The Holy Spirit Must Flow In the Home

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.

"See that no one renders (returns) evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue (follow) what is good both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always (continually), pray without ceasing (with perseverance), in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Jesus Christ for you. Do not quench (suppress or subdue) the (Holy) Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things: hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil." 1 Thessalonians 5:15-22 These are the responsibilities of every member of the home, but especially of the Father. The father must teach these things both by word and example. We need the free flow of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in the home, and we know that God's Spirit flows freely when the heart is obedient, submissive, and willing. The Spirit is very gentle and lifts from the angry, fearful, proud, or hard heart. The father's office in the home, as with all offices in the Church, is an office that requires deep humility. It is very easy to quench the Spirit. Criticism quenches the Spirit. Working around the house or on the job with anger, worry, stress, or any strong fleshly emotion will quench the Spirit. Any thoughts of sexual immorality, if entertained, will quench the Spirit. The office of husband and father requires righteousness, which leads to holiness.

A critical spirit will quench the Holy Spirit. There are ways that a father can lead the members of his family to higher heights and deeper depths in God by the Spirit. Criticism is NOT one of the ways that the Holy Spirit uses. Complaining can lead to criticism and finally to contempt. When it reaches the point of contempt, the person holding the contempt is in deep spiritual trouble. If it is the father, he will begin to destroy his family and his life. Holding a grudge, unforgiveness, repeatedly thinking about wrongs done to you, will also quench the Spirit. A father must not hold anger, bitterness, or resentment against anyone, and by so doing, will teach his family how to live in godly righteousness, being tender-hearted, and forgiving by the power of the Holy Spirit. Remember, God does every work that is righteousness, even forgiveness. Unforgiveness can lead to the hard heart of bitterness. Bitterness will definitely quench the Spirit. It will corrupt the whole family and will even have a negative effect on the local Church and beyond. Once bitterness is established in the heart, the mind, the soul, its roots go deep and it is difficult to get rid of. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and it also quenches the Holy Spirit. The father must walk in submission to the local elders and deacons, to governmental authority and laws, and to the traveling ministries. By doing this, he will teach his family to walk in submission. Every member or the Body of Christ is to submit to every other member of the Body of Christ. There is to be tremendous respect for each member. As the father fulfills this, respecting and submitting to his wife and children as members of the Body of Christ, he will teach his family true humility and the Holy Spirit will flow. It is impossible to submit to God, Whom you cannot see, if you do not submit to the members of the Body of Christ, whom you can see. This is also part of that discernment of the Body of Christ, which is what transfigures you.

Other things can quench the Spirit. There was a man who was led to stop watching and reading news. At first, he couldn’t understand this and it took him years to fully obey God in this matter. Once he did obey, his life improved. He found that the negativity in the news that used to affect his thinking, was gone. God was leading him to get rid of something that He knew was bad for this man. "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not" 1 Corinthians 10:23 If it is not building you up, then why are you doing it? If God didn't command you to do it, then why are you doing it?

The Holy Spirit Must Flow In the Home

How can we know anything about anything

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