THE SPIRIT COMMUNICATES THROUGH HIS SCRIPTURES HE AUTHORED

It is troubling to hear that many Christians either reject or degrade the Scriptures in favor of the Holy Spirit, thereby separating the Spirit from the Word He had authored and now illuminates. To do this is to reject the necessary resources that God has made available to His Church:

·       Hebrews 5:12-13 (ESV) 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. (1 Peter 2:2)

Paul and the other Apostles knew that they had been writing Scriptures by the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 2:13). He also knew that the Spirit would illuminate them, as he had written to Timothy:

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

The Spirit gives us understanding into the Scriptures had authored:

• 1 Peter 1:10-12 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.

• 2 Peter 1:21 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.

Why would the Spirit give us the Scriptures and illuminate our understanding of them if He could just 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 a Church if everyone was just receiving their own revelations from the Spirit. In this case, there would be no way to definitively judge among the many claimants the genuine word of the Spirit. In any event, the Apostles understood that the Scriptures were all God-breathed-out (2 Timothy 3:16-17):

• Acts 1:16 "Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the HOLY SPIRIT FORETOLD by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.

• Hebrews 10:15-16 And the HOLY SPIRIT ALSO BEARS WITNESS to us; for after SAYING,  “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” (Jer. 31:33)

• Matthew 22:43-44 He said to them, "Then how does David IN THE SPIRIT call Him 'Lord,' saying, 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet" '?

• Rev. 2:17 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the SPIRIT SAYS TO THE CHURCHES. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.'

• Neh. 9:30 Yet for many years You had patience with them, And testified against them by YOUR SPIRIT IN YOUR PROPHETS. Yet they would not listen; Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

• Acts 28:25-26 So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word: "THE HOLY SPIRIT SPOKE RIGHTLY THROUGH ISAIAH the prophet to our fathers, saying,…"Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you will see, and not perceive;…

·       1 Corinthians 2:13-14  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.

• Ephes. 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD;

The sword of the Spirit is not a matter of the Spirit speaking to us apart from the Scriptures but through the Scriptures. Therefore to reject the Scriptures is to reject the armor of the Spirit. It is to leave us vulnerable to satanic deception.