SPILLING THE FACTS
Of course we all affirm that God the Holy Spirit is
omniscient—but is he obliged to keep secret what he knows? What if he’s aware
of something about us that needs to be exposed, the way he did with King Saul (1
Samuel 15) or with Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5)?I’ve been in a few meetings in my life that were both exciting and scary all at once, as the Spirit used one of his servants to bring out hidden facts. The point was not to embarrass but to bring people closer in line with righteous living.
That’s apparently what happened around A.D. 108 in the church at Philadelphia when a visitor named Ignatius stopped by. There was some dissension in the flock just then. According to a later letter Ignatius wrote, “When I stood up to prophesy, and shouted in a loud voice, ‘Give more respect to your bishop, your elders and deacons!’ it was the Holy Spirit in me who was speaking. Although I know some of you think I had been told in advance of the divisions in Philadelphia, and spoke from knowledge, the absolute truth is that this was the voice of God alone.”
Maybe this kind of thing is part of what the apostle John meant when he wrote about “the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth” (1 John 5:6). We need to hear what God has to say—whether it makes us squirm or not.
To learn more about Ignatius and his remarkable boldness in the Spirit, see Session 1 of this “Great Cloud of Witnesses” course.
