Gospel of John [Joh 16:8]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 10. Rom 8:12-17; Joh 17:14-17; Gen 2:21-23; Eph 5:25-27.

Title: Gospel of John [Joh 16:8]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 10. Rom 8:12-17; Joh 17:14-17; Gen 2:21-23; Eph 5:25-27.

 

 

The Spirit of Adoption (Rom 8:15) has reference to His revelation of our adoption as mature sons.

 

Rom 8:12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation [bound to a duty], not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — 

 

Rom 8:13 for if you are living [present - habitual living] according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

 

As the Spirit glorifies the Son, He enables us to execute the will of the Father as Christ did in His humanity.

 

Rom 8:14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

 

Being a son of God means being the beneficiary of the leading ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

 

One of the most frequent questions asked by believer concerns this very verse. How can I know what God wants me to do? How do I find out God's plan for my life? When I have a choice and both options seemingly look good, how do I know which one to take?

 

So our answer to the leading ministry is in a few parts.

 

First, he must desire to be led by the Spirit. It is no use to chart a path of your own will and ask GHS to guide you. We must be constantly seeking the will of God in the word of God.

 

Secondly, he must surrender his will to the word and will of God. Most of knowing the will of God is being willing to do it before he knows what it is.

 

We must be convinced that it is the superior way to go.

 

Reverence leads to true knowledge and that leads to counsel, or the ability to make great decisions in life.

 

Third, he must be aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit leading and guiding him into all truth and application on a daily basis.

 

He is leading in the small, insignificant things and the bigger things. He is leading in the home, on the job, in the family, and in the marriage as well as in the church. He is leading when you are functioning in your spiritual gift, when witnessing, when giving, when praying, when serving, and in all other areas of life where decisions matter.

 

There are so many ways that leading can be expressed in the English language. We can convey leading with words such as convey, drive, move, haul, drag, draw, lug, pull, tow, tug, accompany, attend, convoy, escort, conduct, direct, guide, pilot, steer, bring, allure, attract, bait, coax, persuade, entice, and there are certainly other shades of meaning also.

 

Since we are the ones being led by an benevolent and loving God the leading is not by force as one would lead and animal and so pull, tug, tow, and others like it can be discarded. Yet the leading also reflects authority or the right to lead. In classical Greek the word was used for those who governed cities or led an enterprise or to raise a child.

 

One thing is for sure and that is at salvation, God the HS laid hold of us, and He is never going to loosen His grip.

 

Php 1:6

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

 

For all believers the work will be complete at the Rapture of the Church. For the positive believer in time, he experiences that completeness in his life, anticipating its reality in heaven with great joy, and glorifies his Lord with his life on earth.

 

Therefore the Holy Spirit lays hold of us in order to bring us all the way to the destination of full glory in the presence of God and to, in time, lead us into a realization of that glory.

 

We are the completeness of Him, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, and not one of His bones was to be broken, and they will not.

 

Joh 19:36

For these things came to pass, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, "Not a bone of Him shall be broken." [Psa 34:20]

 

Luk 24:39

"See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."

 

Every believer is a member of the body of Christ and an adult son of God by adoption and not one of them will be broken.

 

The leading of the Holy Spirit is an education. God is rearing us and nurturing us.

 

Some believe that God gets fierce with us when we make mistakes. They misconstrue divine discipline which is out of the love of God and is gentle. Does a parent get fierce to a child who has taken his first step and then fallen? Does he yell at him for not getting two steps in the first time? God deals with us in mercy and grace and when leading us, even if we happened to get the decision wrong because we misunderstood, doesn't He lovingly restore us to our feet and encourage us to walk again? God is leading us and teaching us to walk as one leads a child of a tender age. All of God's infinite love is concentrated on each one of us. God wants to see us walk as His children, children of light, and that we will if we simply desire to, yield to His way of walking, and trust His presence within us every day in order to influence us to do so.

 

The leading of the Holy Spirit is personal. Our personalities, circumstances, backgrounds, personal desires, and environments are all slightly different. He leads each of us as an individual.

 

The disciples all had different personalities and Christ never asked them to conform to one type. The writers of scripture all wrote in their own style and way, though each inspired by God the Holy Spirit. God is only asking us to change into conformity with His will and to be transformed by the renewing of our minds with His word, being transformed into the image of Christ. When that is complete in all of us, not one of our personalities will be identical.

 

The leading of the Holy Spirit makes Him the author of good to us. His work, day after day, is to make us more like our Lord in our hearts.

 

God has already seen every event you would ever face and has calculated its effect upon you. He knows this like He knows which hair on your head will be effected if you put on a hat. This means that each circumstance in life, be it ever so small, has a place in the development of our spiritual self. In this light we embrace our life's circumstances as wonderful in the only sense that it could ever be in both prosperity and adversity.

 

The Lord did not put us in the world so that we could withdraw into monastic seclusion.

 

We are to be witnesses, not monks.

 

The Lord wishes His own to face every desperate situation that any of the children of wrath are forced to face, and more, and to know that they can meet every such situation with the victory of our Lord, through His Spirit, with love, peace, joy, confidence, and always, continued trust.

 

Joh 17:14 "I have given them Thy word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

 

Joh 17:15 "I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

 

The Lord knew that He was leaving His disciples in the midst of a furnace of fire, for which He warned them, and here He prays that the Father will protect them in their persecutions.

 

Joh 17:16 "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

 

Joh 17:17 "Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth.

 

One great example of leading by God is in the first pages of the Bible. The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the OT, uses the word that Paul does in Rom 8:14.

 

Gen 2:21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh at that place.

 

Gen 2:22 And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

 

Gen 2:23 And the man said,

"This is now bone of my bones,

And flesh of my flesh;

She shall be called Woman,

Because she was taken out of Man."

 

When our Lord breathed His last and gave up His spirit a deep sleep came over Him that would last but three days. His side was opened up and out flowed blood and water; forgiveness and cleansing. The Lord God took from that suffering of death and from His side made a redeemed people, the true Church, the very bride of the Savior.

 

For all eternity we shall be bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.

 

God the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Grace, opened your eyes to the person and work of Christ, led your faith unto salvation, and is now within you leading you to know what it is to be His bride.

 

Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her;

 

Eph 5:26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

 

Eph 5:27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.