Jesus Gave Voice To The Spirit

What Did Jesus Do?

“When the Spirit of Truth comes he will speak whatever he hears.”
John 16.13


When the Father needed a voice to speak to the world he sent his Son. Jesus did not give voice to his own words and will, but rather the words of the Father who had sent him (John 14.24; see John 12.49-50). Even so, when Jesus asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit, the Spirit would not speak with his own voice, but with the voice of the Father and the Son—the Spirit speaks what he hears.

As Jesus came not to glorify himself, but rather to glorify the Father (John 17.1) by declaring all that the Father had spoken to him, so too would the Holy Spirit glorify the Son by declaring all that belonged to the Son (John 16.14). For, indeed, all that is the Father's belongs to the Son (John 16.15). The Son knows and shares fully the Father's will, all his plans and purposes, and this alone is what the Spirit declares to the Church.

It is important to pay close attention here. The Spirit never speaks on his own authority. The Spirit never reveals anything except that which he himself has received from the Father and the Son. Anyone who claims a word from the Spirit that does not line up perfectly with what the Father and the Son have spoken is trading on false revelation. This should be a caution to us any time someone stands up and declares that they have a “new” word. The Son is the Father's final Word, and the Spirit expresses nothing more or less, than this Word. Any “new” word that is not in complete agreement with what the Father and Son have spoken should be treated with great caution.

This is not to say that there have been no prophets for the better part of two thousand years. Prophecy is clearly one of the spiritual gifts given to believers (see 1Corinthians 12.1-11). But all prophesying must be held up against a very strict standard—the revealed Word of God. Again, anyone who declares that he or she is speaking in the Spirit, but who utters anything contrary to what the Father and the Son have spoken, is a false prophet, and should be ignored. We have had an example of such a false word in the so-called prophecies of the end times so recently proved very much in error (see WDJD for 5/27/11).

When the Spirit does speak, he speaks with complete sovereign authority, for he speaks, not with his own voice, but with the voice of the Son, who himself spoke as the voice of the Father. We trust the Spirit of Truth because he speaks only what he has heard from the mouth of the Father and the Son. When a “prophet” rises to speak, listen and see if you hear the same voice speaking that you hear when you open the Bible. As God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one God, so there is but one voice we need to hear. Jesus gave voice to the Spirit.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4