THOMAS: Clearly, first of all, the Holy Spirit, and I can say, speaks to us through His Word.
So, He illuminates Scripture to us. He is the Author of Scripture
and He illuminates Scripture to us. And, I think, the more we know Scripture, the more
we think about it, the more we memorize it, the more we repeat it to ourselves, yes, that is the
voice of the Holy Spirit. So, what the Bible says, God says. What the Bible says, the Spirit says.
But I think we can go a little further than that because we also think that the Holy Spirit
guides us and directs us through the advice of others, through reasoning, through
asking ourselves, "What is the significant weightiness of A, B, C, and D?"
I think the Spirit certainly works within the realm of our affections and can cause us to
love one thing more than another or love someone more than another. So, all of those I would say
are aspects in which the Holy Spirit speaks to us, but I don't think the Spirit speaks to us with
like a voice in my head that psychologically I can hear. That probably has gone too far.
GODFREY: And I very much agree with that. I think we would want to make a distinction
that we have absolute certainty that the Holy Spirit has spoken and is speaking in the Bible,
whereas these other ways in which I think the Spirit does move and act and
guide, we don't have the same level of certainty that loving A rather than B
is the work of the Spirit, rather than just the work of me. So, that's a distinction that
needs to be made. And I think that's where some Christians have gotten in trouble
assuming that these more subjective workings of the Spirit are as definite and certain as the
more objective work of the Spirit in the Scripture.
PARSONS: Yeah, there is so much to talk about on this
subject. I think the way the question is asked, the answer simply is
no, because of the word "tell me things." I think the word that you're using, the word
that you're describing is "the Spirit guides," "the Spirit illumines," "the Spirit informs."
THOMAS: Informs? What about "nudges"?
GODFREY: I like "nudges," "helps."
THOMAS: “Prompts.”
GODFREY: See, we don't always have to agree with one another.
PARSONS: I think we do need to be very careful that we do not
limit what the Holy Spirit can do when God doesn't give us those very particular
limits. You know, there's so much in Acts where, you know, "You don't need to worry about what
you say; the Holy Spirit is going provide it to you." Well, again, that's apostolic time,
but there are amazing testimonies of what the Spirit has done throughout history and how He has
illumined people through the truth of His Word, grounded in His Word, never contrary to His Word.
I think that's the most important thing that the Spirit would never guide us in anything,
illumine us in any way to believe or think on something or do something that would be contrary
to His specially revealed Word.