Jeremy Polansky, Lockheart Ministries
I’ll first acknowledge the irony of a teaching paper about not learning from me. Though I write this paper to teach others, I also recognize I can’t teach anyone what they truly need to know. I can tell anyone about computers, biology, or other physical or worldly things. I can even be an example of what it might look like to pursue the Truth, and talk about that with others. But I can’t teach you to know the Truth. In the words of the greatest teacher Jesus Christ, “the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
So it’s the Holy Spirit who teaches us. In fact, Jesus commands us to not call anyone else our teacher. In one of his epistles, the disciple John also reminds us of this fact that we “do not need anyone to teach [us]” but only the Holy Spirit. Clearly, we must have the Holy Spirit be the one who teaches us and points us back to Jesus. Yet I’m still writing to teach you about this. So, what gives? Do you listen to me or the Holy Spirit? What’s the difference?
The human heart is the most deceitful thing on Earth, and it can even deceive ourselves. Trusting in humans for knowledge, especially for spiritual matters, and especially a singular spiritual leader who professes knowledge, will never work. Even under the old covenant God commanded the nation of Israel to not take the testimony of only one person. This leaves room for pride, lying, and general abuse of power. Even more, the “mob mentality” has shown to lead people astray and listen to others. If we listen to other humans, we’re not any better off than if we took our own advice.
The problem lies in the fact that we are not God. We did not create this Earth, the animals, laws of science, and surely cannot understand our own hearts let alone the hearts or motivations of others. God, on the other hand, knows. If we listen to Him, if it’s possible to understand His will, then we could make decisions based on His infinite knowledge of truth and reality. And we can know, and the Apostle Paul reminds us that if we renew our minds in the things of God and leave the thinking of the world then we can know God’s perfect will. Listening to Him, not man, is necessary to learn His will.
In spite of not being able to trust ourselves, we must not lose our sense of self. At the end of the day, Jesus reminds us that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and body. This is a choice we must decide to make ourselves, and a choice no one else can make for us. Even more so, other people should not make this choice for us. Our relationship with God should not be motivator by our love and attraction for other people than our love and attraction to God. Otherwise our love is not pure.
Jesus uniquely shows an example of not coercing us into relationship with Him. It’s not possible to be in an unhealthy codependent relationship with Jesus. Once example of this is when Jesus asks the twelve disciples if they will leave along with the crowds. Given the choice, the twelve responded by their own choice that they wanted to continue following Him as their teacher because they believed He has the words of life. If Jesus had forced them to follow Him, it would not have been love. If Jesus had coerced them into following Him, it would not have been pure love.
The Holy Spirit has a significant role in helping us love Jesus. We cannot love God purely unless we are helped but by the Holy Spirit, as we are not perfect like God and are unable to perfectly love. But the Holy Spirit is our helper and will help us to grow into the image of God that He planned for us from the beginning of creation. One example of this is when the man cried out to Jesus to help him with his unbelief. Though the man was sincere with himself that he did not believe, there was something deeper inside of him which wanted to believe and wanted that enough to ask God for it. I believer these kinds of since prayers are the ones God wants to answer.
The error occurs when we are not sincere in these kinds of requests for God to help us love Him and to teach us. If we are selfish with our requests, God does not have any obligation to answer. If we are making requests because of other’s prompting, the request is not from us and the Lord would not be answering us if He answered, but that other person through us. If you listen to my teaching and follow it, the temptation is to start following what you’ve heard me say instead of what you want to believe yourself.
Throughout the millennia, the Lord has used His people to do His work. This includes prophets that God directed in the spirit to give messages to others, such as the prophet Jonah who preached to Nineveh. This continues into the new covenant (i.e. after Jesus died for the sins of the world) as shown when the prophet foretold the Apostle Paul being bound up if he was to go to Jerusalem. The Lord even gives individuals private messages such as the one King David received from Nathan the prophet. So the Holy Spirit uses people to speak to others.
But people to not always speak from the Spirit of God. When you listen to the words of someone, how would you know they are coming from God and not that person? Jesus promises that His sheep hear His voice, so we can trust we will not be deceived. However, we might stumble before we are refined and purified, as prophesied in the book of Daniel. Another story is recorded where a “man of God from Judah” is led stray because he listened to a man above the Spirit. We must be people of God who can hear His voice above the voice of all the others. But remember, if we have the Holy Spirit, He will lead us into all truth, and if we don’t yet have the Holy Spirit Jesus tells us to ask and we will receive.
Many who support sola scriptura (meaning scripture alone) stand on the truth that “all scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching,…” To that I say: Amen. But the scripture is no only used for good. The devil quotes scripture to Jesus when Jesus is in the wilderness for 40 days. Cults of today quote scripture to support their views and their organization. The scriptures are useful for many things, unfortunately some which are twisted and divorced from the truth. We can’t rely on scripture alone to be taught or find truth, because the words in the Bible can be used for evil.
Jesus reveals to the Pharisee group of His day (the religious leaders) that while “they searched the scriptures diligently because in them they think that in them you have eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me.” Jesus points out that they focused on the scriptures and missed Jesus right in front of them. Today, Jesus is with us “even unto the end of the age” in Spirit. Shall we conclude the because He is not with us physically that we can’t fall into error by missing Him in front of our face? No, we can still miss Him. But before He returns He lives inside us because we have His Spirit, so we must not look with our eyes like the Pharisees could, but we must look to Jesus in the spirit.
Therefore, if we are to use the scriptures, namely the Holy Bible, we must listen in the spirit and ask for understanding and interpretation. James teaches that “if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God,…” It’s not about getting enough knowledge of the scriptures, but receiving from God Himself. Jesus does not say we will be condemned at the end of the age for a lack of doctrine, but for not knowing and obeying His voice. For He says “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven” and that “many will say to me on that day ‘Lord, Lord’,… but I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you’.” Do you know scripture, or do you know and are known by Jesus? Do you read the Bible for knowledge, or do you read the Bible to learn from about Jesus?
When God speaks to His people, it is not only a head knowledge but an understanding which He imparts. James speaks about how one who doesn’t respond to what he hears is like one who looks at himself in a mirror and immediately forgets what he looks like. Jesus speaks in parables to the crowds who do see but do not understand and hear but do not perceive, and most in these crowds soon stopped following Him. If we do not receive the Word of God, we will not understand and won’t respond with action.
In John’s Gospel account, he calls Jesus the Word, which is the Greek word “logos” which can be read as “logic”. Jesus embodied God’s message to humanity and as the logical structure of who God is, as Jesus says He is the way, the truth, and the life. It’s not that Jesus knows the truth, He is the truth. When we learn about Jesus, we receive words. When we get to know Jesus by His Spirit, we receive knowledge of the Word and a deep understanding of what He wants us to know. Only at this point will we be able to internalize the teaching and respond in action.
We can only receive the Word if it is given to us. Jesus says that no one can know God unless by the Son, and the only ones who know the Son are those the Son reveals Himself to. This means it’s not human will to know God or Word of God which He can give us. We must not attempt to understand or interpret spiritual truths or messages with our own intellect or intuition, rather ask the Spirit to give us revelation of His Word through understanding and revelation of the message.
When listening to another’s teaching, we must always confirm the message. In Acts 17:11, the Berean Jews are commended as more noble than the other Jews because they diligently searched the scriptures to confirm the Apostle Paul’s message to them. The message of the Kingdom of God which Jesus preached had presumably already reached all of the Jews, so they must have been hesitant to believe Paul if they had rejected the message the first time. Still, they wanted to know the truth enough as to search the scripture (the old testament of today) to confirm Paul’s message about Jesus. If we are told something, it must not contradict with what God has already spoken through the prophets. We must ask the Holy Spirit for guidance to interpret scripture and confirm messages we receive from others.
You may have noticed that I gave no scriptural references until I quoted about the Bereans. If I quote scripture, it might seem more credibly to someone even if I was quoting it incorrectly. If we truly must only learn from the Holy Spirit, if the Holy Spirit does speak to us directly today, and if you can’t learn from me or anyone else, that is something you must know. It is worth investing the time to confirm that teaching. If I have said anything in this paper which you did not already know, why take my word? Search the scriptures and confirm with the Holy Spirit, for He is the Spirit of Truth who will lead us all into all truth.