Our 411 to Understanding Scripture
Historical accounts state that when explorers first discovered Niagara Falls, they were told by the local Native Americans of the legends of how the great waterfall was formed. The locals believed the falls were formed by the “great snake”, and a young girl would have to be sacrificed to this snake in order to pacify the falls. The idea of a mystical relationship between man and the great falls was established and practiced. However, this practice was built on a lack of knowledge of the actual river.
As time went by and settlers moved further west, the nation grew, and Niagara Falls became known as the “honeymoon Capital of the World”, here tourist from all over would come and enjoy from a distance the magnificence of the falls. There was no intimacy of knowing what the falls were. As time went by engineers found another practical aspect of the falls, and that was to have a hydroelectric power plant. By drawing on the natural force and resources they could produce power for hundreds of thousands of people.[1]
Now you might be wondering where I am going with this, but what if I told you that Niagara Falls is a great example of the relationship man has, at times, with the Holy Spirit. Some Christians have a magical idea of the Holy Spirit, just like the Native Americans with Niagara Falls. Other Christians look at the Holy Spirit much like the tourist who simply enjoy watching from a distance and never fully experiencing the power of the falls. The final group of Christians have come to terms with what the Holy Spirit is wanting to do in our daily life and are experiencing the full power of what He is doing.
Intellectually the Holy Spirit can be an exceedingly difficult part of the Trinity to understand. All humans have a father, all humans have dealt with a son or someone who is a son of someone else. However, it becomes difficult for us at times to fully understand the Holy Spirit. As a child I treated the Holy Spirit more as the tourist, knowing God the Holy Spirit was there but only as one part of the Trinity, while never fully understanding God in this character and as He wished for me to know. In my young adult years, I pictured the Holy Spirit as more of the Native Americans. I thought He was mystical and would bestow gifts on those who were the most emotionally swayed. It would not be until I grew older that I started to grasp the scripturally sound person of the Holy Spirit.
Now today is not a deep dive going over the entire aspects of the Holy Spirit, nor is it a post regarding the spiritual gifts. Today we are going over the simplicity of why we need to have the Holy Spirit, not just with salvation but rather in our daily walk.
Sadly, the reality of the situation is that many believers today are not aware of the power of the Holy Spirit. This is to their disadvantage since the biggest aspects of the Holy Spirit after salvation are with the Holy Spirit guiding the Christian in their understanding of the Word. This is missed by 99.99 percent of Christians today. Allow us to go to the book of John and see one of the first times that Jesus describes the Holy Spirit and the necessary need of Him to show up.
5 “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” John 16:5-15
This is an especially important aspect for us to understand. Jesus Christ did not state the Gifts of the Spirit as being the reason for the Holy Spirit, and it is vital that we understand this. The first reason why the Holy Spirit is sent is for “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” this can be clearly seen from the number of Christians there are. The very fact that Christians exist today, although none of us have walked with Jesus Christ as the Disciples did during His life on earth, and none of us had the experiences of seeing the written miracles described in the Bible. Yet, here we are, born again saved Christians. This is only because of the work that the Holy Spirit has done. The conviction and recognition of our sin is brought through the Holy Spirit. This is only the beginning for a Christian, to fully understand the power of what the Holy Spirit wants to do in us we must recognize, just like the engineers with Niagara Falls, what is there. Reread verse 12-15“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”
Yes, the answer is that simple. The Holy Spirit outside of the salvation process is poised to help us primarily with understanding scripture and to have a better understanding of God as a whole. I would argue that the symptoms of many in the Christian life today highlight the apparent lack of knowledge or understanding of the Holy Spirit’s desire to help us learn. Many believers think that the gifts of the Spirit is the main reason He is here today, however I would point out that the disciples had not received the Holy Spirit when Jesus sent them out to minister in Luke 10:1-24. I am not saying the gifts of the spirit do not exist today, however the discussion is deliberately being put aside for the Holy Spirit’s greater calling with us. If Christians would better understand the person of the Holy Spirit and His desire to help us, much of the scripture and its applicability would become apparent.
A good example of this is the Proverb’s challenge. Read each chapter of Proverb at the beginning of your day on the date of that chapter. Ask for God to reveal the wisdom found in those chapters. There have been several times I have been at a crossroads of wanting to say something, do something, or at a loss on how to act. Sure enough, after years of reading those chapters I find a verse that will “pop” in my head which will give me the guidance I need. Remember “through insolence comes nothing but strife, but wisdom is with those who receive counsel.” Proverbs 13:10. The Word of God is alive to those who are willing and capable of listening. It is apparent that, to those who are not saved they will not understand scripture, “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John 1:5, The world is not capable of understanding “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” 1 Corinthians 2:14.
So why do so many Christians seek non-Christian guidance? It is because they do not know the magnitude of the intimacy God the Holy Spirit wants in their life, “but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24. Remember this warning found in Proverbs 19:27 “Cease listening, my son, to discipline, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.” Jesus Christ told the disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit to come as described in Luke 24:49 “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Yet from comparing the scriptures we can see that Jesus Christ had already given them the Holy Spirit, “And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them.” John 20:22.
So what changed? What happened? For that answer we go back to John chapter 16:7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” The Holy Spirit was breathed on them by Jesus, but they were told to wait for the Holy Spirit’s time on earth, for their apparent blessing of God. The Holy Spirit was coming to empower them, to teach them, and to show them. Just look at the transformational difference between Peter before and after. He is denying he knew Jesus Christ to a little girl “Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a servant-girl came to him and said, “You too were with Jesus the Galilean.”70 But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you are talking about.” Matthew 26:69-70 yet a little over a month later he is declaring to thousands Jesus Christ. Many people highlight the transformational conviction in Peter’s words and how passionate he is, however, I would argue he is giving us a prime example of the Holy Spirit guiding us in understanding the scripture as promised in John 16. Just look at what Peter says in Acts 2 and how he connects Old Testament scripture to what was going on at that time.
“14 But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. 15 For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; 16 but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel:
17 ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says,
‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind;
And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
And your young men shall see visions,
And your old men shall dream dreams;
18 Even on My bondslaves, both men and women,
I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit
And they shall prophesy.
19 ‘And I will grant wonders in the sky above
And signs on the earth below,
Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke.
20 ‘The sun will be turned into darkness
And the moon into blood,
Before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come.
21 ‘And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— 23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 24 But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. 25 For David says of Him,
‘I saw the Lord always in my presence;
For He is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken.
26 ‘Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exulted;
Moreover my flesh also will live in hope;
27 Because You will not abandon my soul to Hades,
Nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.
28 ‘You have made known to me the ways of life;
You will make me full of gladness with Your presence.’
29 “Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay. 32 This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. 34 For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says:
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
35 Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”’
36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”
The “so what” factor must now come into play, for us living today in the 21st century we have two choices that we must make regarding the Holy Spirit. The first is with the salvation and acceptance of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, knowing He was the perfect justification for you and I to be saved. We fail, where He rightfully succeeds. Based off of that justification the Holy Spirit is able to place in us a new heart and a new spirit as described in Ezekiel 36:26 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” The second choice is allowing the Holy Spirit to teach us scripture. So, take a few things with you the next time you attempt to read your Bible. You cannot go wrong with this,
1) First ask God for Him to teach you the word, “Your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left.” Isaiah 30:21
2) Context, Context, Context. Make sure you know the who, what, where, how, and why of the scripture. “every prudent man acts with knowledge” Proverbs 13:16
3) Be careful who you ask for guidance, “the naïve believes everything, but the sensible man considers his steps” Proverbs 14:15.
4) Whatever is told to you go back to scripture and see for yourself, “the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” Acts 17:10-11.
5) And the final thing to remember, be in the Bible daily! Just as the people in Berea who examined the scripture daily.
The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity, He has as much right to be worshiped and respected as the Father and Son. However, do not reject His biggest purpose for coming to earth for the Christian, to help guide and teach you the scriptures. So read the Bible not just spiritually or literally, but seriously. There are parts which are poetic, historical, literal, and so much more. Examine the words carefully remembering, “if the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense less you find nonsense.” If you lean on God the Holy Spirit, watch how He will be able to do a good work in you as you study the Word of God. The Word of God will truly become alive for you as it was for those who have gone before us today.
Hold until relieved, Our blessed Hope is coming
JL
[1] Concise Bible Doctrines Elmer L. Towns