What is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?
2 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 1:1-2; 2 Peter 1:19-21
How does the Holy Spirit inspire us? Does He give us profound understanding in our dreams while we sleep? Does He make us gyrate and quake as we are given mysterious messages to share in incomprehensible tongues? Does He show us signs in the sky or in the bottoms of our teacups that reveal future events? Does He, after we pray and fast for sufficient periods of time, zap us with new revelation regarding a presidential election, a new job for our friend, or a healed back for our grandmother?
Sadly, that is what many Christians are looking for in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This idea of inspiration, which is very much akin to magic and pagan spiritualism, has sadly been promoted freely within many churches following the rise of Pentecostalism, especially following the so-called Azusa Street Revival of 1906. However, it has nothing to do with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit!
Inspiration is something that comes from the Holy Spirit, logically, reasonably, and orderly. To understand inspiration, we must search God’s word. In 2 Timothy 3:16, the Greek word for “inspired” is a compound word, qeovpneusto~, theopneustos. It literally means God, theo, breathed, pneustos. Note that the word for breathed, pneustos, is the same word from which we translate spirit, as in the Holy Spirit, Pneuma Hagion. Thus, the Holy Spirit does not inspire us as individuals directly with new prophecies today, rather He breathed the word of God into prophets (Heb 1:1) and the apostles (Heb 1:2) which they then wrote down for all of us to read and comprehend today (2 Pet 1:19-21).
In a nutshell, the Holy Spirit inspired the prophets and the apostles with the word of God. They wrote it down in what we call the Holy Scriptures or the Bible. We receive the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by taking time to be in the Scriptures that God inspired. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God (qeovpneusto~, theopneustos), and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” 2 Timothy 3:16-17.