One of the things that God has for you is the Holy Spirit. When you are born-again, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell inside of you. More than that, you can be filled with the Spirit as well. You can experience the gifts of the Spirit. You can be led by the Spirit and have Him be your guide in life. But did you know that there is more?
You can receive the Holy Spirit as your Teacher just as you received Jesus as your Savior. In fact, He is already inside you trying to teach you - if you will listen.
When Jesus was on the earth He was the Teacher of His disciples. "But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren." (Matthew 23:8) Wouldn't it have been wonderful to sit at Jesus' feet and listen to His teachings. What a great advantage those early disciples had?
Did you know that we have it better than they had? You might say that that is impossible. How could we have it better? But Jesus told the disciples:
"I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper (The Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you … when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you." JOHN 16:7, 12-14
"The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. " JOHN 14:26
"The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. " JOHN 14:26
Notice that the Holy Spirit took Jesus' place in our midst. The Spirit is now the Teacher.
I read these verses as a young Christian some 40 years ago. I accepted these vital truths for myself. I accepted the Holy Spirit as my Teacher. From then on He began to teach me many things. He began to guide me into many truths. He began to reveal Jesus to me.
I know that we have all experienced this to one degree or another, but I don't think that we have embraced it as we should have. We have relied too much on human teachers or on our own minds to figure out what God's Word means. But human teachers can make mistakes and our brains are too puny to figure it all out. Unfortunately, some of the most educated and intelligent have made the most foolish errors.
Others have looked to their church or their denomination as their guide, and while they have gotten some things right they have gotten some things wrong as well. In the Middle Ages, the Church was afraid to give the Bible to the masses of people because they thought that people would come up with all sorts of stuff and would splinter the church into a thousand pieces. (They actually got that right!) Better to let the official Church tell everyone what the truth is, then we will be safe. But what happens when the official church is wrong or refuses to correct itself or refuses new light from the Word of God. No, each of us needs the Holy Spirit to teach us and to guide us into all truth.
However, many Christians simply lack the confidence that they can learn more than basic truths from the Bible. Others are overconfident thinking that they have it all figured out. Neither type of Christian is really trusting the Holy Spirit to teach them and to correct their wrong thinking.
For the Holy Spirit to teach you, you must believe He will teach you and you must maintain a teachable spirit, leaning not on you own understanding. The Holy Spirit can then direct and guide you through the paths of Scripture. (See Proverbs 3:5-6, New King James if you have it)
So, does all this mean that we shouldn't listen to those who preach and teach the Bible? Should we learn simply on our own? Of course not. God has put teachers in the church to teach us. The Holy Spirit can teach them and anoint them to teach us. That is good as long as we still rely on the Holy Spirit to teach us and not just believe what brother or sister so-and-so said. (I might expand on this in a later blog post.)
The most important thing is to maintain a teachable spirit. That is really what the word "meekness" means in the New Testament. It is the opposite of being partisan. I have learned very much from those with whom I have much disagreement. Nobody in the Body of Christ is wrong about everything and God does seem to show different things sometimes to different groups. I learn from them all, but it is all from the Holy Spirit who is the Teacher of the Church.
[Apparently, the Comments thing is not working. A couple of readers have indicated that they tried to post comments and were unable to do so. Also, I got an alert about the comments and Google+ that I could not decipher. So, I am guessing that it just does not work at all. Sorry for any problems.]
I read these verses as a young Christian some 40 years ago. I accepted these vital truths for myself. I accepted the Holy Spirit as my Teacher. From then on He began to teach me many things. He began to guide me into many truths. He began to reveal Jesus to me.
I know that we have all experienced this to one degree or another, but I don't think that we have embraced it as we should have. We have relied too much on human teachers or on our own minds to figure out what God's Word means. But human teachers can make mistakes and our brains are too puny to figure it all out. Unfortunately, some of the most educated and intelligent have made the most foolish errors.
Others have looked to their church or their denomination as their guide, and while they have gotten some things right they have gotten some things wrong as well. In the Middle Ages, the Church was afraid to give the Bible to the masses of people because they thought that people would come up with all sorts of stuff and would splinter the church into a thousand pieces. (They actually got that right!) Better to let the official Church tell everyone what the truth is, then we will be safe. But what happens when the official church is wrong or refuses to correct itself or refuses new light from the Word of God. No, each of us needs the Holy Spirit to teach us and to guide us into all truth.
However, many Christians simply lack the confidence that they can learn more than basic truths from the Bible. Others are overconfident thinking that they have it all figured out. Neither type of Christian is really trusting the Holy Spirit to teach them and to correct their wrong thinking.
For the Holy Spirit to teach you, you must believe He will teach you and you must maintain a teachable spirit, leaning not on you own understanding. The Holy Spirit can then direct and guide you through the paths of Scripture. (See Proverbs 3:5-6, New King James if you have it)
So, does all this mean that we shouldn't listen to those who preach and teach the Bible? Should we learn simply on our own? Of course not. God has put teachers in the church to teach us. The Holy Spirit can teach them and anoint them to teach us. That is good as long as we still rely on the Holy Spirit to teach us and not just believe what brother or sister so-and-so said. (I might expand on this in a later blog post.)
The most important thing is to maintain a teachable spirit. That is really what the word "meekness" means in the New Testament. It is the opposite of being partisan. I have learned very much from those with whom I have much disagreement. Nobody in the Body of Christ is wrong about everything and God does seem to show different things sometimes to different groups. I learn from them all, but it is all from the Holy Spirit who is the Teacher of the Church.
[Apparently, the Comments thing is not working. A couple of readers have indicated that they tried to post comments and were unable to do so. Also, I got an alert about the comments and Google+ that I could not decipher. So, I am guessing that it just does not work at all. Sorry for any problems.]
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