The Spirit of Truth, Conclusion

“The Spirit and the Gifts are Ours Through Him Who With Us Sideth”
Have you ever wished that you could spend a day with Christ? The disciples traveled with him, shared meals with him, slept under the same roof with him. I’ve often thought how easy it would be to trust in God if I’d had the advantage, as Thomas did, of seeing and feeling the wounds of the cross.

However, Christ himself did not share this opinion. He said it was very important for him to go away because he was going to send the Holy Spirit to be with us. The work of the Holy Spirit in the people of God is indispensable. Like all of God’s works, the sending of the Spirit to the church was unimprovably good.

However, over the past 100 years or so, the church has been weakened by disagreements about the work of the Holy Spirit in the present age. Some Christians have become so open to spiritual things that they’ve forgotten that the scripture commands us to try the spirits to see if they are from God. Others have developed a severe allergy to all things supernatural—forgetting that that which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of spirit is spirit. The Christian life is profoundly spiritual in nature. But there are many spirits, and not all are from God.

If you look back at the work of Christians who lived more than a hundred years ago, you’ll find them writing with clarity on topics that now have the air of controversy. To map out some of what I think out to be common ground for the church on the present-day ministry of the Holy Spirit, I turned to the work of Christians whose views on the subject weren’t tainted by the controversies of the past century. Much of what I have to say draws heavily from the structure and content of an essay by the Puritan writer, John Owen, on “The Things in Which We Have Communion in the Holy Spirit.”

As I said in previous chapters, we need the truth that comes from God at all times. This need is most desperately felt in times of affliction. God has given us his Holy Bible as the only authoritative source of this truth. He has also given us his Holy Spirit to help us understand the truth that comes from God, to align ourselves with its heavenly perspective, and to walk in its way. Owen’s essay has much to say on the Spirit’s work to reveal the truth in scripture, refine Christians based on this truth, and empower us to walk in its ways.

• reveal: teaching us the meaning of scripture, helping us to remember the words and promises of Christ when they are most needed, and convincing us that they apply to us because we are God’s dearly loved children
• refine: helping us to pray correctly and effectively and leading us in the ways of God
• empower: serving as a sign that someday we will live in the presence of God without sin and sorrow, bringing joy to our hearts, and comforting us in our affliction

The Holy Spirit Reveals Truth
“When…the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth.” [John 16:13] The Holy Spirit reveals God’s truth to us, not by providing us with new scripture, but by shedding light on the scripture that God has already given us. I have read and sung the words, “O God, you are my God,” many times over the 43 years of my Christian life. It was not until this past year that I learned the significance of knowing, when your life is crashing down around your feet, that God is YOUR God. Now, it is like a light has gone on. Everywhere I look in scripture, I find this vital truth that was there all along: through the gospel, the great God who is spoken of in scripture is MY God. As Owen wrote, if we are to receive the truth of scripture, its spiritual meaning must be communicated to us by the Holy Spirit. This is one of the present-day ministries of the Holy Spirit that sustain us in affliction. There are many others.

“The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” [John 14:26] Although this promise applied directly to the Apostles who wrote the gospels and letters of the New Testament, Owen notes that it was also spoken for the “comfort of believers.” The promises of Christ had little effect on the hearts and lives of the Apostles when they first heard them. The same is often true of us as we read the words of scripture. But when God’s truth is brought to mind by the Holy Spirit in times of affliction, they produce joy and comfort. “A believer may be in the saddest and darkest condition imaginable,” writes Owen. “Sometimes the heavens are black over them and the earth trembles under them. Disasters and distresses appear which are so full of horror and darkness that they are tempted to give up in despair.” But when the Spirit “…brings to mind the promises of Christ for our comfort, neither Satan nor man, neither sin nor the world, nor even death itself shall take away our comfort…Thus,” he writes, “believers are not dependent upon outward circumstances for their happiness.”

“The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” [Romans 5:5] God’s love for us is much more powerful and constant than our love for him because it is grounded, not in the inconstancy of our behavior but in his own unchangeable character. His love for us includes his will to do us good and our acceptance and approval by him. In times of affliction, we’re tempted to doubt God’s love for us. But in the darkest of hours, the Holy Spirit is able to persuade us of God’s love so thoroughly, Owen writes, “that our souls are filled with joy and comfort. This is his work and he does it effectively.”

“You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” [Romans 8:15-16] It is not uncommon, in times of trouble, for the Christian to wonder if he belongs to God or not. We look for evidence that in our lives and in scripture to help us maintain our belief that we are God’s children, but, as Owen writes, the devil accuses us and “opposes us with all his might.” It is the work of the Spirit, however, to assure us, in our hearts, of the truth of what we find in scripture, convincing us that we are really God’s and he is really ours.

In affliction, most children of God will at some point question their standing with God, and doubt their adoption by God. In most legal systems, there is some sort of paperwork to verify that a valid adoption has taken place, “but it is God’s prerogative, when he adopts, to give a spirit of adoption-the nature of children. The Spirit of adoption works in the children of God a filial love to God as a Father, a delight in him, and a dependence upon him, as a Father. A sanctified soul bears the image of God, as the child bears the image of the father. Whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Praying is here called crying, which is not only an earnest, but a natural expression of desire; children that cannot speak vent their desires by crying.” [Matthew Henry]

The Spirit Refines Us
“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication.” [Zechariah 12:10] Owen writes that, when we don’t know how we should pray, the “Spirit of Supplication” helps us do this by “exalting the faculties of the soul,” enabling us “to pray rightly and effectively.” By bringing to remembrance the promises of Scripture, he helps us pray as we ought to pray, asking for the things that have been promised to us. He helps us pray in faith, asking and not doubting the trustworthiness of him to whom we pray. In my own experience, this help is something I can sense. I have come with a deep sense of need, but with weak faith and no real idea of what to say or even where to start. Sometimes, I read a written prayer or use a Psalm to guide me in my prayers. But on occasions, in the middle of a rambling prayer, or a written prayer, or a prayer guided by the scripture, the Holy Spirit has filled me with faith and given me the words to express my needs to God.

In times of affliction, listen to the voice of the Spirit who tells you that God is your God. As the Spirit prompts you, cry out, “Abba, father,” like the child that you are. When you are weak and don’t even know how to pray, let the Holy Spirit help you, making intercession for you with groaning that words can’t express. [Romans 8:26] Referring to this passage, Matthew Henry writes of times when we’re “in such a hurry with temptations and troubles, we know not what to say, nor how to express ourselves.” In such times, he says, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us “with groans that cannot be uttered.” This is how Hannah prayed (1 Samuel 1:13). The priest who saw her thought she was drunk. But such prayers and the holy, humble boldness in which we pray them is the work of the Spirit.

“Having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance.” [Ephesians 1:13-14] This work of the Spirit is in a way invisible to us. It is important, though, because it tells us the implications of all of his more visible workings: God has placed his mark on us. The practical implication is this: when we see the Spirit at work in any way, we should interpret this as evidence that God has marked us as his. It is a guarantee of the inheritance that is to come. But there’s more to it than this. When you write your name inside a book, you can’t return it to the bookstore for a refund. You have permanently marked it out as yours. In the same way, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, not just to give us an assurance of the heart, but to give us safety, body and soul, as property of God, purchased by God with the blood of his son. This hidden work of the Spirit in marking us as God should allow us to give ourselves up to the care of God. The weak do not benefit from a religion that relies on their ability to hold onto it, but they do benefit from the gospel that seals us as God’s who will hold onto us in trials, weakness, and fears.

“God, Your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness.” [Hebrews 1:9] The Holy Spirit is the oil of gladness and he brings joy to us. The Holy Spirit brings us this joy when we first receive the word of God. The Thessalonians “became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit.” [1Thessalonians 1:6] He continues bringing this joy to us throughout our Christian lives through his other works: assuring us of the love of God, our acceptance with God, our adoption into his family. “When we think about this,” Owen writes, “the Holy Spirit brings the truth home to us with joy.”

And sometimes, he writes, “the Holy Spirit produces joy in the hearts of believers directly without using any other means…He secretly injects this joy into the soul, driving away all fears and sorrows, filling it with gladness and causing it to exult, sometimes with unspeakable raptures of the mind.”

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” [Galatians 5:22-23] The ongoing work of the Spirit in us is to make us like Christ. The fruit of his work is the increase of the attributes of God in us. In times of trouble, the sin that was so enticing is seen for what it really is—something that stands between us and the good things of God, an ugly and destructive diversion from our ultimate happiness. “Before I was afflicted, I went astray.” [Psalm 119:67]

The Holy Spirit Empowers Us to Walk in God’s Ways
“When the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth.” I come back to this passage in the end to make another important point: the truth of God is not information to be learned, but a path to walk in. Our need for the truth of God in all of life is the central focus of Psalm 119. Its blessings are pronounced, not on those who know God’s ways but those who walk in the law of the Lord (verse 1), who walk in his ways (verse 3). The psalmist asks that his ways would be directed by God (verse 5) and explains that a young man can cleanse his way by doing what God’s word says (verse 9). And so it goes. In the psalm’s 176 verses, God’s “way” is mentioned over 100 times. As Christ said, God’s truth provides a foundation, not to those who hear it, but those who do it. This will be the focus of the next chapter.

Conclusion
God gives us the truth that we need in the Holy Bible. The same Spirit that moved holy men to write these books is at work in us to ensure that we enjoy all the benefits of God’s truth. In my own affliction, the work of the Holy Spirit in my life has been far more conspicuous—assisting in my prayers, “injecting” joy into my darkest of moments, shining light on the truth of scripture, and confirming its truth to me. He convinces me that God is my God and prompts me to cry out, “Abba, Father!” in my troubles. It is for the present-day ministry of the Holy Spirit that Christ left us in order for the Spirit to come. He is here and his work in us in our troubles and our joys alike, is wonderful.

On the way to work this morning, I was listening to a sermon on Jonah. The pastor made the point that this is a book about reluctance. First, it is about the reluctance of Jonah to warn Nineveh of God’s plans to judge the city.

Jonah’s reluctance to carry this message was linked to what he knew about God’s reluctance to judge wrong-doing. When Jonah saw that God mercy on Nineveh, he was “very upset about this, and he became angry. So he prayed to the LORD, ‘LORD, isn't this what I said would happen when I was still in my own country? That's why I tried to run to Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, patient, and always ready to forgive and to reconsider your threats of destruction.’”

But the book is also about God’s reluctance to deal harshly with Jonah. In response to Jonah’s rebellion, God prepared a fish. In response to his complaints, God explained himself to Jonah.

I woke up this morning feeling well. Less than half an hour into my morning, I began to feel worse. The troubles that are pressing on me from the outside are taking a real toll on the inside. But as I listened to the truth of God being preached, there came this definite moment where everything snapped into focus. I knew that God loves me. I knew that, even in my wrong-doing, he is reluctant to judge, preferring mercy. I was suddenly filled with faith that caused me to ask God plainly for the assistance that I need in full expectation of receiving it.

There was joy.

There were tears.

And now I sit in a day not much different from the one before. My outward circumstances have not changed. But I sit thinking about that moment where the Holy Spirit powerfully and suddenly helped me to see the truth of God, trust in it, and respond to it in faith. Just as powerfully and suddenly, he filled me with joy that brought tears to my eyes.

In times of trouble, we have the written word of God and his Spirit living in us that makes that word a living word.