Eternity Daily Bible Study
(A ministry of Eternity Christian Fellowship)
Walking In The Spirit - 12
Studies in this series can also be found online at www.globalchristians.org/walkspirit/
Topic: God Personally Teaches Us How To Walk By Faith
Date: 3rd August 2009
Toward the end of the last study we saw that God is involved in teaching His saints how to live the Christian life. This teaching is an inner work of the Holy Spirit:
1 John 2:27 MKJV But the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true and no lie, and as He has taught you, abide in Him.
This teaching ministry of the Holy Ghost lies outside of the 'merely human' realm:
Matthew 16:15-17 MKJV He said to them, But who do you say I am? (16) And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. (17) Jesus answered and said to him, You are blessed, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but My Father in Heaven.
1 Thessalonians 4:9 MKJV But regarding brotherly love, you do not need that I write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.
Jesus briefly describes this process of heavenly revelation in Matthew chapter 11
Matthew 11:25-27 MKJV At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank You, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the sophisticated and cunning, and revealed them to babes. (26) Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. (27) All things are delivered to Me by My Father. And no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son will reveal Him.
Jesus tells us that God has structured spiritual knowledge so that certain truths are 'hidden' from natural human reasoning (the sophisticated and the cunning) and yet are revealed to the open, innocent mind ('babe') that truly seeks after God.
Jesus also claims to be the gatekeeper of all spiritual knowledge: Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son will reveal Him.
We cannot 'figure God out' as a result of our own independent thinking (indeed that is often how cults start). Rather we are dependent on Jesus Christ to reveal the Father to us. This infuriates those who think they understand - but who are blind to real spiritual truth:
Matthew 15:12-14 MKJV Then His disciples came and said to Him, Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? (13) But He answered and said, Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up. (14) Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
Many of the religious experts of Christ's day – the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and chief priests, missed the point. They did not follow Christ. Instead they just defended their own knowledge and their own religious system.
1 Corinthians 2:7-8 MKJV (7) But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which God has hidden, predetermining it before the world for our glory; (8) which none of the rulers of this world knew (for if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory).
God's teaching ministry involves the Holy Spirit and may even bypass the senses and the intellect:
1 Corinthians 2:9-10 MKJV (9) But as it is written, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard," nor has it entered into the heart of man, "the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." (10) But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.
Continuing in 1 Corinthians we find that this process involves communication directly from God's Spirit to us:
1 Corinthians 2:11-12 MKJV (11) For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of man within him? So also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. (12) But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit from God, so that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God.
The Spirit of God educates us so that we 'might know the things that are freely given to us by God'. So we see that the Holy Spirit shows us our blessedness! The Holy Spirit is within us to tell us all the wonderful things that God has done for us!
Ephesians 1:3 MKJV Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ;
This internal teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit is integral to being a true New Covenant Christian, a follower of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit:
Hebrews 8:10-12 HCSB ... "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days," says the Lord: "I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. (11) And each person will not teach his fellow citizen, and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them. (12) For I will be merciful to their wrongdoing, and I will never again remember their sins."
In stark contrast the Pharisees knew their Scriptures but they did not personally listen to God. Jesus states this very powerfully in John chapter 8:
John 8:42-47 MKJV Jesus said to them, If God were your father, you would love Me, for I went forth and came from God; for I did not come of Myself, but He sent Me. (43) Why do you not know My speech? Because you cannot hear My Word. (44) You are of the Devil as father, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and did not abide in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. (45) And because I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me. (46) Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do you not believe Me? (47) He who is of God hears God's Words. Therefore you do not hear them because you are not of God.
Jesus finishes this paragraph with “He who is of God hears God's Words. Therefore you do not hear them because you are not of God”. In verse 43 Jesus tells them they “cannot” hear his words. And in verse 44 Jesus tells the Pharisees that they are children of the Devil – because they listen to the murderous lusts of Satan more than the truth of God!
So we see that while the Pharisees were bible-believers they were not God-followers or children of God. In fact they were children of the Devil with murderous instincts in their hearts – which is why they crucified Christ. Paul was caught up in this same hateful spirit until his Damascus Road experience and later writes:
Romans 10:1-4 MKJV Brothers, truly my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is for it to be saved. (2) For I bear record to them that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. (3) For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. (4) For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes.
So we can see that bible-knowledge and zeal for God are insufficient for salvation. Many people caught up in cults and false religions have Scripture knowledge and zeal for God yet there is frequently a deep self-righteous obstinacy that blocks them from entering the Kingdom of God.
There must also be humble submission to God, connection to God and acceptance of the righteousness that is by faith (not works). There has to be a personal opening of the spirit and of the conscience to Jesus Christ. There needs to be a new creation, an inner work that writes the law of God, not just in a book, but deep in the human heart and mind so that the true Christian hears God's Words and is 'taught of God'.
Returning to 1 Corinthians chapter 2:
1 Corinthians 2:13-16 MKJV (13) These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (14) But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (15) But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged by no one. (16) For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.
The natural man cannot receive spiritual things but the spiritual man can receive knowledge from God. Thus Christianity is not a philosophy – a human system of logic that can be understood with a sufficiently intelligent natural mind. Nor is Christianity a religious system of commentary and counter-commentary. Christianity is a living faith where we exercise personal trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and He in turn teaches us, day by day, to follow Him, through the powerful work of the Holy Spirit.
We all start in such different places that no single philosophical or theological system can bring us all to maturity in Christ. We need a personal coach every step of the way and that Coach is the Holy Spirit of God.
Blessings,
John Edmiston (johned@aibi.ph)
Pastor – Eternity Christian Fellowship
Chairman/ CEO Cybermissions
http://www.eternitychristian.com
http://www.cybermissions.org
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