The Holy Spirit as Teacher, part 2

In the previous post, we saw that the Holy Spirit was given to us to, among other things, to teach us the truth. He is, in fact, called the Spirit of Truth. I also pointed out that this is not taught much in our churches. It is not hard to understand why. There are many competing claims about the meaning of just about every passage in the Bible especially by those who say "the Lord showed me" this, that or the other. I can see why pastors and other ministers might not want to encourage that kind of talk since competing claims cannot all be right. How can we deal with these competing claims to truth?

One of the things that we can do is to "study to show ourselves approved to God ... rightly dividing the word of truth." (2 Timothy 3:15) Some of us are going to be ashamed because we have been teaching wrong things thinking that the Lord has showed us something when He has not. Through reading, studying and meditating on the Word will be able to get our minds renewed to what the Bible actually teaches.

I realize that this might seem to be a contradiction to what I said in my previous post, but it is not. I do not mean that we figure it all out in our heads without the Spirit guiding us. Rather I am talking about allowing the Holy Spirit to use scholarly methods and knowledge as a tool to teach us. 

Here is an example of what I mean:

Recently, I have heard a claim about a well-known scripture in Isaiah. It was Isaiah 40:31:

"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they mount their wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint."

The question was about the word, "wait". What does it mean? The claim was that it was waiting like a waiter waits on a table. It is active.  We must be serving the Lord and not just waiting for God to do something. But it traditionally has been taken in a passive sense of waiting for someone. So, which is right?

This man, who is an outstanding Bible teacher, was emphatic that it must be taken in an active sense. And that certainly is possible if the Hebrew word which is translated as "wait" has the same meaning as the English word. But it does not. The Hebrew word which is translated as "wait" does not have this active meaning. It could never refer to someone waiting on a table or anything similar. 

So, one of the tools available to us is looking up a biblical word to find the meaning in the original language - Hebrew or Greek. Or we might look up some scholarly source that tells us that. (I found out from my commentary on Isaiah.)

We could also look at other scriptures where this word is used. Although it is not 100%, if a Hebrew word is consistently translated by a certain English word, then we can tell what the Hebrew word means in multiple contexts. In other words, we compare scripture with scripture. There is another verse which helps us illustrate the meaning of the word "wait".

"Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden to the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us." Psalm 123:2

So, we can see now that the word "wait" in Isaiah 40:31 has the sense of waiting passively. And it does not mean that it is simply 'waiting around' for God to do something, but being in God's presence and looking to hear from Him. 

I recommend that, if you don't already have one, get a good Study Bible and different translations and even scholarly books to help you in your studies. We should not ignore good scholarship, but understand that it is a useful tool that the Spirit of Truth can use to teach and correct us.

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The Holy Spirit is the Teacher of the Church

I assume that if you are reading this that you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. That is the most important thing for you to do in this life. Without it you are lost. With it you have access to everything that God has. 

One of the things that God has for you is the Holy Spirit. When you are born-again, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell inside of you. More than that, you can be filled with the Spirit as well. You can experience the gifts of the Spirit. You can be led by the Spirit and have Him be your guide in life. But did you know that there is more?

You can receive the Holy Spirit as your Teacher just as you received Jesus as your Savior. In fact, He is already inside you trying to teach you - if you will listen.

When Jesus was on the earth He was the Teacher of His disciples. "But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren." (Matthew 23:8) Wouldn't it have been wonderful to sit at Jesus' feet and listen to His teachings. What a great advantage those early disciples had?

Did you know that we have it better than they had? You might say that that is impossible. How could we have it better? But Jesus told the disciples:

"I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper (The Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you … when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you." JOHN 16:7, 12-14

"The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. " JOHN 14:26

Notice that the Holy Spirit took Jesus' place in our midst. The Spirit is now the Teacher. 

I read these verses as a young Christian some 40 years ago. I accepted these vital truths for myself. I accepted the Holy Spirit as my Teacher. From then on He began to teach me many things. He began to guide me into many truths. He began to reveal Jesus to me. 

I know that we have all experienced this to one degree or another, but I don't think that we have embraced it as we should have. We have relied too much on human teachers or on our own minds to figure out what God's Word means. But human teachers can make mistakes and our brains are too puny to figure it all out. Unfortunately, some of the most educated and intelligent have made the most foolish errors. 

Others have looked to their church or their denomination as their guide, and while they have gotten some things right they have gotten some things wrong as well. In the Middle Ages, the Church was afraid to give the Bible to the masses of people because they thought that people would come up with all sorts of stuff and would splinter the church into a thousand pieces. (They actually got that right!) Better to let the official Church tell everyone what the truth is, then we will be safe. But what happens when the official church is wrong or refuses to correct itself or refuses new light from the Word of God. No, each of us needs the Holy Spirit to teach us and to guide us into all truth.

However, many Christians simply lack the confidence that they can learn more than basic truths from the Bible. Others are overconfident thinking that they have it all figured out. Neither type of Christian is really trusting the Holy Spirit to teach them and to correct their wrong thinking. 

For the Holy Spirit to teach you, you must believe He will teach you and you must maintain a teachable spirit, leaning not on you own understanding. The Holy Spirit can then direct and guide you through the paths of Scripture. (See Proverbs 3:5-6, New King James if you have it)

So, does all this mean that we shouldn't listen to those who preach and teach the Bible? Should we learn simply on our own? Of course not. God has put teachers in the church to teach us. The Holy Spirit can teach them and anoint them to teach us. That is good as long as we still rely on the Holy Spirit to teach us and not just believe what brother or sister so-and-so said. (I might expand on this in a later blog post.)

The most important thing is to maintain a teachable spirit. That is really what the word "meekness" means in the New Testament. It is the opposite of being partisan. I have learned very much from those with whom I have much disagreement. Nobody in the Body of Christ is wrong about everything and God does seem to show different things sometimes to different groups. I learn from them all, but it is all from the Holy Spirit who is the Teacher of the Church.

[Apparently, the Comments thing is not working. A couple of readers have indicated that they tried to post comments and were unable to do so. Also, I got an alert about the comments and Google+ that I could not decipher. So, I am guessing that it just does not work at all. Sorry for any problems.]