God's Word For You is a free Bible Study site committed to bringing you studies firmly grounded in the Bible – the Word of God. Holding a reformed, conservative, evangelical perspective this site affirms that God has provided in Jesus Christ his eternal Son, a way of salvation in which we can live in his presence guilt free, acquitted and at peace.

 
 

THOUGHTS ON THE HOLY SPIRIT

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE BIBLE

Can we be confident that the Bible is the word of God? Can we be sure that it is not just a lot of human ideas? What assurance can we have that what the Bible says God says?

As followers of Jesus Christ we are committed to follow him; this includes having the same mindset, the same beliefs, as he did. If we ask the question ‘What did Jesus believe about the Scripture?’ the answer is instructive: Cleary Jesus believed the Scripture was the Word of God. He was personally committed to obey what was written, and to fulfill everything that the Bible said about him - both the highly significant macro events and in relatively insignificant micro details. Part of his belief about the Old Testament was the role of the Holy Spirit: Jesus believed, for example, that it was the Holy Spirit who moved David to speak (Mark 12:36).

This conviction that the Old Testament writers spoke by the Holy Spirit, was shared by those writers themselves:

David said: ‘The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me; his word was on my tongue’ – 2Samuel 23:2.

Isaiah reported God saying to him: ‘‘My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth ...’ – Isaiah 59:21.

Ezekiel repeatedly mentions the Spirit coming to him and telling him what to say: ‘the Spirit came into me , and I heard him speaking to me ... “You must speak my words to them ...’ – Ezekiel 2:2,7; ‘The Spirit came into me ... He spoke to me and said ... “...when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says’ ...’ – Ezekiel 3:24,27; ‘then the Spirit of the LORD came upon me, and he told me to say: ‘This is what the LORD says ...’ – Ezekiel 11:5.

Other Old Testament people affirm this work of the Spirit of God in the words of those whom God commissioned to speak and write his messages:

2Chronicles 24:20 – ‘the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah ...he stood before the people and said, “This is what God says ...”’

Nehemiah 9:20, 30 – ‘You gave your good Spirit to instruct them ...By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets.’

Zechariah 7:12 – ‘they ... would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets.’

This vital engagement of the Holy Spirit in what the Old Testament writers said and wrote is further attested in the New Testament:

Peter:

‘Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas ...’ – Acts 1:16.

Refers to Old Testament prophets ‘...trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow ’ – 1Peter 1:11.

Paul:

‘The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers when he said through Isaiah the prophet ...’ – Acts 28:25.

The writer to the Hebrews:

‘So, as the Holy Spirit says ...’ then quotes Psalm 95:7 – 11 in Hebrews 3:7 – 10.

‘The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed ...’ – Hebrews 9:8.

‘The Holy Spirit testifies to us about this. First he says: “This is the covenant ...” Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more”’ - Hebrews 10:15-17, quoting Jeremiah 31:34.

Stephen:

Stephen refers to the Jews’ historical rejection of the prophets and their messages as rejection of the Holy Spirit – Acts 7:51.

Peter affirmed the Holy Spirit’s vital role in the creation of the Old Testament scripture, stating ‘For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit’ – 2Peter 1:19-21.

Our current generation seems obsessed with deconstruction – pulling down all previous certainties and values, discarding absolutes, replacing them with fluid, flexible uncertainties that leave us stranded in the ever-changing quicksands of doubt, scepticism and disbelief.

Let us hold fast to our heritage, built on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, anchored like him in utter confidence in and commitment to the Scripture. Let us like him base our whole lives on ‘It is written ...’.

To do otherwise is to treat the Holy Spirit of God with contempt.

© Rosemary Bardsley 2024