28. The Spirit Leads Me
Every time in the past when I have written about the Spirit of God, I have found a closed door towards any attempt to give a specified description of the Spirit. Now, in this season of Completion and in this particular study of LIFE, I find that door swinging open just a bit.
These are things concerning the Spirit we have always known, but now that we know that the Spirit of God is on our side of things, part of us towards God, we can set out a number of things concerning the Devoted Spirit. – Sons of God are those who are led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14 – paraphrased).
Three and Seven. Let’s first set out three primary descriptive points about the Spirit and then seven characteristics, not in any order.
Descriptive Points: 1. The Spirit is the expression of God towards creation. 2. The Spirit is the phenomena of God in the life of the believer. 3. The Spirit is the enablement of God within the believer.
Characteristics: 1. The Spirit is Devoted. 2. The Spirit is on our side of things. 3. The Spirit always carries Word that is Jesus, but none of itself. 4. The Spirit always gives Life. 5. The Spirit is travail. 6. The Spirit leads. 7. The Spirit knows.
Being led of the Spirit is inside the opposition of the world. This is God’s travail; the Spirit is the travail of God.
Out From God. Before the enflowing of faith let’s set out what we do NOT do with the Spirit of God. We do not make the Spirit to be the third part of a “Trinity” as defined by Nicene Christianity and by Augustine. Specifically, we do not hammer out by human reasoning a concrete definition of “God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” to be forced onto the words of the Bible.
In complete contrast, we allow what God actually says to whisper understanding to us as we speak the same Word. For that reason, when we say, “God,” we mean ONLY the Father. The Son and the Spirit are “out from” God.
Involved with Us. More than that, when John speaks of life and of fellowship, he references only the Father and the Son. Why? – Because the Spirit is on our side of things. The Spirit is our communion. When you allow only what God actually says, you find the Bible filled with the complete involvement of Father and Son in who and what we are – by the Spirit.
The “Triune God” of Nicene Christianity is utterly separate from what we are as humans. The “Triune God” cannot be known by us except as a distant instructor of conduct, that is, the knowledge of right and wrong, that is, death, that is, not KNOWING God.
The Enflowing of Word. ~ I ask the Father; He gives me the Spirit of truth as my Helper-Advocate, sent by Jesus. The Spirit of truth has come to me; the Spirit of truth lives, dwells, and remains inside of me. This Spirit is Devoted to me, for I am one spirit with Him. The Spirit of God and my spirit are one Spirit. ~
~ I am immersed utterly into the Devoted Spirit; the Spirit flows all through my human soul, causing me to know the Lord Jesus Sent into me. The Spirit leads me into all truth; the Spirit guides me inside of all truth. The Devoted Spirit teaches me ALL that Jesus speaks and everything He hears coming out from God. The Spirit reports to me fully and faithfully all the speaking of God, all that He receives from Jesus. ~
~ The Spirit always leads me. I am led to the Father who sent me. Just as I cherish Jesus, so the Spirit causes me to know that the Father cherishes me. All that the Father possesses, He has given to Jesus, and the Spirit imparts all of it to me. The Spirit causes me to know that I come out from God and that I go to the Father every moment. The Spirit causes me to know that my Father is with me in intimate participation together. ~
Comprehending God’s Meaning. A critical line Jesus spoke concerning the Spirit is that the Spirit does not speak of Himself, but only of Jesus. Those who want Spirit without Word will not really know either one.
Of truth, I see two major things in these lines, first that Spirit and Word are always together, and second, that the Spirit leads us and causes us to know. But first we must ask and then, in the asking, believe. God does nothing regarding us apart from our explicit permission. There is neither limit nor compulsion in what we receive out from God.
A Woman in Travail. In the same way, the Spirit also joins as help together with our weakness; for we are not aware of the things that are necessary for us to pray, but the Spirit personally brings us in line [with Father] for the sake of others, with inexpressible groanings (Romans 8:26).
These “groanings” of the Spirit are the groanings of travail, the inexpressible desire to bring forth LIFE, that is, the knowledge of God to all creation. Paul and John both wrote out from the picture of a woman in travail to bring forth LIFE. This travail inside the Church is the Spirit of God. – The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.”
The Great Travail. The Spirit as the travail of God is the underlying meaning of every one of our seven characteristics. In fact, as I look at my list, I see that all underlie all. We understand each by all.
The Greek word typically translated “tribulation” should rather be translated “travail,” as in all the pressures taking place to bring forth life. God-KNOWN is what everything is all about. God-KNOWN comes only through travail. “The Great Tribulation,” is miss-named; rather, it is the Great Travail, meaning God, by His Spirit, bringing forth LIFE, Spirit and Word together in the knowledge of all.
The Expression of God. Let’s go through our three descriptive points first before we ask and believe. These three are a larger framework of understanding, so that we might know the full meaning of each of the Spirit characteristics.
1. The Spirit is the expression of God towards creation. The Spirit of God hovered over the darkened earth before God said, “Let there be light.” Those words were spoken, not into “the earth,” but into the Spirit hovering over and enveloping the earth. Nothing of God happens inside of or to any created thing except by the Spirit.
GIVEN to Us. 2. The Spirit is the phenomena of God in the life of the believer. All happenings that are God in your life are caused by the Spirit. The Spirit precedes Word and the Spirit follows after Word. BY MY SPIRIT, says the Lord.
3. The Spirit is the enablement of God inside the believer. The enablement of God is the meaning of the word “grace,” and grace is “gift.” And you shall receive the gift of the Devoted Spirit (Acts 2:38). The Spirit is GIVEN to us; the Spirit is the underlying energeia through which Christ Jesus lives as us. The Spirit is the bath, that is, all things happening in you take place in the bath, in the “liquid” environment of the Spirit of God.
Ask and Believe. ~ Lord Jesus, You say that You send Your Spirit to me as my helper-advocate, to be part of me, one spirit together, that I might be able to know God and to be joined with Him. Lord Jesus, You say that You give me the Spirit of God and that Your gift is without measure. Lord Jesus, I ask that You would cause me to know Your Spirit poured out in abundance as part of myself without limit or restraint, in all goodness and wonder, in all truth and power. I believe I have received what I ask. Thank You for Your unimaginable gift. ~
An Unknown. As we go through each of the seven characteristics of the Spirit of truth now, I want to show how all are woven together, and I want to draw the things Jesus says in John 15 and 16 through the whole weave. We will go through all these things and then write both of our boxes out from them.
I also have a question to which I want to give a very specific and definitive answer, an answer that may well stand. Is the Devoted Spirit a person, separate and distinct from the Father, the Son, and us? Here is my definitive answer. – I don’t know. – The Spirit of Christ, of God, and of us.
The Spirit Is Devoted. The word “holy” means “devoted.” It means that this object or person is to be used only for one purpose and never for any other use. It means to belong exclusively to someone. The English words, “holy,” “saint,” and “sancta,” however, carry the religious definitions of centuries like barnacles weighing down a ship. Devoted means only devoted.
The Spirit BELONGS to God. As Jesus said, you can mess with Him or with God, but don’t mess with the Spirit. YET – God gives us the Spirit as His gift to us. Which means, then, that the Spirit BELONGS to us. This truth is more profound than anything we have ever considered.
On Our Side of Things. I just changed the wording in John 16 & 17 from “in Your presence” to “intimate participation with You.” This speaks more clearly of our relationship with God.
But here’s the thing. – We could never engage in such a relationship unless the Devoted Spirit were part of us, part of our very makeup. Being one Spirit with Christ means that His Spirit is our spirit; the Spirit GIVEN to us. The Spirit is Christ as us. The Spirit flows out from us; to be led of the Spirit means to be led of that which is always proceeding out from a life of intimate participation with God.
Word that Is Jesus. He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears, He will speak… He will glorify Me, for He will receive what is Mine and report it fully to you.
We know the Spirit only as that which enables us to KNOW Jesus as every Word God speaks. The Spirit is the carrier of Word. The Spirit is the ink of that Word written. The Spirit causes the knowing of Word. The Spirit is filled with Word. As we speak Christ Jesus made personal as us, it is the Spirit on our side of things, part of our own makeup, that causes us to sing together with that Word.
The Spirit Gives Life. The Word is the DNA of life, the code, one might say, that organizes the growth and structure of life. But the Spirit is the lubrication and enablement of life, the bath in which life takes place. It is inside the Spirit that Word assembles itself into LIFE.
God… actively gives life to your dying bodies through His Spirit dwelling inside of you (Romans 8:11). – Paul bounces us around from one glorious thing to the next, but John takes us into intimate participation with God. John places our head against Jesus’ breast. The Spirit alone takes us to Jesus, that we might live.
A Spirit of Travail. The Spirit personally brings us in line [with Father] for the sake of others, with inexpressible groanings. – The Spirit is the birthing of life. The Spirit is the groaning desire of God to have what He does not have, that is, to be known by all He has created.
Because we drink of the same Spirit shared by all believers, we have place to stand before God as His entire Church. What we establish in travail with God, in intimate participation with Him, the Spirit is the instant transfer of that victory to all our brothers and sisters, that they might know God. – For the sake of others.
The Spirit Leads. The Spirit of God knows the things of God; the spirit of a man knows the things of that man (1 Corinthians 2). The Spirit always goes before; the Spirit always hovers over that next thing God and us are doing together. It is in this way, then, that the Spirit leads us forward, having proceeded out from God and us together.
This is why we can say that our every next step comes out from God and us sharing life in intimate participation together. If God always leads us in triumph, then the Spirit is the celebration of Father and us going forward together.
The Spirit Knows. Since the Spirit knows the things of God and since our spirit is one Spirit with Jesus, then the Spirit knows our things and God’s things together. – We know that He lives inside of us, out from the Spirit whom He gave to us (1 John 3:24).
Just as the Spirit belongs to us in the same way that the Spirit belongs to God, so we are able to KNOW God. I KNOW everything inside of God, shared with me in intimate participation together, because the Spirit knows. The Spirit is the bath of knowing, and Jesus is the Word of knowing, but it is the Father whom we KNOW.
Yield to the Spirit. I have just meandered through these things, hardly scratching the surface. Nonetheless, as I consider the Spirit, I receive for myself such a sense of knowing that my life shared in intimate participation with God comes out from me just as much as it comes out from God – and from both of us by the Spirit.
Do not grieve the Spirit. – Do not quench the Spirit.
Knowing God is the most valuable thing in the universe and in God. Since it is the Spirit that is our knowing of God, we yield to the Spirit in all ways with tears and with joy.
Word and Spirit Together. ~ I live and walk always in the bath of God’s Spirit poured out into me. The Devoted Spirit, God’s wondrous gift to me and now part of the fabric of my own being, causes me to know the Lord Jesus alive inside my heart as every Word God speaks. The Spirit comes before the Word to enable me to receive it through the faith of Jesus. The Spirit comes always with the Word, even as the ink itself written upon my heart. As I speak that Word, now made personal as me, the Devoted Spirit causes me to walk in its power. The Spirit is faithful to report to me all that Jesus speaks and to make me the fulfilment of every Word. I never know the Spirit apart from all that God speaks in the gospel; I never know the Word apart from the Spirit. ~
The Only Passage. God can have all the Spirit He wants and all the Word He wants, but without you and me actively participating in travail with Him, that God might be known, no life will ever happen inside of creation. Our travailing with God for the sake of others is the only passageway of LIFE. Our travailing with God for the sake of others is the Spirit joining God and us together.
As I look upon my life, now, seeing the pattern of God speaking to me, I see that the Spirit was upon me from the start, ever leading me towards the certain goal of the knowledge of God coming through me. And the same is as true of you as it is of me.
As Conviction. I am compelled to add one more characteristic of the Spirit that comes out from John 16 – that the Spirit convicts, specifically, that the Spirit causes us to sense what is not of God and therefore not of us. It took me decades to understand that the “No” of the Spirit was my own “No” as well.
Judas betrayed Jesus because he wanted superiority and vengeance and he knew that Jesus would deny him both. The pattern of my life shows 30 years, from April 1979 to March 2009 for the Spirit to burn “Korah” out of me. Half-way through, in November 1994, I came into agreement with this purpose of the Spirit.
As a Flame of Fire. God could not reveal Himself through us as Love except He give us hearts like His, hearts meant to rule. A human heart not filled with the knowledge of God is the most deceitful and wicked thing that there is.
Some choose not to remain with me because I live inside of a flaming Fire that denies them place to pretend, to manipulate, to live for self, or to hurt other people. I require the giving of thanks for the sake of all things, including and especially when I have inadvertently offended you. I turn you always to “for the sake of others,” and I give you no room to pretend.
To reveal God is to humble yourself; this also is the Spirit.
The Spirit Leads. ~ The Spirit of God, now my spirit as well, is always flowing forth from me, going before as every next step I take. As I take that next step, the Spirit is there first, leading me into that which comes out from my knowing of myself and my knowing of God. The Spirit knows what is mine and what is God’s and enables us to share all together. The Spirit leads me inside of all truth, causing me to know Christ Jesus as my only life. By the Spirit I acknowledge Father with me. ~
~ The Spirit is the travail of God, that deep and inexpressible groaning to bring forth the life of God inside of creation, that is, that all might know God as their life. The groaning I have known my whole life for something not yet known is that same Spirit within me, sharing Father with me. I pray inside of the Spirit, with deep travail, that God might be known through me, and that the Spirit would cause all who belong to Jesus to know God their Father always with them. The Spirit always leads me as life for the sake of others. ~
And We Also. I feel like weeping. I feel like being utterly pure. I feel like living close inside the Devoted Spirit that I might know God my Father.
Jesus said, For their sakes, I make Myself pure and devoted to You, that they also might be made pure and devoted inside of the truth. It is the Spirit alone, now part of the fabric of our human persons, that makes us pure and devoted inside of the truth, for the Spirit is Truth.
And we also. And we also. – For the sake of others. If I could impart one thing to you, let it be this.
Reading for Next Time. I have come to realize that John 17:3 has filled John’s mind from the start. Everything he wrote starting with “In the beginning was the word” came out from John 17:3, and everything builds towards John 17:3. We have three Jesus Secret pages for this one verse, but read the whole of John 17 this first time.
For this is age-unfolding life, that they may know You, the One true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
To KNOW God and to walk with a people who together KNOW God is the only thing. It is life forevermore. It is the source of all that is to come.
Our Prayer. In our prayer today we are synergeoing with God in the travail of the Spirit AS, and for the sake of, the entire Church. So many want to condemn the Church, for she is a prostitute. We will not rest until God has made His Church, our Jerusalem, to be a praise in all the earth.
Drinking of one Spirit, being members of one another with ALL who belong to Jesus MEANS that we speak as the Church out from God and thus all the Church is speaking. We few are the Church inside the presence of God and thus we cause all who belong to Jesus to be the same. We have the right and the place to cause the Church to be the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, we belong to You because You first belong to us. We are devoted to You because You first are devoted to us. Inside of our shared Spirit, Oh God, we join with You in travail for the sake of Your entire Church.
“God, we know and drink of the same Spirit that fills all who belong to Jesus, and we are members with them of Your same body. We are, right now, the voice of that body and we speak as her with authority and in the power of the Devoted Spirit. God, cause the Fire of Your Spirit to burn, cause all eyes to open, cause all pretending and arrogance to be cast off, cause Your knowing to arise inside of all.
“God, our Father, we are in travail with You, inside our shared Spirit, with groanings too deep to express, that LIFE, that the KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, would be birthed inside of creation, here upon this earth. God, we tolerate no more the infidelity and the game-playing that has been Your people inside this world. Not one remains inside the prostitute. We speak even for those who are so foolish as not to be filled with Your Spirit, that they also would be snatched out of their darkness.
“God, we will not let You rest until You have made the Church of Jesus Christ, our Jerusalem, to be a praise and a joy among all humans in this world, the revelation of Jesus. Let our ‘Yes, Lord,” be the “Yes, Lord,” of all, in Jesus name.”