This study was first taught on April 2, 2013

Topic: Now That the Holy Spirit is in You (5.2): He Will Speak Through You

(use the audio to study)

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Background
Last week, we saw that another thing the Holy Spirit does when He comes to take up residence in you, is that He speaks to you. We noted that what is specifically different about the Holy Spirit speaking to you, as distinct from when He spoke to the Old Testament saints is that He speaks to you directly from within you. This nonetheless does not preclude the Holy Spirit speaking to you through other sources like speaking to you through another believer in Christ.

We saw that when the Holy Spirit speaks to you, the focus is always about glorifying the Father and Christ, and, the things of the kingdom of God, which includes future events. And even when he speaks to you about personal things, it always revolves around the Father, the Son, and the kingdom of God. Indeed, one of the major reasons for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is so that you will not be ignorant about the things of God and of His kingdom. Therefore, you don’t need to go and seek men to tell you about the Father, the Son, the future, the things happening around you, and so on, because, the Holy Spirit will tell you about all these things as at when it becomes necessary. And hence, the era of heaping teachers and prophets unto oneself ends, because the Holy Spirit Himself, will either lead you to the appropriate teacher(s) or send people to you as the need arises; and when this happens, He will bear witness within you that He has sent them to you, and may use a preponderance of evidence that He has indeed sent these people to you.

We also saw that when the Holy Spirit speaks to you, it could be in the form of information, instruction or both; and, it may be an encouragement, a warning, or simply, a conversation (as two friends may have with one another), in which He is telling you about what He wants you to do, where He wants you to go, how He wants you to do certain things, and so on. Furthermore, we noted that the Holy Spirit will speak to you in different ways, either, directly—by an audible voice, an inner voice in your spirit, an impression in the spirit or inner witness, a dream, a vision, a trance—or, indirectly—essentially, through other believers, and sometimes, through circumstances or unbelievers (and is usually directed at the mature Christian, and is not frequent). The Holy Spirit’s communication with you can be captured in the spiritual gifts of word of wisdom, word of knowledge, and discerning of spirits.

Scripture Text(s)
John 15:26-27; 16:7-11
Our texts tonight reveal that when the Holy Spirit comes to indwell a believer, He gives testimony about the Lord, and so transforms the believer into an effective witness about Jesus to the world. We pray that as the Holy Spirit indwells us, all that we ought to be we shall become, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
When the Holy Spirit comes to indwell you, He will testify or bear witness to you about the Lord, and, He will thus, make you an effective witness about the Lord to others.
Acts 1:8; Luke 24:46-49; 1 John 5:6-13; John 16:7-11; Matthew 10:16-20; 2 Timothy 4:16-17; 2:1-18; Revelation 19:10; 2 Peter 1:21; Acts 5:29-32; 2:22-37; 3:12-18; 4:8-12; 22:30—23:11; 1 Corinthians 12:7, 10; 14:2-6, 10-13, 21-35; Colossians 4:2-4; Ephesians 6:18-20; Acts 4:29-31.

Conclusion
Another of the things the Holy Spirit does when He comes to indwell you, is to speak, testify, give honest report, or bear witness of the Lord Jesus Christ—His pre-incarnate Person; His Incarnation; His earthly life and ministry; His death, resurrection, and ascension; and the essence of all that Christ embodies for you, as a believer in Christ. This is what the bible refers to as the testimony of Jesus, which is the same thing as prophecy! Indeed, the vital principle of prophecy is to testify about Jesus, and these testimonies are documented in the bible—both in the Old and the New Testaments, especially in the Epistles, where the figures or types of Christ in Old Testament rites are revealed in the reality of the Person of Christ (Hebrews 8:1ff; 9:1ff; 10:1ff).

After the Holy Spirit has sanctified you, taught you all things, and led you into all truth, He will speak through you to those who do not know the truth about Jesus and the kingdom of God, thus, making you a channel for communicating His truth to the world, and a bearer of the witness of Christ (which is both how we live for God in this dark world and what we declare about Jesus to the world). In times of persecution, you need not be troubled, neither worried, nor afraid; all you need is, to be surrendered to the Holy Spirit and He will speak the testimony of Jesus through you. Hence, in our prayers, we should not only seek to know God and His kingdom, but we should also ask that utterance or boldness be granted us so that we can declare, both verbally and by the way we live, the truth about Jesus, and the mystery of the gospel and the kingdom of God!

All that the Holy Spirit does through you with regard to Him communicating the things of the kingdom of God through you to others is manifested through the spiritual gifts of tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy. And as we manifest these spiritual vocal gifts, the conviction that leads sinners to the foot of the cross for redemption will begin to take effect with the result of true revival in the land.

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