not Biblically possible that John had taught the Church, “As long as you have the anointing of the Spirit, you do not need the Word of the Spirit.” Instead, at John’s church, they all had the Word. However, it was of no use to those who rejected the Spirit. That’s why they had departed from the faith.