Take His Heart, I asked the Lord to reveal where I should start if I were to go to a church down the street and present to them what we have learned. He took me to:
Romans 8
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
It is because of the lack of understanding of how the Holy Spirit teaches and leads that we as Christians have been missing the corrections, teachings, and leadings of the Holy Spirit. It is fairly safe to say that because of this spot the others exist. How is it that the Church could follow the Lord in these Last Days if she doesn’t know how He teaches and leads? No wonder the Lord would want me to start with this subject!
I Corinthians 2:12,13 SEE MORE AFTER CUT>>>>
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth;comparing spiritual things with spiritual .
God sent his word:
John 15:20
"Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also."
John 1:1,2
In the beginning was the Word , and the Word was with God, and the Word (Jesus) was God. The same was in the beginning with God
John 1:14
And the Word (Jesus) was made flesh, and dwelt among us,....
Knowing that while "The Word" is referring to God and His Son, the word "Word," not only in the above scriptures, but in others, like John 15:20, means something said,including the thought.
(Strong's Exhaustive Concordance Of The Bible, Abingdon Press, Nashville, New York, 1974.)
There is only one truth.
When I was taken to heaven, like Paul the apostle was, I faced what God meantwhen He said what He said in scripture. My thoughts, my understanding (what I had been taught), or my interpretation of His Word didn't 'hold water' there. "What God meant" is what you will face when you go to heaven. You will face God's thoughtbehind His word and He, being absolute truth, won't be able to change or vary from what He meant on any subject just because you misunderstood, or were taught wrong by well-meaning men who love the Lord. The Holy Spirit is the only teacher who knows God's thought behind His word. Therefore, we need to understand everything we can about how the Holy Spirit teaches and be open to his teachings.
There are over 600 different protestant denominations in the USA. They represent almost 600 different ideas of what the Bible says, in one way or another. The Bible warns many times about the wisdom of men and the fact that we don't think, or reason like God wants us to. We are not to lean to our own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Paul refers to the wisdom of men right before he talks about how the Holy Spirit teaches, in I Corinthians 2. He specifically refers to the wisdom of this world coming to naught in verse six.
1 Corinthians 2:6
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
When I was in heaven, looking into hell, I saw a believer who was there because of teachings and traditions performed in the wisdom of men who have leaned to their own understanding of what the Bible says. Those teachings and traditions had come to naught for this person and there was no changing the results. It was too late for this person. The very sad thing about this situation was that it was not her fault that she was in hell. It was the result of the leaders of the church leaning to their own understanding of what the Bible says about salvation unto eternal life, a very critical area. This is why I feel that this is one of the two most important writings I have ever done. I hope to be straight forward, pulling no punches. I will give various examples, sometimes bringing something up more than once in the hope that you will understand the seriousness of leaders not understanding how the Holy Spirit teaches. The scripture does give demonstration of the Holy Spirit teaching a person, which I will explain later.
To know God's thought behind the scriptures, or what He means, requires revelation from the Holy Spirit. There is no other way. It cannot be gained through man's wisdom and insight. Let us reason here. If all the leaders in the church world were taught by the same teacher and all knew how He teaches, there would only be one idea, one knowledge, of what the Bible says, not two ideas or any number upwards towards 600. There is only one truth of the purpose of water baptism. There is only one truth of how a person becomes saved. There is only one truth of the purpose of taking communion, and so on. There is only one truth. That is what God meant/means and that is what stands.
One "thing of the Spirit" concerning this writing:
God has painted a picture with His Word. This picture is like an oil painting. It has depth. It has substance. One time I did a magazine article centered around this topic. The Lord gave me this vision, depicting where/what the true water of the word is. It is,"God's thought, what He meant when He said it!"
This vision is a "thing of the Spirit" of which the scripture reveals that we as Christians are to pay attention to, and follow after, Romans 8: 5. (We will discuss this more later.) This vision is only one "thing of the Spirit," given by the Holy Spirit to me, to teach me what I'm talking to you about in this article. There is pure truth presented in the vision by the Holy Spirit! Understand that I added 1- 4 to the vision for understanding but I got that understanding from comparing other "things of the Spirit" given to me. Without the other things of the spirit I wouldn't know 1- 4. I could have interpreted the vision inmy own understanding to mean: I was getting God's pure thought simply by reading the Word of God.
Look at the vision, meditate on it even without what I added, knowing what the word "Word" means, "something said, including the thought." Know that the Lord is showing you a truth. When you open your Bible, know you are looking at but realize it is God's thought in His Word that we must know and understand.
The word of God says the Holy Spirit reveals the deep things of God to us.
I Corinthians 2:10
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
When God gives His Word to us, it includes His thoughts. We can hear God's voice, read God's word and because of the thought patterns in our carnal minds, we do not arrive at the meaning of what God is actually saying. If we don't have the input of the "things of the Spirit," and understand how the Holy Spirit teaches "comparing Spiritual with spiritual," we are left with interpretation accomplished only by the wisdom of men. Yes, the Bible says that we are to study and rightly divide the word of God.
2 Timothy 2:15
Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
It also says we are to add things together correctly.
Isaiah 28:10
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
But this is impossible in the wisdom of men. Without the teacher of the Bible's input and guidance, we as a people cannot rightly divide and add precept on precept without error on our own. We don't know where we are missing it and what is more important to know than something else. We simply can't get the right understanding of the thought behind the Word! Without the understanding of how the Holy Spirit teaches we are almost as bad off, if not as bad off, as having no teacher at all. If you unknowingly reject how a teacher teaches, you have rejected the teacher and you actually have no teacher. Can you imagine what would happen if we as a nation just gave our children books and expected them to learn by themselves, without teachers? If I gave you a book that contained everything there is to know about how to fly the Space Shuttle, do you think you could ever get what you need to know to fly it by studying without a teacher/instructor? Without the input of the people who built the shuttle, some hands on experience, and some guidance from an instructor, you could never fly the shuttle successfully.
That is the way it is with the Bible. We must have the person who wrote the Bible give us understanding and guidance as to how to rightly divide, add line upon line and precept upon precept. And to have the Holy Spirit teach us what God's thought is in the Bible we must know how the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing Spiritual things with spiritual, lest we are in that position of having no teacher at all. Lack of understanding of how the Holy Spirit teaches has left the body of Christ with all kinds of doctrines or teachings of men which the Bible itself reveals will be prevalent in the last days. That's why we have 600 plus denominations. That's why the Bible speaks of teachers who have itching ears.
The body of Christ, mainly its leaders, need to sit in front of men who have been taught by the Holy Spirit. A man who has been taught by comparing Spiritual things with spiritual can give witness of the "things of the Spirit" the Holy Spirit used to teach him. A man who cannot give witness to the things of the Spirit on the subject he is teaching was not taught by the Holy Spirit.
You may be getting the impression that I am against Bible studies. No, they are good and discussion can bring understanding to people. But you must realize that without being connected to someone who has been taught by the Holy Spirit, leaves the groupstudying completely in the wisdom of men. I have been involved in a few Bible studies and I learned a lot from them, some of which was true and some of which was false. I've been in meetings where I was asked what I thought about what the scripture said. Of course, I had my opinion and that is all it was,"My opinion." My opinion and your opinion won't hold up in the courts of heaven. Only what God meant will hold up. One time the Lord showed me that people were building their beliefs on a foundation of chat (chat between people), not on the ability of the Holy Spirit to reveal and teach what God meant.
Recently I wrote a little test. When one of the questions was read, some people knew what I meant but other people thought I meant something different. This is the problem in the minds of men, knowing/discerning what God's thought is behind His Word. We as a people perceive/interpret what is being said by our experiences and what we have previously thought to be true.
There are many men in the world who hear from the Holy Spirit but there are few who know and understand how He teaches, comparing Spiritual with spiritual. We need to realize that God always gives truth but it takes more "things of the Spirit" for us to understand that truth. That's why scripture mentions two things when it says "How the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing Spiritual things with spiritual." It takes a mind to comparetwo "things of the Spirit." The word "compare" certainly indicates at least two items are involved. This will become more clear as we go through scripture, demonstrating how the Holy Spirit teaches. The pure and simple fact is that God gives you a/the Word and then the understanding, two separate things. Let me witness to you that God gives a truth and then the understanding. It's that way with His Word. It is truth but He is the one giving the understanding, not the minds of men.
One day I was arguing with God, talking to Him about scriptures. There seemed to be contradictions. Then God answered me in a very, very loud voice, "It is as it is." I was shaken and appalled at what had happened. I didn't know what God meant, as it made no sense to me. Actually, I thought it was a stupid answer and I said so out loud, as it didn't seem like an answer to anything. "It is as it is." That didn't tell me anything and I told God that it didn't tell me anything, that it was a stupid answer. The problem was that I didn't know the thought behind what He said. Three days later the Lord rolled the understanding into me "Everything is as I say it is. You can go on believing what you want to believe, but it is as I say it is." You see, I had the truth (through the audible voice of God) at the first "thing of the Spirit" but not the understanding, or the thought behind those words. The understanding came with the second "thing of the Spirit." It came in parts because God gives in part, here a little, there a little. In this case, God gave the truth first and then the understanding. I had to follow after (pay attention to)two separate "things of the Spirit," because one without the other would haveleft me in error and leaning to my own wisdom.
Some people might say, "But the Bible says that I have the Holy Spirit and I need no man to teach me. I can sit down and study scripture and come up with the truth." They believe this mainly because of the following scripture.
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.
Notice this scripture says "but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things." In other words, the Holy Spirit teaches you about everything and you don't really need man to teach you anything. This is a truth, but if the Body of Christ doesn't know how the Holy Spirit teaches, it is being taught in the wisdom of men, by men leaning to their own understanding. No exceptions!
It's like going to college and being given a book to study but the instructor teaches in a way that is foreign to you. You don't realize you're not really understanding. Then you fall into your own understanding of the book and what the instructor is saying and you therefore fail the course. Why? Not because you didn't study the book or listen to the instructor; you did! But you didn't get the precise understanding of what he was teaching because you didn't understand the instructor's method of teaching. The Body of Christ, mainly its leaders, need to sit under men who know how the Holy Spirit teaches, "comparing Spiritual with spiritual." Any man who understands how the Holy spirit teaches can teach how He teaches.
God loves us and He would not have us ignorant of how the Holy Spirit teaches. God revealed how the Holy Spirit teaches the deep things of God to us in His word .
I Corinthians 2:12,13 ILB
But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God; that we may know the things freely given to us by God; which things we also speak, not in words taught in human wisdom, but in words taught of (the) Holy Spirit, comparing spiritual things withspiritual things.
This is not the only place where the Bible talks about the things of the Spirit. To understand more about the things of the spirit, look in the book of Romans.
Romans 8:5
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
In simple language, God is saying here that to follow the Holy Spirit you need to pay attention to and meditate on the things of the Holy Spirit. The things (gifts) of the Holy Spirit are tangible things. A word, a dream, or a vision are things of the Spirit that we can hold as something of substance, that comes from and is produced by the Spirit of God. In my experience the gifts (things) of the Spirit (wisdom, knowledge, discerning of spirits, and prophecy) can be manifested in a word, a dream, or a vision.
One of the more miraculous things that can happen by following the "things of the spirit" is deliverance, which comes because the Holy Spirit has revealed/taught truth.God can overcome false doctrines and untruth that exists in a person's life. Peter is a good example of a man of God who had to learn something.
In the story concerning Cornelius we can see a demonstration of the Holy Spirit teaching Peter, by Peter comparing Spiritual with spiritual. God is overcoming afalse doctrine in Peter!
We start in Acts 10:9 and continue.
9. On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: 10. And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, 11. And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: 12. Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. 13. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. 14. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. 15. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. 16. This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven.
Peter has just had his first thing of the Spirit, a vision. As you read you will see that the Spirit of God is dealing with Peter, showing him what to do. Now Peter did not have the understanding of the vision. It is Peter's revelation about the Word of God that we are looking for, a truth that Peter did not know. Notice that Peter will hang onto this original "thing of the spirit" until he gets his final understanding of it.
17. Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house, and stood before the gate, 18. And called, and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there. 19. While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee. 20. Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them. 21. Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius; and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek: what is the cause wherefore ye are come? 22. And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by a holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee. 23. Then called he them in, and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him. 24. And the morrow after they entered into Cae-sa-re'-a. And Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsmen and near friends. 25. And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshiped him. 26. But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man. 27. And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together. 28. And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.
Peter was starting to get the surface part of the "Picture" God was painting (revelation) because he had entered a Gentile's house, considered unclean. But he doesn't have the second thing (experience) of the Spirit yet and therefore he doesn't yet have the whole truth that God wants him to understand.
29. Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for: I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me?
Here is where Peter starts to hear what the Spirit of the Lord has said and done in Cornelius' life, his second "Spiritual thing" or encounter to consider.
30. And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, 31. And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. 32. Send therefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter; he is lodged in the house of one Simon a tanner by the seaside: who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee. 33. Immediately therefore I sent to thee; and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.
After hearing Cornelius' story of what the Spirit of God had done, Peter gets the final and complete revelation by adding "one plus one" in his mind, comparing all the things that had been done by the Spirit of God.
{"Compare with" means to think of how the two things are related to each other when adding them together for understanding, I Cor. 2:13.}
Of course, his original vision of animals coming down to earth and those words of God,"What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common" had all come to make sense to him because of the other things (things of the Spirit) the Holy Spirit did later.
34. Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
Peter had a revelation, like a light bulb coming on in his mind. God had finished painting the picture. Now, he could see that the Gentiles could be saved and that wasone reason he was there. This is clearly revealed when he was giving an account of what had happened at Cornelius' house to others, in the next chapter. Peter explains what happened, speaking of Cornelius.
Acts 11: 13,14
And he showed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; Who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
A foundational truth had been revealed to him by the Spirit of God. Peter wouldn't have believed it by hearing the still small voice because it was against his religion, his beliefs, the things that were in his own spirit. He had been with Jesus and still didn't understand. The Holy Spirit had to teach him in a dramatic way, using Spiritual things.Sometimes the Holy Spirit has to get our attention.
Paul was taught the same way. To see this we go to the book of Ephesians chapter 3, starting with verse 3 and continuing through verse 6,
3. How by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, 4. Whereby, when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) 5. Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is nowrevealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
What was the revelation God had revealed to Paul?
6. That the gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
Paul was saying that he had learned the same thing that Peter learned in the house of Cornelius, that the Gentiles could be saved. Paul says in verse five that this information is revealed to holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit of God. Paul had to use his mind to get the revelation. He had to add "things" up. I have underlined the word "knowledge" in verse 4. That word in the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance Of The Bible, means; knowledge (4907) = a mental putting together, . . .
So we see in verse 4, by the implication of the word knowledge (a mental putting together), that Paul had to add up some "things of the Spirit" to get the same revelation that Peter had in Cornelius' house. Confirmation had occurred among the Apostles.
The Gentiles could be saved!
My personal introduction to how the Holy Spirit teaches.
One day I saw myself, in a vision , standing in front of a church full of people. I didn't like the idea of doing anything like that. I don't like being in front of people, period. So I asked the Lord a question, "Lord, if I am to speak, what am I to say?" He answered,"The truth." I said, "Lord, I don't know the truth. I'm not a preacher." The Lord replied,"What you have seen with your own eyes and what you shall come to believe from yourexperiences shall be the truth."What the Lord had just told me was my introduction to a general pattern of how the Holy Spirit teaches. What I had seen with my eyes were visions and dreams. I, like Peter, didn't have the full revelation or understanding of what I had seen. I had to experience more visions, dreams, and experiences; always putting them together, to get the revelation God wanted me to have. Some took years and some just days. The Holy Spirit has taught me many things on many subjects because of my purpose in God. That is why you will find so many "things of the Spirit" all through my writings.
I have decided to endeavor to place a symbol identifying each "thing of the Spirit" in my writings. I chose an opened mail box with a letter in it because each "thing of the Spirit," in whatever form, is like getting a letter/Word from the Lord. This may take some time but we need to realize how important it is to let the Holy Spirit teach us and not lean to our own understanding.
Simplicity is a key to knowing when you see the truth. The Lord told me, "If somethingsuddenly strikes you as being simple, and it makes sense, it's true." Every revelation from the Lord I've had, hit me just that way. I've had so many of those, "But God, that's too simple, simple beyond belief." Nevertheless, the Bible talks about the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus.
We need to know what God means in His word. We need to understand the thoughts behind those words because words change meanings, and sometimes in a short period of time. For example, when I was in high school, the word "gay" meant something completely different than it means now!
One very important benefit of following after the "things of the Spirit" is to be able to recognize the difference between our spirit and the Holy Spirit. We should understand that our spirit and God's Spirit are not the same thing, although they both dwell in the Christian. One of the hardest things for a Christian to do is determine the difference between his spirit and the Spirit of God that is in him. It is something else to divide between the spirit, the soul and the flesh. But to divide between our spirit and the Holy Spirit is harder because both are spirits. The following scripture verifies that there is a difference.
Romans 8:16
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Some years ago I had a dream given to me by God. I was interpreting it the way I wanted to interpret it, which is what most Christians do, using what we believe and perceive, usually towards the benefit of our flesh. But then the Lord said, "That's your spirit, not Mine." The true interpretation went against my spirit and my soul. At that time I understood nothing about comparing "Spiritual things" with spiritual to get the interpretation with understanding from God. Following the "things of the spirit" will enable you to differentiate between your human spirit and God's Spirit. This is a must for success in following the Lord. I won't tell you it will be a fun deal, as the Bible says our carnal minds are against God's purposes and acts.
What should the body of Christ do? Keep track, both individually and corporately, of the "things of the Spirit." Don't throw anything away. What's not of God will be found out.This is important because you don't know what it is you don't know or see, that you need to see. God does! Let me give you an example.
I was visiting in a church when the anointing of God fell and people were encountering some "things of the Spirit," such as words of knowledge. A person said he had a scripture from the Lord. He was allowed to read it but no one knew why God had given it. They finally did nothing with it and afterwards I asked the pastor about the young man. I wanted to know his position in the church because I was curious as to why the Lord gave that particular scripture to this particular person.
The point I want to make clear is that it was not necessarily wrong not to have done something concerning the scripture at the meeting. But, what the pastor did was wrong! The pastor told me he had never understood that scripture and that this was a fairly new Christian. Therefore the pastor wasn't sure the young man had heard from God. The pastor had discarded what the Lord had brought up, mainly because of his lack of knowledge of what the scripture was about. This bothered me but I was in no position in this church to do anything about this situation. Actually, the whole congregation should have been concerned and seeking understanding from the Lord, from that moment on, as to why He gave it. However, they weren't trained to get the second "thing of the Spirit" so they could see why God had given it.
It is wrong to just throw a "thing of the Spirit" away, God always gives it for a purpose. God might have used me to give some understanding to them but there was no chance because they had thrown it out. "They had thrown the baby out with the bath water." What was the scripture?
Luke 13:24-27
24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 25 When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: 26 Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. 27 But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.
The young man's position in the church was over the Sunday School department. I know it was important for that church to pay attention to what the Spirit of God had brought up because the Lord had dealt with me concerning these scriptures.
You and I are unable to discern what we don't know, that we need to know. So we shouldn't throw anything out based on our own understanding. Put it on a shelf but don't leave it there; meditate on it, and wait on the Lord. Don't lean to your own understanding; lean towards His by being open to Him giving a second "thing of the Spirit." This particular pastor leaned to his own understanding, allowing his spirit to become involved, and threw this particular "thing of the Spirit" away. We need to be like Peter, who kept his mind on the "things of the Spirit" and was therefore able to recognize the next "thing of the Spirit," thus gaining the understanding.
When you keep track of the "things of the Spirit" you will have Christians coming against you. These are the Christians mentioned in scripture who have carnal minds. They are at enmity with God without realizing it (Romans 8:6,7). It is important to pay attention to the "things of the Spirit" because the Spirit brings life by warning you,teaching you, and leading you.
I know of a family who had a daughter who was brutally murdered. They were warnedthrough a dream. If the Church had been teaching correctly about the "things of the Spirit" of God, it just might have saved this girl from death. But the churches are basically carnal minded because they don't mind (follow after) the "things of the Spirit!""Following after" involves more than just hearing the Lord.
Romans 8:5
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Following the "Things of the Spirit" produces life at the end of a situation. God is constantly warning us of things to come and trying to show us where we are missing it. But we must understand that He gives in part, here a little, there a little, so understanding comes later, not as soon as the first "thing of the Spirit" shows up.
In the years following 1980 God led and gave words to over two hundred men who are in the ministry, revealing that there was a problem with the church's understanding of the mechanics of salvation. God was trying to lead them into something they weren't aware of, just like he did Peter! The Holy Spirit wanted to teach them like He did Peter. One well known man said from his pulpit that God told him that there were people who were not saved at his altar. To help understand the significance of all this I share the following vision from the Lord.
I was on stage with the Lord. There was an easel, holding a big white board, standing between me and the Lord. In front of the Lord and down a level were men dressed in suits, sitting in regular chairs. The Lord gave a Word (for them) and was standing, with marker in hand, ready to explain the Word He had given them (which would have been the second "thing of the Spirit"). After getting the Word from the Lord, the menturned to each other and were talking about the Word the Lord had given them. I saw the Lord wait patiently for the men to turn back to Him so He could explain the original Word. They didn't, and kept on leaning to their own understanding. He waited quite some time. Then I saw the Lord become angry. He crossed over in front of the easel, towards me. I stepped back, seeing His anger and not knowing what He was going to do. As He crossed in front of the easel, He suddenly had two mechanical objects in His hands. It was as if the two mechanical objects came from the easel. It was what He was going to explain to them. He slammed these two objects into my chest saying, "You're the only one who would listen!" The force almost knocked me down backwards. I stumbled back, trying to keep my balance, holding the weight of the two mechanical objects in my arms.
The two mechanical things that He wanted to explain to them were the mechanics of tithing and the mechanics of salvation. But the men missed getting taught by the Lord because of the lack of knowledge of the mechanics of how the Holy Spirit teaches. They weren't listening to the Lord for the understanding. They leaned to their own interpretation of the Word of the Lord which they had received and they missed what it was really all about.
The only reason the Lord told me, "You're the only one who would listen!" in the vision is not because I'm anything special, or of any special anointing, but simply because I have learned to listen and pay much attention to the "things of the Spirit," no matter who they come through. I am always adding them together for understanding because He taught me to do it this way. The Holy Spirit is the one giving understanding, here a little there a little.
God is truth and the Word is truth but understanding of that truth must come into the Body of Christ from the Holy Spirit's ability to teach, Comparing Spiritual things with spiritual! There is only one truth on every subject and that is what God meant. God is pouring out His Spirit on the earth to lead and teach men for a purpose. It is imperative that the leadership of the church learns the mechanics of how the Holy Spirit teaches, guides, and directs us as individuals and as a corporate body. The church will never come into Brideship without the leadership having the understanding of "Comparing Spiritual things with spiritual."
The information presented on this site has the input of the Holy Spirit on every subject. He is our teacher of God's thought behind His Word!
EmoticonEmoticon