I was telling a seminary professor about a class I was taking and he asked what textbook the professor was teaching from. I said none; this professor was teaching what God had taught him, not what God had taught someone else.
This is what Jesus did. The religious people of His day
always cited this rabbi or that, but Jesus was a breath of fresh air. He didn’t
need to quote someone else to back up what He said. Those who heard Him often
said there was no teacher like Him.
As I listen to teachers, good and not so good, I am
noticing that the Holy Spirit is my greatest and most accurate teacher, but He does
use a textbook. Like all others, I need Him to interpret Scripture, but I also
need Scripture to make certain that I’m not merely getting my instructions from
voices in my head.
I also need the Holy Spirit to help me with false
teaching. John says, “I write these
things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that
you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should
teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and
is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.” (1 John 2:26–27)
The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God as His text and life
as His classroom. He instills truth and gives purpose to His students. I am in
the same school as the psalmist who said, “O
God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous
deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I
proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.” (Psalm
71:17–18)
Some of us come into this school without any skills at
all. Others have abilities, but even the most gifted need the Holy Spirit to
round out their talent and make of them what He wants them to be . . .
Now a Jew named
Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man,
competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And
being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning
Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the
synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and
explained to him the way of God more accurately. (Acts 18:24–26)
Apollos needed help because everyone comes into the
kingdom from darkness. We may be with or without skills, but all of us need the
Spirit to teach us and give us light. God tells us to learn from Him, and even
after we do, to beware of falling back into that old way of thinking. I can
avoid it by keeping my heart soft toward God and by continually relying on the
Teacher that He has given me . . .
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no
longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are
darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the
ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become
callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every
kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ! — assuming that
you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to
put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is
corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your
minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true
righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:17–24)
In other words, life is not a mere classroom to walk in
and out of without the lessons making a difference. If I do not put into
practice the truths God is teaching me, then my old self will continue to rule.
For that new life that Jesus has given me to be evident and effective, I have
to obey what I learn.
Following false teachers is a sad and terrible danger, but
it is just as sad and terrible to not pay any attention to the Holy Spirit who
is teaching me truth each day.
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