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The Work of the Holy Spirit
The Work of the Holy Spirit is very simple. His primary purpose is to reveal
the message from the Father and the Son. 2 Peter 1:21 tells us that “no
prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit
spoke from God”. Since we know that the Bible is without error, it could
only come to us from a Divine source. The various writers of the Biblical texts
were guided by the Holy Spirit. We do not know exactly how it happened, but
we know what is written, and what is written is the word of God that He wanted
mankind to know. And nobody has the right to change what is written. A lot of
people just ignore what is written rather than try to rewrite it.
The work of the Holy Spirit has changed over the years. Certainly in the days
of the Old Testament period, the writers did not understand their role in producing
the history and prophecies in their writings. They did not know it, but they
were laying the groundwork for what was to come. This in itself shows the overall
consistency of Scripture that focuses upon the Son of God being the Savior of
the world.
As we come into the New Testament age, a clear fulfillment of prophecy is seen.
The Christ also has arrived on the scene, and His message carries all authority
over the church and over all mankind. Due to the fact that they did not have
electronic media, all this information had to be written down for future generations.
The Holy Spirit was instrumental in guiding the writers in their words. Most
of these words were instructions that were coming directly from the Son and
the Father. These instructions were guidelines on how to worship God the way
He wanted to be worshipped, and guidelines for how God’s people were to
treat others. These guidelines can also be called a blueprint, a pattern, a
rulebook for all mankind in working on their relationship with God the Father.
Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would come to guide and lead those who would
teach and preach God’s message to mankind. He was a great helper as He
was a Divine being endowed with the authority of God. He not only helped the
writers of the Holy texts, but helped the followers of Christ in their understanding
of God’s total message. That message is what we have today in our Holy
Bible. Remember that they did not have bibles back then where they could reference
a passage to describe part of the doctrine they were to teach. We also know
that Paul who was guided by inspiration foretold the fact that the special gifts
of the Holy Spirit would cease when the perfect would come. That which was perfect
was the written word of God.
That written word became the sacred text from God. This word has been translated
into every language, tongue, and dialect. This is evidenced by the fact that
you can take any number of translations in various languages, and translate
them into another language, and if the translators do their job properly, the
result will be consistent with the original which in most cases is consistent
with all the various language translations. There really was nothing lost in
the various translations that have been around for many years. Only in recent
years, people not satisfied with God’s message have begun to rewrite the
text to fit their own ideals and agendas. Even though there are many different
religions these days, most Bible scholars will quickly discredit these new false
translations as being unreliable.
There is one other area where the Holy Spirit operates, and it can be confusing
to many. We know that when we follow the word of God which is the result of
the efforts of the Spirit working through the writers, the Holy Spirit has a
relationship with each believer. There are times as we try to communicate to
God by prayer that we may not know the proper words or things to say, but the
Holy Spirit can speak for us what is in our hearts when we do not know how to
put those thoughts into words. We know there is a heavenly language that no
man knows, and perhaps this is just translation, yet we know God is able to
understand every human language known to man. Man is not able to understand
the heavenly or divine language, nor can he speak it, unless the Spirit guides
him. But the Holy Spirit can take the thoughts from our hearts and direct them
towards God as we pray.
By Carey Scott
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