The Promise of the Father

Having ended the last posting with a small mention of the Holy Spirit and one of the many things He does for us that strengthens our faith, I think it is important to spend some time in understanding the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, for those, especially, who are not “sure” about the Holy Spirit. He is critical to our spiritual survival, and we must acknowledge that truth and walk in it.

The Old Testament contains at least 87 passages referring directly to the Holy Spirit.
The New Testament contains at least 259 passages referring directly to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the “Promise of the Father” as so named in Acts 1:4: “And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father…”

So much we have been given already: forgiveness of sins; reconciliation with the Father through our great High Priest, Jesus Christ; the wages of sin (which is death) taken from us and put on Jesus who suffered our punishment on the cross; the hope of eternal life as seen by the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. And now, one more gift…one more very vital gift: the promise of the fulfillment of our sanctification, accomplished by the Father for us for He knows our weakness, through the person of the Holy Ghost.

If the Father rejects us for our rejection of His gift of His Son, Jesus (who is our Justification), how does He feel towards us when we reject the gift of the Holy Spirit, (who is our Sanctification)? God can give the gift, but we still need to reach out and receive the gift He gives. Until we have reached for the gift (for HIM, in this case, as the Holy Spirit is a divine person of the Godhead) and received Him with thanksgiving, we cannot walk in Him….we cannot walk in the Spirit, if we are fearful or do not trust the Holy Spirit in any way.

And, sadly, many folks are fearful of the Holy Spirit. But we are in error, deadly error, if we do not see the Holy Spirit in the proper light….not in the light of man, but solely in the light of the Word of God.

The following passage is from a book published in 1896 (which I am blessed to have a copy of) entitled Through the Eternal Spirit:

“Page after page of Scripture is dark to men who cannot see. The Spirit who inspired must interpret the Word. Proof of this is furnished to us when the Holy Spirit, dwelling in us, makes us understand Scripture in a way we never did before He came to indwell us. In fact, it is by the combination of the two – the Word and the Spirit – that we learn. When they are separated, error and disaster are the result. And, unfortunately, they are often separated, to the grief of many, and the darkness of many more.

The Word without the Spirit, does not yield its meaning, is as an ordinary book, seems full of mistakes and half-truths. Attempting to interpret the Scriptures by learning, acumen, logic, study…all these alone, WITHOUT the Spirit to help us….results in barren sermons and teachings, full of the pride and error of man, always going further into darkness and closer to despair!

But the Spirit without the Word! That, too, is disastrous! It has been the secret of fanaticism, folly, error and sin. It begins with devotion, and ends in rebellion. It has placed men in the seat of God, and has made the whispers of human fancy to be the only oracles that carry authority. There is no more certain forerunner of spiritual shipwreck than the neglect of the written Word of God. The Holy Ghost is not honored, but dishonored, by the turning away from those teachings which He has Himself given to be the perpetual light and guide of men. We assert and prize the voice of the Holy Spirit in the heart, the “guidance” by which He still leads His own: but that voice never turns us away from the sacred Word of God. We are deceived and deluded by a Satanic mimicry of His voice whenever we are so led away.

Which error is the greater is difficult to say. The one which takes the bare book, and has no teaching of the Spirit to interpret it, leaves us in darkness; the other, which cares nothing for the book, is led by an ignis fatuus (an illusion, something that misleads or deludes), which ends in death.

The true and only safe course is thankfully to acknowledge the double source of Divine light, the Spirit in the Word!”

Much more to come…

[This blog is an ongoing study of the lives and the faith of Christian women who have experienced and demonstrated victorious living through Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The current study is about Corrie ten Boom which began on September 21, 2009.]