Prayer and the Place of the Holy Spirit in Scripture
“We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lords glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
I Corinthians 3:13-18
Jesus opened the way for personal communication with God. The forgiveness he won allows his Holy Spirit to enter our lives and transform us (Scripture). The Spirit also acts as a guide and teaches us truth. The information that the Spirit offers us will never contradict what God has already spoken. This is why the Scriptures can be used to test the messages we believe we may have received from the Spirit.
On the face of it, the Scriptures themselves are little more than ink printed on paper. They have authority because God has proven that Jesus is his unique Son through raising him from the dead. It is God (The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) that gives the bible its authority. The Scriptures do not prove God. God proves the Scriptures. The Scriptures guide us toward God, but it is the quest of faith that leads to the personal encounter with Jesus that leads to faith and liberation.
God has chosen to speak to us through Scriptures. There is a depth there that cannot be exhausted through a lifetime of study and study skills alone will never reveal the Scriptures’ full depth. The Holy Spirit illuminates our study. This means that God speaks to us prophetically through the bible. Bible study is a conversation with God. It requires study skills because it is a work of the mind, but it is more. Bible study is also an act of prayer. We should prepare for it by asking God to make us receptive and to help us to understand what is written. We need to also ask God to transform our character as we read about his character. We should also be seeking specific guidance about how to apply what we are learning into our own lives.
Bible study should not only begin and end in prayer but seen as an act of prayer. We are opening ourselves up to God. We don’t want to write our views into Scripture; we want God to write himself into our hearts.