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 suf-
ficient 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 dif-
ferent situation from those who lived
during the era.' of revelation and in-
spiration. 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
at
Westnunster
Theological
Seminary from
1930 until 1966.
He wrote such
books as
Rethmption
Accomplishtid and
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 be-
tween the situation in which we are
placed and the situation .that existed
while special revelation was in opera-
tion, we derive another premise, name-
ly, 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 suffi-
ciency of the Scripture with which he
has provided us, and dishonouring to
the Holy Spirit. for us to expect or re-
quire 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 convic-
tion 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 direc-
tion 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 intima-
tion 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 inti-
mation. We are abstracting the opera-
tion of the Spirit, in respect of guid-
ance, 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 connec-
tion 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 situa-
tion. It is equally necessary to remem-
ber 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, inhibi-
tions, impulses, burdens, resolutiops.
Illuminations and direction by
Spirit through the Word of God
focus themselves in our consciousness,
in , these ways. We are not ..
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
lar time to explain to ourselves or,
PageS--------------------------------------------------
The of Chalcedon, September,
others, is necessarily irrational or fana-
tically 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 bear-
ing 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 junc-
ture, can take in or react to a complex
manifold of thoroughly proper consider-
ations. In certain instances it may take
us a long time to understand the mean-
ing or implications of that impression.
It is here, however, that careful dis-
tinction 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 inti-
mation and is therefore in the category
of special direction from him, then we
have given way to the notion of spe-
cial, direct, detached communication
from the Holy Spirit. And this, in
respect of its nature, belongs to the
same category as belief in special revela-
tion. 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 situa-
tion 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 sin-
ful. 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 de-
prived 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 think-
ing 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 instruc-
tion 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 permis-
sion, 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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The Counsel of Cbalcedon, September, 1988 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page9