Hi all,

Last week I shared mostly on the non-verbal ways the Father speaks to us through the Holy Spirit, focused on discerning the difference between the traditions of men and the pure Word of God. Yet because we aren't taught to listen and trust in that inward witness, I'd like to share more on how the Spirit of Truth 'speaks' to us all the time; because He is Truth, and then refocus on discerning oral tradition from the Word.

Love that cobbler
Barb tried 2 new peach cobbler recipes, making a half recipe of each. When they were baking she had a nagging in her spirit that she recognized in her mind - something was wrong with one of the recipes. She thought on it as they were baking, going through a process of reviewing each written recipe.

The first recipe she reviewed seemed to 'sit right' in her spirit...she had peace in her spirit about it, yet the nagging feeling that something was wrong still dominated her mind. She reviewed the second recipe which called for some lemon juice. When she got to that part of the recipe her spirit bore witness, even leaped within her, that was where something was wrong. Immediately she thought 'I don't think I halved the lemon juice, I think I added the amount for a whole recipe.'

When the cobblers were done and the tasting began she said: "Yep that confirms it, I halved everything on this recipe but forgot to halve the lemon juice - it's really strong." (You could taste the lemon, but I liked the combination of peach and lemon...at least for me it was edible, but then I rarely turn down food :-)

Analysis
The Spirit of Truth within us is Truth no matter the situation. He can only state the truth, only reflect on truth, only respond honestly and truthfully about any situation. When she made a mistake on a recipe, He, the Holy Spirit, could only bear witness of that truth to her spirit. Her mind then had to perceive, discern, notice that something in her spirit was telling her something wasn't right. She had to think it through and review each recipe until her eyes drifted across the lemon juice part, and immediately upon doing so, her spirit leapt within her and her mind recognized that leap. That's how it works.

Blonde guy
There is a blonde man on Christian TV used by many as a fund raiser - he gives me the creeps. I can't help it, the first time I saw him my spirit cringed with that feeling it gets when there is a wrong spirit attached to someone. My reaction is because my mind checks with my spirit to see how it reacts, and the Holy Spirit of Truth evidently has communicated to my spirit that there is a non-holy spirit attached to the guy...and that is the creepy feeling my mind notices in my spirit.

Job application
Back in 1979 I applied for a job with a ministry because in my mind it seemed the right thing to do. I didn't know the Lord's will, but firmly believed I needed to do what I could do in the natural and let Him guide me from there. (I still believe this; even God can't steer a parked car.)

But as I worked my way through the job application my mind noticed that in my spirit it felt like a heavy hand was pressing down like a weight saying 'no' to the job. The further down the single page application I got the heavier this weight, this hand upon my spirit, pressed...finally I could take it no more and told the lady I couldn't finish the application. She told me to sign what I had and they'd keep it on file. My mind noticed the Truth in my spirit - this wasn't God's job for me - so I moved on.

Truth and sin
Several of us were discussing various things happening in the body of Christ, and one asked about a particular manifestation and whether it was God or not. I jumped in rather forcefully and said it wasn't scriptural, shutting the man down abruptly. I did mean to offer a scriptural opinion, but I did not mean to blurt out so forcefully in a way that would hurt his feelings.

He seemed fine, but immediately my mind noticed a grieved feeling down in my spirit - I knew I had sinned though the man gracefully showed no evidence of such. But I knew, and the Spirit of Truth bore witness with my spirit by being grieved, that I had sinned. That grievance in my spirit and regret in my mind stayed with me though I asked forgiveness of the Lord right away - I was just kicking myself for speaking so boldly and forcefully in such a manner.

The Spirit of Truth is truth - when we sin He lets us know. If we insist on repeating a sin going against that voice of the Spirit, we become dull of hearing as we no longer have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to us...and only repentance and a willingness to instantly obey the next time we sense that grievance can renew our sensitivity in that area.

Trusting the Spirit of Truth
The subject of this series is discerning between true and erroneous Bible teaching, but the first step is to recognize the Spirit of Truth within as seen above. Last week I talked about the words used in the New Testament that describe a person's mind recognizing something in their spirit from the Holy Spirit: Witness, discern, perceive, reveal.

Hebrews 5:14 says, "Strong meat is for those who by reason of use have trained their senses to discern between good and evil."

This is strong meat - But it must become a way of life if you want to walk in balance and not be led astray as a child by every wind of doctrine that comes your way. Notice this maturity happens 'by reason of use' - that means trial and error and a dogged determination to go through trial and error because it is by reason of use that we grow. (This is true with just about anything, from driving a car to walking with God - we have to apply head knowledge by doing it, learn from our mistakes, and try again. That is growth)

Secondly notice we are to train our senses to discern. In the first teaching visitation I had on October 1, 1986, when the Lord appeared to me, this instruction stood out:

"The words used in the New Testament like perceive, discern, witness and reveal, describe the process by which the mind picks up on what is in the spirit (by the Holy Spirit). You must train yourself to constantly switch your attention back and forth between the natural senses and your spiritual senses..."

When Jesus asked, "Who touched me?" in Luke 8:46 and Peter told Him everyone was touching Him, Jesus most certainly knew the fact there was a mob touching Him. But Jesus trained His senses to switch back and forth between the natural senses and the spiritual senses - and when He did so He perceived power flowing out of His spirit and asked, "Who touched me, for I perceive power flowed out of me."

Bring it on home
Paul expressed concern and taught about false teachers and false teachings in II Corinthians 11, saying, "if someone comes preaching another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit which you have not received, or another gospel which you have not accepted..." (v4)

Notice - another Jesus that Paul did not preach, another spirit they had not previously received, another gospel they had not previously accepted. Therefore the false presents a Jesus not found in Paul's writings which make up the bulk of the New Testament, a spirit different from the Spirit of Truth, and a different gospel than the core gospel we'd previously accepted.

Because we have the Spirit of Truth within us, He will bear witness with our spirit and our mind can discern, perceive, witness to or receive revelation of error in 1 or more of these 3 areas.

So Blondie is on TV trying to raise money for the Christian network and talks of the 100 fold return, or someone says we need to scream/pray/shout/fast to get an open heaven, or someone says God wants us to worship on Saturday, or someone says it is a sin to drink wine, or someone says if you give X money to their ministry you will be healed/receive answered prayer...and your spirit has a 'check', your mind detects an uneasy feeling in your spirit, but your mind and emotions are also intrigued and want to know more...what do you do with a 'check' in your spirit yet your inquiring mind wants to know more?

And that's where we'll pick it up next week for I'm out of space today...blessings

John Fenn
www.supernaturalhousechurch.org

Hi all,

Last week I shared how Oral Law - teaching that isn't God's Word but is presented as the Word - prevents people from thinking for themselves, removes personal responsibility and the need to actually know and walk with God; replacing relationship with formula and performance based faith.

How the Spirit communicates
When we hear or read a teaching claiming to be from the Word, we need to know how to tell if it is the Word, or an Oral Tradition that has become elevated above the Word. (Good people can truly differ on doctrine without either opinion being Oral Tradition.) A teaching becomes Oral Tradition when that teaching rises above the revealed Word of God to become doctrine.

John 16:13
"...when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth for He will not speak of Himself, but whatever He hears, that is what He will speak. And He will show you things to come."

Guide, speak, show. Only 1 of those is verbal. Guide and show are communication by means other than words. When people ask me 'How do I know a teaching is or isn't God', they are thinking God will talk to them yes or no like a loud speaker in their brain. (Wouldn't that be nice!)

God is in your spirit, not your mind. He is a Spirit, your spirit is born again and capable of moving in the things of God. Therefore He communicates in your spirit.

Non-verbal communication
"And it was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Lord's Messiah."

"If anything is revealed to another sitting nearby, let the first hold his peace and let the other speak."

"And immediately when Jesus perceived in His spirit they were thinking those things..."

"'...Someone has touched me; for I perceive power has gone out of me."

"I perceive that God is not a respecter of persons."

"Sirs, I perceive this voyage will be with much damage to the ship, cargo, and our lives!"

"I don't know what will happen to me; but the Holy Spirit witnesses in every city that arrest and trouble await."

"The Spirit bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God."

(Luke 2:26, I Corinthians 14:30, Mark 2:8, Luke 8:46, Acts 9:34, 27:10, 20:22-23, Romans 8:16)

Revealed by the Spirit, perceived in our spirit, a witness in our spirit - these are the words used in the Bible to describe the non-verbal ways the Holy Spirit communicates what He has heard from the Father and Lord.

When you hear or read a teaching, you must train your mind to immediately turn your attention down to your spirit man to look for a feeling, yes, a feeling, in your spirit that could be described as a witness, perceive, revelation. Some have told me 'When you teach it resonates in my spirit, even though sometimes my mind is still trying to grasp it.'

That word 'resonate' is a good modern synonym with witness, perceive, revealed. When it is a God teaching, there will often be an excitement, joy, happy feeling in your spirit that is completely unattached from your emotions and thoughts. It resonates with you. It will come bubbling like a river of living water our of your spirit to be noticed and affect your emotions and thoughts...but the flow is from your spirit up to your mind.

THIS is the way it works
"This is what we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining Spirit realities with Spirit-taught words....they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgements about all (these) things...Who has the mind of the Lord that we may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ." I Corinthians 2:13-16

Discern, used here, is the last of our words used in the New Testament for non-verbal communication from the Father through the Holy Spirit directly into our spirit. Perceive, witness, discern, reveal. They are all vague, and we must be careful not to jump to conclusions because they are vague. Jesus didn't know who touched Him, just that someone did. Simeon just knew he wouldn't die until he had seen Messiah, but he didn't know how old Messiah would be when he saw him.

Also, you can see from scripture how concise all these ways of communication are. A personal prophecy that goes on for 20 pages sounding spiritual yet saying nothing is not God. A NT personal prophecy is short, concise, to the point as seen in the Word. Anything more is error; we don't see the Holy Spirit droning on in the NT.

That may be contrary to someone's Oral Tradition, for there is alot of teaching on personal prophecy that isn't in the Word, and yet that teaching is valued above the Word by many - I've had people get very angry at me for telling them their 25 page personal prophecy from so and so isn't God...boosts the ego? Yes. God? No. Personal prophecy in the Word is precise, to the point, and actually says something in those few words.

Let's go down a rabbit trail for a minute
Many, many people have had something perceived, discerned, revealed in their spirit and then they attach a 'thus saith the Lord' to it - and are wrong. It is error to say 'God told me' when all you have is something you perceive, discern, bear witness to, or think you have revealed to you. If you just sense it, state it that way. Many people want God to talk to them yet they don't have the tiniest amount of integrity in this small matter - If you didn't hear Him talk to you, but only sense one of the above, then state it exactly as received.

Often God will reveal and you will perceive what the devil's plans are if left unchanged, as with Paul in Acts 27:10 when he 'perceived' they would lose their lives in a shipwreck. The Father revealed to Paul's spirit, and he perceived it, what would happen if left unchanged - they would all die.

Sometimes people perceive a horrible thing in their spirit, attach a 'thus saith the Lord' to it, or worse say "God told me", or worse still - rebuke the devil for showing them a bad thing not realizing they are rebuking the Holy Spirit trying to show the devil's plan so they can pray and have it changed - and then it doesn't happen because God intervened in spite of their error and ignorance. God is gracious! The point is to handle it as Paul did, with intercessory prayer, and God changed what the devil had planned.

The Holy Spirit DOES speak - 1/3 of the John 16:13 passage we started with is 'speak'. When He does so it is very much like a 'loud speaker in the brain' though actually He is speaking in your spirit. It is always short, concise, precise. The same when angels talk - always precise, short, concisely stated.

"The angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Arise, go south on the desert highway between Jerusalem and Gaza."'

"The Spirit said to Philip, 'Go join yourself to that chariot'".

"He saw in vision an angel who said to him...send men to Joppa to a man named Simon Peter, who is staying with a man named Simon, who is a tanner, and lives by the seaside..."

"While Peter was thinking on the vision the Spirit said to him, Look, Three men are looking for you, go with them nothing doubting, for I have sent them."

"This is what the Holy Spirit says, the Jews at Jerusalem will arrest and turn over to the Romans the man who owns this belt." (Acts 8:26, 29;10:1-5,19-20; 21:11)

Often when a person has never heard the Holy Spirit actually speak to them, it is so loud and distinct within them they often think it as audible to human ears. He is just that loud in the human spirit sometimes. After you get used to His voice, it doesn't sound so loud, but remains very distinct.

Back from the rabbit trail
Most of the time when a teaching is off-balance the first time a person hears that teaching will be the most dramatic and vivid warning by the Holy Spirit - that perception, witness, discernment, revelation about it not 'sitting right' with you will be the strongest. It feels like a heaviness, a darkness, a grievance in the spirit - that witness, discernment, perception will feel 'heavy' like that or will feel not peaceful. He is Truth, He reacts strongly to teachings that masquerade in the name of God but are in fact a Pharisaic Oral Tradition. 

IF a person insists on listening, or reading, or checking out that web site that grieves the Spirit and spirit, that person 'sears over' - puts a layer of hardness of heart - their spirit and the voice of the Spirit becomes increasingly dull and barely recognizable. It is the same process I mentioned earlier in this series from Mark 3:1-6 where Jesus asked the Pharisees if it was OK to do good on the Sabbath.

He was grieved at the hardness of heart, a process of stuccoing and whitewash where a layer is applied, allowed to dry and harden, then another layer is applied. Such is a person who does not immediately turn away from something when the perceive, discern, bear witness, or have revealed to them that a teaching, person, web site, is not of God, will be allowed to go as far as they want in error until they repent.

Next week - more on the Spirit and Word.

(My cd/MP3 series 'How to be led by the Spirit' and my DVD on how the Lord taught me to hear the Father's voice, are good further studies, and my book 'Pursuing the Seasons of God (regular or audio)

Blessings,

John Fenn
www.supernaturalhousechurch.org

Hi all,

Last week I shared the history of the Pharisees and how their Oral Law became greater than the written Law of God - and that is where Jesus' issues with them centered - not on the Word, but on their Oral Law exalted above the Word of God.

How Oral Law became religion
The Pharisees' teaching that became their Oral Law was initially motivated by a desire not to offend God. When God said not to work on Saturday, in Exodus 20:8-11, He just said 'take a day off!'. But the Pharisees decided they didn't want to do any work lest they offend, so decided they needed to set a limit to how far a person could walk before it would be work.

The Pharisee's decided 'a Sabbath's Day walk' was about .25 mile/.5 km without it being work. And that Oral Law became more important than Moses' Law which simply said 'don't work'. God's intention was that each person would know Him, know their own heart, and know when they were working or not.

Now imagine hundreds of rules like the Sabbath Day walk, over and above the Law of Moses, over and above allowing people to truly know God and interpret how to walk with Him, governing every aspect of a Jewish person's life with a whole legal culture firmly established by the time Jesus started His ministry.

The Oral Law took personal decision away from individuals and replaced it with increasingly complex Oral Laws that dictated from the pulpit what the people should do for every situation, ailment, issue, and crisis. As a result, the Ministers in Jesus' time became controllers of the people, always looking over their shoulders ready to point out any infraction to their Oral Law.

You are responsible. Oral Law removes this
For the people, their walk with God became one of works and performance. Their walk with God became laced with fear that they might do something wrong, make Him angry, or in some other way offend one of the Oral Traditions. They began measuring their righteousness by how they performed. If they went 1/2 mile or a full kilometer, violating the Sabbath's Day walk rule, they felt God was so displeased that He might not answer their prayer - so off they went to offer a sacrifice to God to appease Him. They lost sight of the Word of God because all they were taught was the Oral Law. They were scripturally illiterate.

The Oral Law removed any relationship with God and replaced it with a relationship with Oral Law and religion, making the people solely dependent on what their teachers said - they didn't truly know God.

Our first clue
This is our first clue on how to discern between the Word and Holy Spirit, and a teaching that is contrary to the Word and Spirit: Does the teaching lead you to know God, require personal responsibility, and direct a person to chapter and verse; Or is it based on formula and performance? Does it produce fear of failure? Is it based on knowing God is leading you because you know in your spirit this is so, or does someone tell you what you should do?

Modern example of Oral Law: Give your way to prosperity
The prosperity doctrine is largely based on giving - and giving - and giving - and God in turn will bless, heal, increase, turn around - your life. It is all focused on this one thing you do and then God will do His thing like a winning Las Vegas slot machine. In fact the Bible is full of instruction on money all revolving around personal responsibility: No signing as a guarantor on a note, no impulse spending, work hard, save, budget, divine revelation and following God's leading, changing your ability to handle money, and so forth.

Giving is only 1 part of the larger whole, yet Oral Law today ignores the weightier matters of God's Word about money in favor of fluff. There is no call to live on a budget, pay your debts as a means of getting out of debt, include giving as a part of an overall plan with your money, doing the hard work to be a good steward of all God gives you. NO! Just give and you don't have to be responsible for your own life. Just give and God will do the rest. That's not the Word & Spirit!

Another example: Grace run wild
The 'grace' teaching that says we don't have to ask forgiveness because 'grace' has covered it all. That teaching requires no accountability, no humility, no responsibility for one's actions. It is nothing more than Oral Law that has become elevated above God's Word. As Jude 4 says: "Don't be like some who turn the grace of God into a license for sin."

The Bible teaches that grace has accountability. Noah received grace to build a boat - but he was immediately responsible to live in that grace and start building - if he didn't walk in that grace he would drown. Moses received grace at the burning bush, but he was immediately accountable to head back to Egypt to walk that grace out. You are saved by grace, now you are responsible to live for God in that grace. Bible says grace without responsibility isn't grace. Oral Tradition says grace is without accountability. Which are you going to believe? 

Here is another: The devil made me do it
There is legitimate deliverance as seen in the Gospels and Acts - there is no doubt. But in my 38+ years of walking with the Lord, the vast majority of deliverance's, maybe 99% or more, comes through people obeying the Word - actually becoming a doer of the Word.

There is a stream of faith that sees a demon behind every character flaw, and often they can tie it back to mom or dad or a grandparent's sin or this or that. They are so busy looking in their rearview mirror for who caused them to be haunted and oppressed that they neglect just doing the Word of God NOW in their life. 

When a person determines to become a doer of the Word, actually doing the battle of the mind to take every thought captive to obedience in Christ and stop sinning, to actually just decide to forgive and work through the emotions involved, to just do and think like God says; the demon(s) finds no more place, and just leaves of his own accord. That's what happens in maybe 99% of all deliverance's - the person just starts living the Word, and the demons leave as the person matures to become more Christ-like.

Be a thinker and know God
The Oral Law can't think. Yet you are created to think, and God's Word requires us to think for ourselves and walk it out in relationship with God. It may be easier on the flesh to put our trust in formula and religion and tradition and call it God, but you won't receive from the Lord that way. Knowing the Lord takes work, time, and determination. There are no short cuts. Oral Tradition outwardly appears easier, but once in its grasp, it is a hard task master, full of condemnation, fear, disgust of self, and a certain realization you don't really know the Lord. That is the reality of the Oral Tradition of modern day Pharisee's.

Now, don't you want to know how to know His voice so you can keep from these traps? Next week!

Blessings,
John Fenn
www.supernaturalhousechurch.org

Hi all,

Last week I shared how the Holy Spirit is an eye-witness to the life of Jesus and the words of the New Testament. This living witness confirms the Word and provides understanding to the Word of God as only an eye-witness can, and conveys the intent of the Word. He is a faithful and true witness.

The integrity of the Word, and the balance of the Spirit
While there were many excesses in the Word of Faith movement of years past, the core truth of the Word of Faith movement was the integrity of God's Word. That truth has largely been lost on a whole generation of believers since the 1980's.

I asked the leader of a popular Bible school to include classes like Old and New Testament Survey, the Life of Christ and such - but he said no, the people wanted classes about deliverance and pulling heaven down for revival, and how to get personal breakthroughs, etc. - leaving people to believe all sorts of wacky teaching but having no foundation by which to distinguish the Word from error.

I was teaching a class at the World Prayer Center over 13 years ago and mentioned a fact of prayer that I thought was common knowledge: That we may come boldly to the throne to receive mercy and grace to help in time of need. I went on to quote not only that passage in Hebrews 4:16, but casually mentioned Romans 5:1-2 which says; "Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we now stand..."

I kicked her dog I think
A lady shot her hand up into the air, interrupting me with passion: "But ____ ______ says we have to cry out to God and fast and scream and yell to get his attention, so He will bring revival!"

I then quoted I Timothy 2:4 that says God wants all to be saved - there is no need to convince Him; He is not our adversary. And Ephesians 2:6 that says we are seated in the heavenly places in Christ, repeated that we come boldly to the throne, mentioned that Christ lives in us according to Colossians 1:27, that the Holy Spirit Himself is in us and our bodies are the temple of God, from I Corinthians 3:16 & 6:19 - and you would have thought I had kicked her dog by the anger in her response!

She said she went to this meeting and that convention and they got 3,000 people yelling at the top of their lungs for God to hear and send revival, and open heaven on this nation, and what did I know because ____ ____ and _____ _____ said they had to do that for God to hear.

I asked her; "When did you become a Pharisee?' That broke into her tirade, which was needed as she was embarrassing herself, but she did get alot of yea and amen's and head nods from those in the class who had also been to those meetings or were part of that stream of faith.

I said: "I just read and quoted over 6 scriptures which all say God wants all to be saved, is as close as our spirit man, we are righteous in Him, and as soon as we say 'Father', we are at the throne. Yet you quote leaders who say the exact opposite - that we must beg for an open heaven, yell to get His attention, wrestle with Him to move on the planet, and think that mere prayer will change the nation without a thought about actually leading people to Jesus as the Bible indicates must be done. Who do you believe, your teacher or the written Word? Your teacher or Jesus?"

Holiness movement
I then had to teach the class what a Pharisee was. After the Greeks conquered Israel, they set about their policy of Hellenism, the spreading of Greek culture to the world. They brought roads, a common currency, sporting events, theater, public baths and gymnasiums, art and various clothing styles. Within 100 years it was hard to tell a Jew from a Greek.

A holiness movement separating Jew from Greek, known as "separate ones" was in place by 150 BC. They needed to organize, so started home based 'assemblies', in the Greek, 'synagogues', for every 10 adult men and/or families. (In Hebrew they are called 'beyt knesset' or 'house of assembly')

They realized there was only 1 day that would do for them to gather together; Saturday, so that began worship on the Sabbath, in homes. Later, as the population expanded some moved to designated buildings, and that's largely what we have today in the Jewish faith. In the NT, believers met in homes and multiplied out from there to other homes, just as our network does today.

History lesson
The word for 'separated one' is the word 'Pharisee'. The Pharisee movement to separate believers into home meanings meant they needed to teach the written Word of Moses and the Old Testament. So commentators on how to apply the Law became the first to establish oral tradition and send that throughout the population.

Soon those teachings, the oral tradition, became more important than the written Word. The Mishna (Heb 'repetition') is the first and most important of the Oral Law, and states that oral law must be observed more stringently than the written Word of God. (M. Sanhedrin, 10.3)

For instance, the Word says you can't do any work on the Sabbath, so how much walking can you do before it becomes work? A commentator said (in our mileage) about 1/4 mile or 1/2 km, and anything more is work. So that teaching became oral law, elevated above the written Law.

That's the world Jesus walked into - and where His arguments with the religious leaders centered. In Mark 3:1-6 for instance, in a synagogue Jesus asked the leaders if it was right to do good on the Sabbath, or evil? To save a life or kill - would either be work that was forbidden? They kept quiet, for they were all believers in the Oral Word more than the Written Word - and Jesus 'looked on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts.' (and he healed a man with an maimed arm)

The word 'hardness' was a construction term in Jesus' day, used to describe the stucco process we call 'whitewash', where a cement/lime mixture is applied to a wall, then allowed to dry, then another coat is applied, and so on until the job is complete.

Modern Pharisees
That layering process, today we might think of 2 or 3 or more coats of paint, describes the process by which a person slowly numbs themselves to the written Word as final authority in favor of inversely becoming more and more sensitive to oral tradition.

And that is where many believers are today. They believe the oral tradition more than the Word of God, just as their forefathers in the spirit did, the Pharisees. That said, just as in Jesus' day, many do so with a right heart and God is bringing them back to the Word, realizing they have put their faith in the traditions of men rather than God Himself.

Improve on the cross?
How can we improve on the cross and the Word? Can fasting a week improve on the cross? Yelling to God? Jesus died for us, what else would we like Him to do for us? In reality, anything we receive in life flows from the cross and the power of His resurrection - don't try to improve on that!

I'm not trying to offend, I'm trying to get you to think about what you believe and why. Do you believe your own modern day 'mishna', your own oral tradition, or is the Word of God final authority?

The Holy Spirit ONLY follows the Word - not our oral tradition that we honor above the Word. When people leave the Word and therefore Holy Spirit's balance, it opens them up to unholy spirits, though they be Christians. Yikes! But true. Many work formulas and wonder where God is. Today we seek formulas; in the Bible they sought God. I want to teach you how to seek Him and walk with Him.

Next week - how to discern between an oral tradition and the Word, and how to perceive the Holy Spirit bearing witness to the Word, or saying no-no to tradition.

Blessings,
John Fenn
www.supernaturalhousechurch.org

  

Hi all,

Mrs. Rigel, my 4th grade teacher, whispered a long sentence in a classmate's ear who sat in the front left seat in the class of about 2 dozen of us 4th graders. That classmate then whispered what she heard in the ear of the person behind her, and then row by row until the last person was told the sentence.

That last student then stood and repeated what they heard - and we all burst out in laughter because what they said they were told was nothing close to what we all had heard in our turns. Then Mrs. Rigel told us what she actually told student #1 and that was different still!

Traditions of men
You probably had a similar experience in school. Yet there is a lesson to be learned even still, and that's my point here.

Each child in our class heard something that was accurate because it came straight from the lips of the kid sitting in front of each. Even though child #14 in the class heard something different than child #23 heard, each child in the chain would swear on a stack of Bibles that what they heard was right and accurate. and that they repeated 100% accurately what they heard.

But the fact is that only Mrs. Rigel and that first student had the sentence, just a single sentence, accurate. Yet the whole record of the life of Jesus is like that - Jesus was the teacher, and those who heard it directly from him recorded it accurately to form our New Testament.

God's problem
So here we come along centuries later reading the words of those first hearers, and like so many 4th graders in seats far removed from the teacher and first student to hear accurately, many have heard error yet would swear on a stack of Bibles THEY heard and know correctly. The 'student' next to them would swear "I have the truth!", and like kids, some end up fighting at recess trying to prove each is right. :) Such is much of the Christian world.

Since the Lord set forth truth through Jesus and He knew we would come along some 20 centuries later, wouldn't you think He could devise a way to maintain accuracy in what He intended? He did.

How He solved it
My teacher remained standing next to the first student she told her sentence to and didn't listen in on what each student whispered to the other. But the Father didn't just give us His Word and then step back to watch it all unfold like my teacher did.

He devised a way for successive generations to hear the original Words just as He intended, just as accurate, straight from the Source as if each person was that first student though removed by 20 centuries of time. How?

In Acts 5:32 Peter said of the life and passion of Jesus: "We are witnesses of these things; and so also is the Holy Spirit who God gives to those who obey Him."

The Father's solution was to make the Holy Spirit an eye witness to the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Not only that, but being God, an eye witness to the INTENT of the Word. Not just the truth of the written Word, but the intent with which that Word was spoken.

In this way, through an eye witness account, man could, even 20 centuries after the events, receive an eye witness account of not only the events, but the teaching and intent of the Words spoken that those who believe now would believe just as those original eye witnesses did - consistency through the centuries!

Spirit of Truth
Of course you would want the eye witness to be truthful, not change even the smallest detail nor add their own opinion to what they saw. Thus Jesus told the disciples the Holy Spirit was the Spirit of Truth and that He would not speak of His own, but whatsoever He heard - and He would lead, teach, and guide us into Truth. His ministry to believers is to show us what the Father has prepared for us - from an eye witness perspective, right from the heart of the Father. (John 14:17, 26; 15:26; 16:13-14; I Corinthians 2:9-12)

Side note: This is actually how you were born again. Someone told you about Jesus, and the Father through the Holy Spirit started working on your heart about the question of Jesus. Down inside you recognized He was the Truth, because an eye witness, the Holy Spirit, was bearing witness with your spirit that what you heard of Jesus was True and Right and you needed to make a decision. You being born again was based on an eye witness account.

We, being mere men, don't convict a person in court without testimony of an eye witness; do we really think God would expect someone to take a chance on their eternity without Him providing an eye witness account of the facts set forth by and in the person of Jesus?

Independent of time
One day when I was thinking on this element of the Holy Spirit being an eye witness I thought to the start of Genesis which states the Holy Spirit was 'moving' or 'hovering' over the then water planet called earth. I asked the Father why He was doing that.

The Father responded: "He was there as an eye witness." I asked, "Why would you need an eye witness?" He responded: "He was there as an eye witness to creation so Moses could write down what happened." Even then, right from the start, the Father provided an eye witness account of creation for our benefit.

In Acts 2:25-32 on the day of Pentecost, Peter tells of David prophesying of Christ and His resurrection. "He (David) seeing this before, spoke of the resurrection of Christ...."

So here we are told that David, about 1000 BC, saw the resurrection of Jesus and prophesied about it. How? By the Holy Spirit, the eye witness even to the resurrection 1,000 years in the future.

By the way...
This is the exact same way the Holy Spirit has shown many of you your future - what your call is, what you'll be doing whether in this life or an age to come - by the Holy Spirit the eye witness, for being God, He is in the realm of the I AM, the always present. Therefore He can accurately show you your future just as He showed David the resurrection of Jesus which would take place 1,000 years later - I AM!

Some might say "I've missed it, it's too late for me! God showed me great things I was called to but I am too old now!"

During a visitation when the Lord was teaching me about the ways of the Spirit and prophecy, I asked Him about a couple in our church who had great and powerful things prophesied over them. And not just once, but by several guest speakers over the course of 2 years who picked them out of the congregation and each speaker prophesied the same things about this couple.

But as so often happens, sin got in, unfaithfulness in marriage, divorce, and a move out of state. So I asked the Lord about those prophecies because 'Your Word doesn't return void without accomplishing the thing whereunto you send it." (Isaiah 55)

He replied; "Some words won't be fulfilled in this life, but will come to pass in the next age, in the millennium." I asked for chapter and verse because I had never heard of that. Immediately He responded: "There are many prophecies in the Old Testament that leap right over this age to speak about the Millennial age to come. So why is it so hard for you to believe that a prophecy spoken now for someone would come to pass in the next age?"

Suddenly I saw grace - so many people side tracked by sin or the world or circumstances outside their control, yet having great destinies and feeling they've completely disappointed the Lord and ruined any chance of seeing those promises come to pass - not so! Just wait 100, 200, 400, 600, 800 years from now! You will fulfill your destiny! 

Back to the subject
Knowing all this now, you can see that the only solution for maintaining the accuracy of the Word and intent of the Word, is to get to know the Spirit of Truth.

And THAT is where we'll pick up next week, for if we don't get to know the Eye Witness right from the start, it can lead to my 4th grade classroom experience, with people believing whole heartedly they are putting their faith in the Word, but in fact are putting their faith in error, and develop their own traditions THEY think are God's Word and intent...and I'll trace that process. Until then,

Blessings,
John Fenn
www.supernaturalhousechurch.org