John 16:12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
15 All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. KJV
The Disciples/Apostles after three years of intensive study still had much to learn as they did not totally grasp what they had learned. That sounds crazy since they had the absolute best teacher they could ever get. Shows how dense humans are.
So after Pentecost they would receive a teacher of the same caliber, the Holy Spirit, who would guide them into ALL truth. Yet, after two thousand years we are not seeing the power or unity that we should see if we were truly listening to the Holy Spirit instead of the doctrines of men. There is not a sect that is free from this problem. Some are in major heresy and others have missed the boat in many areas and some less, but there is not sect that does not tolerate some error.
Old traditions and dogmas die hard, but many would vaporize in an instant if we truly asked Jesus for the answer and allowed the Spirit to show us the error of our ways and how we negate the Word of God for the doctrines of men. Many of these are comfortable and even pleasurable so why would we question or dump them? In Heaven's name we would do so because we desire Him and His truth more than our comfortable rituals and doctrines. things how indeed can the Spirit teach us heavenly or more spiritual things? non-essential bucket. Even if it means we have mixed with the pagans like the Jews in the OT who may have started out in some errors in the idea of a seeker temple sort of thing to try and win them over or dialogue on common threads instead of coming out and being separate we just chalk it up to nonessential. In the end, they polluted the temple and even denied the God who bought them. Many have done this and many are close to it.
IF we really allowed the Holy Spirit to guide us there would not be so many sects and opinions for we have One Lord, one faith, one baptism and supposed to be in one accord and speak the same thing. We are not to be of Paul. Cephas or any of the other names we go by be it denominational or non/interdenominational names.
The word Christian would be something and we would not quibble over earthly things for if we cannot discern earthly things how indeed can the Spirit teach us heavenly or more spiritual things?
Old traditions and dogmas die hard, but many would vaporize in an instant if we truly asked Jesus for the answer and allowed the Spirit to show us the error of our ways and how we negate the Word of God for the doctrines of men. Many of these are comfortable and even pleasurable so why would we question or dump them? In Heaven's name we would do so because we desire Him and His truth more than our comfortable rituals and doctrines.
Be honest, who do you love more, Christ or your group and its doctrines and practices. Let the Holy Spirit answer that for you and you may be surprised that your group garners far more love and respect than the Lord.
One of the things that happens in every revival, and it has been documented is that Christians changed the way they dressed and yet that issue would be considered a non-essential issue and one would be a Legalist to even bring it up. Seems like it is important to God since it shows up in every revival. God even made one woman looking to be filled with the Spirit to throw away a rhinestone hair pin before she got her desire. Seems a bit picky to you, doesn't it? Maybe He is, but it is His will, not ours, right?
It would be a long list to discuss every issue and no matter how long I might make it I would most likely miss some things. Why not start asking the Lord to show you where you or your group has gone astray? There will be no revival without such discussions from everyone who names the name of Christ. Maranatha!!!
