Gospel of John [Joh 16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 39. Psa 32:8-9; Exo 21:2-6; Psa 40:6-8; Eph 4:30.

Title: Gospel of John [JOH 16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 39. PSA 32:8-9; EXO 21:2-6; PSA 40:6-8; EPH 4:30.

 

Announcements/opening prayer: 

 

 

Conditions for the filling of the Spirit.

 

On the basis that for every reason God's will is best, the covenant to do that will when it has been revealed is not difficult, but it does require surrender.

 

The guidance of the Spirit will always be in harmony with the Scriptures. The Scripture's primary application is to direct the life of the believer in this dispensation.

 

It is important to know the Bible as a whole. To know the whole realm of doctrine, even generally, is most to be desired. The Spirit will lead and empower in many areas and not just in our pet favorite doctrines. We miss out on whatever we are ignorant of.

 

There are no rules governing the Spirit's leading. No two are led together alike and it is likely that no believer is led in the exact same way twice.

 

The competency and capacity to be sensitive to His leading only comes from personal growth, being alert and attentive, and personal experience.

 

Every believer should learn to magnify the reality of the Spirit's indwelling presence through his own priesthood, representing himself before God, before His scriptures, and personally endearing to walk with God in this life so as to become sensitive to His will and guidance.

 

1TI 4:2

by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron

 

Each believer must become familiar with the Spirit's ways in respect to his own life. In light of the fact that leading by the Spirit proves so individual, it should be obvious that it is most dangerous to seek guidance from even the best of men. This doctrine and my own personal experience bear the bedrock truth of this statement. So then, we should all be careful with our "advice" to others and from others. We are instructed to admonish in a few circumstances that are recorded in the Scripture. I'm not saying that we shouldn't do so when it is warranted, but I am saying to think it through and be careful. Better to be silent then treading on the work of the Spirit in another believer's life.

 

God may choose to use men to give the direction the believer needs; still, it is not guidance from men, but from the Spirit through such men. I have found that usually the person who gives proper direction doesn't know the reason for which he does so. It is usually much more a divine appointment than a sought after conference.

 

To be guided by the Spirit is to be moved through the most delicate relationships the heart can know. Be moved by the mere gentle glance of His eye and not by the firm hand of discipline.

 

PSA 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.

 

PSA 32:9 Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you.

 

False leading proves to be irksome, painful, and disagreeable whereas the will of God is "good, acceptable, and perfect."

 

HEB 13:20 Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord,

 

HEB 13:21 equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

/Php 2:13

for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.\

 

Doing the will of God must be voluntary on the believer's part. We did not pass from one kind of slavery at salvation into another of the same kind in tyranny. We may all say as a Hebrew servant may in the Old Testament:

 

EXO 21:2 If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment.

 

EXO 21:3 If he comes alone, he shall go out alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him.

 

EXO 21:4 If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone.

 

EXO 21:5 But if the slave plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,'

 

EXO 21:6 then his master shall bring him to God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.

 

This is doubtless a type that relates to the self-dedication of Christ that is to be mimicked in every believer, PSA 40:6-8, quoted in HEB 10:5-7.

 

PSA 40:6 Sacrifice and meal offering Thou hast not desired;

My ears Thou hast opened;

Burnt offering and sin offering Thou hast not required.

 

PSA 40:7 Then I said, "Behold, I come;

In the scroll of the book it is written of me;

 

PSA 40:8 I delight to do Thy will, O my God;

Thy Law is within my heart."

 

And this brings us to motive. What is the highest motive for yielding to God's will? Is it so that I may have victory in this life, or that I may receive power, or blessing? These are motivations to be sure and in the right light they are right and noble. What is the highest motivation? Is it not so that we can realize the life that is Christ in time? A realization of that life would mean victory and blessing in the soul, but wouldn't it be just as wonderful to the soul even if our circumstances in the world, relationships with others, and the course of our physical bodies was full of adversity and tribulation. It is never like that for any believer who has realized the life that is Christ within himself, but he knows that the experience of that very life is the crème de la crème of all existence.

 

Php 3:7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

 

Php 3:8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ,

 

Php 3:9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

 

Php 3:10 that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

 

Php 3:11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

 

It is certainly a sacrificial life, but sacrificial does not necessarily mean painful; here it is a word that emphasizes doing the will of Another. Some pain will be experienced but in the soul there is the promise of joy and the experience of perfect peace.