The Holy Spirit as Your Teacher

As Ezekiel 36:24 tells us:

“I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Top 199 of Johnson.

For instance, Jesus said in John 14:26:

“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

He is also called “the Spirit of truth,” in verse 14:17. He is called the “Helper,” in 15:26.

1 Thessalonians 1:5-6 “5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,”

How the Spirit accompanies the word in preaching. Johnson, 207.

Spirit as Parakletos: NGSB, 1693.

Caspar Schwenckfeld taught:

“…after the Ascension of Christ the Lord, the work of the Holy Spirit began: how he was to teach the faithful, preach and glorify Christ, witness to him, how he taught prayer, how we may not be Christians without him (Romans 8:9) He is the pledge of our inheritance. We must be anointed and sealed by him. He gives birth to and directs the child of God, so that we are accepted in him and for Christ’s sake become children and heirs of God.”[2]

John 16:13-15. Jesus said: “He will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

This has specific application to the writing of the New Testament. As we learned last week from Hebrews 4:12 that the word of God is

“…living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

It is the Spirit who gives birth to such things as it was written and as it is preached to us today.