1 Corinthians 2:1-5 ESV
“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
Several years ago I listened to a Q&A of a famous preacher who said that he got his sermons from “dead men,” meaning from the theologians of old. And he holds a great deal of stock in Calvinism and reformed theology. He does not accept all the gifts of the Spirit as being valid today, he sometimes mocks those who do, and he doesn’t believe we can be led by the Spirit in any way other than just by reading the Scriptures.
For he doesn’t believe that the Spirit speaks to our hearts and to our consciences other than through the written word, and only from the strictest sense of biblical and theological interpretation. But then he says he gets his sermons from “dead men,” i.e. from these dead theologians “from whom we come,” he says. He is a biblical scholar, and he doesn’t teach “cheap grace,” but still he raises up these theologians almost to “God status.”
Now, is most of his theology correct? Probably. And he does have a very large following. But I believe he quenches the Spirit when he denies that we can be led by the Spirit via the Spirit’s voice within us speaking to us and leading us in what to do, and in where to go, and in what to say, and to whom, etc. For we are not to despise the gifts, but we certainly are to test them to make certain that they do agree with the Scriptures.
“Do not quench the Spirit, do not utterly reject prophecies, but examine everything; hold firmly to that which is good, abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 NASB).
Now, is there a lot of abuse of spiritual gifts? Absolutely!! Is there a lot of fakery and deception coming from people supposedly “hearing from God”? No doubt! Yes!! Is there a lot of false teaching coming from those who are claiming to have certain gifts of the Spirit? You bet! Is this a serious issue? YES! Do we need to address this? YES! But we must be so careful that we don’t “throw the baby out with the bathwater,” i.e. that we don’t discard the true gifts of the Spirit and the leading and the guidance of the Spirit in our lives along with what is false and deceptive and spiritually dangerous.
For we need to pay close attention to Paul’s words here. For his speech and his message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that our faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And yet this preacher holds much stock in the wisdom of men (these theologians of old) from whom he gets his sermons, and from whom he says we come. And this should not be!
So, we are not to deny the gifts of the Spirit nor the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit, but we are to be spiritually discerning, and we are to test the voices we hear in our heads against the Scriptures, in their full context. But we should also be testing the words of these men who say that certain gifts of the Spirit no longer exist and who claim that we cannot hear from the Holy Spirit other than through the written word of God, but then who raise men up as though they are God’s voice to us.
Theologians versus the Holy Spirit
So, what is this saying, in essence? We are not to rely on theologians and Bible commentaries and church denominations to tell us what to believe and what not to believe, for they are not God, and they can be wrong. But we are to be students of the Scriptures who study the Scriptures in their context, and who compare Scripture with Scripture to make certain that our understanding is consistent throughout the New Covenant teachings, in particular, and who are being led by the Spirit of God and not by the flesh of man. And we must be discerning people who test everything we hear.
So, read through the New Testament and see how often the people were led by the Spirit in where to go and in what to say in very specific ways intended just for them personally. And Paul said that his messages were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that our faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, i.e. in the wisdom of biblical scholars and theologians who may or may not have been hearing from the Lord, nor in the wisdom of wolves in sheep’s clothing who are deliberately distorting the Scriptures to teach what they do not say.
Now I will tell you straight out here that I do not choose each day what to write on. I don’t pick the subject nor the Scripture passage nor the song included in the writing. The Holy Spirit leads me to the passage of Scripture and he puts the song in my mind, and I let the Spirit lead me in what to write so that I am hearing from him and not from the flesh of man, and not from my own flesh nor from the teachings of man. Yet, this doesn’t mean I am perfect, so please test what I write against the Scriptures, and if you believe I am in error, then please let me know, kindly.
And I believe the Lord led me today to talk about this preacher. And who he is doesn’t matter. But what he is teaching does matter. For if we rely on the wisdom of man (theologians) to lead us in what to believe, and if we reject the gifts of the Spirit and the Spirit’s voice within us guiding us in what to do and to say, and in where to go, etc., then we are in grave danger of putting out the Spirit’s fire, i.e. of quenching the Holy Spirit and of turning our faith into a dead man’s religion rather than a faith that is daily being led of the Spirit like Paul was, and like the Christians of old were being led.
So, yes, the Scriptures are to be what we follow, and we can follow them strictly, and we can live pure and holy lives, but still we can miss out on the purpose for which we were created by God if we refuse to hear the Spirit speak to us personally and to tell us to “go there” and to “speak to that person” and “I will give you the words to say.” Yes, this requires much spiritual discernment, for we can be guilty of quenching the Spirit, or we can be guilty of misusing the Spirit and his gifts to us. But it is best if we can be guided by the Spirit and to speak in the Spirit under the power of the Spirit.
For Our Nation
An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
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