As the One who comes alongside of us, the Holy Spirit will help us in both preparing and presenting our Bible lessons. We see this in John 14:26 where Jesus said the Spirit “will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you.” In this post we’ll consider the Holy Spirit’s role during lesson preparation.
Humbly Acknowledge that as Bible Teachers, We Have Need of a Teacher
In John 14 Jesus was speaking to the disciples who sat directly under His teaching, saw firsthand His character, and experienced the outworking of His power. Jesus made it clear that even they had more to learn. So, He promised the Holy Spirit to continue instructing them after He ascended back to heaven.
No matter how long we’ve walked with God, we too have more to learn. Like the Apostle Paul we need to admit that we have not “obtained all this” or “taken hold of” all there is to know about Christ. We too must press on. Read Philippians 3:10-14.
Teachers Have a Teacher Who is a Helper in Lesson Preparation
Before commissioning His disciples to “go and make disciples” by means of “teaching (didasko) them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20), Jesus assured them, “the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach (didasko) you all things” (Jn. 14:26). As teachers, they would have a Teacher to teach them all they needed to know in order for them to be able to teach others.
Teachers today have a written Text which “is God-breathed and is useful for teaching” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Yet, to truly grasp its meaning we too need the Holy Spirit’s help. He is our Teacher as we study God’s Word in preparing for our lessons. God has not left us on our own to figure it all out.
This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. (1 Cor. 2:13-14)
Recognizing our need of the Holy Spirit to teach us so we in turn can teach others, let’s …
- Ask God to make our hearts pliable to receive what the Spirit teaches.
- Yield our personal biases, that can affect how we interpret Scripture, to the Spirit so we arrive at God’s intent of the passage we’ll be teaching.
- Depend on the Holy Spirit to teach us all we need to know to effectively teach the lesson to our students.
- Rely on the Holy Spirit to use us as conduits through whom He will teach others.
Helpful Teacher Training Resource: The Holy Spirit & My Teaching Devotional