The Teaching Work Of The Holy Spirit Series

For several weeks now we have been talking about the Person of the Holy Spirit. We have looked at Him as the Helper, “The Help That You Need.” We’ve looked at “Who Is The Holy Spirit?” and we’ve looked at “The Promise of the Holy Spirit.” Today I want to climax our study by looking at “The Teaching Work of the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus says here: ". . . He will teach you all things.” The word for teach that John uses is didasko which means to know or to teach. It carries the idea to influence the understanding of the one who is taught. It’s the Holy Spirit’s work and ministry to enable you to understand what Jesus wants you to understand, to know what God wants you to know when He wants you to know it. He will bring to your rememberance, all things that Jesus has said. Not only will He teach you, but He will apply that spiritual truth to your life when you need it. He is the Divine applicator. Only the Holy Spirit can apply spiritual truth when and where you need it.

I will never forget how the Holy Spirit worked in my life to teach me to depend upon Him for the revelation and illumination of truth to my life. It was in March of 2003 - I had spent a week in special study at Luther Rice Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. I had been studying about how to live the life, the Exchanged Life of Jesus Christ in a course entitled "A Review of the Literature of Christ-Centered Counseling. At the end of the week, I asked a couple classmates about where I could learn more about this truth I had been introduced to during the week. One person said, “At our ministry, we’re having a seminar this weekend and we’ll put you up for the night and feed you for only $35 for the 9 hour “Grow in Grace” seminar.

Well, I called my wife from Atlanta and told her I was going to Eatonton, GA for the night and I would be home Saturday afternoon. I drove the hour plus trip and arrived for the seminar. We had food awaiting and after the meal sat down in seminar style at tables with a notebook, Bible and teacher. We went through one session with notes being taken – good information. The next teacher started the session and all of a sudden this thought came to the forefront of my mind, “Am I going to sit here all this weekend and just receive more information?” Then, another thought came to the forefront of my mind, “Bruce, If you don’t ask for my help to teach you, you’ll never get this truth.” I knew it was the Holy Spirit and right there in the middle of the lecture I prayed asking the Holy Spirit to help me understand what I was hearing. Immediately, as I prayed it was like my eyes were opened and I could receive the truth that was being taught.

The truth that the work of the Holy Spirit is to be our teacher goes back to the New Covenant prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah in 31:31-34 and quoted in Hebrews 8:8-12. In Jeremiah 31:34 the word teach in Hebrew is lamad which means to learn, to study, to be accustomed to; to teach, to instruct, to practice to train. It comes from the word picture of an ox being put in a yoke. It carries the idea of training and educating. God is saying here that you need no one to teach you – I will teach each person. I will give each person a personal teacher, the Holy Spirit. God actually desires to give us the guided tour through life, teaching us all along the way through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Look at what John the Baptist had to say concerning the work of the Holy Spirit in John 3:34. The context in which the Baptist makes this comment is his last testimony v.22ff. At v.27 John says, “A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven.” Then speaking of Jesus, John says in v.34, “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure (limit).” That’s those rivers of living water flowing from within again.

Let me share with you one man’s testimony of his conversation with God as the Holy Spirit worked in his life one evening when reading John 14:26. Lewis Gregory writes, “I locked in on that one verse. I said, “Now wait a minute. All this time I have believed the Bible was true. I have gotten information from it. I have tried to follow it. I have attempted to apply its principles.” Yes, I failed in some areas, but I made progress in others. The bottom line—it wasn’t working. “Dear Lord, what’s the problem?”