4th Reality:
God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, Prayer, Circumstances, and the Church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways
- Notice that there is an order in this statement
First: Gods Spirit has given us Gods Word:
- Jesus affirmed this about the Old Testament
- Notice the order of how these realities lay out
John 10:1–5 (NIV) – Matthew 24:35 (NIV) – Matthew 28:18–20 (NIV)
2 Timothy 3:16–17 (NIV) — 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
- • 1 John is written by John (a disciple of Jesus who affirms Jesus and the Disciples message)
1 John 1:1–4 (NIV) — 1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.
- • The Spirit of God never contradicts the Word of God
1 John 4:1–3 (NIV) — 1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
1 John 4:5–6 (NIV) — 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.