Pneumatology Lesson 5

In lesson five of our study on the Holy Spirit, we continue to examine His deity. This time we dive deeper into the Holy Spirit’s work in revelation, and His relationship with God the Father and God the Son. At the very beginning of the lesson is a great discussion about whether the authors of Scripture knew that they were writing Scripture. Key Scriptures: 2 Samuel 23:2; Micah 3:8; Matthew 22:43–44; Psalm 110:1; Acts 1:16–17; Psalm 41:9; John 13:18; Acts 1:20; Psalm 69:25; Psalm 109:8; Acts 4:25–26; Psalm 2:1–2; Acts 28:25–27; Hebrews 3:7–10; Hebrews 10:15–16

Do we honor the Holy Spirit by recognizing and relying on his work? Or do we slight him by ignoring it, and thereby dishonor, not merely the Spirit, but the Lord who sent him? In our faith: do we acknowledge the authority of the Bible, the prophetic Old Testament and the apostolic New Testament which he inspired? Do we read and hear it with the reverence and receptiveness that are due to the Word of God? If not, we dishonor the Holy Spirit. In our life: do we apply the authority of the Bible, and live by the Bible, whatever men may say against it, recognizing that God’s Word cannot but be true, and that what God has said he certainly means, and will stand to? If not, we dishonor the Holy Spirit, who gave us the Bible. In our witness: do we remember that the Holy Spirit alone, by his witness, can authenticate our witness, and look to him to do so, and trust him to do so, and show the reality of our trust, as Paul did, by eschewing the gimmicks of human cleverness? If not, we dishonor the Holy Spirit. Can we doubt that the present barrenness of the Church’s life is God’s judgment on us for the way in which we have dishonored the Holy Spirit? And in that case, what hope have we of its removal till we learn in our thinking and our praying and our practice to honor the Holy Spirit? J.I. Packer, Knowing God