WBS.189
FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
THE HOLY
SPIRIT - IX
John 14:26 But the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach
you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have
said unto you.
The Holy Spirit is the greatest gift IAUE can give to His
children. He does not want us to receive
the Holy Spirit and become callous toward Him and disregard His presence within
us. He also does not want us to receive
His gift and be intimidated by its power and capabilities. He wants us to receive His Spirit and rise to
the occasion, allowing the Spirit of IAUE to do through us what He did through
Yahushua. He wants the Kingdom of IAUE
to be manifest in our lives everywhere we go, and to influence everything we do. He wants us to be one with Him; and to
understand what that means.
We are to be the salt of the earth, preserving
righteousness within the society. We are
to be the light of the world, providing a living example of what righteousness
looks like; and shining a pathway for all men to come to Messiah. We are to be a people the lost of this world
point to and say, “The Kingdom of IAUE is there…inside of them!”
Salt and light are influences borne of the righteousness
that is already inside of us who are in Messiah; but we do not preserve our society,
nor do we shine righteousness until it is enabled to be released from our
lives. The recent series we have done, Renewing the Mind and The Transformation
of the Soul, ultimately have been dedicated to this objective; but this blog,
and these posts, are just my words.
Hopefully, you have sensed the Holy Spirit
speaking through my words; but I make no claim beyond these posts being my
words, written from the wealth of knowledge and wisdom and understanding that
the Holy Spirit has taught me through the years. This is the next aspect of the
Holy Spirit’s ministry that I want to discuss:
The Holy Spirit is our Teacher.
John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the
Father will send in my name, he shall
teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you.
When it says “he
shall teach you all things,”
this verse also tells us what the “all things”
are: “and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
Now, while it is still fresh in our minds from
the paragraphs above; let me ask you.
What does it mean for you to be salt and light? What does it mean for you to be the manifestation
of the Kingdom of IAUE; and how are these things worked out in your lives? Is it because of how you act, or what you
say, or is it the choices you make or the things you do? How do you sprinkle your salt or shine your
light? Are you going to just sit in a
pew and let someone tell you? Are you going to be content to read a blog and
just believe what it says, or are you like many who just read the latest book
that becomes the hot item in the Christian bookstore, and believe it because it
wouldn’t be so popular if it were not true? Where does the ministry of the Holy Spirit
enter into your answer?
James warns people against becoming teachers;
because we have the greater condemnation (James 3:1-2). Those who teach,
whether from a pulpit or from a book or a blog, have the greatest potential of
offending others by their words. That
offense is not just turning people off from what they are saying because it disagrees
with what they believe or suggests they make a change in their lives they are
not willing to make; it also includes saying things that they embrace and make
a part of their life; but they were the wrong words; and despite this, the
Scripture tells us plainly that we are given teachers to help us grow up in
Messiah (1 Corinthians 12:28, Ephesians 4:11, 1 Timothy 2:7, 2 Timothy 2:2, 2
Timothy 1:11, Titus 2:3-4, Hebrews 5:12). You should never embrace the teaching ministry
of someone, placing blind confidence in their understanding of Scripture and
just accept whatever they say. Even if
you are receiving the confirming witness of the Holy Spirit to their words, you
absolutely should take what they say to the Scriptures to confirm that what
they are teaching is the Truth. The
people in Berea did not take Paul’s words for “gospel,” until they saw it in
the Scripture.
Acts 17:11 These were more noble than those
in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and
searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
Even though Messiah has provided for there to
be teachers in the body; even though He indicates that we should all mature on
schedule to be able to begin teaching others at some point in our own walk in
Him; no one can take the place of the Holy Spirit in this ministry.
1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but
the spirit which is of IAUE; that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of IAUE.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's
wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit
teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of IAUE: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned.
Notice in this passage of Scripture that the
Holy Spirit is given to man to enable us to know the things that are freely
given to us of IAUE; but if we learn of those things through the words of a man
(a human teacher), that teacher first have been taught by the Holy Spirit. Then he must communicate those things with
spiritual words inspired by the Holy Spirit if we are to profit from his words;
otherwise, we must learn of them from the Holy Spirit directly. Why is this?
It is because the things which are freely given to us of IAUE “are spiritually discerned.” It must first be revealed within our spirit;
then that revelation will make its way through our conscience, to our
understanding, and then to be embraced by our soul. The natural man has no such process because his
spirit is disconnected from the life and light of IAUE.
We have observed from the Scripture in recent
weeks that the Holy Spirit testifies to us of the Master. He takes the things of Messiah and shows them
unto us. He is constantly magnifying and
bringing glory to Yahushua Messiah, because that brings glory to IAUE. The Holy
Spirit has been given to us to be a constant conduit of the flow of the things
of Messiah into our lives; and yet, most people sitting in pews on Sunday
morning have never even received the Holy Spirit into their lives. They sit and listen and go home and forget
what manner of person they are (James 1:22-24).
What good is it to have a teacher if we never let him teach?
There are two things that most professing
Christians would rather listen to fingernails being scraped across a blackboard
than commit any time to doing. That is
prayer and study of the Scriptures. Our
opening verse for today’s post says that the Holy Spirit will bring to our remembrance
the things that Messiah has said. You
cannot be reminded of something you have never heard. If you do not spend time in the Scriptures to
allow the Holy Spirit to teach you, then you have no reservoir of Truth from
which the Holy Spirit may provide you with wisdom and understanding in your
daily walk; or in those critical times when you need to know what to do or say
right now. We must spend time in the
Scriptures, reading the words and listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit in
order to provide Him with the material to “remind” us at the time we need it.
Several times during the course of this blog,
I have mentioned that the words on the page of the Scriptures are like watching
an advertisement on television or in a magazine. You can become extremely familiar with all
the attributes of the product; but until you actually purchase and experience
the product you only have the advertisement in our life. If a person tells you all about a juicy steak
dinner being offered by some restaurant; but he has never eaten the meal, but
you have; you KNOW he is speaking only of the ad and has never experienced the
steak dinner. He can never describe the
meal in the way that you can.
That is true of doctrine or any teaching you
learn from reading the words of Scripture.
The words are vessels full of the Spirit of IAUE. If you only tap the words and not the Spirit,
you never acquire the product, and the Truth will not set you free. When we read or study the Scriptures, the
words on the page should serve as a platform for listening to the voice of the
Holy Spirit to bring revelation of the things of Yahushua to our spirit. The words without the Spirit is just academic
information anyone can learn…even the lost can know what is written in black
and white. The words on the page alone
is not what is not spiritually discerned.
The voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us the meaning of the words on
the page is. The words combined with the
voice of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit teaching us all things, is life.
1 John 2: 27 But the anointing which ye
have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you:
but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath
taught you, ye shall abide in him.
There are those who would say they can’t
understand the Bible. They need to be
born again and receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit of IAUE. If a man has the Holy Spirit, he does not
need to be taught of man. If one has the
Holy Spirit in his/her life, their intellectual ability or lack thereof is not
relevant to understanding Truth. That is
the job of the Holy Spirit, to teach us all things and to bring to our remembrance
the words of our Master Yahushua.
Frankly, this has been to me the most exciting
aspect of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in my life for the past 42 years. Since I received the Holy Spirit, it has been
next to impossible for me to pick up the Scriptures and read more than a verse
or two before the Holy Spirit is already opening up insights and revelations
into the Word of IAUE; but then, I EXPECT to hear Him speaking to me, teaching
me. I come to the Scriptures as a
student full of expectation that the Teacher will show me all things that my
Master has for me.
The word for “disciple” throughout the New
Testament is “mathetes,”
which means “a pupil, a student.” If we
are to be disciples, we are to maintain a position before our Master as one who
is ever learning; we must understand that all students, all pupils, have one
thing in common. They all have a
teacher.
I challenge you to open your Bible to your
favorite chapter of Scripture; and before you read it, say with expectation, “Holy
Spirit, Sir, teach me and show me what you want me to see in this chapter of
Scripture.” Then humble yourself to your
Teacher and read the Scripture with your heart attentive to His voice. I suspect that the Teacher will absolutely
amaze you.
Kingdom
heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the
performance of the will of IAUE.
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