Learning to Depend on the Holy Spirit As We Speak
In our last topic, we saw that one of our goals, as Christians, should be to help our physical and spiritual children learn to recognize and explain the truth to newer and weaker Christians. As our physical and spiritual children learn to explain the Word of God to others, we also want to help them learn the importance of depending on the Holy Spirit as they speak with others. That will be the focus of our topic today.
In 1 John 2:20, we read, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.” Then, 1 John 2:27 adds, “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.” In these verses, we see that every Christian has been given an anointing by Christ. Christ explained, to John and the other disciples, what is meant by this anointing the night before He was crucified. John 14:16-18 says, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” Christ wanted the disciples to know that He was not going to leave them alone when He returned to heaven. Christ wanted the disciples to know that the Father would send the Holy Spirit to continue to teach them (and us).
In the context of 1 John 2:20 and 27 mentioned above, we see that one of the things the Holy Spirit teaches Christians is to recognize false teachings and false teachers. This is important because, at the time John wrote 1 John. there were already many false teachers. John pointed out, in 1 John 2:22, that one of the things false teachers often deny is that Jesus is the Christ. John makes it clear in the following verses that those who do not have Christ do not have the Father either. However, John also knew that false teachers would teach other false teachings. That is why he wanted these young Christians to know they could depend on the Holy Spirit to help them recognize those teachings that are false. As we depend on the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will help us to recognize false teachings.
False teachers cannot explain the Word of God accurately because 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” As a result, false teachers promise liberty to others while at the same time are in bondage themselves. 2 Peter 2:19 says, “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.” This is why it is important to help newer Christians depend on the Holy Spirit to help them recognize false teachers so they will not be brought into bondage.
However, the Father also sent the Holy Spirit to help us learn the truth so that we can teach the truth to others. Christ said, in John 14:26, “But 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.” We see from this verse that one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to teach us all things and bring to our remembrance the things that Christ taught. A little while later, Christ said, in John 16:13, that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. As a result, the ministry of the Holy Spirit helps us both to recognize false teachings and to help us learn how to explain the truth to others. These things will both happen as we learn to depend on the Holy Spirit.
This is why it is so important to help our physical and spiritual children learn to depend on the Holy Spirit to learn how to explain the things that Christ taught. In 1 Peter 3:15, we read, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.” According to this verse, we are to help every Christian become equipped to explain the hope that we have in Christ. This is to be done with a gentle spirit and with godly reverence. As a result, we need to help our children learn to depend on the Holy Spirit to know what to teach and also to know how to teach with a gentle spirit and godly fear.
In 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, we read, “But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.” Here, we see that as we learn to depend on the Holy Spirit to help us understand the Word of God, the Spirit will give us understanding of the things of God because God has prepared those things for those who love Him. Then, 1 Corinthians 2:12 promises, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” God wants us to know and understand the things that He has freely given to us and so He gave us the Holy Spirit to give us understanding.
However, that understanding is not just for our own knowledge. That understanding is given to us so that we will be able to teach others. The next verse, 1 Corinthians 2:13 says, “These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” Here, we see that we are to speak the things we have learned. However, we are not to speak those things through the use of our human wisdom. Instead, we are to teach in the way that the Holy Spirit teaches us. We see that He teaches us by comparing spiritual things with spiritual. This happens as the Holy Spirit brings other passages of Scripture to our mind to help us understand the passage we are studying. In the same way, we want to help our children learn to explain Scripture from Scripture, instead of using their own opinions.
We see that Christ gave us two examples of how to use Scripture to explain Scripture, in Luke 24. In Luke 24:27, as Christ talked to the two on the road to Emmaus, we read, “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” We see the impact it had on the two when we read, in Luke 24:32, “And they said to one another, ‘Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?’” Explaining what happened with Scripture had such an impact that the two immediately returned to Jerusalem to tell the others what they had learned.
After the two told the other disciples what Christ had taught them, Christ appeared and spoke to all of the disciples who were gathered there. Luke 24:44-45 says, “Then He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.’ And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.” Here, we see that Christ used the Scriptures to explain to the disciples all that had happened, and to give them understanding so that they could comprehend what the Scriptures taught.
Then, after helping the disciples to understand and comprehend what the Scriptures taught, Christ told them how to apply what they had learned by teaching others through the power of the Holy Spirit. Luke 24:46-49 says, “Then He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.’” Christ told the disciples how to teach and apply what He had just explained to them. However, Christ also pointed out the fact that they needed to wait to begin teaching until they could depend on the Holy Spirit to give them the power to teach effectively.
In the same way, we also need to depend on the Holy Spirit to give us the power and wisdom to teach effectively. In 2 Timothy 2:24-25, we see the attitudes we are to have as we teach the Word of God. Those verses say, “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth.” Here, we see that as we yield our human spirit to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will give us the strength to teach with the following attitudes:
- we will not argue as we teach
- we will be gentle as we teach
- we will be able to teach in the power of the Spirit
- we will be patient as we teach
- we will correct false ideas with humility
- we will be praying that God will grant repentance to those who oppose
- we will help people to know the truth (because we compare Scripture with Scripture)
As we show our physical and spiritual children how to depend on the Holy Spirit to understand the Word of God and then show them the attitudes that will make them effective as they share the Word of God with others, the Lord will work mightily through their lives. Ephesians 3:20-21 says, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” The Lord wants to do more than we can even imagine through our lives. May the Lord richly bless you as you show your physical and spiritual children how you depend on the Holy Spirit to share the Word of God effectively.
