02.07 - The How of the Prophets Inspiration

(7) The How of the Prophet’s Inspiration The fact of the prophet’s inspiration is one thing, but the how, the manner and results of that inspiration, is another. The mistake too often made is in mixing up the fact of inspiration with all sorts of queries respecting the method its forms, limitations, and varying degrees. That the Hebrew prophets were God-inspired men, men fitted and prepared by the agency of the Holy Spirit to receive, apprehend, and know the message of God, and to declare it to others, is indisputable. Of this the prophets were assured, and concerning it they were not and could not be deceived; while the character of the message is such as to attest its divine origin. But while the fact of inspiration is apparent, and the results of it are clearly manifest, the how of the Spirit’s activity on the prophet’s mind the modus opcrandi is not quite so clear or easy to understand. From what has been said it will be understood that inspiration is not the same as genius; it is not something native to the mind, which is cultured, developed, and educated but something imparted; some power of insight and foresight which is the gift of the Holy Spirit; some vision or faculty divine, enabling the mind of man to see and know and express what without that power and gift would be to the person impossible. As an intellectual phenome non this is not a priori impossible. Westcott says, “ To enlarge or inform any faculty is only a secondary operation of the same Power by whom the faculty was first originated or quickened into being. It is not more remarkable that man’s spirit should be brought into direct communication with the Spirit of God and actuated by it, than that one human spirit should be able to exercise a sympathetic influence upon another.” But if, as we have previously indicated, inspiration is not of the same measure and kind in all cases, and the Holy Spirit is the sole agent of inspiration, then the Spirit’s action in kind and extent is not always the same. The quickening, actuating energy of the Spirit in enabling us to realise the presence of God, or in recognising and performing duties we owe to God and His Church, may be of a character different in kind and measure, if not in method, from that which fits the prophet for discerning, appropriating, and proclaiming a divine message as His spokesman. We think some aspects of the method of divine operation are clear: (<-?) the action of the Spirit of God is not a dead mechanical action, but vital and organic. The power of the Spirit on the mind of the agent is not a dead power but a living force, which falls “ naturally into its place in the development of the purpose of the Living God.” (/;) Because the action is vital and organic, intelligent and living, it could not render the agent unconscious; but would tend to quicken and invigorate consciousness to its highest degree, making mind and heart, thought and judgment, determination and will, more susceptible, vigorous, and powerful with it, than they would be without it. (Y) The prophet being called “ A man of the Spirit of God,” we may conclude the Spirit of God was in him as a source of enlightenment, of knowledge, of judgment and of power; and that the prophet being in the Spirit entered into the will, mind, and purpose of God through the Spirit, so that he was God-inspired, moved by the Holy Spirit to speak and act by a divine intelligent force difficult to withstand.