This week, as we continue our 6-week study on the person of the Holy Spirit, we will be looking at the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit.
‘Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.’ (Colossians 3:16)
ARE WE ALLOWING THE SPIRIT TO TEACH US?
The Holy Spirit loves us and wants to nourish us personally and as a community. However, I’m aware that I often neglect to give my time to devotionally reading God’s word; there are many things that are easier and give me a kick of instant gratification that I give my time to. If you and I were to paint a vision of what we want to become I’m sure that all of us want to ‘keep in step with the Spirit’ and give our best to His word. The key to making progress is faith. Let’s put our faith in the promises for those who love God’s word. For example, Paul writes,
‘Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.’ (Philippians 4:8-9)
ARE WE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN?
The Holy Spirit wants to help us to raise the next generation for God. Parenting is hard but often we make it harder for ourselves by failing to teach them, as is God’s will. If we leave them, unattended, watching meaningless (or harmful!) over-stimulating content on their gadget – we will reap what we sow! There is so much one could say on this subject, but do you, as a parent, sit your children down, at some point in the week, and talk about the bible and how it relates to their lives? We read,
‘Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.’ (Ephesians 6:4)
‘These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.’ (Deuteronomy 6:7)
The alternative to good training is poor training, which leads to frustration. It’s the Holy Spirit’s will that we train our children and He will help us - that doesn't mean it will be easy!
IS YOUR COMMUNITY GROUP RICH IN GOD’S WORD?
A spirit-filled community or Community Group will love to learn together from God’s word. Without the fuel of God’s word, the relationships and mission that we want to see will not be sustainable. But, without the Spirit’s living presence in our study, we can become orthodox but dead! We become like the Pharisees who were students par excellence but missed the true life of God. So, as we come to God’s word personally or with others, invite the Spirit and expect the Spirit to speak to us.
RESPONSE
The Spirit is a teacher. He wants to lead us into all truth.
Ask the Spirit to give you fresh love and devotion to His word. Read the words of Colossians 3 again and pray that you would be such a person and that we would be such a community
‘Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.’ (Colossians 3:16)
A GREAT QUOTE TO FINISH
‘In the Bible, God’s living Word, we can hear God speaking to us and we respond in prayer, though we should not call this simply a “response.” Through the Word and Spirit, prayer becomes answering God— a full conversation… The conclusion is clear. God acts through his words, the Word is “alive and active” (Heb 4:12), and therefore the way to have God dynamically active in our lives is through the Bible. To understand the Scripture is not simply to get information about God. If attended to with trust and faith, the Bible is the way to actually hear God speaking and also to meet God himself. Prayer through Immersion in God’s Word We know who we are praying to only if we first learn it in the Bible. And we know how we should be praying only by getting our vocabulary from the Bible.