Taught by the Holy Spirit: How to Know If You Are Being Taught by Him

By Charles Plourd

Experiencing the manner in which the Holy Spirit communicates the words of God to Christians is a key element in understanding a real relationship with Jesus. (1st Cor. Ch. 2) According to the apostle Paul, there is a more comprehensive interpretation of the Bible which can only be understood by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Whom is the constant companion of the Christian. Bible "teachers" therefore, are those whose doctrine we are to zealously compare with the clear and literal teaching of Holy Scripture. Taught by the Holy Spirit addresses Who the ultimate Bible teacher is, and why the Christian is to rely upon Him and the Word of God, rather than famous people who stand behind a pulpit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 16, 2010
• ISBN: 9781449701734

Charles Plourd

Charles Plourd lives in the central region of the United States. He enjoys spending time with friends and family, while studying Christian theology, as well as analyzing the beliefs of cults, secret societies, and other religions. Charles is self-described as an individual with an uncommon and unorthodox past, in terms of his life experiences and the circumstances which led him to faith in Jesus Christ. Taught by the Holy Spirit addresses the reasons that mainstream Christianity today is often filled with teachers and preachers who are clearly teaching strange new ideas and doctrines, but still have an unquestioning and loyal following. Some people even feel as if these popular Bible "teachers" are the ultimate source of spiritual truth. Having been associated with a cult teaching before beginning a relationship with Jesus, Charles candidly recounts his experience for his readers using scripture and simple reasoning to analyze why it was possible for him to have fallen victim to the deceptions which he was once influenced by and how he was ultimately set free from those deceptions and lies. You will be both encouraged and challenged as Charles points out the often little-known or largely-unread portions of God's Word which clearly tell us what God has to say in regards to how you can know if you are truly saved, how the Holy Spirit assures the Christian of this fact in a personal relationship, and how the Holy Spirit personally teaches doctrine to the Christian so that he or she can correctly understand and interpret the Bible according to God's standards. In Taught by the Holy Spirit, Charles also addresses how any Christian can employ useful methods of interpretation such as proper Biblical Exegesis, Biblical Hermeneutics, and Contextual Interpretation. Finally, Charles will show you how these methods can all be used in association with the spiritual insights given to the Christian by the Holy Spirit as discussed by the Apostle Paul in his 1st letter to the Corinthian church.

Book preview

Copyright © 2010, 2014 Charles Plourd.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4497-0172-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-0174-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-0173-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010926347

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/08/2014

Contents

PREFACE

Chapter 1   Understanding What True Faith Really Is

Chapter 2   Religion Versus Relational Behavior

Chapter 3   What Are Wisdom And Knowledge?

Chapter 4   A Religion About Jesus, Or A Relationship With Him?

Chapter 5   Understanding Our Elationship With God

Chapter 6   A Relationship Experience With The Persons Of God

Chapter 7   The Genesis Of Transformation

Chapter 8   The Faithful Witness

Chapter 9   Understanding The Methods Of Interpretation

Chapter 10 Spiritual Wisdom

AFTERWORD

PREFACE

AN INTRODUCTION TO MY EXPERIENCE, AND WHY I AM WRITING THIS:

Firstly, I thank you, Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ for saving me and making Yourself known to me. I thank You for all of the godly men and women who You have brought into my life to instruct, guide, and disciple me. The reason that I am writing on the subject of the Christian being taught God’s Word by the Holy Spirit is because I believe that it simply has not been given very much attention in America’s popular church culture. This has led some people to feel as if Bible teachers are the source of God’s truth, rather than God’s own Word being the source of His truth.

I truly feel that we must understand that the Christian who reads the Bible is first and foremost to be taught God’s Word by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Only then do we begin to realize that Bible teachers are those whose teachings we would merely consider and then ponder against the clear teaching of scripture. Many other questions which a person may have about what a relationship with Jesus is and is not will also be answered as a result of understanding Who the ultimate Bible teacher is and why.

One of the many reasons that we have received the Spirit Who proceeds from the Father is so that He can take that which belongs to Christ, which the Father gave to the Son to speak to us, (often in parables,) and in turn, declare it to us plainly. God wants us to understand Him relationally, not just academically. In a relationship, the parties involved share detailed information with each other about one another. At times, it can seem that many who claim that they are followers of Christ have almost no conceptual understanding of this relational aspect of the faith which they lay claim to. As it is, many find themselves to be in a situation in which they are ultimately putting their trust in a fellow believer or mainstream Christian evangelist in order to understand the Bible. This should not be.

If this were not true, then there would not be so many false evangelists and sensationalist pseudo-Christian movements. Many men and women look to these corrupt word of faith preachers and peddlers of sensationalist doctrines as if they are infallible. So again, I must say that Bible teachers are not the source of truth no matter how clever they may seem to be or how many people follow their teachings. We should merely consider what a Biblical scholar and/or teacher may feel led to share with us from God’s Word, as we critically and skeptically examine their teachings against the Bible itself. Some who claim to be Christians do not understand by experience what it means to be taught the Bible by the Holy Spirit. Such people may be depending upon a human teacher for all of their insight into what the Bible teaches, or simply using their own imagination to interpret the Bible. This can be a potential doorway to cultism and damnable heresies.

I want the reader to understand that anyone can understand the Bible clearly if they will apply some practical methods of interpretation to their study of it. What this book focuses on as its main support column is the spiritual insight which the Holy Spirit teaches to the Christian concerning spiritual realities in the form of symbolism and allegories. This is a topic which is not often discussed. It must therefore be approached without haste. For this reason, some may find this book a bit lengthy. Many Christians will understand what I write about within this book if they are truly Christians. Being taught God’s Word by the Holy Spirit is nothing new, it is simply a deeper look at what many people have not taken the time to examine more closely.

I have written this book for one’s instruction, encouragement, correction, and consideration. This book is specifically tailored and intended for those who have already accepted the truth that Jesus is the Savior of the world sent by God, but who also see Him as a mystical figure in antiquity Who they themselves do not know in a personal way. Such persons may also experience frequent moments of doubt concerning their own salvation, and be left wondering if they really are saved. If this is you, then I ask you above all others to continue reading.

I think that it is best if I explain my own experience to the reader before I go too deep into this subject. Before we begin to get into the real core of this study, I will testify to my own experience because I want to help you. As I do this, I will gradually introduce the various scriptural evidences found in the Bible to support my emerging comments and conclusions, so that the reader will know that I am not simply pulling my comments from my own imagination.

He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he. The wise in heart shall be called prudent: and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning. Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly.(Proverbs 16:20-22 KJV)

"I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." (Revelation 3:18-19 KJV)

CHAPTER 1

UNDERSTANDING WHAT TRUE FAITH REALLY IS

What I am going to discuss in this book deals largely with the spiritual concepts and realities in the Bible taught to the Christian by the Holy Spirit. Those who read this book should have a Bible available to them and have at least some basic understanding of Christian doctrine. As such, many of my statements may not apply to someone who said a prayer of repentance to Jesus on their deathbed, or to someone who lives in an area of the world where a Bible is not available for them to read. My target audience is an American audience which has excellent opportunity to read a Bible and study it, but often neglects to do so.

Understanding how the Holy Spirit communicates the words of God to Christians is ultimately key to explaining what a real relationship with Jesus is. You can participate in church activities, talk about the Christian faith with others, and even understand Christian doctrine without having a relationship with the One Who you claim is your God. Anyone can make a decision to believe that something is factual, but not all people in church attendance have faith. Faith is really trust. As an example, I can believe that someone is able to bail me out of jail and that they have the resources available to them to do that, but to trust that they will do it is entirely different.

Understanding Who the Holy Spirit is, and in what manner He communicates the words of God to Christians will begin to define for many people what a relationship with Jesus really is. Having a relationship with Jesus does not mean that you merely have a mental affirmation of the gospel. My point is that you can believe that the gospel is true and yet, not have a genuine trust which defines your belief in the gospel. That was once my position, and it is why I appeared outwardly to be a Christian, but had no relationship with Jesus. Also, many people are concerned about the spiritual gifts that are given to the Christian by the Holy Spirit, which are meant to glorify Christ. Some of these people seek these gifts before they seek salvation, and they end up in cults which look like the real thing, but are not.

For those who do not understand the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit, (doctrinally or experientially, or both,) I must define for them that you don’t need to receive the gift of speaking in tongues to be saved. This is an extremely taboo, hotly debated, and altogether misunderstood matter in the churches today. Let it be known and resolutely understood that receiving the Holy Spirit happens when you are saved by faith in Christ Jesus. Any additional gift such as speaking in tongues is for encouragement to the church and yourself. This is what the Bible clearly teaches, and it teaches nothing contrary to this. I also want you to know that this book only deals with the interpretation of the Bible to the Christian by the Holy Spirit, not the spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit, like speaking in tongues. As such, I will not discuss the gifts of the Holy Spirit any further.

Many only have a vague understanding of the Holy Spirit. Who He is and what it is that He does in the life of the Christian seems to be a huge mystery for most people in church attendance in America. Many do not understand His role in bringing sinners to repentance and faith in Christ. Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Paul, Peter, John, James, and Jude all tell us quite plainly Who the Holy Spirit is, and what He does. However, many still do not understand or refuse to understand. Instead, they favor a doctrine taught to them by their church denomination, or pastor, or a favorite television, radio, or internet evangelist.

We read the statement of Jesus in John chapter 3 that you must be born again (a spiritual birth from God’s own Spirit) to enter into eternal life. This will not happen without you becoming aware of the Holy Spirit in some capacity. So if we really have received the Holy Spirit, we will not just believe that this is true of ourselves, but we will also know that it is true in addition to believing it, because He will prove it to us Himself in a relationship with Jesus. This requires an experiential kind of relationship with Jesus, rather than just accepting some Christian doctrine about Him.

The issue is not necessarily whether you have a belief in the doctrine about Jesus being the Savior and Lord of all. Hell will be filled with people who admired Jesus, and even admired His teaching, but did not follow it or trust Him. Trusting the One Who that doctrine points to is really the issue. As an example, some of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day believed that a Jewish savior would come. They had a generalized belief that God would send a type of savior, but they were only thinking of a political savior who would free them from Roman military occupation. They thought that they were good religious people who could earn their way to heaven. Because of this, they would not trust the Savior of their souls, the Jewish Messiah, when He appeared. So it is clear that you can believe a certain teaching, and still not trust the One Who that teaching is about. Today, there are many pseudo-Christian cults. They abound. For me to say that I believe in Jesus is therefore a very broad statement. What precisely do I believe about Him? Is there trust connected with my belief? Is it a correct belief about Him? All of these things must be considered. Anyone can believe a particular thing, but it is altogether different to trust someone. That is my point, and we will examine this more closely throughout the pages of this book.

I am pointing to an absolute and experiential sense of knowing that you have received salvation through a personal relationship experience with God the Father and His Son, via the Person of the Holy Spirit. This is more than some sort of feeling or emotional experience. For many people, their faith in Jesus is only a religious belief system about Him. It is based upon an outburst of emotion which they had when they felt sorry for Jesus because He was crucified. What I am speaking of is to know that you have received the Holy Spirit in the most absolute sense of knowing it - through a real relationship experience with God Himself. This can only come by completely trusting Jesus for your eternal salvation and turning away from your sins. The kind of faith that I am pointing to here is the kind of faith which is completely dependent upon Jesus, rather than the kind of faith that only acknowledges that He died on a cross and rose again. You can believe that Jesus died and rose again and still not have confidence in Him to save you. That was what I once called faith. For me, it was: Jesus’ death and resurrection, plus my good behavior.

A relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit will only come through a real salvation experience. This does not necessarily happen by learning more Christian doctrine, going to church more, or going to a weekend conference where everyone gets emotional as they give a testimony about how they used to be an alcoholic or a prostitute or a drug dealer. The gospel is not a self-help, twelve-step program. It is not a message of how to overcome alcoholism, sex addiction, or drug addiction. Overcoming those sins can happen as a result of salvation, but should not be the focus of the salvation message. Those are high-emotion, high-drama moments, and many people tend to associate the Christian faith with these emotional experiences rather than with a confidence in Jesus. If anyone really does trust Jesus He will not seem distant to that person anymore. He will be alive and real to you in a very personal way as His Spirit communicates with your spirit. Not only will you believe that Jesus is risen from the grave, but you will also know that this is true after receiving the Holy Spirit.

Jesus can communicate directly with you through the Holy Spirit Who you have received from Him, if indeed you have been brought into a relationship with Him through the Holy Spirit. As Christians, we know that we know God personally because of the Holy Spirit Who we have received from Him. Those who belong to the world do not know the Holy Spirit and they are not able to know Him, because they do not trust the Lord Jesus and they do not hate their sin. No one can receive the Holy Spirit if they do not trust Jesus and hate their sin, and no person can trust Jesus unless the Father Who sent Him draws that person to Jesus. Human willpower, desire, intelligence, or the family which you come from cannot cause you to enter into heaven. I will show this later from the Bible. You must be born again.

Everyone is born physically into this physical world by parents. To have eternal life you must be born again in a spiritual sense, by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ. God is a Spirit and He is the most Holy Spirit from which all life proceeds, and if you have received life from the most Holy Spirit, then God is your Father and you are His child. God is the Holiest Spirit, because God is most Holy, and He is a Spirit. If you trust Jesus, His Spirit will bring eternal life to your mortal body when He returns to this world in judgment to execute judgment upon those who have rejected the testimony of God His Father, because they did not trust nor believe that God sent His Son to forgive sin. And that is God’s testimony to the world, which His prophets and His Son Jesus spoke to the world in times past.

Jesus spoke words which were not His own. They came from His Father, (as I will show later,) so the words which He spoke were the very words of God, and the testimony which He gave was God’s own testimony concerning the nature of things in this world. Those who do not believe what Jesus said about Himself will have therefore called God a liar, dishonoring Him, and their sins still remain because they have no way to pay for those sins. In the garden of Eden, satan tempted Eve to sin against God by telling Eve that God was a liar:

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17)

"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" (Genesis 3:1)

And the serpent said unto the woman, "Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:4-5)

Eve believed satan. She believed that God had lied to her concerning the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Every evil thing which people do comes from believing a lie, and every good thing comes from believing the truth. By believing a lie, Eve began to do evil deeds. That is why I say that every evil thing which people do comes from believing a lie. The biggest lie which people believe is that the testimony which God gave concerning His Son is not true, and so, they do evil deeds because the evil deeds which they do are an extension of the lies which they believe.

As an example, if people believe that there is no moral truth, then they will do whatever they like. If people do not believe what the God of the Bible has said, then they will not believe in absolute moral truth. All of the religions of this world leave room for a person to practice their religion and their sins as long as they follow a few ceremonies. Even though they may not be the most vile of sinners, they will try to make their own rules and their own version of moral truth. People who belong to the world will believe that they can receive eternal life without believing what God has said concerning His Son. Almost no atheist wants to die. Even some atheists believe that they can upload their personalities into a computer program and live inside of a computer after their body has died. These people are often referred to as Trans-humanists. By believing this, they show that even they desire eternal life. They reveal that they are practicing a religion disguised as science. Satan tells lies to the world, and the world believes their father. Satan is the father of lies because he told the first lie about God. He made himself out to be a spirit of truth, while it is only God Who is the Spirit of Truth, because He is a Spirit and it is impossible for God to lie. God always tells the truth and He is the One with Whom the truth originates.

Whoever belongs to the side of truth (even if it means a change in their lifestyle and behavior,) will listen to the truth, trust it, and believe it. It is the Holy Spirit Who is the Spirit of Truth, and He gives spiritual life to people by causing them to believe the truth about themselves and about Jesus. (John 16:8) It is only if people believe the truth about Jesus that they can become God’s children. It is natural for people to hate the truth about themselves and God. Jesus declared that truth, and people hated Him for saying that we are all sinners who need to be saved by Him. The people who belong to this world do evil things and make up their own rules about morality.

These people do not want to be told that they are doing what is wrong, and therefore need to be saved from hell. No one who loves to practice evil wants to hear the truth, and no one who is seeking the truth loves a lie. If a person believes the truth about themselves and about God, they can have a relationship with God because they love the truth, just as He loves the truth. God has the ability to give spiritual life because He is the Spirit Who gives life. God is a Spirit, and He is Holy. The Holy Spirit proves to us that we are saved by the relationship we have with Him, the Father, and the Son when we receive Him.

In this way, we do not need anyone to reassure us that we are saved or to tell us that the Bible really is true, because the Holy Spirit Himself bears witness to the follower of Christ, communicating with the Christian on a personal basis. (Romans 8:16) The way in which the Holy Spirit bears witness with our own spirit certainly goes beyond just believing that you are saved. Anyone can choose to believe that they have eternal life, but no one can be certain of that unless they know God personally, because He is the One Who personally confirms that reality to the Christian. You must know God. And no one can know God personally if their sins are not forgiven. No one can have their sins forgiven unless they turn from those sins and believe Jesus was punished on their behalf and was resurrected.

Let me put it another way. No one wonders if they actually know their best friend, and no one has to tell you that you know your parents if you really know them, because it is already clearly evident to you by your past interactions with these people. This is difficult for someone who is outside of that experience to be able to understand. In fact, if a person is outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ, they won’t understand this. As with any relationship, this is something which you have to experience to fully understand.

In this book, I will explain that a relationship with Jesus is much more than simply believing in what He did to save sinners and then going to church once a week. One should also consider that if a relationship with Jesus without a change in behavior as an evidence of the relationship were enough, then John 3:16 would be the only scripture of the New Testament. That’s all we would need. We could just throw the rest of the New Testament away, because we would not need to know anything else. John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance - turning away from sin and turning one’s life over to God - before Christ preached the forgiveness of sins. There is a reason for that. In the Old Testament we read that God always gave forgiveness of sins on the condition that the people would turn from their sins first. God never gave forgiveness to any Israelite who willfully and knowingly continued in his idol worship, fornication, murder, thefts, and any other sin that can be named - simply because he believed that God would forgive him.

I understand that some people may not want to read these things. For some people, to agree with God that we must change our minds about the way that we choose to live our lives is a difficult thing to do. Maybe today you find that you have been reading the Bible routinely and still have great difficulty understanding it clearly. Perhaps you only understand the Bible in a scholarly or intellectual capacity. Perhaps it seems to you that many of those who go to your church are somehow more knowledgeable and skilled in properly interpreting the Bible than you know yourself to be. In a reasonable and general way, my goal here is to help bring some clarity to the reader as to the possible reasons why this may be true of him or her.

Never was I told that I could actually know Jesus through His Spirit and communicate with Him personally. When I first understood by experience what it means to be taught the Bible by the Holy Spirit, I was completely amazed. I was very amazed to find that a relationship with Jesus is real, literal, and more than simply memorizing some Bible verses and Christian doctrines. I really thought that those things were what defined a relationship with the living Savior and God of man. I was told so often to Just believe.

What it means to believe in the good news about the death and resurrection of Jesus may be very different than what is preached in many churches today. Jesus consistently placed barriers in front of people. He demanded repentance and a total surrender to Himself as Lord and Master. The gospel which Jesus preached is not the same gospel which many people have accepted today, because many people have accepted a gospel which allows them to live like the devil. So we must ask the question: What does it mean to believe in Jesus, anyway? Does merely deciding that something makes sense to you actually save you, or is there more to the Christian faith? Does believing in Jesus also mean to trust Him? To trust Him completely? Does believing in Jesus also mean to believe that His commands should be obeyed, or do we have the option to ignore His commands? Is it really possible to say that you believe that Jesus is your Lord if you do not obey Him? Is it really possible to say that Jesus is your Savior if you still expect to escape a potential punishment in hell by following rules? The answers are obvious.

Not everyone will agree with God that they are living the wrong way. Sin always obstructs a relationship with God. If you spend most of your time doing things that God does not approve of, then it is easily understood that you love those things more than you love God. This book will focus on a relationship with Jesus in terms of:

1. our attitude towards His commands,

2. why someone may not want to obey His commands,

3. the resulting behavior in our daily lives which is a product of our attitude, and

4. what our attitude and behavior reveals about our spiritual state.

I once thought that a relationship with Jesus meant that I had memorized some historical event and that as a result, I could do whatever I liked. My lifestyle and my view of an angry God still was not any different than it had been previously, though. All that was different about me was that I now had a religious belief about Jesus. I still believed that God was going to keep track of my sins and take back the gift of salvation which I thought that I had received if I didn’t