1 Corinthians 13:4-7

[Daniel_Marsh]

In Acts 8, the person asking for instruction was not saved as of yet, and as such was not indwelt with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit illuminates the scriptures for believers.

The text in Peter is warning us to be on guard for false teachers. The text does not deny that the scriptures are clear to those whom has the Holy Spirit indwelling them. Basically, it is telling us to avoid those who are teaching false traditions, doctrine, dogma.

The illumination of the Holy Spirit is “the process by which God’s Holy Spirit enables us to understand His word and apply it to our lives.”

“The Reformers, and particularly John Calvin, stressed the way the objective, written Word and the inner, supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit work together, the Holy Spirit illuminating the Word to God’s people. The Word without the illumination of the Holy Spirit remains a closed book.” - James M Boice

theopedia.com/Illumination_of_the_Holy_Spirit

Augustine taught that the Holy Spirit is the means by which we receive God written revelation (Confessions 7.21), and he is necessary for illuminating and confirming its truth (Homily VI)

Chapter 19 Of the three origins of our thoughts.

Above all we ought at least to know that there are three origins of our thoughts, i.e., from God, from the devil, and from ourselves. They come from God when He vouchsafes to visit us with the illumination of the Holy Ghost, lifting us up to a higher state of progress, and where we have made but little progress, or through acting slothfully have been overcome, He chastens us with most salutary compunction, or when He discloses to us heavenly mysteries, or turns our purpose and will to better actions, as in the case where the king Ahasuerus, being chastened by the Lord, was prompted to ask for the books of the annals, by which he was reminded of the good deeds of Mordecai, and promoted him to a position of the highest honour and at once recalled his most cruel sentence concerning the slaughter of the Jews. Or when the prophet says: “I will hearken what the Lord God will say in me.” Another too tells us “And an angel spoke, and said in me,” Zechariah 1:14 or when the Son of God promised that He would come with His Father, and make His abode in us, John 14:23 and “It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you.” Matthew 10:20 And the chosen vessel: “You seek a proof of Christ that speaks in me.” 2 Corinthians 13:3 But a whole range of thoughts springs from the devil, when he endeavours to destroy us either by the pleasures of sin or by secret attacks, in his crafty wiles deceitfully showing us evil as good, and transforming himself into an angel of light to us: 2 Corinthians 11:4 as when the evangelist tells us: “And when supper was ended, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray” John 13:2 the Lord: and again also “after the sop,” he says, “Satan entered into him.” Peter also says to Ananias: “Why has Satan tempted your heart, to lie to the Holy Ghost?” Acts 5:3 And that which we read in the gospel much earlier as predicted by Ecclesiastes: “If the spirit of the ruler rise up against you, leave not your place.” Ecclesiastes 10:4 That too which is said to God against Ahab in the third book of Kings, in the character of an unclean spirit: “I will go forth and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.” 1 Kings 22:22 But they arise from ourselves, when in the course of nature we recollect what we are doing or have done or have heard. Of which the blessed David speaks: “I thought upon the ancient days, and had in mind the years from of old, and I meditated, by night I exercised myself with my heart, and searched out my spirit.” And again: “the Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are vain:” and “the thoughts of the righteous are judgments.” Proverbs 12:5 In the gospel too the Lord says to the Pharisees: “why do ye think evil in your hearts?” Matthew 9:4

newadvent.org/fathers/350801.htm

Psalm 143:10
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

speaking to the apostles Jesus says,

John 14:26
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.