The Holy Spirit Communicates with Us

Jesus told his disciples very clearly that his sheep “follow him because they know his voice” (John 10:4 & 16). Jesus also explained an amazing thing to his bewildered disciples in John 14 to 16. He said, “It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7). Here’s what Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do for his followers: be with us forever (14:16); teach us all things and remind us of what Jesus said (14:26); he will testify about Jesus to enable us to testify of Jesus to others (15:26-27); he will guide us into all the truth, speak to us and tell us what is to come (16:13); he will make known to us what Jesus has for us (16:15).

To argue that the Holy Spirit does all his communicating with us exclusively through the Bible totally misses what Jesus was saying here. The Bible is not the Comforter of which Jesus spoke. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit God—the Spirit of Jesus. Of course, the Holy Spirit never contradicts the very Word that he inspired. But how can we think he is mute apart from his written Word? His Word says that he speaks to us! He tells us things. He teaches us, convicts us, reminds us and makes things known to us.

Jack Deere in his book, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, observes, “Many Christians seem afraid that if they ‘open themselves up’ to listening for God’s voice, they will be deceived by New Age demons. In fact, too much of the church today has more confidence in Satan’s ability to deceive us than in God’s ability to speak to us and lead us.” (Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, p. 215.)

We also don’t want to fall into error by elevating what we perceive to be the Holy Spirit’s communication to us above the Scriptures. God has ordained his Word, the Bible, as our supreme authority for all things pertaining to God and our life. God’s revealed Word given to us in the Bible is God’s truth, his revelation. The Scripture is the Holy Spirit’s Word (Acts 4:25; 28:25; Hebrews 3:7; 10:15). When the Holy Spirit speaks to us personally, he does not reveal new truth to us in the sense that he did to those whom he chose to record his Word (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and 2 Peter 1:20-21).

© Rob Fischer 2008