Faith, Perseverance, and Understanding in Adversity
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I love the whole premise of your question, and here's the whole premise, here's the whole thinking that goes behind your question. It basically says, "Says who?" You hear things that pastors say, you hear things that preachers or Bible teachers say, and listen, we want to be as that pattern is in the book of Acts. [00:05:21]
I think it's wonderful to ask those questions. Hey, pastors say, I've heard preachers say that when Jesus returns, the armies that come with him are going to be the armies of the Saints, of God's people. Says who? Because many times when I look in the Bible, it certainly seems that most of the time when it talks about armies associated with God, we're talking about Angelic armies. [00:06:02]
Philip, here's kind of the idea is that how practically does someone receive the gift of tongues? I don't think that we should expect that God would force you to speak in another language as if a person were possessed by his spirit and it's like, well, I didn't know what to do, and I just started and I had no control over it. [00:12:14]
The spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets. In other words, that God works with the gifts of the Holy Spirit not in a way that overwhelms or possesses us, so to speak, but works within our will, within our volition. And I would say that there's no one single way that a person receives or experiences the bestowal of this gift of the gift of tongues. [00:12:42]
If people want to debate the point all day long whether or not somebody who is a child of God can lose that status and no longer be a child of God and then I'm going to hell, that's a theological and biblical discussion we can have. But this is what we know. This is just kind of beyond dispute. [00:16:22]
The New Testament gives many, many warnings that people must continue in the faith, that they must persevere in the faith, that they must make it to the end. And if people don't do that, they are in grave danger. So really, I prefer to approach the whole situation from that aspect. [00:18:00]
I think that it's possible for us to waste a lot of time worrying about whether or not a specific circumstance, a specific adversity, a specific trial, worrying about whether or not that actually comes from God or whether it comes from Satan. Because look, no matter where it came from, Satan wants to use it for his advantage, and God wants to use it for his glory. [00:21:23]
No matter what, no matter how it came to us, God wants to use it for his glory, and Satan wants to use it for his evil purpose. So just determine to the best of your ability, God helping me, this trial, this difficulty, these adverse circumstances are going to be used to the glory of God and not to the benefit of Satan and his kingdom. [00:21:58]
What I really try to stress with people when we're talking about the filling of the Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, whatever you want to call it, what I try to stress with people is that we should have an ongoing relationship with the Holy Spirit. It isn't just, hey, when I was born again, I received the spirit, which is true. [00:23:29]
The pattern we have from the book of Ephesians is simply to say that we should be constantly being filled with the Holy Spirit. And I really think that that's the attitude that we should have. So that's the best way that I can answer that question for you there, Sandy, from our TWR audience. [00:25:00]
We believe what the Bible says in Second Timothy chapter 3, that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. So it's very helpful for us to simply read the scriptures, to try to understand the scriptures, including the Old Testament. As a matter of fact, if you think about it, the Bible that the Apostle Paul, that Jesus himself, that the disciples, the Apostle, the Bible that they had was the Old Testament. [00:38:15]
The principles that Paul spoke of, these principles of the kind of character that a man should have in leadership, these are things that are important as, number one, a grid by which to evaluate potential elders, pastors, overseers in the church. But not only that, it should be also sort of an aspirationalist. It's things that God is defining. This is what Godly character looks like. [00:52:39]
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I think it's wonderful to ask those questions. Hey, pastors say, I've heard preachers say that when Jesus returns, the armies that come with him are going to be the armies of the Saints, of God's people. Says who? Because many times when I look in the Bible, it certainly seems that most of the time when it talks about armies associated with God, we're talking about Angelic armies. [00:06:02]
Philip, here's kind of the idea is that how practically does someone receive the gift of tongues? I don't think that we should expect that God would force you to speak in another language as if a person were possessed by his spirit and it's like, well, I didn't know what to do, and I just started and I had no control over it. [00:12:14]
The spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets. In other words, that God works with the gifts of the Holy Spirit not in a way that overwhelms or possesses us, so to speak, but works within our will, within our volition. And I would say that there's no one single way that a person receives or experiences the bestowal of this gift of the gift of tongues. [00:12:42]
If people want to debate the point all day long whether or not somebody who is a child of God can lose that status and no longer be a child of God and then I'm going to hell, that's a theological and biblical discussion we can have. But this is what we know. This is just kind of beyond dispute. [00:16:22]
The New Testament gives many, many warnings that people must continue in the faith, that they must persevere in the faith, that they must make it to the end. And if people don't do that, they are in grave danger. So really, I prefer to approach the whole situation from that aspect. [00:18:00]
I think that it's possible for us to waste a lot of time worrying about whether or not a specific circumstance, a specific adversity, a specific trial, worrying about whether or not that actually comes from God or whether it comes from Satan. Because look, no matter where it came from, Satan wants to use it for his advantage, and God wants to use it for his glory. [00:21:23]
No matter what, no matter how it came to us, God wants to use it for his glory, and Satan wants to use it for his evil purpose. So just determine to the best of your ability, God helping me, this trial, this difficulty, these adverse circumstances are going to be used to the glory of God and not to the benefit of Satan and his kingdom. [00:21:58]
What I really try to stress with people when we're talking about the filling of the Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, whatever you want to call it, what I try to stress with people is that we should have an ongoing relationship with the Holy Spirit. It isn't just, hey, when I was born again, I received the spirit, which is true. [00:23:29]
The pattern we have from the book of Ephesians is simply to say that we should be constantly being filled with the Holy Spirit. And I really think that that's the attitude that we should have. So that's the best way that I can answer that question for you there, Sandy, from our TWR audience. [00:25:00]
We believe what the Bible says in Second Timothy chapter 3, that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. So it's very helpful for us to simply read the scriptures, to try to understand the scriptures, including the Old Testament. As a matter of fact, if you think about it, the Bible that the Apostle Paul, that Jesus himself, that the disciples, the Apostle, the Bible that they had was the Old Testament. [00:38:15]
The principles that Paul spoke of, these principles of the kind of character that a man should have in leadership, these are things that are important as, number one, a grid by which to evaluate potential elders, pastors, overseers in the church. But not only that, it should be also sort of an aspirationalist. It's things that God is defining. This is what Godly character looks like. [00:52:39]
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