The Spirit and Other Ministries

Well, we've covered a lot of ground in this study and what the Bible teaches about the Holy Spirit. We have covered a lot of territory about various ministries of the Spirit, beginning the study with talking about his personality and his deity who he is, but most of our study has been what the Holy Spirit does. And we've seen his involvement in creation, his involvement in Scripture in three different ways, is involvement with unbelievers by way of conviction and regeneration. And then we've begun to look at ministries related to the believer. We've talked about the ceiling of the Spirit, the endwiling of the Spirit, the baptism in the Spirit, the filling of the Spirit. One that we are not going to cover is the gifts of the Spirit. And that's probably one that you wish we would cover. We'd get more into, but there are two reasons for not doing that. One is that is a huge topic, a separate study in itself. And maybe we can do that at some other point. I think maybe I've told you before when I was on the faculty at ABC, I developed a class for the Master's program on spiritual gifts. And it was a 32-hour course. And so there's no way to cover that on a Wednesday night without doing a whole separate study. It's just so many things involved. The other reason why we're not going to do it is we spent four weeks on the baptism in the Spirit and we talked about some of the miraculous sign gifts as related to that anyway. So we've kind of touched on that a little bit anyway. So we're going to jump tonight to some of the lesser known ministries of the Holy Spirit. I'm not going to call them less important. They're certainly not less important. They're just not as much in Scripture about these particular ministries. Just one or two passages on each one of them. There are five of them, as you see from your outline of the night, the leading of the Spirit, the teaching of the Spirit, the anointing of the Spirit, the assuring of the Spirit, and the praying of the Spirit. We're going to try to look at all five of those tonight. I know that's a hefty bunch to chew off. In one study, we may not get it all done tonight, but we'll go as far as you allow us to. This is a classroom type situation. Throw it open for questions and discussion, and that's what we want. We're going to begin tonight with the leading of the Spirit. You see there are two passages on your outline. The two passages that really mention the leading of the Spirit. But I'm convinced this is a topic that we get wrong a lot of the time. The leading of the Spirit is blamed for a lot of crazy stuff. And people say, oh, I was led by the Spirit to do this. And I had the leading of the Spirit. I've jotted down a few illustrations of things that I have heard or experienced. In a business meeting, some feel the Spirit is leading them to vote no. Some feel the Spirit is leading the vote yes. The Spirit's not going to lead both ways, so somebody's wrong on the leading of the Spirit. How do we know when the Spirit is leading? Church leaders are discussing what are we going to do about this particular issue? And someone says, well, we just need to follow the leading of the Spirit. Well, how do you know what the leading of the Spirit is? If it were that clear, you wouldn't have trouble making that decision. So have we got something wrong here? Are we missing the vote on how do we know for sure if that's what the leading of the Spirit is that we've got it? Is there a red light that comes on? You got it. You hit the bull's eye. You got the leading of the Spirit. How do you know for sure that you're being led by the Spirit? This is where it happens a lot, where two brothers or sisters in Christ disagree on a debatable issue or an issue of Christian liberty. Those kind of Romans 14 issues that the Scriptures don't really speak clearly about. This is not really sin. It's an issue of personal preference or choice. Those issues we call Christian liberty issues. And one person trying to convince the other one that his way is right. So I've got the leading of the Spirit on this. I have the mind of Christ on this. I know the Holy Spirit has led me in this way. Okay. How do you know that? And when people say that, basically what they're saying, is I have a direct line to God. And he has communicated to me what I should do. I don't think we really understand how close that is to charismatic theology and new revelation from God. So are we missing something here when we talk about the leading of the Spirit? I think so. I think we are. And I think we can clear it up, hopefully, with looking at the two passages where that term is used. Led by the Spirit. And if we look at those two passages carefully, I think we will see that it's talking about something entirely different from those examples that I've just given you. The leading of the Spirit in the New Testament has nothing to do with decisions you make about issues like that. How to vote, what card of eye, what, you know, whether to go here or there. That's not the leading of the Spirit. Not in the New Testament. So you say, oh boy, John, you're really often left field now. You're really teaching heresy. Well, let's look. Let's look. Romans chapter 8 and verse 14 is one of the two passages that mentions that terminology, the leading of the Spirit, verse 14, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Now, that term led by the Spirit of God, what does it mean? Well, any Bible term and any Bible concept has to be understood within the context, the flow of thought where it's being taught. And so let's move back to see what Paul means by this. If we can understand what he's talking about, then it becomes very clear what he means by being led by the Spirit. Go all the way back to verse 5 where he begins this train of thought. He says, those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. Now, that's kind of his theme statement of what he's going to discuss for the next part of this chapter. And that is a lifestyle that is controlled by the sinful nature as opposed to a lifestyle that is controlled by the Holy Spirit. Okay, it's pretty clear from verse 5, isn't it? That's the contrast he's dealing with here, living by the sinful nature or living by the Spirit. In other words, living a lifestyle that is either controlled by the sinful nature or controlled by the Holy Spirit. So that's the general theme that he begins to develop. But verses 6 through 8, he says, the mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit the God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. So basically what he's saying in those three verses is the unsaved person operates only in the realm of the sinful nature because he doesn't have the Holy Spirit. So that's the only way he can live. So he operates solely in that realm and thus that person cannot please God because the sinful nature cannot please God. But Paul expands on this contrast again in verses 9 through 11, he says, you however, talking to believers, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your Spirit is alive because of righteousness and the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you. He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who lives in you. So in these verses he's making this contrast between the believer who has the Holy Spirit lives in that realm and not the realm of the flesh or the sinful nature and therefore has the capacity to please God and to live in a godly way that honors and glorifies the Lord. Now notice how he draws this contrast together in verses 12 and 13. He says, therefore brothers, we have an obligation but it is not to the sinful nature to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature you will die but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body you will live. So it's clear he's talking about this living in the realm of the Spirit, living by the Spirit. It's equivalent to putting to death the deeds of the sinful nature so that we live a lifestyle that's pleasing to God and he tags onto the end of that verse 14. Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. So the context basically shows the context basically shows that this being led by the Spirit because it comes right at the end and summarizes all of these talked about between this battle of the Spirit and the flesh. The led by the Spirit obviously is the Holy Spirit's motivating us and enabling us to live righteously, to live godly, to put to death the deeds of the flesh, not to live under the domination of the sinful nature anymore but live under the control of the Holy Spirit thus demonstrating that we are the sons of God. That we share his likeness where his children. So in this passage being led by the Spirit the context says nothing about making a decision in a business meeting or anything like that. It's not talking about direction as far as making decisions it's talking about the way you live. It's talking about whether or not you live to gratify the sinful nature or whether or not you live in a way that glorifies God. And being led by the Spirit is the same as living in the realm of the Spirit being controlled by the Spirit. That's what being led by the Spirit is talking about here. Okay. Questions, comments. I've been talking too much and too fast. No questions? Okay, everybody's either thoroughly confused or thoroughly on the same page. I hope it's the latter. The whole realm of making decisions that are pleasing to God. Yes, I believe it does. But the whole realm of making decisions is a little broader than just living by the Spirit. A person can be living by the Spirit under the control of the Spirit, that normal progressive filling of the Spirit that we talked about a couple weeks ago. A person can be doing that and have several valid options of choices to make and any of those options could be pleasing to God. It's not like one of them is the only thing if I make if I make any other decision I'm out of the will of God. There may be any option that God has given us that fits within his moral will. It's not in violation with his word. It can be a good option. So I can trust God to give me wisdom to make that decision. Yes, but it's not like, okay, I know if I'm walking in the Spirit, I will make the one choice that is absolutely right. I have several options I can choose from possibly. Yeah, the only decision a believer should make would be among the options that please God. For instance, let me just use a simple illustration. There may be four great Bible colleges or Christian universities that a young person could go to. And it's not that any one of them is morally inferior to the other. They're all seeking to please God, teach the word of God, and that person could go to any one of those and please God. The decision needs to be made on other basis. It needs to be made on the basis of other factors. Just list the pros and cons and make the best decision. Why is this decision? You can't trust God and his sovereignty to put you in the right place. I think that's the way we make decisions. By the way, this whole decision making thought is really fleshed out in depth in a book that I've mentioned many times here at Johnson Chapel. Decision making in the will of God by Gary Friesen. So book written, I think in 1981, I got it when it first came out, read it, revolutionized my view of how to think and pray about the will of God. But what I've just described for you basically is the view he clearly pulls out of Scripture. Walt, that's wise. Any college you go to, there will be one or two professors that would impact your life and that's so true. The leading of the Spirit here is not, I need to know the mind of God in this decision. The leading of the Spirit here is, I'm going to put the death, the sins of my sinful nature. I'm not going to live that way. I'm going to live righteously in Godly. People who do that, Paul says, are being led by the Spirit. So it's very close to, if not equivalent to, that normal progressive filling of the Spirit that we talked about, where we are under his control. So that's the leading of the Spirit here. Let's look at the other occasion where that expression is used, Galatians 5.18. And this is going to sound very familiar. Galatians 5.18 says, but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. So here again, this expression, led by the Spirit. What is that talking about? Well, the only way to find out for sure is to look at the verses around it, to get the flow of thought, understand what Paul's talking about. You don't just rip one verse out and then read into it, whatever you want to read into it. Paul has already told us what he's talking about. So let's go back and see. Look back at verse 16. So I say, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Boy, that sounds a lot like Romans 8, doesn't it? It is. It's the same thing. He's talking about living in this lifestyle that is under the control of the Holy Spirit. When you do that, then you will not gratify the desires of your sinful nature. Then he goes on to talk about the battle that's taking place in the life of every believer in our hearts, minds, wills, every part of us. This battle taking place for 17 for the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit. And the Spirit, what is contrary to the sinful nature, they are in conflict with each other. Literally, hand-to-hand combat is the Greek word, their hand-to-hand combat. Then in the trenches fighting intense hand-to-hand combat. They are in conflict with each other. So that you do not do what you want. But if you're led by the Spirit, you can see in the context he's going back to living in the Spirit, not fulfilling the desires of the flesh. So what does it mean to be led by the Spirit? It means to live in the Spirit, to be controlled by the Spirit. Then in verse 25, he will use another term, walk in the Spirit or as in our He translates it, let us keep in step with the Spirit. And basically that means your lifestyle is in step with the Holy Spirit. You're going the way he wants you to go. You're living a godly lifestyle. So these three terms are interchangeable, lived by the Spirit, walk in step with the Spirit, being led by the Spirit. And he flashes this out more by talking about what it will look like if you're living by the sinful nature verses 19 to 21. And it is an ugly picture. All the different things that will take place in your life if you're not walking with the Lord. But if you're living by the Spirit, if you are walking in the Spirit, if you are led by the Spirit, this is what your life will look like, verses 22 and 23. The fruit of the Spirit. So it's clear. I mean abundantly clear, in this passage, the fruit of the Spirit is talking about character qualities. The acts of the sinful nature are talking about negative character qualities. So the whole point here of being led by the Spirit is whether or not you're living a lifestyle that is pleasing to God. You're living under the control of the Holy Spirit, not under the control of the sinful nature. Again, we're not talking about any direct supernatural voice revelation from God that tells you what to do and the person who's disagreeing with you is obviously outside the will of God. Now talking about that, he's talking about living a godly lifestyle. In Bible times, did God lead directly people by the Spirit? Yes, of course he did. And that's where we get off track again is many people go to those instances to prove that I can be led by the Spirit in the same way. So they go to instances like Philip being led by the Holy Spirit to the chariot of the Ethiopian Unic in Acts chapter 8. Or they go to the experience of Paul being the way into Asia Minor being closed by the Spirit of God and directly led through the Holy Spirit to Macedonia to take the gospel in a different direction. But think carefully about those now in both of those situations and in every other situation like that where there is a direct supernatural leading personal leading of the Holy Spirit, it is always some kind of supernatural revelation through a dream or a vision or a miracle or an audible voice from heaven. Those were supernatural miraculous things that God did in the first century because the word of God was not yet complete. Part of the signs of the apostles, if you will. So I don't think we're to expect the same thing today. I'm not ruling it out. I'm not saying God can't do those things. God can do whatever he wants to do. But I'm saying that's not normative. That's not the way God would normally work. And that's certainly not what the Bible is talking about in these two passages when it talks about the leading of the Spirit. He's not talking about some voice from heaven, dream, vision, supernatural, direct revelation from God. There's nothing of that in either of these contexts. It's all about living a godly lifestyle, living a lifestyle that is not gratifying the desires of the sinful nature, but is following God, obedient to him, submissive to him, yielded to him. That's living by the Spirit, walking by the Spirit. That's being led by the Spirit. Okay, it's all the same thing. So, you know, a lot of times when we get in these controversies about who's being led by the Spirit, it's just two guys who are disagreeing with each other. Let's just call it what it is. It's not that one of them is being led by the Spirit, one of them is not if both of them were living godly lifestyles in a biblical sense, they're both being led by the Spirit. They're just got a disagreement on a decision. So, you know, if that's God, help us make the wisest decision. But led by the Spirit, see, what I'm trying to get away from is that using that as a spiritual club to beat other people over the head with. And so, I know I'm right because I've got the leading of the Spirit on this. Oh, really? It's not what the Bible's talking about. Okay? Comments, questions on this concept before we move to the next little bit of heresy. I'll give you tonight. Yeah, yeah. I agree, John. I mean, exactly. It would be better either just to keep it between you and God or just not use that terminology altogether. It would be more fair. It would be more honest. It would be more biblical if we just said, you know, I think this is the right thing, but I can't be sure. That would be the thing to do. And let's just get that out on the table and admit our weakness. Sometimes there's an issue of spiritual pride here with folks. They have to be seen as making the right decisions because they have this special hand of God on them and he's leading their every step. And that becomes an issue of spiritual pride. I don't want to be seen as ever being wrong. And so I claim the leading of the Spirit from our decisions. Come on, let's just be honest. The leading of the Spirit means that I'm walking in step with him, living a godly life. I'm going to make some wrong decisions. I'm going to make some right decisions. I want to trust God to give me wisdom to make the right decisions, but I'm not going to do it all the time. And none of us are. And so let's just be honest with that and live with that and go on. Seek to please the Lord with our lifestyle. Other comments there on or questions on the leading of the Spirit. Okay, there are a couple of verses that talk about the teaching of the Spirit. And this is very similar to the leading of the Spirit. It gets used in a lot of the same ways about the Holy Spirit teaching me this or that or the other. And so let's take a look at the passages that talk about the teaching of the Spirit, the promises that the Holy Spirit will teach us or guide us in truth. You see the two on your outline tonight, John 14 verse 26 is the first one. Jesus is in the upper room with the 11 apostles, 11 disciples by now Judas is already left. And he says, but the counsel of the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Now, can I claim that to say the Holy Spirit will teach me everything I need to know personally directly and remind me of everything in the Bible? Well, again, context rules. Jesus is in the upper room speaking to the 11 disciples, instructing them as to what they will experience and their ministry will be. He's primarily referring to the apostles and what he's saying directly to them. It's not that none of this applies to us. It does. And you know when we were going through this passage in the Sunday morning series on John, there was a lot of practical application here. But in this type of statement, Jesus is making clear to them that the Holy Spirit would bring back to their memories the things that he had told them in his ministry. The things he had taught them so that for instance, Matthew would be able to record in the Gospel of Matthew the sermon on the Mount. Because he remembered it verbatim, not on his own, the Holy Spirit brought it back to his mind. This has to do, I believe, with the disciples being given the ability to remember everything Jesus taught them so that the application at least is so that they would be able to record it in the New Testament in an inspired way under the direction of the Holy Spirit. But he's going to misunderstand this next statement. Jesus has not said anything to me. And he hasn't to you either. You did not walk with him in the three and a half years of his ministry. And that's what he's talking about. He's talking about verse 25. All this I have spoken while still with you. It's in that context. He's talking about the things he talked with them about face to face while they were here together on earth. He says you're not going to be able to remember all those things. So verse 26, the Holy Spirit will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. So in the sense Jesus is talking about, Jesus has not said anything to me and he hasn't to you either because we didn't walk with him in the three and a half years of his ministry. And that's what he's talking about here. Now does Jesus speak to me? Yes. Does he speak to you? Yes. How? Through the Word of God. If I go beyond that, then I'm opening the door to new revelation that I put on an equal par with the Word of God. And that is dangerous theology. That's what the cults do. They basically can then devise any doctrine they want to because God told them. So in the context and the real interpretation of this passage, he's talking to the apostles about the Holy Spirit reminding them of the things that Jesus told them about when he was with them during the three, three and a half years of his ministry. That's really specifically what he's talking about. Now is there any application to me? Of course there is. The Holy Spirit reminds me and teaches me the things that they recorded. So remember we talked about this earlier. If there's application to us in this passage, it basically has to do with illumination, not revelation, not getting new truth, not being taught new things directly from God, but illumination. The ability to be able to understand what I'm reading in the scriptures or to be able to call to mind in an occasion where I need it, a passage of scripture. That's that that the Holy Spirit does do for us, but that's not outside the bounds of scripture. So yes, we can apply it to us for sure, but understand the meaning is for the disciples to be reminded of the things Jesus had said to them in his ministry. It's even more clear that this is talking about divine revelation, revealing truth to them so that they could write it down the book of scripture in chapter 16, chapter 16, verses 12 through 15. He says, I have much more to say to you more than you can now bear. So there's a lot more information that you need to hear from me, but you can't handle it all right now. So here's the deal, verse 13. When he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. Notice these terms of God revealing his truth. The Holy Spirit is now speaking. He's not speaking on his own. He will speak only what he hears and he will tell you what is yet to come. Verse 14, he will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All the belongs to the Father's mind. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. Three times he uses Greek words that have to do with unveiling or revealing truth. The first one is in verse 13, where at the end he says he will tell you. And then in verses 14 and 15, at the end of both verses, making known to you. Those three expressions are all translated by the same word in the King James. He will show you, show you. And the idea really is, new revelation from God. The Holy Spirit will make something known to you. And again, in the context, he's talking to the twelve disciples, the eleven, the apostles, about the things that God will reveal to them so that they can then obviously record them accurately. And we have the books of the New Testament as a result. So again, if there's application to us, and I believe there is, it's that the Holy Spirit will help me to understand and apply to my life the things that they recorded in the Scripture. But I cannot use these verses to teach that I have a direct line to God that you don't have. So the Holy Spirit teaches it and reveals things, makes things known to me that you better listen to. That makes me a little pope running around here on earth. And that is not what these passages are talking about. If it applies to me, it's in the sense that I can better grasp and understand the Holy Spirit will help me to understand and remember the things that I see in the Scriptures. And apply them to my life and heart. So the teaching of the Spirit, does the Spirit teach us? Yes, He teaches us by way of illuminating the Word, helping us to understand better the Word of God. That's the ministry of the teaching of the Spirit. Questions, comments. Okay, this next one, the anointing of the Spirit is one that we already dealt with when we talked about the illumination of the Spirit. So I'm just going to briefly review this one. Remember back in 1 John 2, we're not going to spend much time on this one. But in 1 John 2, He talks about the anointing of the Spirit and He mentions it a couple times. Verse 20, verse 2, 20 says, but you have an anointing from the Holy One and all of you know the truth. And then verse 27, as for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you and you do not need anyone to teach you. Remember we talked about the fact that's not saying you don't need any human teachers or He wouldn't have used John. Or He wouldn't have said so much in the New Testament about the gift of teaching or talked about past of teachers. He's not saying you don't need any teachers. We'll see what He's saying in just a moment. He says, you don't need anyone to teach you, but as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit just as it has taught you, remain in Him. Now remember again, the context here is He is warning them about false teachers. He begins that back in verse 18. Dear children, this is the last hour. Just as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, that one individual who will lead the Mass rebellion against the Lord in the last days, he says, even now many Antichrists have come. So the Antichrist is Antichrist with a capital A, the beast of Revelation, the Antichrist who will be in the tribulation time. But the many Antichrists are Antichrists with little A, they are people who are false teachers. He goes on to describe them. This is how we know that is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. If they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but they're going to show that none of them belonged to us. They were really not one of us. They were identified with us. They called themselves Christians, but they're false teachers. Verse 21, he says, I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the Antichrist. He denies the Father and the Son. So he's talking about false teachers here. And the anointing of the Spirit that he's talking about is in contrast to being swept away by these false teachers. He describes these Antichrists in verses 18 and 19. Then he says in verse 20, but in contrast to these false teachers who've left us, because they weren't really one of us, but you have an anointing from the Holy One and all of you know the truth. So this anointing has to anoint the truth. And we talked about earlier the fact that the anointing of the Spirit really has to do with the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life, which gives me the ability to sniff out error and distinguish error from truth. A lot of times when we hear the anointing of the Spirit, we hear that term in our circles. We're talking about the power of the Spirit. People talk about, do you have the anointing or you need the anointing of the Spirit, and they're talking about the power of the Spirit. That's not what this is talking about. This is talking about the very presence of the Holy Spirit in my life that helps me to distinguish truth from error because in verse 27, he describes very clearly this is not something that comes on you, the power of the Spirit, like we talked about earlier, the special sovereign, filling of the Spirit. It's not that because he says this remains in you and teaches you about all things. It has to do with teaching. It has to do with understanding the difference between truth and error, and it remains on you because the Holy Spirit remains in us. This is not a power that comes on us and anointing for service. That's not what the anointing of the Spirit is in the New Testament. And back in verse 20, he says, all of you have it. You, plural, have an anointing from the Holy Spirit, and all of you, as a result, know the truth. So whatever the anointing is in this passage, it's not the coming of the Spirit on someone in power to do a particular task, like preach a message or witness to a neighbor. We've already looked at that. That was the special sovereign filling of the Spirit. The anointing of the Spirit is by virtue of the Holy Spirit's presence in my life. It remains. He remains in me. I have the ability to distinguish truth from error. It has to do with understanding truth. That's the anointing. That's what he's talking about here. Okay, so that's kind of a reminder of what we resolve before. It has to do with illumination, understanding, welcoming, accepting the truth of God. Comments or questions there. Okay. You're quiet or tonight than normal? It scares me. Okay. Let's at least start into the fourth one, the assuring of the Spirit, or we might call it the testifying of the Spirit. We just got a couple of minutes, so we'll get started on it at least. Romans 8, verse 16. We've already seen back in verse 14, those who are led by the Spirit of God, our sons of God. In other words, those who are living out of godly lifestyle demonstrate. That's the fruit. That's a demonstration, the evidence that you are a son of God. Now the son of God here, the word son of God has to do with adoption. Because being sons of God means that you are placed into the family and you are a full legal adult heir of God. That's the idea of the son of God has to do with adoption into his family. But then he goes on to save, verse 15, for you did not receive a Spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship and by him. We cry, Abba, Father. Now, verse 16, our verse, the Spirit Himself testifies with our Spirit that we are God's children. This is not sons, this is children. Son is an adopted legal heir. You inherit the name and you inherit the possessions. That was a Roman custom in the first century. And Paul uses that as one of the things that we get by being in the family of God. But this is different. In verse 16, he's talking about being children. This is a natural born child. This is being born into the family, not adopted into the family, but born. And by the way, this is the only family you can get into both ways. It's God's family. You are adopted and born into the family. God does things on a grand scale, doesn't he? So you're also born into his family. And this is so remarkable. What the Holy Spirit is doing here is testifying with our Spirit that we are natural born children of God. And if there is anything in the Scriptures that relates to this kind of a feeling of being prompted, moved by the Spirit, this is it. It's not the leading of the Spirit, but it's the testifying of the Spirit. His communion with our Spirit assuring us that we are God's children. And it's not something you can put your finger on easily. It's really like small children who have that innate understanding of who they belong to. Many of you work in the nursery. You have seen parents come back there and get their kids and there is a little kid playing on the floor. And all of a sudden when that child sees his mommy or his daddy, they just smile and say, oh daddy mommy, they want to crawl over to him or KJ might want to run away. Most of the time they want to go to them. Why? Because there's this innate sense I belong to that person, all those other parents, I don't care about them, but I gravitate toward my mommy, my daddy. That's what we're talking about here. And the Holy Spirit gives this inner testifying this assurance in a lot of different ways. Sometimes it's through his conviction of us when we sin, he convicts us and reminds us we're God's child. Sometimes it's through him comforting us when we're in distress and difficulty and he comforts us. Sometimes it's through prompting us to obey something in the Bible. And so we are prompted in our spirit to do what God tells us to do anyway. There are lots of different ways the Holy Spirit does this. And this really is the personal side of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts to move us, to prompt us, to assure us to comfort us. That's what he's talking about here. It's a beautiful thing. It's really kind of hard to put your finger on specifically, but you know it when it's happening. He's just reminding you that you're one of God's children and you either need to obey him or you need to pray right now, obedience to his word or you need to speak to this neighbor or you're convicted of a sin. That's all this inner testifying of the spirit with your spirit. It's very real. Okay, a couple minutes past date. We need to stop any quick question before we go. Okay, then next week we're going to get to what to me is my favorite of these kind of miscellaneous ministries of the spirit that are not mentioned the whole lot in the Bible. That is how he prays for us. And this is one of the most precious truths in all the Bible, but we got to wait till next week for that. Let's pray.