“As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Acts 13:2
The Person and ministry of the Holy Spirit in the church of God, or the body of Christ, is of monumental importance if one is to believe God for His highest and best. Why? This third Person of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, though His place and ministry is specific, in creation and redemption, is nonetheless God, the Lord. Paul brings this out in His letter to the believers in Corinth when he writes: “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.” (2 Cor. 3:17) He goes on to write that as the believer worships Christ, beholding the Lord Jesus, he is “…being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor. 3:18) What then is the ministry of the Spirit? It is to magnify Christ, exalt Him, and in the measure that the Spirit is Lord in one’s life, working and moving freely by the sovereign power, and according to the purposes of God, He is transforming the believer into Christ’s image. How then specifically does He do this?
When John the Apostle wrote the book of Revelation, after the Lord Jesus instructed him to write a specific, and different letter, to each of the seven churches in Asia Minor at that time, he concluded each of the letters in the same way. He wrote: “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Now, why is this phrase used at the end of every letter, to conclude the letter? It is because, as we read in the letters, the believer is called to overcome the resistance to his faith by the enemy of our souls, who uses multiple means to oppose the believer and the churches. From problems within the churches and in the lives of believers, to exterior opposition and rejection by an unbelieving world, the believer is called upon to overcome all that would oppose his communion with Christ. To do this there must be obedience to the revealed will of God. Where there is the commitment to hear what the Spirit says to the specific churches and individual believer, there will be the power and authority of the Spirit of Christ to overcome.
The question then must be asked, “Does the Spirit of God actually speak to the hearts and souls of men, to the individual believer and to the church, or a gathering of believers? The answer is “yes.” God speaks, as one hymnwriter put it, “…in the stillness, in accents clear and still.” But to whom will the Holy Spirit speak? It is to the one who is willing to hear what He will say to the churches. To this one, or to this church, God is willing to speak, and make known His will, so that in knowing the truth, the believer can be aligned with God’s purposes, to be accomplished by His Spirit in and through the heart, and in the church.
How then does God speak, and how can we KNOW that He is speaking? One of the greatest blessings to the living body of Christ, the church, today is that she has in her hands to a great extent the written word of God in the language of the people. This was one of the great reasons for the outpouring of the Spirit in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost over two thousand years ago, to reveal to the world that the gospel had come to be heard, read, and known by every individual in every language. It is as the Spirit takes the objective word of God and quickens it, that in a very real way, “…Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.'” (Is. 30:21)
Dear Father, Speak to our hearts today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.