There are two aspects of our knowledge of God: one is inward knowledge and the other is outward knowledge. Both Hebrews 8:11 and 1 John 2:27 speak of our inward knowledge of God. Hebrews 8 speaks of the law of God’s life, that is, God’s life, which enables us to know God inwardly. First John 2 speaks of the anointing, that is, the revelation of the Holy Spirit, which also enables us to know God inwardly. Knowing God through the law of life is to know God through His life; knowing God through the anointing is to know God through the Spirit.
John 17:3 and Ephesians 1:17 also speak of our inward knowledge of God with a difference in emphasis on life and the Holy Spirit. John 17 says that life enables us to know God. Ephesians 1 says that God gives us a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may know God; this means that the Holy Spirit dwells in our human spirit. Both Hebrews 8:11 and John 17:3 speak of the life in us that enables us to inwardly know God, and 1 John 2:27 and Ephesians 1:17 speak of the Holy Spirit in us that enables us to inwardly know God.
God’s nature is fixed and unchangeable; it cannot be changed by time or human events. His nature is the same in one person as it is in another; His nature fifty years ago was the same as it is today. First John 4:8 says that God is love. Since God’s nature is love, there is a commandment according to this nature: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). This commandment of love is based upon the unchangeable nature of God. Like the unchangeable nature of God, this commandment is also unchangeable. Whether in Jerusalem or in Samaria, whether five hundred or fifty years ago, whether five hundred or fifty years from now, whether in male or female, whether in young or old, this commandment is the same; it cannot be altered because of space, time, or human events. Since the law according to God’s nature is fixed and unchangeable, the knowledge that this law gives us is also fixed and unchangeable; it cannot be altered because of space, time, or human events.
Since God’s nature is fixed, the law derived from God’s nature is also fixed. Man’s knowledge of God through the law, that is, through the law of Moses, is altogether unchangeable. However, the prophets, who represent God Himself, are living, and the commands they give can be changed. A prophet may tell someone to take a wife, but later another prophet may tell the same one not to take a wife. This is entirely different from the command or the knowledge given by the law.
The law is fixed, whereas prophets are flexible. Yesterday the law instructed us to love others; today it still instructs us to love others; and a hundred years from now, it will still tell us to love others. The law is fixed and unchangeable. But what about the prophets? Yesterday the prophets may have told someone to get married, but today they may tell him not to get married. The prophets are flexible. The law represents God’s nature, and the prophets represent God Himself; God’s nature is fixed, but God Himself is flexible and living.
Our knowledge of God through the law is rigid and fixed, but our knowledge of God through the prophets is living and unpredictable. Yesterday God might have said that we can do a certain thing, but today He may say that we cannot. Sometimes the prophets may give guidance that seems to contradict the law. The prophet Hosea received a command from God to take a wife of harlotries (Hosea 1:2). According to the law, this is not what God desires man to do, but the prophet received a command from God because He had a special purpose for him. This shows that the law is fixed but the prophets are flexible. The law enables us to know God’s nature, and the prophets enable us to know God Himself.
Today the law of life within us has replaced the law of the Old Testament, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit has replaced the prophets of the Old Testament. Although we still keep the law, we are keeping an inward law, not an outward law. God’s life is the law in us, and the Holy Spirit, as the anointing ointment, is the Prophet in us. Today we not only have the law within us, but we also have the Prophet.
Can we be a prophet to others? For example, if a saint wants to go to a certain place, he may come to us for fellowship, asking, “Should I go to a certain place? Would you seek an answer from God for me?” Concerning this matter, should he not ask himself? Should he not first seek an answer for himself? It is not right for him to ask us, because we are not his prophet, but it is also not right for him to only ask himself, because he is not a prophet only in himself. Instead, he should seek the leading of the Spirit as the anointing ointment within him; the Spirit anointing within him is the Prophet. The responsible brothers in the church are not our prophets, the co-workers are also not our prophets, and we, needless to say, are not others’ prophets.
In the New Testament, there are no “individual” prophets. The Spirit who inspired people to be prophets in the Old Testament is now the Spirit as the anointing ointment within all of us. Since the Spirit is anointing us from within, we no longer need an outward representative to be our prophet. The anointing Spirit has entered into us to be our living Prophet. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God came upon certain people and moved only them. But now the Spirit has entered into all of us to be our Prophet. The Spirit who inspired people to be prophets has entered into us today as the anointing to be our Prophet personally and directly. Hence, we no longer need representatives to be a prophet to us outwardly.