The Guidance of .the Holy Spirit by John Murray

It is proper to speak of the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the affairs of Christian life and conduct. The question that arises, however; is: How does the Holy Spirlt guide and direct the people of God? This is a large and complex question and to deal with it adequately would require extensive and detailed treatment. We may deal with only one aspect of this broad question. ·

. The basic premise upon which we must proceed is that the Word of God in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament is · the only infallible rule of practice, as it is also the only infallible rule of faith. Complementary to this basic premise is another, namely, that the Word of God is a perfect and suf­ficient rule of practice, The corollary of tftis is that we may not look for, depend 1,1pon, or demand new revelations of the Spirit. In this respect we are· in a dif­ferent situation from those who lived during the era.' of revelation and in­spiration. During the era, or we should preferably say the eras, of revelation, new revelations of the Spirit were given from time to time in a great variety of situations and for manifold purposes. These revelations were given by direct and supernatural communication · to those who were the recipients of them. For that reason they are often called special in order to distinguish them from the revelation which is given in the light of nature and the works of creation and providence. From this con- ·

. John Murray taught Systematic Thcol~y at Westnunster Theological Seminary from 1930 until 1966. He wrote such books as Rethmption Accomplishtid and · J.p~lied ~nd a commentary on The Ep1stk to the Romans. Today we have available four lar&e volumes of the Colkcted Writings of John Mutraj.

sideration, that we must distinguish be­tween the situation in which we are placed and the situation .that existed while special revelation was in opera­tion, we derive another premise, name­ly, that it is contrary «> the situation in which God has cast our lot. contrary to the rule under which he has placed us, contrary to the perfection and suffi­ciency of the Scripture with which he has provided us, and dishonouring to the Holy Spirit. for us to expect or re­quire special revelations to direct us in the affairs of life.

It is possible, however, to admit the validity and necessity of these foregoing premises and yet adopt a position which in reality undermines and defeats their implications. That is to say, we may still fall into the error of thinking that while the Holy Spirit does not provide us with special revelations in the form of words or visions or dreams, yet he may and does provide us with some direct feeling or impression or convic­tion which we are to regard as the Holy Spirit's intimation to us of what his mind and will is in a particular situa-

. tion. The present writer maintains that this view of the Holy Spirit's guidance amounts, in effect. to the same thing as to believe that the Holy Spirit gives special revelation. And the reason for this conclusion is that we are, in such an event. conceiving of the Holy Spirit as giving us some special and direct communication, be it in the form of feeling, impression, or conviction, a communication of intimation or direc­tion that is not mediated to us through those means which God has ordained for our direction and guidance. In the final analysis this construction or conception of the Holy Spirit's guidance is in the same category as that which holds to direct and special revelation, and that for tl\e reason that it makes little ditference whether the intimation is in the form of impression or feeling or conviction or in the form of a verbal communication,

if we believe that the experience which we have is a direct and special intima­tion to us of what the will of God is. The essential point is that we regard the Holy Spirit as giving us guidance by some mode of direct operation and inti­mation. We are abstracting the opera­tion of the Spirit, in respect of guid­ance, from the various factors which may properly be regarded as the means. through which we are to be guided. Particularly, we abstract the operation of the Spirit from the infallible and sufficient rule of practice with which he· has provided us.

It needs to be stressed in this connec­tion that the Word of God is relevant to every situation in which we are placed, and in one way or another bears upon every detail and circumstance of life. This is just saying, in different words, that. we are never in a situation in which we are non-moral or which is for us non-moral. The demands of God's law are all-pervasive, and the revelation God has given to us of his will in the Scriptures applies to us in every situa­tion. It is equally necessary to remem­ber that we must rely upon the Holy Spirit to direct and guide us in the understanding and application of God;s will as revealed in Scripqn-e, and we must be constantly conscious of our need of the Holy Spirit to apply the Word effectively to us in each situation. The function of the Holy Spirit in such matters is that of illumination as .to. what the will of the Lord is, and of imparting to us the willingness and, strength to do that will.

It needs also to be recognized that;,as we are the subjects of this illumination and are responsive to it. and as the Holy S:pirit is operative in us to the doing of God's will, we shall have feelings,, impressions, convictions, urges, inhibi­tions, impulses, burdens, resolutiops. Illuminations and direction · by ~e Spirit through the Word of God wil~ focus themselves in our consciousness, in , these ways. We are not autom~ta .. And we are finite. We must not thinlc, therefore, that a strong, or overwhelm-, ing feeling or impression or conviction,· which we may not be able at a parti~~­lar time to explain to ourselves or,

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others, is necessarily irrational or fana­tically mystical. Since we are human and fmite and not always able to view all the factors or considerations in their relations to one another, the sum total of these factors and considerations bear­ing upon a particular situation may focus themselves in our consciousness in what we may describe as a strong feeling or impression. In many cases such a feeling or impression is highly rational and is the only way in which our consciousness, at a particular junc­ture, can take in or react to a complex manifold of thoroughly proper consider­ations. In certain instances it may take us a long time to understand the mean­ing or implications of that impression.

It is here, however, that careful dis­tinction is necessary. The moment we desire or expect or think that a state of our consciousness is the effect of a direct intimation to us of the Holy Spirit's will, or consists in such an inti­mation and is therefore in the category of special direction from him, then we have given way to the notion of spe­cial, direct, detached communication from the Holy Spirit. And this, in respect of its nature, belongs to the same category as belief in special revela­tion. The only way whereby we can avoid this error is to maintain that the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit is through the means which he has provided, and that his work is to enable us rightly to interpret and apply the Scripture in the various situations of life, and to enable us to interpret all the factors which enter into each situa­tion in the light of Scripture.

There are two observations to be made in this connection. The first is that the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit is specific. The guidance which he affords us is in the concrete of our daily lives. The Word of God and the illumination of the Spirit in and through the Word are in the truest sense existential. That is inherent in the belief that the Bible is revelation and that the Holy Spirit constantly seals that revelation in our hearts and minds. The second observation is that our dependence upon an infallible rule and our reliance upon the infallible Spirit

do not eliminate all error in judgment or wrong in decision on our part. We are always fallible, imperfect, and sin­ful. But this doctrine of guidance does eliminate the error of an erroneous criterion. If our criterion or standard of judgment is wrong, then we are de­prived of the means whereby our wrong may be corrected. It is one thing to come short in the application of a right rule; it is another to have a wrong rule. It is one thing to limp in the right way; it is another thing to run in the wrong way. In the one case we have a basis for progress; in the other we have not started to make progress.

The notion of guidance by immediate impression, when such an impression is interpreted as the direct intimation of the Holy Spirit to us, distorts our think­ing on the question of guidance and stultifies what the apostle prayed for in the case of the believers at Colosse:

'For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye n:llght walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God' (Col. 1:9, 10). In this connection we need to appreciate the implications for godly living of one of the most familiar texts in the New Testament: 'All Scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for the instruc­tion which is in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work' (2 Tim. 3:16, 17).

[This article is taken, b:y permis­sion, from Collected Writin}{s of John Murray, Vol. I, IDJ. 186-189', The Banner of Truth Trust, Edin-burgh, Scotland, 1976.] D

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