Jesus, Continued...: Why the Spirit Inside You Is Better than Jesus Beside You

by J.D. Greear

We aren’t told to seek the Spirit apart from the Word; we are to seek him in the Word.

A certain mystery enshrouds the Spirit’s leadership.

Regarding the guidance of the Spirit, Scripture gives us a basic pattern, but not a detailed prescription; a general model, but not a precise formula. We know that the Spirit leads and guides and acts in line with the Scriptures that God has already inspired. In his written Word, the Spirit of God is always speaking and never silent. Yet he also sometimes “breaks in” to our experience in unexpected ways to give us specific guidance, strength, or insight at particular times. The precise nature of this “breaking in” we can never script, demand, predict, or even anticipate. It is like the wind. The most that we can say is that it will never contradict, violate, or diminish the Word he already has given to us. This is the joyful, mysterious journey of the Christian life.

The vibrant Christian life is a union of clarity in the Word and openness to the Spirit. If we seek the Spirit of God apart from the Word of God, our faith will end in shipwreck.

So, seek the Spirit in the Word. His guidance functions something like steering a bicycle: It works only once you’re moving. The Spirit steers as you obey God’s commands. You start pedaling in obedience; he’ll start directing. Or here’s another way to think about it: The Spirit of God draws upon our knowledge of the Word of God to counsel and encourage us like a gunner draws upon a stash of ammunition. If no ammunition waits in the chamber, the gunner simply has nothing to work with. The most powerful gun with no ammunition is impotent. If you want to be led by the Spirit of God, then devote yourself to the Word of God.

His authority on earth allows us to dare to go to all the nations. His authority in heaven gives us our only hope of success. And his presence with us leaves us no other choice. — John Stott

The apostles understood the church to be a movement birthed by the mighty, rushing wind of the Spirit of God. Is that how you see your church? Most people today see the church as an institution, a place to go to, or something to sit through.

In the Old Testament, the fire of God’s presence produced fear. Those who came into contact with it died. Yet, in Acts 2, when the believers encounter the fire of God’s presence, they do not die; instead, they come alive! The fire of God’s presence was no longer fatal because Jesus has absorbed the fullness of God’s wrath by dying on a cross in our place. Consider the parallel: When the fire of God came down upon Mount Sinai in Exodus 19, three thousand Israelites died because they broke God’s law. But when the fire of the Holy Spirit came in Acts 2, three thousand people came alive. Jesus already had died for our breaking of the law. He absorbed the fire of God’s wrath so that we could receive the fire of his life and power.

The first time the Holy Spirit preached the gospel, he did so in all languages at once, because God intended the movement of the gospel to express itself in the richness of cultural diversity. (Have you noticed, by the way, that those churches that most focus on the ministry of the Holy Spirit seem also to be the most ethnically diverse?

Every spiritual gift serves the larger purpose of getting the gospel to the ends of the earth. We have different roles, but the overall mission is the same: preach Jesus more effectively.

The Holy Spirit in the mouths of regular people moves faster than apostles on mission trips. Luke seems to be trying to show us that the gospel goes forward the fastest when regular people, filled with the Spirit, carry the gospel with them “as they go” (a literal translation of Matt. 28:19).

As historian Kenneth Latourette writes, The chief agents in the expansion of Christianity appear not to have been those who made it a profession or a major part of their occupation, but men and women who earned their livelihood in some purely secular manner and spoke of their faith to those whom they met in this natural fashion.

You’re either a missionary or a mission field. There is no third option.

While the Spirit has made some people especially effective in bringing others to Jesus, he comes upon all of us to testify. A specialization for some does not negate a mandate for all. And, by the way, there’s nothing wrong with asking for a greater measure of that gift. If you’ve got to do it anyway, you might as well ask God to make you really effective at it! That’s a prayer God loves to answer.

Consider this: Of the forty miracles recorded in the book of Acts, thirty-nine of them occur outside of “church.”

If you are going to walk with the Spirit, you have to be going where he is going! And from the moment he came to earth he has been going to the unbelieving world. He is the mighty, rushing wind of mission. Churches and Christians not devoted to this mission are not filled with the Spirit, no matter how vibrant their worship, how sanctified their imaginations, or how sacred their demeanor.

There is no such thing as a Spirit-filled Christian who does not become a mouthpiece for Christ.

Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor.

Spurgeon

All of Jesus’ miracles of healing were only signs of his greater and more significant work: reconciling us to God. So, when we persuade people to believe in Jesus, we are accomplishing the greater work.

Interesting take. I'm not fully convinced though. It just sounds like a rationalization for the fact that we don't see as many miracles in this day. But i agree that miracles weren't really the point so I guess there's something to this take.

The Bible contains not only records of what God has done, but invitations for us to believe in what he will do.

God can do more through one simple act of obedience than we can do through our most extravagant plans.

Extravagant grace produces extravagant givers.

The true Spirit of Jesus serves the mission of the cross. His goal is to make the cross larger in our hearts and to compel us to yield our lives in service to its purpose. The Holy Spirit, you could say, is always leading to the cross or from it, to carry its message of healing to others.

Perhaps the most overlooked truth about the Holy Spirit is that his presence is intricately tied to the gospel. Jesus told us his Spirit would bring to our remembrance all that he had said and done (John 14:26). The Spirit would convict us of sin, righteousness, and judgment, give us faith, and help us see Jesus’ beauty (John 16:7 – 11). The Holy Spirit, as J. I. Packer said, has a floodlight ministry: he illuminates Jesus.1 The gospel he illuminates is the announcement that Jesus saved us by doing for us what we could never do for ourselves, living the life we were supposed to have lived, and dying the death we were condemned to die.

When Moses wanted to be in the presence of God, God placed him in the rock and dedicated his name to him. When we want to be in the presence of God, he buries us in the cross and makes his name come alive in our hearts.

when we get swept up in intimate interaction with Jesus in the gospel, the “fruit” that results is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. Spiritual fruit comes not by concentrating on producing those attributes, but by becoming intimately aware of God’s full acceptance of us in the gospel.

Is “peace in your heart” really proof that God wants you to make a certain decision? I remain often skeptical about that. First, people often tell me about some colossally stupid decision that, at the time, filled them with perfect peace. I’ve done that too. Second, I made some of the best decisions of my life filled with fear and trembling. Third, I see in Scripture an enemy whose whole goal is precisely to give us “peace” about spectacularly wretched decisions. (When Satan tempted Eve to eat the fruit, no doubt he gave her a “peace” about it, even though she was about to make the biggest mistake of her life.) Fourth (and most important), I see nothing in Scripture telling us to look for peace in our hearts as proof the Spirit is behind something.

If you read the context of those verses, you’ll see that “peace” comes from reflecting on God’s fatherly promises to provide for us, not as a warm fuzzy from the Spirit when he’s happy about a particular choice. This peace is the result of a trust, not a litmus test for confirming which choice is right.

The Holy Spirit appears fifty-nine times in Acts, and in thirty-six of those appearances, we see him speaking through someone. Empowering prophetic speech is the primary thing the Spirit does in Acts.

The gift of prophetic speech takes two primary forms: preaching, and words of wisdom and knowledge.

God guides us in the paths of wisdom by means of the church. Sometimes through supernatural insights; sometimes through just good advice and wise counsel.

Many Christians have not only thrown out the baby with the bathwater, but have thrown out the institution of bathing altogether. They seem completely unaware, even opposed to, a Spirit alive and at work, dynamically, in his church. But doing so cuts us off from one of the primary sources of our evangelistic power and ministry support!

1. Never claim the authority of God on your words, even if you feel convinced the Holy Spirit might be speaking through you. Prophetic speech in our day never carries the authority or certainty of Scripture, no matter whom it is from.

2. Prophetic speech is strongest when tied to actual Scripture.

When you pass Scripture on to others, you can be sure that what you are saying is from God, even if your timing and application are not!

3. The gift of prophecy has a purpose: building up the church and guiding in mission. Use it only for those things.

Ground Rules for Receiving Words 1. It’s okay to be a little skeptical.

2. Ask, “Does this word contradict what God has said in the Scriptures?”

3. Ask, “Does the word accord with what I know God is doing in my life?”

4. Ask, “Does this word glorify God or the one giving it?”

Our greatest power in prayer, you see, occurs when our prayers are prompted by the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Prayers that start in heaven are heard by heaven.

God did not give us the Bible simply to read through, you see, but to pray through as well.

For the believer, nothing is random. He works all things according to the counsel of his will (Eph. 1:11).

The Presence of Obstacles Doesn’t Always Mean a “Closed Door”

1 Corinthians 16:8 – 9 Paul said: I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. (ESV)

Many of God’s sweetest blessings are obtained only by persevering through difficulties. “Knock,” Jesus said, “and the door will be opened to you.” When you knock on a door, you don’t hit the door once and then just stand there. You hit repeatedly. When you seek God’s blessing, you keep pressing through stubborn obstacles and difficulties. You knock once, then again and again. So don’t let difficultly in your path make you automatically assume you’re out of God’s will.

An Open Door Doesn’t Always Indicate It Is God’s Will

It is very unwise, however, to think that because you can see some of what he is doing in your life, you can therefore see all of it.

The essence of the cross was substitution. Jesus faced our aloneness — the utter abandonment we had brought upon ourselves through our sin — so that you and I would never have to. The Father turned his face away from his Son so that the Father would never have to turn his face away from us. So when we feel abandoned — that’s all it is, a feeling. A lying, deceptive feeling.

Tim Keller says a revival is “the intensification of the normal operations of the Holy Spirit (conviction of sin, regeneration and sanctification, assurance of salvation) through the ordinary means of grace (preaching the Word, prayer, etc.).”