God the Holy Spirit, Mentor's Guide, MG14

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G O D T H E H O L Y S P I R I T

This lesson focuses upon the way in which the prophetic work of the Holy Spirit enables us to know and respond to the truth. The Spirit both gives us the truth about God in human words and then empowers us to understand and accept those words. Without the prophetic ministry of the Holy Spirit, no one could know God or understand how to be reconciled to him through his Son. The knowledge of God cannot come from human effort but only from God’s determination to make himself known to us. God reveals himself and his purposes to us through prophetic words inspired by his Holy Spirit. The Scriptures are the ultimate authority for evaluating claims about God and truth. The Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures, carrying along the writers so that the words they wrote revealed God’s truth. No author of Scripture invented the truths they wrote about, rather they learned them through prophetic revelation. All Scripture is prophecy in this most basic sense. Prophetic revelation comes through the direct ministry of the Holy Spirit. The prophet is a person whom the Holy Spirit rests upon and prophetic revelation is a gift from the Spirit. Any claim to prophetic guidance today must be judged and evaluated in light of the Scriptures which are the binding standard of truth for all people, at all times, and in all places. The Spirit actively illumines (makes clear the meaning) the Scriptures which he inspired. The Spirit illumines the Scriptures both through the ministry of teaching he has given to his Church and through his inner work in the mind and heart of people who hear God’s Word. The Holy Spirit is the means by which God draws people to himself. No human being seeks, believes, understands, and accepts the Word of God apart from the active ministry of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Jesus explicitly said that it is the job of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin. The ministry of the Holy Spirit enables a person to recognize that they are a sinner, guilty before God and deserving of punishment. The convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit strips away excuses and self-justification, produces a revulsion toward sin and genuine remorse over disobedience to God.

Summary of Key Concepts

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