By G. D. Watson
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” – John 14:26
It is the work of the Father to lead us to His Son Jesus. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to cleanse and fill us, and to lead us back to the Father and the Son, revealing them to us, and bringing us into union and fellowship with them.
In the second and third chapters of the book of Revelation, our Savior gave His last message to the seven churches in Asia. He said seven times, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” So if we fail to receive the Holy Spirit in our hearts, and fail to hear what He says to us, we are most flagrantly disobeying a definite command of our Lord.
The Holy Spirit inspired the writing of the Bible (2 Tim. 3:16-17). As He inspired the minds of men to write the Scriptures, He alone can illuminate our minds so that we can spiritually understand them. Therefore, all true scriptural knowledge must be twice inspired — once in the writing of the Bible, and a second inspiration in the mind of the reader of this Holy Book.
These two inspirations proceed from the same Fountain of Light and will agree with each other. The Holy Spirit came forth from the Father and the Son to live in us as a real Person (Jn. 14:16-18), and to speak to us in a manner perfectly intelligible to our spiritual nature: to reprove us or to approve of us; to help us in our spiritual faculties; to work on our memory and perception of things, our desire and will, and our reason. He does all this in our innermost being, just as really as any person would speak to us in an audible voice (Jn. 14:26).
The Holy Spirit, our blessed Comforter, came to take the place of Jesus — to be to us just what Jesus would be if He were physically with us. He came to console us, to answer our questions, to give us instruction, to fortify us with His presence in place of the absent Jesus.
The Holy Spirit is the living God within us. He regenerates, sanctifies, and illuminates us. He brings our whole being into a sweet living union with the Word of God, thereby bringing us into a union with the Eternal Word, who is one with the Father (John 1:1; 10:30).
We have then, as it were, two Bibles — one written on paper, which is the will of God for us, and the other Bible is the daily voice of the Holy Spirit within us; and these two Bibles will always agree with each other. If they do not agree, it will be the penmanship of another spirit, rather than the Spirit of God.
If we are not living in communion with the Holy Spirit so that He can speak to us in an unmistakable and intelligent manner, then we are not living a biblical life. How does the Spirit speak to us? Sometimes by an audible voice, but which is uttered in the soul, upon the spiritual ear, and with such distinctness that it sounds exactly as if it were spoken externally.
Many times words of Scripture come to our minds with great clearness. Sometimes we wake up early in the morning with a clear, mental vocalization of the Scriptures in our mind that seems to penetrate into our innermost being. Such words remain with us for months and years, and like sandalwood, they never lose their fragrance. This seemed to be a frequent experience with Isaiah. “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear” (Isa. 50:4-5).
When people fail to respond to the voice of the Spirit, their spiritual senses become dull. They soon fail to hear his voice at all, and settle down into a cold rationalism. They then deny the supernatural life and repudiate spiritual emotion, and have a frozen Christianity, which may glitter like an iceberg with religious intellectualism, but is as devoid of the life of the Spirit as the iceberg is of tropical flowers. This is the condition of thousands in the nominal Church. But when the believer, with humility and prayer, forms the habit of listening for the voice of God, and obeys it, keeping the spirit of obedience in harmony with the written Word, God will show His favor to such a Christian, and will multiply Divine manifestations to him.
It is the extent to which we hear the Spirit’s voice that measures our real value of God. When we get to know God in a real, inward, experimental way, it will become the supreme joy of our existence. Oh, that we may intently listen for the voice of the Spirit!
Taken from Types of the Holy Spirit, by G. D. Watson, revised and condensed.
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? – 1 Corinthians 3:16
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba (Father), Father. – Galatians 4:6
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