God Still Speaks

Pastor Jonathan Cargill teaches on the important question of whether God still speaks to His people today. He unpacks Scripture to show the balance between the authority of God’s Word and the voice of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives. This message brings clarity to the claim that God can only speak through His written word and in no other way. 

Our heart at Celebration Church Rarotonga is that this message will greatly bless your walk with Jesus and help bring you closer to Him. We pray that you would be stirred to live a life that is passionate about loving Jesus!

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Transcript

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Welcome to this week's podcast by Celebration Church Latatoga. We believe this message will empower and equip you to live a life of breakthrough. Thanks for joining us.

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I want to discuss this morning, and I don't do this a lot. I'm a preacher or minister of the gospel that likes to speak for things, not so much against things. I notice when the prophetic ministry actually does a lot of tearing down and that sort of stuff, and rightly so, when the Holy Spirit spoke to um Jeremiah, talks about pulling down, tearing down, and so forth, but then build and construct. But there's three times more the tearing down than there was a building construction. And uh, but I love building, I love construction, I love seeing, I love progress, I love seeing things happen, and uh I think there's a strength in that, uh, the the weakness in that, there's always the timing of Jesus, the timing of the Lord. But I want to challenge something this morning, but it's I want to challenge a concept, and I want to advocate for the fact that God speaks to you. He's a talking God, it's a talking Bible. Now, you know what I mean by that, not exactly a talking Bible, but the pages of that scripture really have life in them, spirit life. And so this morning, I want to encourage us today, and I want to ask us this question, and I want to encourage us here. There is this belief that God only speaks through the black and white print, okay? Canonize scripture, that God has limited Himself to actually speak through the book here, that God doesn't speak through dreams or visions or angelic appearances or an impression or a prompt, and God doesn't speak to your spirit, it's only through here. But the idea is that God doesn't speak to you personally, doesn't it wouldn't give you a revelation, wouldn't speak to you personally, wouldn't prompt you. But the only time God does speak is through the Bible. So when you're reading the scriptures, it's at that point God will speak to you. So through the day, God could guide you, but he won't be talking to you. You'll be surprised how that is quite apparent in the body of Christ. It's quite big, it's alive on social media and it's actually here on the island. So I thought what I would do, we'll try and work through that thing and uh together and we'll look at what the Bible says. Because it's very important, it's not what we say the Bible says, it is what the Bible says. Okay, that's very important. Uh, we we're trying to step back man's interpretation of what the word says, and let's see the Bible, the scripture interprets scripture. Okay, so if it's there, it's foolproof, and there will be a living witness in the word of God that God speaks to his people. Does that make sense? So we'll try and chart through this together this morning. You'll have to put your thinking caps on and uh and so forth. Um, but okay, but I I want to start off by saying 1 John 4.1, it says, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. So we have to test the spirit. That's important, because not everything that's said prophetically, not every utterance or not every claim is necessarily spawned from God. So we might, you might have a preacher, a minister, or even my I might, and I might say, I feel like the Lord has said or God has said, need to be careful saying that. We need to know that God has said, because we're now representing Him. And I want to make sure as a minister that if I'm hearing from God, I'm bringing A, the authenticity of the word of God that I'm hearing, but it's not muddied on the way. I understand we know in part, but it's not muddied. So if we're gonna claim that God has spoken to us, we need to have, we need to make sure that we know that yes, God has. So that's where we want to go here this morning and uh bring some balance to this. Um, but then the next scripture is 1 Timothy 4.1. Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly or expressly that in the latter times or last times, some will turn away from the faith, they will give heed to seducing spirits, or they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from God. Now, one of them says um in here that they will um beloved or wish um what hang on, I know that scripture on the King James version. Um, now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the latter days some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. The doctrine of a demon is simple this. What a doctrine is, doctrine is a declaration. That's what it is. Uh the Bible refers to in the New King James Version, the doctrine, it refers to the word doctrine over 50 times. They talk about the apostles' doctrine in scripture. So doctrine is pretty much what we believe, the core beliefs about the Trinity, about the new birth, about salvation, regeneration. Then it's got a whole lot of terms like sanctification, all sorts of stuff, which we get to know about. But pretty much we can't just believe anything. Okay? If there is a God, he has substance. If there, if there is a God and he's a God of truth, then he has truth. So we need to make sure our understanding about authority, our understanding about government, our understanding about sexuality, our understanding about life about ourselves is actually mirrored in scripture. Okay, so in other words, it's not alongside scripture or off-beat from scripture. It's important that we have what is called a Bible worldview. So when, for example, we might be talking about women's rights and so forth, when it comes to abortion, we actually want to have, and I understand the dynamics around that to various degrees, but we want to have a biblical worldview on that. We want to have a biblical worldview on sexuality, we want to have a biblical worldview on marriage and so forth. That's important. So we can't claim to be with Jesus and not honor his word. The word of God is an expression of who he is. The Holy Spirit wrote the word of God and so forth. And so it's easy to uh be praising God, but living a life that's kind of like sits alongside what the life, what the kingdom lifestyle that we're supposed to have somewhat, and we praise him and we enjoy it, and we enjoy the uh crowd dynamic, okay? But in the processes of that, the Holy Spirit looks and he's seeking a heart and he's seeking a soul and a life that's fully devoted for towards him. Amen. And uh thank you, Melody. And uh, so anyway, so uh that's the question is that God does God speak to us personally outside of scripture, and I'm gonna say yes, he does. So it sounds freaky. Does God is there truth outside of scripture? Yes, there is, and you think there can't be truth outside of scripture, scripture is true. Well, it works this way. Um, the Bible speaks of the islands of the sea, right? Huh? Isaiah, but it doesn't mention Hawaii, it doesn't mention Raratonga or the Cook Islands or Samoa, it doesn't mention that specifically, but it talks about the islands of the sea. The Bible talks about nations, but Canada, you're not gonna hop in uh Isaiah 5.1 and see Canada in there, eh? Oh, you're not gonna see America in there written there. There's other countries you definitely see written in there. Um, it it talks about food and it talks about feasting. Now, is food real? Yes, because you're gonna have some surely. Feasting is real, you'll have some this week, and um maybe this afternoon. And I want to encourage you, maybe this afternoon, yes, you will. Uh, but it doesn't talk about McDonald's, does it? Or fast food. And so we see the word of God is full of principles and guidelines, but it's not always specific. Now, to drill down a little bit, to drill down a little bit, when it comes to pornography, the Bible doesn't actually use that word pornography. Yet, how come we condemn it from the pulpit and we speak against it because it's a marriage breaker and it distorts emotions and minds and so forth? It doesn't mention it specifically as a social disorder or a social dysfunction. It doesn't mention it, but just because it doesn't mention it, it doesn't mean that it's not outlined or outlawed in scripture. For the Bible talks about Job and it talks about David, both of them were very careful about what they allowed their eyes to look at. The Bible says we should abstain from all appearance of evil. The Bible said we're to guard our members, the Bible talks about the lust of the eyes, the Bible talks about fornication, it talks about adultery. So those are the standards, but they are a guideline for a whole lot of other details that our social world has. Okay, so the Bible may not be specific on specific areas, it doesn't drill down. Otherwise, this Bible would have to be thicker and thicker and thicker, and I'd have to bring this huge thing in every week, and then I wouldn't be able to fit it through the garage door because it's going to actually talk about all the specifics. But just because it doesn't mention it in scripture doesn't necessarily mean it's not outlawed by the Holy Spirit. So we have to go back to the Bible and actually look at the principles and the guidelines and the standards set out in the word of God, and that determines what is right and wrong. Okay, simple. And so we have these scriptures here. Does God speak to us? Well, the Holy Spirit is our what? He's our guide, but what else is he? He's our helper, he's our teacher. Thank you. John 14, 16, and I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another helper, just like me, Jesus, that he may abide with you forever. John 14, 26, but 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 the things that I said to you, quickening and prompting the things that I've said to you, I'm going to begin to relay them through the Holy Spirit personally to you. In John 15, 26, but when the helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me. Uh, and then John 16, 7, but I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper, comforter, advocate, intercessor, counselor, and strengthener, and standby will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him the Holy Spirit to you to be in close fellowship with you. Okay, so right off the bat, we have the word of God, the Bible. Here's the Bible, here's two Bibles here. I've got one on the uh there. We have the Bible, but it's the Holy Spirit, it's not one or the other, it's the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. It's not living the life with the Holy Spirit and experiences and promptings and hearing God's voice to your spirit and not subject to the word of God. They will get into error real quick. Yet it's not just the Bible without a personal experience with the Holy Spirit because we're going to get dry really quick. It's both. The Holy Spirit brings liberty, the Holy Spirit brings life to the word of God. In fact, when you're reading the scriptures, you can say, maybe you're reading in Isaiah here, you can start to say, Well, Holy Spirit, please, as my helper, as my helper, would you help me to interpret this? Would you help me to understand? Would you speak to me through the word of God here? And he will. He will talk to you, he will guide you through it, he will make sense of his word. We call that revelation. The better word to use is not revelation, it's like prophetic terminology, right? God show me revelation. It's best to say at times illumination, or God enlightened me or gave me understanding on the scripture. We often use God gave me revelation, and that word there throws a lot of people because they say revelation? Oh, the Bible talks about extra biblical revelation. We're not to have additional truths over and above the revelation of the word of God. That's not what we're talking about. We are talking about God making sense of the word of God and bringing making it sense to me. Now, let me tell you this. This book, if you live out of this book, if you form your life around the principles of this word of God, you are gonna succeed in life. Seriously, you are gonna do exceedingly well. God will raise you up above your peers. David said this, God has made me more intellectual, more intelligent than my peers. The reason why he could say that is because he was an astute follower of the word of God. Okay? So the word of God it brings life. The problem is that we get off with the word of God, or we become negligent in the word of God, and we get negligent from the spirit of God, so we're not hearing from God, and we're not basing our life on the word of God, and therefore we actually begin to live a rocky road, and our decision-making process defaults downwards. But when we're awakening our spirit to the Holy Spirit and subjecting the voice that we're hearing back into the word of God, we can live a navigating life through storms and all sorts, and you come out the other end with increase and enlarged on the inside. Okay? This is a um a sort of a platform for us. There are two terms you will have heard. The first word is a theological term, which is cessationism. That's the belief that the gifts of the spirit, tongues, interpretation, prophecy, miracles, healings, faith, discernment, wisdom are ceased. They're no longer for today. They ceased when the apostles died, they ceased when the early church was over, they ceased when this became canonized Christian the Bible. You don't need those gifts anymore because what you need is just written here. That's that's a thought. It also believes that there's God doesn't heal today, God doesn't do miracles today. He only speaks through the black and white scripture and limits himself to that. That is what that means. So woman don't preach, there's no prophecies today, there's no apostolic ministry, there's no prophetic ministry, the fivefold ministry is being done away with. All that has been rooted in what is called reformist theology, okay, and it takes the spirit life out of an experience. We'll get there in a moment, okay? But it places us that God therefore becomes non-relational, he becomes non-responsive, and he becomes personally silent. Okay, so then there's another term called continuationalism, which is what I believe, and hopefully you believe that this morning. And that means as, hey, no, read the scriptures sensibly, read it systematically, chronologically, and logically, read it for all it's worth, and you will see the gifts have not finished. They continue on today through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You'll see you can't just have the teacher, the evangelist, and the pastor alive, and yet you ditch the apostle and the prophet. Either you get rid of the lot or you or you keep the lot. Okay? And so going through that there, this position here is a belief that God speaks to the individual personally. And I want to say this, I believe God spoke to you this week. He will have nudged you, he will have convicted you, He will have, He would have, He would have encouraged you. There was something that would have been happening around your world if you were listening to Him, you would have heard the voice of God speak, more than likely. Okay? And so this position means that the inner convictions, the impressions and promptings and counsel and visions and possible dreams and prophetic words, godly counsel are still biblical in operation according to the evidence of scripture. The idea that God only speaks through the Bible does not come from the Bible. The Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible doesn't teach that God has limited Himself only to this word. You will not find one scripture, not one, not one. They can't find their reformers, cannot find, they move through what they believe is logic, but they cannot find actually one scripture to say that God does not speak to us today. Not one. And yet you have millions of people actually being taught that through Bible seminary, and it's on our island, okay? So it's on our island. This is closer to our church than you think, but it's on our island, okay? So um, right, so we're gonna jump into it, shall we? Alright, so let's have a look in the old testament. Let's go back a long time ago. God said to a guy called Adam, God said to them, God spoke to them directly. Genesis 3:9. God called Adam. He called him, and you'll see right through the Old Testament, God spoke to Cain directly, spoke to Abraham, spoke to Isaac, spoke to Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Daniel, Samuel, all of the major prophets and minor prophets, God spoke to them through visions, through dreams, through personal encounters, but he actually spoke to them and appeared to them and talked to them. It's incredible. That's how when God created the heavens and the uh the earth, he wanted relationship with humanity. He wanted to talk to us face to face, he wanted to be a friend to us, Lord and Savior, but he wanted to be a friend with us. That's the thing that comes from the word of God. Uh, he spoke to Eve, Hagar, Sarah, Rebekah, Miriam, Deborah, and the Old Testament. God spoke to directly to people that didn't even serve him. These guys were at loggerheads with Israel or loggerheads with their righteousness, God still spoke to those guys. He spoke to King Nebuchadnezzar, he spoke to Amalek, he spoke to Pharaoh directly, not just through Moses. I'm not talking about, I'm talking about through a personal dream, Balaam. He spoke in the New Testament to people who didn't even have a relationship with him. So even fast-forwarding into the New Testament, God spoke to what we would say as non-Christians. Wow. He spoke to non-Gristians, he spoke to Paul of Tarsus, Cornelius, Potiphar's wife. Ah, sorry, Pontus' wife, remember? Warned in a Felix, Festus. I've got a list, it goes on. God also spoke consistently to others. He spoke to Mary. He spoke to Elizabeth. He spoke to Philip's daughters who had a prophetic ministry. But that's the Old Testament. Then we're going to come right through. Jesus is alive and well and died for our sins. The Bible still hadn't been written, all that. God spoke to those people. I have to say this because I'm going to jump into this a moment. God spoke to those people without the Bible. God spoke to them without the Bible. The Bible didn't exist for some of those people then. Abraham in particular. But what does the Bible say? The Holy Spirit set in Acts 13.2 set apart Barnabas and Saul. The Holy Spirit forbade Paul to go to Asia in Acts 16, 6. The Holy Spirit warned of a famine coming through the mouthpiece. Acts 11 28. The Holy Spirit testified to Paul repeatedly, Acts 20, verses 23. So we see in the life of Paul the Apostle, he was guided by the Spirit of God, but he understood the Bible. Okay, we're gonna get that, we're gonna tie these things together because that's very important. One does not go without the other. Okay, see let's dive into Scripture. You ready for this? Is God's final authority? Absolutely. We deviate from Scripture and we are getting to deception pretty much close to overnight. Okay, scripture's authority is unique, it's unmatched, it's unfallible, it's inspired, it's complete revelation of God. And 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, this is what it says. All scripture, Genesis to revelation, is given by God by inspiration. The Holy Spirit inspired writers, Holy Spirit inspired people, and they wrote, not necessarily under automatic writing, but they wrote inspired, inspired. In fact, now you have mathematicians and higher academic people that look at scripture and say, Well, we have to believe that the Bible has been written through some form of intelligence that's not human. The way it all comes together, it's really interesting. Everything must be tested by scripture. It's got to be tested. There's no new doctrine today, the doctrine is in the word of God. There's no added revelation to scripture, the revelations are in this book, no additions. So when Muhammad gets extra revelations, we say, Muhammad, seriously, you should have listened to your own mind saying, no, and not listen to your counterpart that says you might be hearing from God or an angel in the cave. No, no, no, it's an extra biblical revelation. It sits on top of scripture. We know that that's not right. Many of your fundamental cults today, some of your mainline cults, have what is called extra biblical revelation that flies in the face of scripture. Well, not to add to it like that. Uh, no authority equal to the Bible. This is ultimately it. We're gonna be judged according to the word of God. One day, Jonathan Cargill comes before the Lord. I'm gonna be judged according to emotion, according to my yin and yang, my good things outdid my bad things in life. No, it's gonna be according to this, the word of God. That's why this is under attack. That's why legislation. Legislation and governments want to get the word of God out of schools, want to get it out of parliaments and so forth, all right? And some countries you can't have this. This is called contraband. Saudi Arabia is one of them. There is no ministry on this earth ever been, including the patriarchs, that hold themselves above the Bible and its teachings. There's no prophet that has a higher revelation than the word of God. The Bible is complete and stands alone as God's eternal word. Personal guidance from God and God speaking to me must be tested by the authenticity of Scripture. It's meant to align with and never contradict scripture. Okay, make sense. Okay, so skipping our little piece here that it's probably going to be irrelevant for us this morning, but jumping into this, I've got five positions or five arguments there, um, or five beliefs. We'll put the positive word, five beliefs. Okay, this is the belief that God only speaks through scripture. Do you just let me visit that? What I'm saying is God, okay. So I need to hear God's voice over a matter, so I have to go directly to the Bible and find where it is for my life. That is not always how God operates. You have a living witness that says to you something is right and something is wrong. If someone says, Hey, should we do this? It's my spirit that says, Yes, let's do it, or my spirit gets a check and thinks, don't do that. Okay, so the belief system was this it's dangerous to claim that God speaks to you directly, that God speaks to you personally. How can you do that? You're gonna go off the rails. The argument to that is okay, Abraham did not go off the rails, apart from the um the uh the second kid with Ishmael. But essentially, Abraham lived his life guided by the voice that he heard. The canonized scripture, the Torah hadn't even been written then. God entrusted, because God knew how to speak to a person, and God knew that that person will be a recipient and actually hear the soundness of his voice and about, he knew that. So it's not necessarily dangerous. God spoke to Abraham, many scriptures, spoke to him 10 to 18 times. It depends how you see it in scripture, directly, personally, even gave Abraham a new name, spoke to him, and said, Your new name is going to be Abraham, Abram. Number two argument is the claim, or number two belief, is the claim that God is speaking to me. This must mean that it must sit equal to scripture. Because if you're claiming that God speaks to you, then aren't you saying that word is so strong and so valid, valid that it must be akin to this? This is what they speak. It's a straw man's argument because it's not what people we preach at all. Our hearing is not foolproof. I want to say this our prophecies we prophesy in part, they're not foolproof. They're not. The written canonized scripture is the final say, all claims are subject to scripture. Every claim that we have, every prophecy that we have. So when a prophet uh pastor says, This is the word of the Lord for you, you need to obey it. I that you just got to run a mile from that. Okay, you need to have that witness as a receiver of that word. It should be, hey, I've got this word for you, I want to submit it to you. What do you think on that level? But this is what it's important here. Our communication, God to us, is not on the same level as scripture, it's not. We've got to test the word, we've got to test the dream, test the impression, test what I believe I'm hearing. Are you really speaking to me? Maybe have somebody else come around my life to help uh to help confirm that. That needs to be tested. You ready for this? The Bible doesn't get tested. We don't test the scriptures to see if the scripture is right. We get we test our hearing to see if our hearing's right. Do you see what I'm saying? The scripture is eternal, it's solid, it's not subject to change. It's God's written word for humanity. So that's okay. What we're hearing, though, what we believe we're hearing, what we believe we're even seeing, has to be go back the subject to the word of God. It's not on the same level as the word of God. Number three. Now, this is interesting because this uh Romans 22, 18 and 19 says it warns us we should not uh take away or add to scripture. That's used constantly. So people use this against Islam or maybe Jehovah's Witness or something, and saying you're taking away from Scripture and you're adding to Scripture. Okay, let me let me um advocate for the the authenticity of that scripture. You know that scripture, it's only about revelation, actually. I don't think you should take away from the word of God or add to the word of God as a general rule of thumb. I know that. But that scripture specifically is not talking about the whole Bible, it's talking about in Revelation 22, it's talking about Revelation, the book of Revelation. John, if you take away or you add to it, it's taking away from the prophecies and adding to it, then there would be, uh I guess the word curse come around you and so forth. That's what it's talking about. The claim that God is speaking to me is not adding to scripture. So if I said to you, I feel that the Lord wants us to um uh pioneer a new mission's beachhead into Kashmir next to Pakistan and add that to it, into that quiver over there. I feel like the Lord has been quickening me. I'm not adding to scripture, guys. I'm just saying, I'm not conflicting with scripture. I'm just saying this is what I feel the Lord is speaking to me about. That's different. We're not adding to scripture when God guides a believer, that is not new scripture, but that's how they teach it, it's not equal to the Bible. God speaking to a believer does not define doctrine. God leading or speaking to someone to take a job, start a ministry, or avoid danger is not a new Bible verse. God is just leading us, He's guiding us, He's putting an impression in our hearts, He's inspiring us, He's talking to us, and we should go with that. Seriously, work with it. And if you know your Bible well and you've been asked to do something, a voice comes to you that contradicts, don't do it. If if uh you're wondering about what to do and the Bible is neutral on it and it's a peaceable thing, then you can chance your arm and have a go with it. If it's not contradicting scripture. Belief number four, and this is where this is the scripture that is used, it's 1 Corinthians 13, verses 10. Can we grab that one? But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. Okay, this is the prime scripture that's used. This is what the um uh reformists use. But when that which is perfect, they say is the Bible, it's the canonized scripture. So when the canonized scripture comes, then everything's done away with. God just you just go with what's written in here. But it's not talking about that, it's talking about return of the Lord. That's the context. It's not talking about the Bible, it's talking about the if you read right through verse 12, for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall be known, just as I'm awesome knowing. It's talking about the return of Christ, not the canonized scripture, please. Context matters. The final one for us prophecy by the Spirit of God has ceased as God speaks through the Bible only. So, in other words, I couldn't couldn't really say, hey guys, this is what I believe the Lord is saying for our church here this morning. I believe the Lord is wanting us to shift and move into this area about the kingdom of God. I'm not allowed to say that according to that. That's how off it is. Yeah, it's actually the reason why I believe it's a doctrine of a demon, because it's actually hand strong people's faith. It's actually inhibits us from breaking through and it brings it brings the church into a straitjacket, robs our confidence from actually being able to hear the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And I might say, if the Bible, if God speaks only through the black and white scriptures when you're reading it, then how on earth do you get convicted? Who's convicting you? When you go to say something and you said it and you think, man, I shouldn't have said that, and you know it's the Holy Spirit saying, Go and apologize. Well, according to them, God doesn't do that. Yet the Bible says the Holy Spirit is the convictor. 1 Thessalonians 5, 19 and 21, do not quench the spirit, the Holy Spirit, do not despise prophecies, but test everything again. Hold fast what is good. 1 Corinthians 141, pursue prophecy. When you take prophecy out, you take the specific steering direction out of a situation, there is no evidence that prophecy has ceased. Okay, let's go further in. How about the end times? That's how you define the end times. A lot of our Bible scholars say the end times is from pretty much when uh the resurrection took place right toward the return of Christ, and others believe no, the latter times is in the latter times. Okay, so that's actually the last quarter, the beginning of sorrows, the latter time period before the coming of Christ. Maybe that's a hundred years, two hundred years, but the latter days. So it's all the latter days in terms of Jesus is going to return, but the latter part of it, like God spoke to Daniel in the latter years. Watch what will happen, and he began to describe the kind of the characteristics around that. But in the book of Acts, the writer says in Acts 2, 17 and 18, in the last days, okay? Around about here, the last days. It says, the last days, perilous times will come here, dangerous times or ferocious times. It says, Your sons and your daughter shall prophesy. So this, your young men, they shall see visions. Great. In Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 14:1, it's you love and desire spiritual gifts. How can you desire something that was stopped? In 1 Corinthians 12, 28, it speaks about first God places in the church, first apostles, prophets, teachers. Um, I think it's uh the next one is should be miracles, helps, and then um administrations and varieties or diversities of tongues still existing today. It didn't cease when the apostles died, it didn't cease when the early church uh finished, it didn't cease when the canonized scripture was put into place. That's not that's not good theology, it's not sound, uh, please. There is no time limit given, it's open until Jesus Christ returned. Okay, now the Holy Spirit speaks. Remember the helper? John 14, 26. The helper of the Holy Spirit will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I've said, remember? And John 16, 13, he will guide you in all truth, he will tell you things to come. Not only is there the written word to follow, but the Holy Spirit has a voice that speaks to your spirit. If God doesn't speak to our spirit, then this morning God can't speak to you through my preaching. Or your parents that might give you some godly advice. Or the conviction that you feel like God is convicting me that I should give money, that I should enter in on this situation, or should I should abstain from this, or that I need to apologize and put something right here? That's the conviction of the Holy Spirit, or guidance. Guidance leads any guides. The guidance factor is up for question, it's only through the word. Pastoral leading. So, what does Jesus say himself in just about conclusion? Jesus expects you to hear his voice. He loves it when you get hearing his voice. In fact, did you know when you hear his voice, it energizes you? Honestly, if you know you've heard from God, it just doesn't it lift your spirit up? Doesn't it just encourage you? You get a word like this, we're in a meeting. Somebody calls you out, it begins to expose, or the better word is reveal the secrets of your heart and says, Hey ma'am, over there, you've been believing for such and such, and it's so specific, and there's no way the minister or the prophet would know about that, and it's so encouraging. But what he doesn't know that you were praying this day, you were praying this day. In fact, I was in a meeting just the other day. I prayed for somebody, and they'd be better to give the test meet than I would, and I felt like they were in a particular setting, and I described what the setting was, and they had been given a promise of the Lord, and they had wondered where the promise had gone, and it was a little bit shaky. I'd never thought about it, I didn't even know the circumstance. I get in front of them and I prophesy that that's what they had been thinking. And the person said afterwards, just before you came, that's exactly what I was thinking. That's called a secret of a heart. Now I'm not a prophet, but I am there's a prophetic element here, and most of us have a prophetic element to various degrees, but I don't stand in the office of a prophet per se at all. I've got friends who have, and friends who do, but God reveals the secret of his heart, and it was an encouragement, it built faith. So when we speak on spiritual warfare, it shouldn't put fear in us, it always should put faith in us. Because about victory, see? When we uh when God speaks to us, it brings edification, comfort, and exhortation. It does, it's not a downer on you, it's it's not, hey, the Lord says, and it's it's just like, oh my, you know, and just like that's why I don't like preacher ministering and and and prophesying and saying, you know, I feel like there's a spirit of rejection around you. But they've been told that 20 times. When are they gonna get free of it? Isn't it better to say, hey, God has created you for an enlargement, God has created you for great things, and there's another invitation to walk in it, just change the terminology, still saying the same thing. So I I find God is 100% positive. We we serve an up God, you know what I mean? He's positive, the kingdom of heaven is positive. It's not in denial, help no, but there is a positive aspect. God wants to encourage you, and he wants to encourage you by you being able to master the art of hearing his voice on a daily level. You can go with the checks, don't go with what seems right to man. Go with what you know God is saying in your spirit, and that's where the life is, that's where the increase and the return is, that's when the outcomes are. But what happens, I feel like, when Adam and Eve close their life off from God and the voice of God, that's when you die. That's when you go down, that's when you get reduced, that's when you get subject to temptations, that's when it's just like you're you're stumbling around somewhat, uh, more confusion happening. But when you're affirm in the word, reading that regular, and some people get discouraged because they say, I can't even remember what I read in the morning. No, you can't probably remember what you had for breakfast. You think about that. Just because, and I heard this, just because we can't remember what we had for breakfast yesterday doesn't mean we didn't have breakfast, it just means we can't remember it. But did it do us well? Of course it did, it nourished our bodies. The same time, I'd encourage us just because sometimes that we forget what we read, the point is you are reading it and it's doing something. But having said that, the Bible does talk about the person who reads the word of God and walks away and can't remember, it's like a man that looks in the mirror and forgets himself, you know what I mean? So there is that place, man. Just read in the morning and sometimes go back at night time and read what you read. And oh, yeah, and you get more in it, and you can memorize it, and it's uh the law of repetition will help us. What did Jesus say? Well, John 10, 27, my sheep hear my voice. That's relational. We serve from Genesis to Revelation, a relational God. I honor every single man, and certainly John Calvin and our brothers and sisters that are that are godly, probably a lot more godly than us, but believe differently on these things. There are brothers and sisters, and we'll share heaven together, all that sort of stuff. But as far as their theology and that doctrine come into the body of Christ, I don't think it stacks up scripturally. I think it's it's I do actually think it would be placed. Paul would say that that would be placed as a doctrine of a demon, a deviation from scripture, and we we've seen some of it here. Romans 8 14. Those who are led by the spirit. Lead requires communication, requires relationship. Romans 8 16, the spirit himself bears witness. What is he going to bear witness? In the word of God? Well, it could be, but bears witness to your spirit. Deep cries under deep, it's spirit to spirit. The flesh profits nothing. We worship him in the spirit. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. So the moment you got saved now, that was it. See, if you got saved, I'd like to ask you this question: Did you get saved because you read the Bible and God said, Well, God so loved the world that he gave his only son? And in Romans, hey, can you hear without a preacher? Jesus Christ is Lord, mate. I'm gonna give all my life to Jesus Christ. Some people have totally done that. But there are other people like myself, and more than likely yourself, have come to a corner in life where we realize God is calling us. And we realize that the road that we're going isn't the best road to be traveling right now. And we feel the call to something greater, but we feel there's a whole kingdom behind the core that God Himself, in His infinite love and mercy, is actually drawing us into a relationship with Him. All sorts of things can be going happening around our world right now. We come to the end of what we call as the Atether, the end of it all, and we think this road is reckless, it's hopeless, it's a road to nowhere. But we decide to do a U-turn and go back to that calling and listen to that voice. That voice is the Holy Spirit leading you and guiding you and wooing you into the gift of salvation. That is so important, and that's how you responded. Now that wasn't in the Bible, though the Bible talks about that, and the Bible illustrates it with others, but you didn't get that by reading the Bible exactly. You probably had when I first got saved, I had a radical encounter with God. I'd never read the Bible. My brother Paul, a bit older than me, had to say, Hey, now that you're a Christian, giving your life to Jesus, you need to read the Bible. And do you know what I said to him? Read the Bible. Why do why do we have to read the Bible? Reading, reading. You serve God and we're reading. That doesn't make sense to me. He said, and he explained it to me. And I said, okay. So I read and I've told you I read the book of Romans and it made sense. I don't know what I would have thought in those days, but it made sense at the time. It was like, wow, okay, I've got this, you know. I felt good because what is the word of God? The word of God energizes, the word of God strengthens you. Yeah, honestly, if you've you get into the Bible early in the morning and I'm telling you, it will do you well. It will do you well. Read a few scriptures and just increase that for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour or how long? You read the Bible and it will alter your inner world. Seriously, you see, I'm getting nothing out of it. I went for a dry season of over a year of hardly getting anything out of the word of God. It troubled me. Troubled me a lot, actually. I thought, what the if I have I backstitted in my walk? What has happened that I just not getting a lot out of scripture, but I begin to I begin to continue to read it, learn scriptures, and I I prayed, Lord, Father, I said, This is troubling me. I need I need revelation. I need, I need, I need you to be talking, not just this way. I want to talk out of the word of God, please. And it was dry, it was like barren. And I thought, man, that's one of the private battles we go through in life. It was a battle for me. But you know what? I prayed and prayed, and all of a sudden, just like that, the season turned. The season turned, and the word of God, I would read it in the morning and I'd read it at night. And every time I read it, it's like the pages of scripture came alive. It just can't explain it. It came alive, and I was constantly writing notes, writing notes on what I'm reading because it was too good to let go of. I just I didn't want to forget what I was hearing and forget what I was reading and so forth. This morning, I want to encourage you Jesus is alive. Jesus is totally. Thank you, James. Uh Jesus is absolutely alive. He is well. He's reigning. He's on his throne. I want to encourage you to pursue the Holy Spirit. I love the praise and worship this morning. We're going forward as a church. We're moving into a new sphere, a new phase, a new season of the church.

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