It is unfortunate that so many people, even many within the church, have such a confused
and conflicted understanding of the Holy Spirit. They are confused about His personhood, His
work, and His power. They seem not to understand how to strike a balance between false extremes,
and they often end up taking denominational, unscriptural positions about the Holy Spirit.
For example, many good-hearted, religious people have been taught to believe that their
every decision, every change in their life circumstances, change of their career plans, etc. is
somehow mysteriously traceable to the Holy Spirit. They think that the work of the Holy Spirit is
incomprehensibly complex and impossible to predict, but it is somehow controlling their fate. If
you try to point out to them plain Bible passages which give clear, objective direction and guidance
for making the right decisions, they overrule them by their intuition, inner leadings, and subjective
beliefs which, they say, are controlled by the Holy Spirit. One religious couple recently told us
how the Holy Spirit had led them to a ministry in Florida. Later in the conversation, they disclosed
that their move to Florida had actually been a mistake, and so they had returned to this part of the
country. I wondered at the time if they realized that by such reasoning they were assigning the
mistake to God.
People often confuse the awesome and incomprehensible power of God, with the nature
and method of the Holy Spirit’s work. The one is far beyond our thoughts and understanding, (Is.
55:8-9), the other is set out with straightforward clarity in God’s word. The Holy Spirit is not
working in confusing and haphazard ways. God the Holy Spirit is not a God of confusion, (1 Cor.
14:33). He is not changing His mind, reversing Himself, and sending people in opposite directions
from where He sent them previously. The Holy Spirit is working in a Scriptural, systematic and
consistent manner. He is working through and in consistency with the Bible.
We “hear what the Spirit saith to the churches” (Rev. 2:7), by reading his words in the New
Testament. The Holy Spirit is thereby working through the word, the Bible. “Blessed is he that
readeth,” (Rev. 1:3). The Holy Spirit does not speak to us in riddles or contradictory statements.
The Holy Spirit speaks “expressly” or clearly, (1 Tim. 4:1). When we read the Bible, we can
perceive how God’s word has been made known to the Bible writers, and we can understand it
correctly, (Eph. 3:3-4). The Holy Spirit guided, or controlled the words of the apostles, and those
words are accurately recorded for us today in the Bible, (Mt. 10:20; Acts 2:4). When we are
obeying and carefully following the Bible, we are allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us, because the
Holy Spirit is the author of the Bible, (1 Cor. 2:6-16; 2 Pet. 1:21).
The Holy Spirit is a person – a masculine person possessing the nature of God. He is not a
mere force or influence. He is a person wielding an influence. And he has chosen in our day to
wield that influence through the word of God, not directly, miraculously upon a person’s heart.
When people say, “God laid this mission upon my heart,” think about what they are really saying.
They are claiming that God has subjectively and directly intervened in their will, separate and apart
from his word, and told them to do this. What happens when the choice turns out to be wrong?
Can we not see the danger of following our own subjective feelings, rather than following the word
of God? God’s word does not change. And it is not subject to the changes and vicissitudes of our
human reasoning.
It becomes very difficult or impossible to teach someone who has come to believe that they
are being led directly by the Holy Spirit, separate and apart from the Bible. You can show them
plain passages of Scripture, but they will discount them in favor of their predilections, their so-
called spiritual leading. And if they also believe that the Holy Spirit is supernaturally leading or
influencing their church leaders, it becomes doubly impossible to shake their religious error. To
teach people the way of salvation takes focused teaching, and it takes a clear understanding of who
the Holy Spirit is, and how He is working in our lives.
Confusion About the Holy Spirit
