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      LIVING UNDER THE NEW COVENANT       
Study #23: What Day Did the Holy Spirit Stop Speaking? 

"By grace you have been saved through faith...it is the gift of God, not as a result of works..." - Ephesians 2:8-9 
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 Dr. Bill Miller                                      Volume XIX Number 7                             February 14, 2016 
      
 
Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!
 
Happy Valentine's Day everyone and welcome back to our ongoing discussion of living life under the New Covenant. For the past few weeks we've been focusing on the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of New Covenant Believers. As previously discussed, the Bible says that the sons (children) of God are led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14). We've also discussed that a significant part of that leading occurs through His SPEAKING to us on a continuous basis 24/7. Indeed, He speaks directly to our spirits which by rebirth are capable of HEARING the voice of the Shepherd by FAITH. The sheep (believers) hear and know the voice of their Shepherd and we follow Him. Thus, according to what Scripture ACTUALLY says, the Shepherd leads the sheep and the sheep trust in the Shepherd WILLINGLY submitting to His leading (John 10:1-4, 14, 27).
 
Now, we've also dealt with the fact that most believers have never heard the voice of the Holy Spirit and this is precisely the issue that needs to be examined. How can we expect to experience the fullness of VICTORY under the New Covenant if we can't hear the speaking of the Holy Spirit? According to Scripture a SIGNIFICANT dimension of Christian life is to be led by the Holy Spirit so that we don't walk according to the flesh (Romans 8:10-13). Even many "mature" Christians only study the written Word but essentially ignore the present-day SPEAKING of the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Holy Spirit DOES use the written Word to teach and to counsel and to comfort and to lead. But more than that, He's a SPEAKING Spirit and we know from Scripture that He's SPOKEN to God's people down through the ages and into the first century Church. Why would we now believe He's stopped SPEAKING?
 
A Problem of Tradition
 
A lot of folks say He STOPPED speaking when the written Word became available. Where's the scripture that clearly informs us of that development which would have represented a major change from the experiences in the Book of Acts? When did the compiled written New Testament become available so that He could STOP speaking? There were various compilations in the second, third and fourth centuries: which one was the one that finally muted the Holy Spirit? Did it happen before or after the Dark Ages during which the written Word was locked up so only the Clergy could read it? And, is it possible or maybe even likely that the idea of a suddenly mute Holy Spirit could have been created by that same Clergy for their own interests? Do we really believe that God's best was to send the BODY of Christ into the Dark Ages by cutting off the SPEAKING of His Holy Spirit so there would be no Word at all for regular people except the little that remained after it had been filtered through the Clergy? And oh by the way, which version of the written Word eventually replaced the SPEAKING of the Holy Spirit because there were MANY translations before one was finally canonized?
 
Friend, the New Testament is replete with references and testimonies about the SPEAKING ministry of the Holy Spirit. He has always been on the earth and He has always been SPEAKING. But on the Day of Pentecost in the first century AD, fifty days after the Passover that occurred just before the crucifixion of Christ, He was POURED OUT (Acts 2:2-4, 17) on all mankind which fulfilled Old Testament prophecy (Joel 2:28). Indeed, after His resurrection Jesus had instructed His disciples to wait together in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit had come upon them which would give them the POWER they needed to become witnesses for Him "even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1:4-8). That EMPOWERMENT came from the POURING OUT of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and there are no scriptures saying that it was temporary or limited or that it would change or be diminished or stopped. Folks, God doesn't change! Indeed, decades later we find the Apostle Paul instructing the regular day-to-day people in the Corinthian Church about the use of the various kinds of empowerment that had come with the OUTPOURING of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians, Chapters 12, 13, and 14).
 
Despite all the wondrous, miraculous things that happened in the early Church, human-contrived traditions soon began to emerge and eventually included the one that said that the SPEAKING of the Holy Spirit had to be filtered through clergy. The common Man wasn't qualified to hear Him accurately and needed specially trained human interpreters to "intercede" as if the ongoing priesthood of Jesus was inadequate. But well before all this happened, Jesus was warning the Pharisees and Scribes that their manmade, handed-down traditions were powerful enough to invalidate even the WRITTEN Word of God (Mark 7:13). In that verse the Greek behind the English means the "Word in written form" which at the time He made the warning was the Old Testament. And so, even now two thousand years after Jesus warned us, many are allowing manmade traditions to lead us in many areas of our Christian experience instead of the SPEAKING of the Holy Spirit.
 
The Need for Belief Validation
 
I want to emphasize tonight that each of us has been challenged by Jesus Himself to personal6ly and continually examine what we believe about God and His Kingdom and why we believe it. If you believe stuff that you can't find clear validation for yourself in the Word, then in my opinion you need to set those beliefs aside until you DO find the validation. The reason is that the longer we "invest" ourselves in particular beliefs, the more difficult it is to let go of them when later we find that one of them seems to be in error. And believe me when I say that there are many teachings around the Body of Christ that contradict each other and they all have some really smart people that are heavily "invested" in them.
 
In sum, we need to be able to document and validate everything we believe by the PROOF of the written Word. If you believe something only because someone in ministry (like me) showed it to you, you haven't heeded the warning of Jesus until you go into the Word on your own and validate what you've been taught. Then and only then should you consider taking it into your belief structure in humility realizing that there is a high probability that you don't yet have all the answers on just about anything where the Kingdom of God is involved. For that reason, we need to not "invest" so much in what we think is truth but remain open to the ideas of others so it won't be so hard to let go of some of our ideas when we find out they weren't truth after all.
 
For the better part of the last two thousand years, most of the Body of Christ has settled for the idea that the Holy Spirit has stopped SPEAKING despite what the New Testament actually says and despite the personal sworn testimonies over the years of millions of believers who've personally experienced His manifestations. Just because some of us can't hear the Holy Spirit SPEAKING doesn't mean He's stopped SPEAKING. And I bring this up tonight because next week we're going to start discussing the fact that under the New Covenant the Holy Spirit EMPOWERS us supernaturally to follow His leading and accomplish the work of the Kingdom. If you're a part of one of those church groups where the Holy Spirit has stopped SPEAKING or where He only SPEAKS occasionally by the personal illumination of His written Word, then you're going to get a different point of view and I hope it will prompt you to look into it for yourself.

Thanks for joining our discussion tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on February 21. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), pushing you to VICTORY in every area of life!


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Romans 10:9
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