Praying Like Jesus: Learning the priority and power of prayer

Mark 1:35 "In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there." 

When we learn to pray like Jesus, we note how often He enjoyed spending time alone with His heavenly Father.  Almost from the onset of Jesus' ministry we find Him setting the pattern for His busy three and one half year ministry. At times Jesus would be in the seeming height of business and suddenly drop everything to go and pray. Luke 4:42 notes: "When day came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place; and the crowds were searching for Him, and came to Him and tried to keep Him from going away from them." Success and popularity followed Jesus wherever he went in those early stages of His work. Many people would look for such opportunities to grab the spotlight and sway the masses - but not our Lord. Luke notes in Luke 5:15-16 "But the news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16 But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray."

The true source of Jesus' strength was not the crowds, but the time He had with the Father.  Though Jesus ever remained fully God, yet He chose not to utilize the benefits that come with being fully Divine, but rather chose in His humanity to rely upon the One who had sent Him. Luke 9:18 reveals: "And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the people say that I am?”  Jesus ever retained the understanding of Who He was and Whose He was.  His prayer life was so powerful and persistent that his disciples requested a lesson from Him on prayer. Luke 11:1-4 records for us the incident: "It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” 2 And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. 3 ‘Give us each day our daily bread.  4 ‘And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.’ "

Points of Application: As we draw today's post on praying like Jesus to a close - we can glean two points of application from Jesus prayer-life. First, Jesus prioritized the tasks of life around His prayer-life and by His prayer-life.  Too often we reverse the order and say to ourselves: "I'll pray later" or "I'll pray when my schedule gets better". Jesus shows us that life's busyness never recedes - and that time with the Father regulates all we do.  Secondly, Jesus public ministry was regulated by His prayer-life. A man's ability to influence men for God will never exceed how much the man is influenced by God in prayer. Jesus' prayer-life was saturated by the Father's presence - which is why He wielded such power to shape and mold the world around Him. Jesus demonstrates both the priority of prayer by how eager He was to spend time with the Father.  May you and I dear friend take to heart these lessons from the Master. 

Jesus Parables 101: Why did Jesus Tell Parables?

Matthew 13:10  "And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”

Introduction and Review

In yesterday's post we considered what a parable is and how to interpret them.  In today's post we want to consider why He told parables.

The question is asked and Jesus' answer

After telling the parable of the soils in Matthew 13:1-9, the disciples ask Jesus this question: “Why do You speak to them in parables?” In the answer Jesus gives in Matthew 13:10-17 we can glean four reasons why Jesus told parables:

1. Instruct true believers. 13:10-12

Jesus states in Matthew 13:10-12 "Jesus answered them,“To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12 For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him." Parables are amazing in that they give an arena in which Sovereignty can work to bring about a response and human responsibility can reject. Those to whom the message is intended (i.e the disciples and those whom Jesus is looking to reach) will get it.  They already have it in them to come to the truth.  For others, they are too busy, or distracted or some other excuse, resulting in them not "getting" what Jesus is teaching.  True believers will get the parables, and act on what Jesus is saying.  Notice now a second reason why He chose to tell parables....

2. To fulfill Prophecy. Matthew 13:13-15

Jesus saw Himself fulfilling the prophecy that He quotes in Isaiah 6:10. In Isaiah's prophecy God had given him a mission to preach to people in Israel.  Not everyone was going to believe and it was going to be a very hard ministry.  However the value of Isaiah's task did not lay in the response but rather in the One who sent Him.  Furthermore, God's Sovereign purposes included having a remnant known to Him in whom He would work. Though most would reject Isaiah's message of their own genuine choice, the message had an intended target. Jesus saw Himself fulfilling prophecy, indicating that as Messiah, He was to proclaim the Kingdom in parables. These same verses leads us to the third reason why Jesus told parables...

3. To sift out make-believers. Matthew 13:13-15

In Jesus' ministry, as well as the church today, there is always a mixture of true believers and make believers.  In the same 13th chapter of Matthew Jesus describes such a mixture as "wheat" (true believers, those who possess genuine faith) and make-believers (false believers or merely "professors of faith"). The remarkable reality of the parables was that a typical crowd could hear the same parable and yet give different responses.  Anyone who walked away from Jesus or who failed to take in what He was giving them was to blame.  Yet for those who did take in what Jesus was saying, God's work of Sovereign grace was to be credited.  Parables uniquely and remarkably preserve that tension we often times see in scripture between God's Sovereignty and human responsibility. Sifting out the "genuine" from the "phonies" was one of the purposes of the parables. Now notice the fourth reason Jesus told parables...

4. Harvest more true believers. Matthew 13:16-17

We read in Matthew 13:16-17 "But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."  Jesus undoubtedly was speaking mainly to his inner circle of disciples.  However for those who had been so affected by Jesus words, for those who had it in them to take what Jesus said to heart - He is essentially saying: Come! Follow Me! Notice three key words in Matthew 13:16-17 that describes for us a heart operating in true saving faith: "see"; "hear" and "desired". When anyone hears the words of God and they are affected by what they hear, no one will be able to drive them away.  The supernatural grace of God brings about a response.  That person is set free and they have it "in them" to take to heart and act out what Jesus is saying.  They not only hear and see but desire to hear and see more.  

Conclusion:

So why did Jesus tell parables? As we saw today, four reasons: 1). Instruct true believers 2). Fulfill prophecy 3). Sift out make-believers and 4). Harvest True Believers .

Jesus' parables 101: What are parables and how do you understand them

Matthew 13:10 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”

Introduction:

In today's post we aim to introduce the reader to the parables of Jesus and some practical tips to studying and applying them.  Below we will simply walk our way through today's post by asking a series of questions that will introduce the reader to this fascinating subject of the parables of Jesus.

1. What is a parable?

 The most fundamental meaning of the term "parable" as to do with taking a known idea, principle, experience or story and placing it alongside a spiritual truth or principle in order to shed light on that spiritual concept. The simple diagram below illustrates what is literally meant by the term "parable":

----------------------spiritual truth--------------------

____common experience, story, illustration__

Quite literally the term "parable" comes from two Greek terms: "para" meaning "alongside" and "ballo" meaning "to throw, cast".  When combined together, the term describes someone like Jesus taking a known thing and "casting it up alongside" and otherwise unknown spiritual truth that needs illuminated to the listener. 

Some Bible teachers estimate that in upwards of 30% of Jesus' teaching was in the form of parables.1  We discover over 50 parables of all different forms told by Jesus in the pages of the four Gospels. This tells us that in studying the parables, and understanding how Jesus unfolded truths to His listeners, we can gain insight into the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  By studying them we can glean important insights into areas such as salvation, practical everyday Christian life, the Kingdom, the supernatural realm, bringing glory to God and relating to other people.

2. How do we understand the parables?   

As we come to the parable of the soils in Matthew 13:1-23, Jesus gives us the key to understanding His parables.  As a matter of fact the parallel passage in Mark 4:13 actually has Jesus saying: "And He said to them, 'Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?" Now we are not going to focus on interpreting the parable of the soils exclusively in today's post, however Jesus indicates that the parable itself functions to unlock the answer to two major questions: how are we to understand them and why Jesus spoke in parables. We will first of all look at the simple method for interpreting Jesus' parables as gleaned from Matthew 13:1-23 and other passages.

a. Observe the setting of the parable.

In Jesus' parable of the Sower the setting features a sower or a farmer, seed and different types of soils.  Consulting a good Bible Dictionary or a good Study Bible with study notes can enable the reader to begin understanding the imagery of many of Jesus' parables. Resources such as J. Dwight Pentecost's "The Parables of Jesus" notes: Since wheat was a staple of the diet in Palestine, the procedure of raising wheat would had been very familiar to the Lord's hearers. In preparation for sowing the seed, the ground was cleared of all old growth. This caused the entire field to look the same. The sower had no idea of what roots or rocks lay beneath the surface soil. The soil was not plowed as is done today, but rather the seed was broadcast by the sower on the surface of the soil. The seed was then scratched into the soil with a primitive wooden plow. The sowing was done before the early rains that caused the seed to germinate. The sower waited through the growing period for the coming of the latter rains that brought the grain to full fruition and thus provided a bountiful harvest."2 Such background information will ensure the reader that they are getting to the intended meaning meant by Jesus and a better understanding of what He is communicating.

b. Find the key point of the parable.

Parables by and large are designed to communicate one main idea, principle or truth, however there will be those parables that are composed of multiple parts, requiring each part to be interpreted.  Jesus' parable of the soils is told by Jesus in Matthew 13:1-9, with His own interpretation of it given in 13:18-23. Clearly there is more than one part to the parable, however there is at the same time one overall theme, namely the different patterns we see in how people hear and understand the Word of God (compare Matthew 6:23). Bible scholar Simon J. Kistemaker reminds us: Althought it is generally true that a parable teaches only one basic lesson, this rule should not be pressed too far. Some of Jesus' parables are complex in composition. Later he writes: Moreover, in Jesus' parables it is not the beginning of the story but the end that is important."3

c. Cross reference of scriptures to see how the parable connects you to other parts of the Bible.

Jesus' telling of this parable of the soils in Matthew 13 ought to be compared to His telling of it in Mark 4:3-8 and Luke 8:5-8. Such cross comparison can enable the reader to understand the nuances of Jesus' parables. In the case of the parable of the soils, which is all about explaining how various people understand and hear God's Word, unlocking more difficult passages such as the warning sections of Hebrews 6 and 10 can aid the reader's understanding.  Over time the parables can provide a window in which to see the broader unity of the Word of God. In seeing the bigger picture of God's truth, we can then come back to the parable itself and have an even better understanding.

d. Live out the main point or teaching(s) of the parable

It is obvious that the reason why parables begin in the realm of the known and proceed to the unknown is to get the listener to bring spiritual truths to bear in everyday life. As James notes in James 2:26 "For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead."  In studying the parables, the reader or listener or preacher is able to cloth spiritual and oftentimes abstract principles in the garments of everyday life.  Ordinary life is where God would have us to live out extraordinary lives for His glory. 

Tomorrow we will consider why Jesus told parables.....

Endnotes:

1. Simon Kistemaker. The Parables - Understanding the Stories that Jesus Told. Baker. 2002. Page 10 

2. J. Dwight Pentecost.  The Parables of Jesus.  1982. Kregel. Page 46.

3. Simon Kistemaker. The Parables - Understanding the Stories that Jesus Told. Baker. 2002. Page 11

Practical tips on fasting

Luke 2:36-38 "And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem."

Introduction to fasting

In the New Testament alone we find reference to fasting nearly 30 times.  In the first mention of fasting here in Luke 2:37 we find a woman by the name of Anna, a prophetess who according to the text, had been married but seven years and then was widowed to her 84th year.  Anna's name in the original language means "grace" and so here was a woman who leaned upon grace and lived by the grace of God in keeping with her namesake.  So much more could be said about this precious lady but for now we hasten to the main point of today's post - practical tips on fasting. 

Fasting is simply abstaining from any for of normal everyday sustaining pleasure (chiefly food, but could also be electronics or anything one typically draws strength or joy) for the sake of finding increased sustaining pleasure in God. Out of all the spiritual disciplines of the Christian life, fasting is perhaps the least practiced and least understood. It is probably fair to say that our generation of the church is the first generation to not practice fasting as a widespread general pattern. 

Sometimes it is best to introduce a subject not widely known or talked about in the realm of the practical. How does one start? How long should a fast be? How do people know when to fast, when to start one and when to end? The following are practical tips that I suggest and have learned over the years of fasting.  They are not meant to be exhaustive, but rather provide a starting point to help people to begin thinking about the practice, and hopefully to perhaps try it out for themselves.  I hope you find them helpful and perhaps interesting enough to begin making fasting a regular part of your life.

1. Begin small.  

Much like any physical or spiritual discipline (of which fasting is both), you begin small.  Begin with a meal, then branch out to two meals, then three meals.  

2. Remember, water is your friend in a fast. When I am beginning a fast, I try to drink as much water as I can.  The key to keeping focused in any fast is by drinking slowly, frequently and continuously.  Sipping on your water is the preferred method.  As you drink your water, the stomach's hunger pangs will be dulled and your body will be replenished.  

3. Juices can be good companions as well in a fast.

A total fast of just drinking water is one way of doing a fast. It represents the ideal method and should be considered when doing longer fasts. But for starting out I would suggest fruit juice. Like tip #2, sip, sip, sip! I normally will buy half-gallon sizes of juice, perferrably not from concentrate.  Avoiding sugary drinks will enable you to have less severe hunger pangs.

4. Make the pursuit of God you main goal

Passages such as Matthew 6:33 tell us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. When entering into any fast, whether it be a short one (one meal) or longer, seeking the Lord is the north pole of fasting.  As you enter into the fast, the Holy Spirit by the scriptures will begin to shed light on specifics. 

5. What are some areas that fasting targets

The aim of fasting is to shift your dependance upon the Lord.  The Holy Spirit dwells your heart or human spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:11-12; 3:16). Your soul, the "you", contains the human spirit and is the sum of your mind, emotions and will.  The left over sin remnants still resident in the Christian are located in the soul and body, which is the house of the soul and spirit.  Thus you aim in fasting is to have an open Bible and to have the opportunity to pray and seek the Lord in those times you would be eating.  

Our soul and body contain natural impulses or drives that if left unchecked can master us. Eating food and enjoying it is not sinful - since God supplies all our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ and has provided such things for our enjoyment and consumption. (Philippians 4:19). Anything that masters us other than the Lord Jesus Christ has crossed the line from natural drives to becoming quickly sinful or what the Bible calls "carnal" (1 Corinthians 3:1-3). 

In fasting you are aiming to "hear" the Holy Spirit in your human spirit, and learning to recognize His voice as you give yourself to prayer, scripture and obedience.  You are a soul, containing a human spirit and living in and with a body.  As will be explained more below, fasting enables the Christian to get their spirit, soul and body into proper order.

6. Some thoughts on the benefits of fasting
As your stomach growls, you take the time to pray, signalling to God that your are more intrested in feeding on His word and His power than the food your body is craving.  A great verse for remembering the rationale for fasting is 1 Corinthians 6:12 "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered  by anything."

Fasting enables your soul and body to get in line with the Holy Spirit residing in your human spirit. Your body is the Holy Spirit's temple (1 Corinthians 6) and the soul is the arena wherein you live out your Christian walk in making decisions (will), thinking thoughts (mind) and developing feelings or affections for God (emotions). To get all of that into allignment with what the Lord is saying through His word is one of the chief goals in fasting.  

7. Coming out of a fast
As you prepared to go into your fast, there are some things to consider when coming out of one.  First of all, if you went one meal or several days, don't suddenly have a huge meal to try to "make up" for all the food you missed.  Ease back into the normal eating schedule.  Also too remember that in as much as fasting proclaims your dependency upon God more than food, breaking a fast proclaims your dependency upon God in how He supplies your food. Whether going into a fast or coming out of one - the focus is ever to be on the Lord.  

I hope some of these practical tips has piqued your interest in this Biblical practice of fasting.  

P3 The Holy Spirit's work of illumination - putting it all together

Acts 10:28 "And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean."

Introduction:
Yesterday we looked at how the Holy Spirit is the Divine agent of illumination and began exploring how it is that the Apostle Peter was illuminated to the truth of God's redemptive purposes for Cornelius and other God-fearers like him.  In today's post we will continue on our study of Acts 10 and drawing together what the Bible has to say about this crucial ministry of the Holy Spirit - illumination. 

Illumination's work requires repeated exposure to the scriptures. Acts 10:9-13; 14-16.
It is rare for you and I to achieve understanding of a truth from God's word on the first pass.  Often we need multiple exposures to the truths of God's Word before we "get it". Peter is being told to take up and eat all of the animals He was shown.  As a practicing Jew, Peter evoked the passage from Leviticus 11 on God's admonitions on eating clean versus unclean animals.  Peter's understanding was correct, but the way in which He was applying it was out of step with the seismic shift that had occured between Old and New Testaments. He was being told that what defines "clean" and "unclean" is no longer the ritual of the ceremonial law (which was done away with by Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection), but rather God Himself.  Peter of course would not had known that, which is why God showed Him the vision three times. (Acts 10:16)

We can tell Peter is still struggling with all of this due to what we read of him being "perplexed" in 10:17. God used an Old Testament passage (Leviticus 11) and what would in practical terms be the revelation of New Testament truth (Acts 10:9-14) to illuminate to Peter the understanding that Gentiles like Cornelius were becoming the increasing objects of God's Divine working and salvation. Over a period of days Peter is wrestling and waiting to see when and where this illumination of God's truth is going to be applied.  Which leads us to the third main thought about the Spirit's illumination....

Illumination's insights from the Spirit and His word must be applied. Acts 10:17-33
As Peter was mulling over what God had shown Him, the men who had been sent by Cornelius to Peter arrived. As Peter went with them, we see him arriving at Cornelius' house in Acts 10:24-33, with Cornelius explaining to Peter how an angel of God had dealt with him and prepared him for what would be Peter's representation of the Gospel. Clearly Peter was still nervous and somewhat unsure, nonetheless it was time to act out and apply what the Spirit of God has illumined.  1 Corinthians 2:12-13 states "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit,combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words." As the remainder of Acts 10:34-48 shows, Peter preached God's Word to Cornelius and his household.  As the Spirit intended, the outcome was not only salvation but the specific outpouring of Himself upon the other God-fearers who were gathered at Cornelius' house (Acts 10:44-48). 

Unless the Holy Spirit had illumined Peter, such a meeting would not had occured.  How do we know Peter was illumined? We can see that the Agent, the Holy Spirit, was illuminating Peter by several exposures to the revealed truth of God's Word.  This in turn was demonstrated to be the case in Peter's life by how he walked it out.  

Putting it all together - final thoughts on illumination
The chief reason why the Spirit of God illuminates truth to us is for us to walk it out.  For us today, illumination is not the Spirit of God revealing truths never before revealed (which would be revelation). Nor is it obviously new scripture (inspiration).  Rather illumination simply is the Spirit's work taking already completed revelation and inspiration and showing us how to apply it in different settings. In subdividing illumination into the ministries of teaching and guiding, John Walvoord notes: "While the teaching work of the Spirit in this age is directed to make clear the content of the Word of God, guidance is the application of the truths thus known to the individual problems of life."1

Illumination aims to put God's people on the move to fulfilling the will of God illumined to them in the scriptures.  As only the Spirit can do, once the illuminated truth has been worked out in the mind and walked out in the actions, the child of God instinctively knows that they need further light to walk ever further in the things of God.  The Holy Spirit is the Agent, who repeated illumines things to us through God's Word in order to teach and guide us in the application of it. Thanks be to God for the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. 

Endnotes:
1. John Walvoord. The Holy Spirit. 1969. Zondervan. Page 221

P2 The Holy Spirit's work of illumination means He is illumination's Agent

Acts 10:9-14 On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.10 But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; 11 and he *saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, 12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. 13 A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” 

Introduction and review
Yesterday we began considering the ministry of the Holy Spirit to believers that is commonly called "illumination". We briefly defined it as the work He does in enabling believers to observe, interpret and apply the scriptures. We also considered an illustration of illumination as turning the lights on in a building to light the way for people. Then we finished up considering illumination's relationship to four other important teachings regarding the relationship between the Spirit, the scriptures and Christians: revelation, inspiration, canonization and preservation of the Biblical text. Today we continue further by seeing what the work of illumination looks like when it is in action.

The Apostle Peter and the Divine illumination of the Holy Spirit
The Book of Acts and the New testament Epistles fit like hand and glove when it comes to establishing doctrine and practice for the Christian life.  The Acts of the Apostles give us flesh and bone examples of God's New Covenant revelation in Jesus Christ being put to practice.  The New Testament Epistles (most of which were written in the same time frame recorded in Acts) provide much needed explanation and clarification of what is seen in Acts.  With that said, we see in Acts 10 an amazing work of the Spirit in a man's life by the name of Cornelius. 

Cornelius was a leader and commanding officer in the special Roman legion called "The Italian Band" (Acts 10:1). As was becoming more common in those days, Gentiles who were influenced by the teachings of Judaism and revelation of the Old Testament were called "God-fearers".  Such people evidenced piety, appreciation and somewhat sympathy for the plight of the Jews - with Cornelius being a prime example of this group.  No doubt He was devout in a piety and a religious man, but in terms of the Gospel still needing conversion. He is one of the two men we find featured in Acts 10.  We could certainly spend more time on Cornelius' pre-conversion life as told in Acts 10:1-8, but our interest lies of course in the second man featured in this chapter - Peter.

Peter of course was an Apostle to the Jews and the lead spokeman of the Apostles on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Much had occured in the 12-14 months since Pentecost.  History and understanding of God's salvation had shifted from Old Covenant or Old Testament to a New Testament era.  The cross, Christ's resurrection and Pentecost function as the Divine International date line so-to-speak. Much illumination from the Spirit of God was going to be required for men like Peter to make the shift.  Seeing how the Spirit of God worked in his life to be ready for men such as Cornelius instructs us in better understanding the Spirit's work of illumination.  Note the following key thoughts:

Illumination's Agent - The Holy Spirit. Acts 10:13,19,28.
Though we have already pointed this out, it is worth noting again how the Holy Spirit is the Divine agent of illumination. Acts 10:13 describes the Spirit as "a voice" directing Peter to get up, kill and eat the animals he is seeing in His vision.  We know that this "voice" is the voice of the Spirit as seen in Acts 10:19 "While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you." Acts 10:28 further confirms this truth when Peter attributes the revealer and explainer of the vision as God Himself.  When all taken together, God in the Person of the Holy Spirit is the Divine Agent of illumination. (compare 1 Corinthians 2:10-13) 

More tomorrow......

P1 The Holy Spirit's work of illumination - Opening thoughts

John 16:12-14 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bearthem now. 13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you."

Introduction: Briefly defining the Spirit's illumination

In today's post we are interested in understanding an important ministry of the Holy Spirit to Christians that we can term "Illumination". The illuminating work of the Spirit simply has to to with the insight and understanding He gives to Christians concerning the observation, interpretation and application of God's Words. Jesus of course promised this to His disciples on the night before His crucifixion. Following His resurrection and even moreso His ascension, the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost included the Spirit's work of illuminating Christians to the truths of God's written Word - the Bible, and God the Living Word - Jesus Christ. 

Illustrating the Spirit's illuminating ministry

When I walk into the church on a Sunday morning before anyone's arrival, as I turn on the lights I will often say to myself: "illumination". Why?  Because in that building that is dark, shadowy and un-illuminated lies rooms that are empty and difficult to navigate in low light. We need lights turned on to see and to know our way.  Furthermore, as a pastor I know that in the proceeding hours, the hallways and rooms of the church building will be bustling with physical life and spiritual life. The Bible will be taught and preached, and those sitting under the physical illumination of those lights will also receive a measure of spiritual illumination from the same Holy Spirit who authored the sacred scriptures. Unless He shows up and attends the teaching and preaching of God's Word, no insights, meaning, application nor change will occur.

Relating the Spirit's illumination to four other vital concepts: revelation, inspiration, canonization and preservation. 

The work of illumination lies at the end of the process by which the Holy Ghost brought to us the scriptures. He began of course revealing it to His Apostles and Prophets - or what is called "revelation" (2 Peter 1:21). Then they wrote it down of their own accord as so directed by the Holy Spirit, producing error free original documents - or what is called "inspiration". (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Then The Holy Spirit providentially worked through His people to recognize what had been written as inspired scripture - or canonization. As each book of the Bible began to circulate and be used, those documents had to be hand copied, translated and used throughout the centuries of church history.  Today in our English Bibles we see the words and message of God still with us in what is called "preservation". (Matthew 5:18; John 10:35) Those four consecutive works: revelation, inspiration, canonization and preservation, function as the Holy Spirit's train of authority, carrying the entirety of inscripturated (written down) revelation in the 66 books of the Bible. So then what is the caboose? Illumination. 

More tomorrow.....