In John 16:8-13, Jesus unpacks some of the roles that the Holy Spirit will play in the lives of the disciples after Jesus departs to be with the Father. The Spirit is going to take on the job of convicting the world of its bankrupt worldview and guide Jesus' followers into all truth. The Spirit's "job" is to be a reliable, accessible source of truth for believers as they carry out Jesus' mission after He departs.
In 1 Corinthians 2:9-16, the Apostle Paul expands on the role of the Holy Spirit in the ministry of making disciples. He declares with certitude, "No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God" (11). And since this Spirit indwells all those who have been born again, we therefore "have the mind of Christ" (16).
Paul is teaching about his ministry in particular. We don't have the mind of Christ so that we can better choose which soup to have for lunch. We have the mind of Christ for the purpose of carrying out the will of Christ, and the will of Christ has "make disciples of all nations" toward the top of the list.
Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, who perfectly knows the mind of the Father, we can "know the things that are freely given to us by God" (12). Human wisdom cannot fathom the breadth and impact of these truths - they are taught only by the Spirit (13). Therefore, there are things about the missional will of Christ that we can only learn through the Spirit. We must learn from the Spirit, along with the other means of learning God gives us (His Word, wise counselors, experience, etc.).
We conclude, then, that discipleship must be Spirit-led. We cannot make disciples as Jesus intends without choosing to be led by the Spirit. Any attempt to make disciples by leaving the Spirit out of it will not be the Jesus way.
Even Jesus did not make disciples without being led by the Spirit, who guided Him into the wilderness, guided Him in selecting His disciples, empowered Him to teach the disciples all that the Father revealed to Him, and so on. If Jesus doesn't make disciples without being Spirit-led, what use is it for us to even try?
The discipleship of you must be Spirit-led, and your discipleship of others must be Spirit-led. Seek out the Spirit's leading in prayer. Ask and wait. Expect Him to move, to guide, to reveal. When you sense His leading, check it against Scripture and wise counselors, take a step in faith, and then ask Him again if you're walking in the right direction. Make disciples this way! Books and guides can be helpful (or get in the way), but seeking out the leading of the Spirit is not optional!
Listening to the Spirit takes patience, discipline, and practice. I once worked on a software product that used modems, and so we tested every model we could find. In the lab, at first it just sounded like a bunch of noise as the modems screeched their way into data connections. Over time, with practice, I was able to tell you the modem brand, model, and data speed just by listening (we all could - it was hard to avoid!). The same is true with the Spirit - with enough practice and patience, we begin to discern His voice from out of all the noise.
Then once we hear His voice, the only thing left is to obey what He says. Make disciples this way.
(This is the 2nd of 17 truths about discipleship that we are discussing in this series. The idea for this article comes from Caesar Kalinowski.)
Good piece, Colby. One of the mysteries of the Christian experience is how exactly the Spirit does His work and how one is to hear His voice. I have drawn conclusions about this, but I recognize the limitations of my understanding. That said, John does give us some parameters through which to view the Spirit's work. When John writes in 14:26, "He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you," this ought to be understood as a hendiadys (the "and" serves to closely relate if not equate the two statements) rather than two distinct functions. A more interpretively accurate translation would be "He will teach you all things by bringing to your remembrance all that I have said to you." I think this comports well with 15:26 (the Spirit's witness about Jesus) and 16:13-14 (likewise in parallel with Jesus' statement about himself in 14:10). The conclusion we should draw is that the Holy Spirit does not typically/normatively speak independently of the Word of God, but rather illuminates it for us. His role is to "bring to our remembrance" all that we have read/heard from the Word. This presumes familiarity with the content of Scripture, which I think is an important point.
ReplyDeleteA second nuance to the Spirit's work is that we must recognize that He speaks to, and therefore through, other believers just as much as He does to us. So another way to listen to Him is through fellow believers--not just those with whom we interact face-to-face, but even with those who have communicated their thoughts in writing throughout the Church age.
These truths should temper one's confidence that all one has to do to hear the Spirit is sit still and "listen" or to try to conjure up the voice of the Spirit or pray for the Spirit to reveal things to us independent of the Word. Rather, it is through the disciplined study of the objective Word of God--consciously dependent upon the Spirit to help our understanding--that we come to hear what it is that God has to say to us. Not simply through good intentions.