Your Brother Daniel
For more great blogs as
this one go to Daniel’s blog site at: www.Mannsword.blogspot.com
LEADING
OF THE SPIRIT
This is an anxiety-laden
topic. Many verses inform us that we are led or guided by the Spirit, like “But
when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth”
(John 16:13). Likewise, Psalm 23 promises that “He guides me in paths of
righteousness.” Although these promises
are comforting, they also raise the uncomfortable question, “How can I be sure
that I am being led by the Spirit?”
Most of us would answer
that He guides us through the Word:
· Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able
to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
(Romans 12:2)
Others would add that in
order to understand the Word, we must practice it:
· But solid food is for the mature, who by
constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews
5:14)
However, there are many
decisions that Scripture does not fully address:
· What career or job should I pursue?
· What ministry should I get involved in?
· Who should I marry?
The list is endless and
also stress-producing. It should not be surprising that views vary. Here are
three:
1. POPULAR: This view emphasizes that God has a
plan for our lives, and we need to discover it through Bible study,
circumstances, Spirit promptings, and sage advice. However, this view still
leaves us with the uncertainty that perhaps we haven’t heart the Spirit
correctly and are taking ourselves out of His will.
2. CHARISMATIC/PENTECOSTAL: This view is very
similar to the first. However, it also includes seeking God’s leading through
supernatural leadings, gifts of the Spirit, words of knowledge, and even dream
analysis.
3. PROVIDENTIAL: This view is substantially
different from the first two. First, it emphasizes the fact that God has a detailed plan for our lives:
· Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but
cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul
and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them
will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs
of your head are all numbered. (Matthew 10:28-30)
Jesus not only claimed
that God knows the number of hairs on our head; He has even ordained them,
along with the number of days we will live (Psalm 139:16). Consequently, even
the deeds that we are to perform have been decided:
· For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ
Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph. 2:10)
This Providential View
also stresses the fact that we don’t have to discover God’s plan for our lives
– His leading – since He seldom reveals it to us. Instead, we can have
confidence that God is still able to guide us infallibly by His Spirit.
Admittedly, this doesn’t
make complete sense. After all, how could God possibly be guiding us as we are
making our freewill decisions! It seems impossible that the two could possibly
go together. However, they do! God guides our footsteps all the time, even when
we are unaware of it:
· In their hearts humans plan their course, but
the Lord establishes their steps. (Proverbs 16:9)
· A man's steps are directed by the LORD. How then
can anyone understand his own way? (Proverbs 20:24)
Here is something even
more amazing about our God. He is able to infallibly direct those who don’t
even want His guidance:
· The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he
directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases. (Proverbs 21:1)
There are just so many
examples of our Lord bringing heathen nations to just the right place and just
the right time that He determines in order to accomplish His will. If He can do
this with those who don’t want Him, how much more can He guide those who are
His friends and are seeking His guidance!
This is not only
biblical, but this understanding also enables us to trust God and to get our
attention off ourselves and our doubts about discerning the Spirit’s leading.
Instead, knowing that God is fully
able to lead us, even without our being aware of this, gives us peace.
Meanwhile, there are others who are unbiblically confident about
the leading or “anointing of the Spirit.” They claim that we if are led by the Spirit, we do not need
Scripture, teachers, pastors, or any other assistance. They usually appeal to
these verses:
· They went out from us, but they did not really
belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us;
but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. But you have an
anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. (1 John 2:19-20)
· I am writing these things to you about those who
are trying to lead you astray. As for
you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need
anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you [through Scripture?]
about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit--just as it has
taught you, remain in him. (1 John 2:26-27)
Some mistakenly conclude
that if we are anointed by the Spirit, we will not “need anyone to teach” us anything. However, it seems that the
application of this concept is limited. In fact, the language is hyperbolic –
exaggerated - as Scripture often is. And we realize this. We know not to literally pluck out our eyes as a remedy to sinning. Likewise, we
should also know that the “anointing” will not
literally “teach you about all things.” That would make us
omniscient, and only God is omniscient.
How then must we
understand “all things?” It might be limited to the knowledge about “remaining
in Him” and about those trying to “lead you astray.” It certainly didn’t mean
that they didn’t need teachers or Scripture. Instead, John insisted that the
Christian life wasn’t a matter of the Spirit alone but also of Apostolic teaching:
· Whoever knows God listens to us; but
whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the
Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. (1 John 4:6)
If the anointing of the
Spirit alone was adequate, why then would there be any need to “listen to us!”
Instead, some could retort, “I have the Spirit. I don’t need to listen to you!”
Besides, John would not have had any reason at all to even write to this
church!
Jesus had taught
something curiously similar:
· When he has brought out all his own, he goes on
ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they
will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they
do not recognize a stranger's voice. (John 10:4-5) … My sheep listen to my
voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they
shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-28)
The Spirit is able to
keep Jesus’ sheep. He imparted to them the assurance that Jesus was their
Savior. This didn’t mean that they had absolute
knowledge and that they didn’t
require the teaching of their Lord, but simply this – they knew who had the
Words of life. In this sense, we need no one to teach us.
Similarly, John wrote
that epistle so that his readers would know that they had eternal life:
· I write these things to you who believe in the
name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John
5:13)
Clearly, the anointing
was able to lead the chosen to the right teachers, but, by itself, was not
enough to impart the right teachings.
It had to be accompanied by Scripture and apostolic teaching.
Also, Scripture and
apostolic teaching were not adequate. The Jews had Scripture. However, without
the Spirit’s work, the things of God would remain foolishness (1 Cor. 2:14) to
them:
· But their minds were hardened; for until this
very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains un-lifted,
because it is removed in Christ. 15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a
veil lies over their heart; 16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the
veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of
the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding
as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image
from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:14-18)
The Gospel had to be
preached in order to produce faith (Romans 10:14). However, for this to be
effective, the veil had to be lifted by the Spirit. Consequently, the Apostle
Paul referred to the new believers as both
his letter and the letter of the Spirit:
· You are our letter…clearly you are an epistle
of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit
of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of
the heart. (2 Cor. 3:2-3)
The entire New Testament
affirms both – the teaching of both
the Spirit and of the Church. Paul argued that God purposely provided teachers:
· So Christ himself gave the apostles, the
prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for
works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach
unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature,
attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Eph. 4:11-13)
If the anointing had
been enough, there would have been no need for teachers. However, the Spirit
has gifted us variably for the up-building of His Church.
No comments:
Post a Comment