Is That All There Is to the Spirit's Ministry?, Part 1

For some time now, Chuck Swindoll has been guiding us through a methodical study on God's Spirit called Flying Closer to the Flame. Our objective has been clearly stated to develop a deeper passion for the Holy Spirit and His role in our lives. Doing so will invigorate our spiritual walk as we learn to deploy the power that God has given every believer. While living, Chuck presents the 13th message in his 14-part series that we'll conclude shortly, and he titled his message with a question.

Is that all there is to the Spirit's ministry? So we come to the end of a marvelous series on this intimate Spirit of God. All the way through, I have asked questions. And rather than answering them as methodically and systematically as perhaps you would have wished I would have done or perhaps I wish I could have done, I've simply left the question lingering in your mind because there is something about a good question that does its work, even though there may not be an immediate or solidifying answer.

In fact, I have believed all of my adult life that one of the best ways to get to the right answers is to begin with the right questions. Maybe that's what attracted me to a little book that I was given several weeks ago. It is called Children's Letters to God. It is absolutely disarming.

It is charming. It is full of statements and questions and notes that little children have sent to God. They have been intercepted by this publisher and been put into print, and I have found these questions and statements absolutely delightful. No one can ask a question like a child, can they?

For example, little Lucy asks this question, Dear God, are you really invisible or is that just a trick? Isn't that a good question? Norma asks, Dear God, did you mean for a giraffe to look like that or was that an accident? Dear God asks Nan, one of my favorites, who draws the lines around the countries?

Dear God, I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that okay? Neil asked that question. Lois asks, Dear God, I like the Lord's Prayer best of all. Did you have to write it a lot or did you get it right the first time? Isn't that great? Then she goes on to say, I always have to write over and over to get mine right.

Just wondering if you have that same problem. Joanne, I would like to know why all the things you said are in red. Darla asks, Did you really mean do unto others as they do unto you?

Because if you did, then I'm going to fix my brother. Little Peter writes, God, will you please send Dennis Clark to a different camp this year? Anita asks, Is it true my father won't get in heaven if he uses his bowling words in the house? And on and on the questions go. Haven't you got a few? Don't you wrestle at times with questions that flip through your mind but snag in one of those creases and you can't let go of them? I hope so. I hope you haven't answered all of the questions or you haven't mistakenly convinced yourself you have most of the answers.

I am not nervous about most people, but those I am most nervous about are those who think they have most of the answers. One more from this little book jumped out at me because it sort of ties in with some of the things we've been thinking about in this series on the Holy Spirit. Dear God, how come you did all those miracles in the old days and you don't do any now? Signed by this little child. Even a child realizes there's something different now than in the days when he or she read of them in the scriptures.

Why indeed? I mean anybody who studies the lives of Moses or Elijah or certainly the life of Jesus and witnesses on the pages of this great book, phenomenal events and miraculous occasions and then looks at life today has to say, Dear God, have things ended? Is this the end of the Spirit's era?

Have we reached the end? We have been through a lot of wonderful scenes in our messages together through the scriptures. I did not set out to do a thoroughgoing theology of the Holy Spirit. A lot of that is in print. Much of that has already been taught and taught better than I could ever do it.

Didn't seem necessary to go back over territory that's been covered so well and so thoroughly. And so I have sort of picked my way through the journey and stopped at some back roads and trafficked along the blue highways of our minds and addressed things that very few people, it seemed to me, were addressing. If you have a Bible, look for example at John Chapter 14 over in the New Testament, fourth book, 14th chapter. Jesus is about to leave the earth. He has only a few hours left before the cross and his hands and feet get nailed to pieces of timber and he breathes his last. And having revealed this to the disciples and seen the panic on their faces, he finds it necessary to reassure them that he will not leave them as orphans when he passes beyond this life.

John 14 verse 16. I will ask the Father and he, the Father will give you another helper. See, he's been their helper all along. And when they've needed anything, all they've had to do is say, Jesus, and he would be there, certainly would be near to help. Lord, we weren't able to cast out demons and he says, stand back, let me show you how this is done.

Lord, we reached this impasse and we weren't able to, let me help you with that. He has been their helper. And he says in verse 16, I will give you another helper, another of the same kind, and that he may be with you forever.

No, we haven't reached the end of the Spirit's era. He said he will be with you forever. That is, now he amplifies the name helper by saying, he is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not know him.

Does not behold him, does not know him, but you know him because he abides with you and he will be in you. You've been engaged to him during my earthly ministry, but when I leave, you're going to be married to him. You're going to be one. There's going to be a new relationship. It won't be like dating. It will be like marriage. It won't be like a distant relationship where you go home every night to different places. It'll be an intimacy.

It'll be a oneness. It'll be a harmony so that he will live in you forever. And how that must have thrilled him, he said in the next verse, I will not leave you as orphans. In fact, when he talks about coming back to them, he even links himself with the Spirit so closely.

He says, I will come to you. Look at this 16th chapter. We've looked at these chapters before.

We're sort of reviewing where we were. Verse 16-7, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, this helper, he's back to the same subject, shall not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. We looked at that verse. We studied it. Look at verse 13. When he, the spirit of truth, is calm, he will guide you into all the truth.

What a wonderful thought. When our troopship got to the harbor at Tokyo in 1958, January of 58, the harbor was still mined with underwater mines that were still very much charged. And we watched as our troopship stopped and there got on board a pilot who would lead us through the Yokohama harbor and get us all the way to the land of Japan. And he wormed his way in and through these uncharted waters.

They all looked like the surface of water to us. The distant harbor was right there. And you could have gone straight ahead and been there in a matter of minutes, but it took over an hour for him to work our ship through that harbor. As he guided us right to the place of safety.

And that's the thought here. He will guide you into all the truth. Now he won't speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will disclose to you what is to come. What a great thought. He will show you things that are on the horizon.

So it's to your advantage. So we've discovered that the Spirit of God works deeply and intimately. We have looked at words that are often overlooked by people in our camp, if I may separate us from various Christian groups. We don't say much about the anointing of the Spirit or the unction of the Spirit. We've looked at both. We say little about the healing work of the Spirit. We've looked at length at that. We don't talk much even about the power of the Spirit and we address that in the whole idea of his inner dynamic. We have talked about his filling us with that dynamic and giving us movement and direction and motivation and enthusiasm, passion.

All of that has been a part of the series. And now we come to the final message in the series, which asks this critical question. Have we reached the end of the Spirit's era?

We've already answered. The answer, of course, is no. But since the miracles don't flow as they once did, to use today's terms, and since, in my opinion, as I understand the Bible, the work of the Spirit differs now from the apostolic era, does this mean it's all over? People who do not see these things as we've interpreted them would say, well, you're just throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

It sounds to me like a powerless life. Who would want to live in an era when there are not miracles? I have never said there aren't miracles. I have never said God doesn't heal. And I've certainly never said that there are not evidences of his dynamic and power. Quite the contrary.

I'm just saying that it's a different type and it's in a different volume and intensity. Turn from John to Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. And I'll camp in on a verse or verses that are somewhat controversial. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is, of course, this great chapter on love, the greatest treatise ever written on love. And it helps me understand what has continued and that some things have ceased.

And I don't think we ought to be afraid of saying that. According to this section of 1 Corinthians 13, 8 through 12, there seems to be some weaning away from the miraculous part of the work of the Spirit. And I'll leave the exacting interpretation with each of you, but just listen to the normal reading of the verses, okay?

13, 8. Love never fails. But if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away. If there are tongues, they will cease. If there is knowledge, linking knowledge somehow with the gift of prophecy, or perhaps the gift of wisdom, then it will also be done away. We know in part, we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.

And then he describes it in simple terms that we can all grasp. When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child. But when I grew up, when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

I think what he's getting at is rather obvious. There is a progression of life. And as one goes through the process of living, one leaves things.

One ceases doing things he or she did as a child and participated in as a child. I love the story Donald Barnhouse tells of playing marbles. He used it wonderfully well to illustrate legalism and how that's not the way we handled life as a mature adult. He said when he grew up, he just outgrew marbles. And he said he never remembered as an older teenager or a young adult going to circles of boys playing marbles saying, I don't believe in that. I don't think that's right. He said, I just walked past it thinking I've just outgrown that.

There's not a need for that in my life anymore. There was a period of time when certain things were needed. There wasn't a completed Bible. People were at a loss to know who spoke for God and who didn't. There were charlatans then just as there are now. And there wasn't a completed New Testament to turn to to determine if that person speaks the truth or not or if he's a deceiver or not. And without the scriptures, one was cast on miraculous things to authenticate the spokesman. For example, when a person spoke as a prophet, he spoke ex cathedra and everything he said came true. That's how you knew he was a true prophet.

Deuteronomy teaches that. It wasn't that he hit or miss like a weatherman. Well, tomorrow it's going to rain. Sure is the world.

It's sunny. I've said for years that's the best job security in the world is being a weatherman. You can just say, I was wrong. Now today and then you go on to today and you're wrong about today. But prophets couldn't do that. You know, they stoned prophets for teaching wrong predictions because if you were a prophet of God, you did not make mistakes. You spoke infallibly as the scriptures speak.

But see, there wasn't an infallible Bible. So there was the necessity for prophets. Prophecy would be the direct reception of revelatory information from God to the prophet without error so that he not only received it. Inherently, he spoke inherently. Remarkable gift tied to this gift is the gift of knowledge. One very capable writer has put it this way. Prophecy was a spirit mediated miraculous gift.

Several factors demonstrate this. First, the primary characteristic involved was spirit motivated speech. Centering in direct reception of revelation from God.

Second, supernatural discernment, insight, and knowledge were frequently involved in conveying information that could not have been obtained by ordinary human means. Third, prophecy often involved prediction. Back in early 1970s, I read from one of the so-called modern day prophets that more than one, I quote, more than one third of the United States of America will be designated a disaster area within the next few years. End of prophecy. And that's not been true. That is a lie. And call himself a prophet all he likes, the fact is, his statement is wrong.

Within a few years, one third of America was not designated a disaster area. That's voodoo theology. Frightening work that's done intimidating people within a sphere of ministry. Norm Geisler has written in a work entitled Signs and Wonders, many today claim to be receiving visions, dreams, and revelations from God. The problem is that their quote revelations are not infallible. Some are flatly wrong. But a fallible revelation from God is a contradiction in terms. You get that? A fallible revelation from God.

It's impossible. It's a contradiction of terms. When God speaks, it is without error, and so it was necessary before there was a Bible, while the church was being built, while the foundation was being laid, for there to be gifts like tongues and apostleship and miracles, healings, interpretation of tongues, all essential for authenticating the messengers and establishing the church and propagating the gospel rapidly through the various languages. But Ephesians chapter 2, turn there next, teaches us that there in this progress of revelation, there is a passing of time where some things cease and other things continue. Ephesians 2 verse 19.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household. Now watch closely, verse 20. Having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, we're talking building, temple, built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing, I-N-G, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord in whom also you are being built together into a dwelling of God in the spirit. Drop down to verse 2 of chapter 3. I'm sorry, verse 3, chapter 3. That by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, which as I wrote before in brief. Remember the word mystery, the mystery. And by referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known. This mystery was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the spirit.

He specifies a group. Before the mystery was not known, but now that there are apostles and prophets, the mystery has been unfolded, unveiled, revealed. To be specific, this is the mystery, verse 6. That Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

That's the mystery. It wasn't known in the days of the Old Testament. It came to be known in the first century and was in fact a part of the history of the church. So that Gentiles were included.

There was the inclusion, if you will, of Gentiles with Jews in this wonderful universal body, the body of Christ. It was a new thing. It was a mystery. It was revealed. There is not yet another mystery. That one has been revealed.

It's done. It ceased being a secret. It's known. And it's all been made known in that era when those things were revealed. And I think Ephesians 2 and 3 in those passages I have referred to set forth the idea of apostleship and prophecy as a period of time when these things were necessary and needed. Whereas now there isn't the necessity to reveal further mysteries.

The mysteries that are to be known are set forth in the scriptures. What continues then? All the things we've been talking about. Don't think you'll be short-changed because you believe that certain things cease or have run their course and played their role.

By the way, this is a real good time for me to build up the body rather than help tear it down. The enemy loves to get sidetracked on issues like this. So that we begin to refer to various people in the body of Christ as them as opposed to us. Try your best not to put those words in your vocabulary. Try to see that we're all in the same family.

We just see things a little differently. Well, we're just midway through a message from Chuck Swindoll. This is sermon number 13 in a 14-part series on the Holy Spirit called Flying Closer to the Flame. To learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit us online at insightworld.org. Before we close out our time together, I want to remind you that every Sunday, Inside for Living is privileged to present a live worship service from Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas, where Chuck serves as senior pastor. The sermon that Chuck presents on Sunday mornings doesn't run parallel with our current series on Inside for Living, so it's material you've never heard before. Plus, the live stream includes congregational singing and sacred music as well, so you get to participate in the entire worship experience.

For all the details on the live webcast, go to insight.org slash Sundays. And then if you're looking for reading material to deepen your walk with God, we'd like to recommend a classic from Chuck titled Growing Deep in the Christian Life. Whether you're a new follower of Jesus or have been a Christian for decades, Chuck's book will help you grasp the major theological doctrines that define our faith. Look for the book called Growing Deep in the Christian Life when you go to insight.org slash store. Or ask for the book when you call us.

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Our goal is to create special moments when you deepen your love for the Bible and draw closer to your Lord. Experience an unforgettable 12-day tour to Israel with Chuck Swindoll and Insight for Living Ministries, March 5th through the 16th, 2023. To help you grasp the significance of each site, you'll be accompanied by handpicked Israeli guides. And we choose the best along with seminary trained pastors and professors to enhance your spiritual journey. No organization I know of offers this level of exceptional, in-depth instruction and personal care for Holy Land travelers.

To learn more, call 1-888-447-0444. Just imagine walking along sacred sites and watching the Bible come to life. Make your reservation by calling 1-888-447-0444 or go to insight.org slash events. Insight for Living Ministries Tour to Israel is paid for and made possible by only those who choose to attend. I'm Bill Meyer, inviting you to join us when Chuck Swindoll's study called Flying Closer to the Flame continues, Monday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Is That All There Is To The Spirit's Ministry?, was copyrighted in 1993 and 2003, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2003 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.