[updated] Many fail to realize what the gifts of the Spirit did and how scripture does the same only better. Probably the most puzzling comparison would be Agabus the prophet telling the believers to prepare for famine and to provide for the church at Jerusalem. How can scripture compete with this?
Every choice we make is a reaction to something external or within. God moved people externally at times through the prophets. But he performs the same movement in us through other means as well. So the gifts can expire, but the results remain the same. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)
First off, Agabus had a burden as many of us do. A burden that won’t let us rest until we address it. And then we speak in faith telling others what concerns us. This might have been prophecy nudging people externally back in the day. But in our day it is the Spirit’s leading within, through which we prompt others to take action.
How do we know which fork in the road to take based on scripture alone? Prayer tells us which way to move according to the faith we have. The Spirit bears witness giving us faith for traveling in one direction while withholding it in other directions. We can foretell the future based on the faith God gives us before we see our needs in person. How many times have we said “the Lord will provide”. All based on the faith he gives us. And then the provision arrives.
What would love do? That is a clear directive from scripture about any choice in direction before us. In fact, we learn Jesus is Lord when love controls our course of action. God is love.
How do we judge spirits using the word only? If people do not align doctrinally with scripture, we know the spirit of error or doctrines of demons. The spirit of Antichrist is rampant today as people deny Christ and all that he is. Replacing him with an idol based on their lack of learning or on their denominational affiliation.
Tongues helped bring God’s new covenant words to the early disciples in fragments. That when written down and collected, no doubt became part of the scriptures we have today. No longer do we see through a glass darkly, through the lens of the Old Covenant only, but now face to face in the full revelation of Jesus Christ in the New Covenant scriptures.
And so we have a self-contained guidance through our bibles the early believers did not have. They needed to judge prophecy for accuracy. They had to compile the fragments. They had to depend on one another for guidance with no scripture memory base as we have today, the full revelation of the new covenant. And Peter said their prophecy and tongues were subject to the private interpretation of the interpreter.
He says; “And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. “We have also a more sure word of prophecy …. Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” (2 Peter 1:18–21)
Every choice we make is a reaction to something external or within. God moved people externally at times through the prophets. But he performs the same movement in us through other means as well. So the gifts can expire, but the results remain the same. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)
First off, Agabus had a burden as many of us do. A burden that won’t let us rest until we address it. And then we speak in faith telling others what concerns us. This might have been prophecy nudging people externally back in the day. But in our day it is the Spirit’s leading within, through which we prompt others to take action.
How do we know which fork in the road to take based on scripture alone? Prayer tells us which way to move according to the faith we have. The Spirit bears witness giving us faith for traveling in one direction while withholding it in other directions. We can foretell the future based on the faith God gives us before we see our needs in person. How many times have we said “the Lord will provide”. All based on the faith he gives us. And then the provision arrives.
What would love do? That is a clear directive from scripture about any choice in direction before us. In fact, we learn Jesus is Lord when love controls our course of action. God is love.
How do we judge spirits using the word only? If people do not align doctrinally with scripture, we know the spirit of error or doctrines of demons. The spirit of Antichrist is rampant today as people deny Christ and all that he is. Replacing him with an idol based on their lack of learning or on their denominational affiliation.
Tongues helped bring God’s new covenant words to the early disciples in fragments. That when written down and collected, no doubt became part of the scriptures we have today. No longer do we see through a glass darkly, through the lens of the Old Covenant only, but now face to face in the full revelation of Jesus Christ in the New Covenant scriptures.
And so we have a self-contained guidance through our bibles the early believers did not have. They needed to judge prophecy for accuracy. They had to compile the fragments. They had to depend on one another for guidance with no scripture memory base as we have today, the full revelation of the new covenant. And Peter said their prophecy and tongues were subject to the private interpretation of the interpreter.
He says; “And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. “We have also a more sure word of prophecy …. Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” (2 Peter 1:18–21)
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