1030. Overcoming the Need to Convince Others to Agree With You

This week is a spontaneous conversation we were not planning on doing—as it happened in real time.

There are tons of different church brands out there. Most consider the pages of the Bible as the source for their beliefs. And yet, consider there are millions of different opinions and perspectives that may be very contrary to each other. Even within circles where individuals consider themselves a grace-minded person, it's easy to get caught in the trap of thinking it's our job as Christians to persuade others to believe every wind of Bible doctrine in the same way we do. This is just an indicator that we need human validation while trying to use Bible verses to "prove" our version of the truth.

Anyone can bend biblical passages to their point of view—and can sound convincing—regardless of how accurate they may or may not be. The "I'm right" and "they're wrong" approach may have good intentions but it is not likely to be established or rooted in love and maturity. Growing in grace can help us with this as we lean on God's Spirit for guidance.



   
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933. God's Plan for Your Earthly Life (He Will Hang Out With You)

You may have wondered if God has specific plans for your life and how you can know you're going in the right direction. Some are afraid of making decisions - whether big or small - for fear they will make the wrong one. Some can become so concerned about this that they feel the need to stop and pray before doing anything.

God has given us the freedom to make choices and will be with us every step of the way. Certainly He may impress some things upon the hearts of people, leading and guiding when we're often not even aware of it. Religion has often emphasized the idea of being a follower of God. But let's remember that God's Spirit is always following us as a helper in time of need.



   
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926. Spiritual Truth Is Revealed by the Spirit of God

Many of us search the scriptures for truth. On our humble podcast, we've talked for years about these writings and how much they mean to us—we value and embrace them with what can be discovered as we grow in our understanding of the good news of Jesus. But ultimately, gaining more insight or expertise about the Bible will not allow for us to grow to the fullest in the knowledge of the truth. Truth is contained within a person (Jesus Christ), and all truth is ultimately revealed by the Spirit of God—the One sent to guide people into all truth as our comforter and teacher. The absolute true things of God cannot be received intellectually or by human wisdom.

With so many voices (and Bible teachers) out there who are saying so many different things ... our conversation this week is an exhortation not to jump to the wrong conclusion in assuming the Bible somehow replaced God's living Spirit who abides in us ... with an anointing that teaches us in a way that is only spiritually discerned.



   
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925. Christians Never Disagree About the Bible (Just Kidding) - A Holy Spirit Solution

We call it The Bible. A collection of writings that have resulted in millions of never-ending interpretations, opinions, doctrines and debates. There are thousands of Christian church denominations that have very, very different viewpoints on what should be considered foundational aspects of the faith. And yet, they all claim the Bible is their foundation for what they believe. Weird, right?

People begin to wonder what is true and what is not when it comes to understanding a Bible verse or passage ... or ideologies about the writings. They begin looking for someone or something to which they can subscribe and believe. Should the main focus be placed on proper interpretation of the Bible books ... or will this outcome just result in frustration and uncertainty?

The pages themselves tell us where to look and who we can trust. It doesn't come from an outside or external source that we can see, hear, and touch, but from within.



   
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867. This May Have Caused More Division Among Believers Than Anything Else

It’s easily skimmed over or swept under the rug, but it’s difficult to deny there are thousands of different church corporations and Christian denominations with very different dogmas and doctrines. This isn’t exactly breaking news, but let’s face this reality and talk this out. Think about it, millions of varied opinions from a perspective of theology, endless debates about (what should be) some of the most foundational issues from forgiveness to salvation. Who is right? Who is wrong? Why all the confusion? Which group should I associate with?

If believers in Jesus all have the same Spirit of God living within, how is it that perspectives and opinions can be so far apart in many cases? There is something that most of these religious branches—and individuals—have in common. They claim their conclusions come from a collection of books called the Bible. The Jews already had writings (scriptures) … and they pointed to Jesus. If we think the Bible is truly meant to be the final authority that ensures its every reader of being solidified in the truth, we may want to ask why Jesus said He would send His Spirit to lead, guide and reveal truth as He looked ahead to the New Covenant.



   
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866. Scriptures Inspired - But the Spirit Reveals Truth

Our focus here is to highlight the superior ministry of the Holy Spirit. But this also leads us to asking ourselves some challenging questions about the Bible, the Scriptures, and how they were chosen to be “canonized.” People who aren’t exactly household names debated and then would eventually make decisions to include the 27 books of what we know as the New Testament … but not with unanimous conviction. When Paul made mention to Timothy that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, what was he referring to and what did he mean by it?

To repeat what we’ve stated numerous times, we embrace the writings and we’re not attempting to “Bible bash” or suggest the writings are inferior or questionable when it comes to revealing the truth of Jesus. But we are encouraging believers to come to a further realization of the ministry of God’s living Spirit in us—and not to depend on a myriad of very different opinions and potential false assumptions from the written pages. Bible knowledge and theology isn’t king, Jesus is.



   
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865. The Written Letters and the Superior Ministry of God’s Living Spirit

Over the past 17 years on the Growing in Grace Podcast, we have embraced the writings of the Bible and various passages as it relates to the gospel of grace and the finished work of Jesus Christ. Part of our goal has been to talk through some things to help people escape a box of bondage containing traditional religious thinking that may have kept them from gaining a better understanding of the truth in regard to the fullness of what Jesus brought to the world … eternal life, eternal hope, securing eternal redemption, etc. We have attempted to provoke thought by encouraging others not to get trapped into spouting Bible verses by themselves without considering the context of the New Covenant and to avoid mixing it with the Old one. The writings which occurred after the resurrection by witnesses of the risen Jesus are filled with incredible testimonies and information to benefit us.

But there is something (Someone) far more superior to any writings—The Holy Spirit. Ultimately, it is He who reveals truth, while leading and guiding people from within. In the weeks ahead, our purpose will be to elevate Him and this all-important Person who abides with us at all times, as He bears witness of Jesus to the hearts of people everywhere. We will also be challenging many traditional assumptions about the Bible—a wonderful reference tool which is often elevated in the minds of well-meaning believers to a place that unfortunately surpasses the more glorious ministry of God’s life-giving Spirit.



   
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699. Our Life Is Not Found in the Bible

The Scriptures have been a centerpiece of our program over the past 14 years. But many “Christian” programs, churches, and ministries can make that claim. You’ve probably noticed there is a wide variety of opinions and interpretations as individual verses or passages can leave people in a place of bondage, hungering and thirsting for righteousness because the good news of the gospel is often missing. Much of this stems from mistakenly trying to apply the Old Covenant of law and mixing it with New Covenant grace. The written publication we know as “The Bible” hasn’t always existed. It went through many transformations with how it came to be published and continues to do so today. For centuries, most people never had easy access to these writings as many of us do today. How did they survive spiritually? It was by the life of Christ through God’s Spirit living in them. Of course we cherish the Scriptures and we know God is able to reveal actual truth to us by His Spirit when we are taught by Him. But those pages are not where life is attained or sustained… they point to the one and only source of Life - the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.



   
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690. Christian Catch Phrase Alert: Identifying Ourselves as Followers of Jesus

One of the things that we often focus on here at Growing in Grace is built around helping believers in Christ to understand the identity we now have in Him as a new creation. Sadly, people are seldom taught they are righteous, holy, complete, forgiven, perfected, saints, etc.

But a catch phrase that is often used to identify us as believers: We are “followers of Jesus.” Just exactly what is a follower of Jesus today? Get ready for a wide variety of different answers because it’s one of those talking points within Christianity which people don’t think too much about. Typically, we might think it has to do with following the teachings of Jesus. But as previous programs have revealed, Jesus often taught things related to the Old Covenant which targeted Jewish people who were under the law - impossible demands - now made obsolete since the cross.

Almost all references to those who were followers of Jesus are found in the four books of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)… people who literally and physically followed Jesus from one place to the next. But their following ceased at the cross as they were relocated to a New Covenant where they would be led by God’s Spirit. You’re not merely a follower, you are a child of God, living in union with Him.



   
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672. The Spirit of the Living God (Not the Spirit of the Law)

Legalists from the Christian religion who promote and teach a combination of the Old and New Covenant will use ambiguous language which is often misleading and leaves the hearers in the state of confusion. The double talk tries to convince people they need to do something in order to become more like God, become more righteous, more holy, more sanctified and the list goes on. It begins to take the spotlight off of the finished work of Jesus Christ and put the focus on us as we try to maintain forgiveness and fellowship with God by following some sort of “Judeo Christian” mixture based upon a sandy foundation of law and grace. As believers begin hearing “Moses” out of context, they become blinded to a greater knowledge of the truth, while missing out on many blessings God has already provided. One example is where they use the fabricated phrase “the spirit of the law” when the Scripture clearly defines the passage as the Spirit of the living God.



   

671. Theological Gibberish: “The Spirit of the Law”

When mixed covenant teaching attempts to suggest Christians should follow the Mosaic Law from the Old Covenant, a concept or phrase has been known to be used to build their case as they refer to “the spirit of the law.” They will complicate the simple gospel by convincing people of the differences between what they call the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. As is typically the case, people will be begin to believe the phrase actually appears in Scripture (it doesn’t). Bible “verses” get used out of context from various passages and the message of the good news becomes confusing as the waters get muddied with misleading theories which lack clarity, while leading people into a type of spiritual bondage. If you find yourself traveling on the road of lifeless religion, watch for the warning signs: “Dead End Ahead.”

EXTRAS: On this week's podcast we mentioned Kap's 'preaching' at Heartland Vineyard Church. Here is his 40 minute message on YouTube.


We also mentioned Ralph Harris and his new book "Life According to Perfect," as well as Joel's past interviews of Ralph. Check out the book here, as well as Part 1 and Part 2 of the interview.