Do not Counsel The Spirit

Recently, I start to use Marva J. Dawn’s (唐慕華)《展翅困乏中─31天以賽亞書四十章默想之路》[To Walk and Not Faint: A Month of Meditations on Isaiah 40] to do my daily devotion. There are 31 days of devotion. Each devotion is based on one verse in Isaiah 40. In the beginning of the year, I used it for a while and stopped at Day 10. I pick it up again because I remember I did get refreshed by using it for devotion. A lot of time I just read the Scriptures for devotion. Sometimes, I rely on a supply of devotional materials prepared by good writers.

“Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel?” (40:13, ESV)

In the Old Testament, the Spirit is always tied into the power of God, especially his creative power. “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2, ESV). Water symbolizes evil power in Hebrew culture. This verse gives a graphic imagery of a cosmic war between God and the evil force. In the midst of cosmic chaos, God’s Spirit fought against the power of disorder and turned it into orderliness. The Spirit of God hovering over the water is like an eagle “hovering over the nest of its young, protecting and preparing their nest” (cf. Deut. 32:11).[1] In the power of the Spirit, God placed all things according to their kinds: from disorder to order.

Who am I to “advise” (NLT) the Holy Spirit? How many times I tell Him what to do instead of waiting for His guidance. How many times I tend to correct and direct Him the way I want to go instead of quietly discerning His will through Scripture and His Body. Who knows enough to advise Him? What knows God’s will better than the Spirit? Paul says, “For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:10-11, ESV). God’s ways and thoughts are higher than my ways and thoughts (Isa. 55:8-9). Only the Spirit of God can comprehend the depths of God. We who believe in Jesus Christ—His death, resurrection, and return—are “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (Eph. 1:13, ESV).

The result of this is through Jesus’ intercession: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, and even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (Jn. 14:16-17, ESV).

We know the One who searches the depths of God.

[1] See John Sailhamer, “Genesis,” in The Expository Bible Commentary. Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990), p. 25.

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