The first concern was that a lot of us look up to other pastors and teachers to derive our beliefs, this is a good thing! However it can also be dangerous if you blindly follow one person's view. I started to write on this because it looks like to me that many people are following what well known pastors believe, taking stances on things without testing the Scriptures for themselves and asking God. More specifically, views on the Holy Spirit, gifts, miracles, etc. (More on this later.)
More importantly, before I go into what I believe on those things, I wanted to encourage everyone to seek God and His truth for themselves and not take any pastor (even a one that is known to be sound in teaching) at their word! The whole point of Christ's death was so that the veil could be torn that was separating man from God, so that now each person who has faith in Christ can have direct access to God and know Him for themselves. The promise that we read in the Bible is this, found in Hebrews 8:10-11 (as quoted from Jeremiah 31:33-34),
This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will a man teach his neighbour,
or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
Teachers are important; they are given to the church in order for it to grow! However, they are not to be the person that the church follows—Christ is the head. When we start to follow other people and not Christ, problems arise. In fact, when we read 1 Corinthians, it is exactly what was going on in that church, it was divided and there were many fights and factions because they were following different people (Apollos, Paul, Peter) and holding them in high esteem rather than seeing them as servants who are there to help them and trying to seek God for themselves.
I think the problem is quite simple, it’s a heart issue. The question we need to ask ourselves is this:
Do you want someone to tell you about who Christ is?
Or do you want to talk to Christ yourself?
Do you want someone to talk about how wonderful Christ is in their life?
Or do you want to know and experience Him for yourself?
Do you want man's praise for knowing theology or do you want to just know Him despite what man will say about your theology? In today's Christian culture, we can read endless books that tell us about Christ but still not know Him intimately for ourselves! I have stressed this before and will do so again, Jesus warns us to “beware the yeast of the Pharisees.” He says this in all four gospels and warns His disciples! He knew it was a trap that believers could easily fall into; head over heart is a key characteristic of legalism.
God promises numerous times—in the law and the prophets (cf. Deut. 29:4, 1 Chron. 28:9, Jer. 29:13)—“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” In the New Testament, Christ Himself promises, “Ask and you will receive, seek and your will find!” (Matt. 7:7) The key word is ‘seek.’ He doesn’t mean seeking him as a side thing or something you do during the leftovers of your day. Rather, he means it in the sense where nothing else matters to you except for seeking that one thing (cf. Psalm 27:4). Like Jesus’ parable of the merchant who sold everything for pearls (cf. Matt. 13:45-46), we must seek God like that! Oh, how many people don't seek God but are satisfied with a second hand experience of God that comes from another person? The whole point of Christ's death is that the veil was torn so that all could have access to Christ!
(I am going to sidetrack a bit here to touch a little on why the OT is relevant and why all the promises made in the OT are still applicable today. Feel free to skip this section! There has been a strange teaching and thought going on in the church that the OT was for the past and that the NT is the relevant section of the bible that is more important. This is not true it is all equally important as the bible tells about God's nature and His nature is unchanging! What someone does tells those around them who they are. Their actions show what is on their heart. This is the same with God what He does tells of who He is! Whenever God does something small that may not make sense to us or seem insignificant we must not overlook it! He did it does it a reason, and this action tells us who He is! For example God decided to use a donkey to speak to Balaam, why? (lol I don't have time to go into that right now :P) As mentioned before God's nature is unchanging! Therefore all the promises made in the OT still apply in the NT. There are several verses that support this in the NT:
For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to our glory of God through us
2 Corinthians 1:20
There are some promises in the bible which were transitory and ultimately fullfilled in Christ however there are some that are still in effect today for example the promise God made to Noah that He would never flood the earth again. Another example is the promise that would follow someone who honours their parents. In the OT we read:
"Honour your father and mother as the LOrd your God has commanded you so that you may live a long life and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving to you" Deut. 5:16, Ex 20:12.
Paul quotes this promise in his letter to the Ephesians (6:1-3)
Chidren obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honour your father and mother- which is the first commandent with a promise - that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."
There are promises that God makes to His people the Israelites, the questions is, does it apply to us? The answer is yes the above example shows that it does. The promises that God made to His people in the past (the Israelites) are the same for His people today. We were grafted into the New Covenant and thus are parttakes in the grace given to the Isrealites through Christ (Romans 11)
It says in the bible that "the Word of the Lord endures forever" (1 Peter 1:24) This was quoted by Peter from Isaiah. We will see many times in the letters that the OT would be quoted to support something the author would be saying! This verse shows that what God says is aways true forever despite what we think or how we may change its meaning!)
One very important belief is in the Holy Spirit and gifts of the Spirit! I am very alarmed that there are so many who do not believe in God's power at work today! It says He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) so why would the God who did miracles in the past and give the Holy Spirit in the past not do it today? A key doctrine that is lost today is the power of the Holy Spirit at work. When people nullify it, they are essentially ignoring large parts of the Word of God; this is skewing it to fit their own taste.
For myself, I cannot help but testify that the gifts do exist; it is as sure and real to me as my salvation and conversion. So, I want to testify that I was freed from my addiction to pornography the day I repented and believed and continued to grow in grace. One day, a few months later, I was reading the book of Ephesians on a bus and suddenly the Spirit of the Most High God came upon me and I felt a fountain of joy in my heart! It was the Spirit bearing witness with my spirit. He was pouring His love on me (Romans 5) and I started to speak in tongues. Before that, I had heard of the gift of tongues and thought it was cool, but that day it became real to me. I did nothing myself; I was just seeking God and He gave it to me. I was a little freaked out at first because the logical side of me was confused and my heart was doubtful, but it didn't matter because it wasn’t about me or who I was but, rather, it was about God working through me.
I know that my girlfriend wanted the gift of tongues for a while because she had trouble expressing the deep parts of her heart in prayer. I told her how speaking in tongues makes expressing your heart to God easier. So, she started to ask God for the gift of tongues; as it says in His Word, “Ask and you will receive.” I was shocked when she started to speak in tongues; God gave it to her only after a week of asking daily!
Jesus asks the Pharisees in Matthew 9:5, “Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?” The answer is that is it is easier to heal a man physically! What is greater than God raising a man from the dead physically? Is it this: God raising a man from the dead spiritually. The greatest miracle God can perform is to raise someone who was dead in their transgressions and make them alive in Christ! Turning a heart of stone that was once blind and rebellious to God and make it into a heart of flesh that desires to obey Him! I am so amazed that Christians who profess that God made them alive cannot believe the ‘lesser’ miracles that He does such as spiritual gifts or physical healing. Think about this! He raised you from the dead! He can do anything!
One of the greatest problems in the church today is the sin of unbelief! Hebrews 3-4 shows that God brought His people out of Egypt and performed many signs, miracles and wonders but still His people would still not believe. I wonder are we like that, God takes us out of the Egypt of sin and we still don’t believe in Him! If God’s own people don’t believe, how can we expect the rest of the world to believe?
