God’s Pattern for Personal Spiritual Growth for the Member

How can we know anything about anything

To try to explain truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation. George Macdonald

Do we have to make a choice between science and the Bible?

NO!

That is NOT where the problem is, but that is what everyone seems to want to talk about.

Take science as an example. How can we know anything about the created material world around us?

How can we know anything from what we can see using natural sciences?

We all see the same things in the material world, but we don't come to the same answers.

Why is that?

How can we know anything about the Bible and what it teaches? Every person believes different things about the Bible and how it should be read.

Why is that?

Same scientific facts. Different answers.

Same Bible. Different answers.

Why is that?

The true question is this: How do we come to our answers that we get from what we can see through science or what we can read in the Bible?

How do we think about what we see using science or what we read in the Bible?

How do we analyze what we have seen and read?

How do we interpret what we have seen and read?

We use logic, but logic always has a foundation. Jesus talked about building on the Rock. That Rock is Jesus Christ. He is the true foundation. There are also the false foundations of the ungodly.

An example might help.

Question: Why do you believe in evolution?

Answer: Because my science teacher told me that evolution is scientific fact.

Question: Why do you believe your science teacher?

Answer: because he agrees with the textbook he assigned us to read.

Now, we have asked, "Why?" twice.

If we continued to ask, "Why?" we would come down to the foundation of this person's thoughts.

When we get down to the foundations, there are no more questions that can be answered. So where to the foundations come from?

There are three possibilities.

things that we make up, pulled from the air
demonic lies
divine revelation

Question: Why do you believe in creation?

Answer: Because God revealed this to me. He spoke to me through the Bible and gave me His faith so that I could believe Him.

See how quickly we got to the foundation. This is a belief that has a foundation that is solid and that cannot be moved.

In reality, the things that we make up, that are pulled from the air, are actually from demons and all the lies of demons spring from the prince of demons, Satan. So these are one and the same.

Divine revelation comes from the Almighty, Creator, God, Jesus Christ. So there are only two choices, but how do we know there are only two choices? Because God has revealed this truth to us.

The question then is how do we tell the difference between the revelation that comes from God and the lies of Satan?

The answer is that everyone who sincerely wants to do the will of God will know.

Jesus said, "If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me"

The rejection of the revelation that comes from God is not an intellectual problem. It is a moral problem.

Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened." *

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Matthew 7:7-11 *

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can set the truth before someone, but you can't make anyone believe those things that they don't want to submit to. They have to want to obey God.

How frequently it is brought to our attention that nothing good can be done if the will is wrong! Reason alone fails to justify itself. Richard M. Weaver

Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32)

"If we are not prepared to buy the truth at the cost of our own humbling we shall not receive it"

Lies appear to have no price upon them. They seem cheap and they abound everywhere. But for the truth there is always an obvious price to pay.

"[God] has set a day when He will judge all the world's people with fairness. And He has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for Him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death" (Acts 17:31).

"There is a judge for the one who rejects Me [Jesus] and does not accept My words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day" (John 12:48)

That also stands for every person who speaks the utterances of Jesus. When we hear them, we hear Jesus Christ, and we either accept or reject. Every person who follows Jesus Christ is commanded to only speak His utterances and not their own.

"When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God" (1 John 3:19)

Ravi Zacharias did two open forums in a university. On the second night, one man told him that he had brought two Atheists in the night before who said that the arguments presented were so strong that they could not contend with them, but they were going to remain Atheists because that is what they prefer to be true.

In another case of just listening to an unbeliever and drawing out his reasoning, the unbeliever finally came to his foundations.

They turned out to be assumptions that were pulled from the air. When asked why he believed his basic assumption, the unbeliever looked startled and blurted out, "I guess I'm making the whole thing up." It was quite a revelation to him since he hadn't even known that he had any assumptions. However, he decided to remain an Atheist because he didn't want God to rule over him.

Every home is made up of individuals. If a single person is living on their own, they may be the home all by themselves.

God does have a pattern for personal growth, and every part of God’s pattern is important. Personal prayer is important. Prayer with the understanding is powerful, but prayer must be used in a way consistent with God’s plan. Baptism in water is a holy commitment, and we know from Scripture that we die when we go down under the water and we are resurrected in newness of life when we come back out. We also know, from Scripture, that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is another immersion that goes beyond the sprinkling that we had originally received when we were born again.

Closely associated with the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the ability to speak in the tongues of angels as a private prayer language to build ourselves up in the Spirit of God. Also, in everything that a Christian does, they should have an awareness of the presence of God. There must be a flow of the Anointing of God or we walk in the fleshly nature of death and sin. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.

Personal Bible study is very important, but it is important that we come in humility before God to receive revelation from Him as we read. If we read and try to understand by our own intellect in self-confidence and pride, then we will go into error. In the same way, we spend time in meditation before God. This is a time when God can speak to the believer and bring to light the changes that the believer needs to make in his or her life. It is a time to glory in the presence of God.

As a Christian grows, he or she will be given gifts of the Spirit and set into his or her ministry by the laying on of hands of the presbytery [a gathering of elders who have been called for this purpose] and prophecy. These gifts and this ministry are given is, as it were, seed form at first. They develop and grow through obedience and use as the Father operates them both in the assembly meeting and in daily life.

An important aspect of personal growth is the ability to see with the eyes of hope. That is the ability to see the heavenly vision. When any person sees reality rather than just the veil of the flesh, that person will see things as they really are. The Christian walk is a walk of progressive unveilings. The Holy Spirit draws back the veil so that we can see with unveiled faces.

Most importantly, we need to discern and see the Body of Christ. We see all the gifts, ministries, offices, and orders of the Church. We also can discern and recognize the false. We are aware of false gifts, ministries, offices, and orders that pretend to be part of the Church but are really part of the world.
We can also see the Hand of God in His creation. We go without fear, knowing that God has everything under control. We see that He loves every person, even the most vile, and we love them too without becoming entangled in their confusion.

Every thought, word, and deed is led by the Spirit. We hear God’s voice as He speaks to us in all His various ways, and our senses are heightened as we acknowledge Him and respond. His faith comes as He speaks and we hear in this way. Then, faith opens the door to grace. Faith gives us access into grace. Grace flows to us. It is the free gift. The grace includes the free gift of righteousness which flows through the life of the Christian. Righteousness is love, and love fulfills the entire law. Love never goes over into evil. God is Love, and God cannot sin. Neither can God’s presence within us sin. Christ is the spiritual man within us. He cannot sin.

If we sin, it is not God’s fault. We sin if we allow ourselves to be drawn away by our own fleshly desires. In fact, whatever is not of faith, whatever God has not specifically directed us to do and then done by His grace through us, is sin. Sin and self-will are one and the same. The way is very narrow. In all of this, the tongue has great power to direct the life. Those words, whether spoken out loud or whispered in our minds, have power to direct our lives. May our words also always proceed from God’s throne by His direction and His power both to will and to do His good pleasure.

As we walk in the Spirit this way, we yield to the Spirit this way, we are changed in our very nature. God plants holy seed into our soul. That holy seed grows into holiness. The weeds (speaking figuratively) die away. All the old bad habits fade. It becomes easier to do God's will and the lust of the flesh is less able to control. This is the meaning of holiness and redemption.

God’s Pattern for Personal Spiritual Growth for the Member

How can we know anything about anything

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