Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

One of my favorite childhood activities has always been putting jigsaw puzzles together with my Mother. She would bring home a 300-500 piece puzzle, and I could not wait to start putting it together. The first thing I would do after opening the box was to pick up a lot of pieces and let them fall back in the box while thinking, "one day soon, this puzzle will all come together and look exactly the like the picture." I noticed that some of the pieces could bring together bigger sections of the puzzle. I remember saying to my Mother, "We need to find a piece that has some of this object on it, this other object, and this object on it." Of course, we totally relied on the picture on the box to guide us to know where each piece was to be placed. My favorite part was finding all the edge pieces right away and putting them together. The joy of snapping the last piece in place was so exciting, then running my hands over the whole completed puzzle for about two minutes.

Well, The HOLY SPIRIT has just recently shared that the bible is like an 80,000 piece puzzle which The HOLY SPIRIT will teach anyone who seeks to learn how to put it together one piece at a time. There is supposed to be about 80,000 words in the bible. I love that GOD made His Word so challenging. One of the best moments is when The HOLY SPIRIT places the deep meaning of a scripture, chapter or even a whole book of the bible that I have always struggled with deep within my spirit.

I remember when I was attending bible classes many years ago. It seemed there was so much that the teacher and just a few people who seemed to be intermediate in their biblical knowledge already knew and were discussing. It was like they were talking in a foreign language. I knew my frustration was because of my lack of biblical knowledge.

The limited teachings of man does not even compare with the excitement of getting in The Word with just The HOLY SPIRIT present and leading. Other than when JESUS was physically on the earth and teaching, His teaching style is above and beyond any study that any human will ever do. The HOLY SPIRIT is going to take His time, gently guiding a person to certain scriptures a little at a time, laying a solid foundation of truth (John 16:13) and knowledge. The HOLY SPIRIT knows exactly where each person is in the Word, and what can be understood at each moment. He is going to patiently guide His student to another piece of the spiritual puzzle when He knows the person is ready to move forward. (John 14:26)

When a person starts to study the Word late in life, there is no condemnation from The HOLY SPIRIT. A person will not hear Him say, "Well, if you had started to study 20 years ago, you would be a lot further now, but here we are. Let's begin, latecomer!" No! He is not like that at all. He is ready to teach at any time in our lives. Expecting help from The HOLY SPIRIT while studying is actually an act of faith.

Learning from The HOLY SPIRIT is really exciting because now He has taught me to ask Him where I should begin each time. He will give me a hint about the direction He wants to take me by dropping a word, scripture or a person from the bible in my mind while I am doing a chore.

He could have me studying a whole chapter of a book, a verse or just one word. At first, when He would lead me this way, it was a little confusing because I did not know where He was taking me, but now I get so excited because I know that He is laying a foundational teaching that I had missed. Some teaching that He knew I needed to understand in order to continue.

Another great moment of guidance from Him is when He teaches me about scriptures that I thought were in conflict with other scriptures. He goes back to those scriptures and shows me exactly what and where the missing piece of the puzzle was. He will lead me to a scripture or scriptures somewhere else that will help bring it all together. He beautifully transitions back and forth between the Old Testament and the New Testament constantly showing me how each part of The Word is tightly woven together.

Speaking of the Old and New Testament, one of the important things that He has taught me is that everything in the Word of GOD points to Our SAVIOR, JESUS. The Old Testament says, "HE'S COMING!" The New Testament says, "HE'S HERE!!" This has really helped me in my studies, especially when it comes to the Old Testament. I am continually asking, "How does this person or situation point to JESUS?"

I am not disparaging man's teaching in any way. I have benefited greatly from man's teaching. I still do. LORD willing, I will share regarding man's teaching in a separate posting. I just wanted to share this topic with those that are moving forward in GOD'S Word. To let them all know that they can and should expect to hear from The HOLY SPIRIT. He is an amazing teacher!

JESUS introduces The HOLY SPIRIT in John 14:16,17, "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."

John 14: 26, "But the Helper, The HOLY SPIRIT, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."

John 16:13, "However, when He the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come."

JESUS then shares that His primary functions are to teach and guide to all truth in John 14:26 and John 16:13. Man can teach us some truth, but JESUS said The HOLY SPIRIT will 'teach all things,'
and 'guide into all truth.' The HOLY SPIRIT is to be a Christian's primary teacher. If I had followed The HOLY SPIRIT instead of the campbellites teaching, I would have never fallen for their lies.

My belief is that the campbellites are 90% Pharisee and 10% Sadducee. Like the Pharisees (Matthew 15:2, Mark 7:3-5), they strongly believe in and strictly follow their traditions, and like the Sadducees, they also deny anything they cannot actually see. "For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit:.." Acts 23:8

Back when JESUS physically walked on the earth, the Pharisees and the Sadducees were eliminated from being admitted into His kingdom because of their false beliefs.

JESUS kingdom is a spiritual, supernatural Kingdom. His Kingdom came with POWER on the day of Pentecost because The HOLY SPIRIT was in the midst! The HOLY SPIRIT is the engine/high powered battery of JESUS' Kingdom. Now it makes so much sense that John the Baptist said that JESUS is the Baptizer of The HOLY SPIRIT because JESUS can look within each person's heart and know for sure if each person really believes in The HOLY SPIRIT, and in His power. Mark 1:8, "I indeed have baptized you with water; but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost."

I love when The HOLY SPIRIT allows the supernatural to happen in my life. A few years ago, it was time to purchase my monthly bus pass. I brought the money to pay for my card to be loaded at the transit store. It is not a credit card, it is a card one can only use for public transit. As I am standing in line, I get out one of the transit cards that I had to have it loaded with the money I brought. The HOLY SPIRIT tells me to not use that one, but to use the other one instead. I followed His instructions. I get up to the window and handed the clerk the card, and I was getting ready to give her the money. She scanned it and told me that it was already fully loaded with the exact amount required. I was in shock. So was the clerk. I am not sure exactly what she could see on her screen, but it must have been something she had not seen before. No one had access to any of my transit cards. I had used that card before, but the days had expired. The HOLY SPIRIT had access to all of my cards, and apparently He was showing me what He could do. That card was supernaturally loaded once a month, for six months! Praise GOD!

seekingthetruth wrote:JESUS introduces The HOLY SPIRIT in John 14:16,17, "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."

John 14: 26, "But the Helper, The HOLY SPIRIT, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."

John 16:13, "However, when He the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come."

JESUS then shares that His primary functions are to teach and guide to all truth in John 14:26 and John 16:13. Man can teach us some truth, but JESUS said The HOLY SPIRIT will 'teach all things,'
and 'guide into all truth.' The HOLY SPIRIT is to be a Christian's primary teacher. If I had followed The HOLY SPIRIT instead of the campbellites teaching, I would have never fallen for their lies.

My belief is that the campbellites are 90% Pharisee and 10% Sadducee. Like the Pharisees (Matthew 15:2, Mark 7:3-5), they strongly believe in and strictly follow their traditions, and like the Sadducees, they also deny anything they cannot actually see. "For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit:.." Acts 23:8

Back when JESUS physically walked on the earth, the Pharisees and the Sadducees were eliminated from being admitted into His kingdom because of their false beliefs.

JESUS kingdom is a spiritual, supernatural Kingdom. His Kingdom came with POWER on the day of Pentecost because The HOLY SPIRIT was in the midst! The HOLY SPIRIT is the engine/high powered battery of JESUS' Kingdom. Now it makes so much sense that John the Baptist said that JESUS is the Baptizer of The HOLY SPIRIT because JESUS can look within each person's heart and know for sure if each person really believes in The HOLY SPIRIT, and in His power. Mark 1:8, "I indeed have baptized you with water; but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost."

I love when The HOLY SPIRIT allows the supernatural to happen in my life. A few years ago, it was time to purchase my monthly bus pass. I brought the money to pay for my card to be loaded at the transit store. It is not a credit card, it is a card one can only use for public transit. As I am standing in line, I get out one of the transit cards that I had to have it loaded with the money I brought. The HOLY SPIRIT tells me to not use that one, but to use the other one instead. I followed His instructions. I get up to the window and handed the clerk the card, and I was getting ready to give her the money. She scanned it and told me that it was already fully loaded with the exact amount required. I was in shock. So was the clerk. I am not sure exactly what she could see on her screen, but it must have been something she had not seen before. No one had access to any of my transit cards. I had used that card before, but the days had expired. The HOLY SPIRIT had access to all of my cards, and apparently He was showing me what He could do. That card was supernaturally loaded once a month, for six months! Praise GOD!

Good post. I am being taught by the Spirit using humans. I am very diconnected from the Old Testament because the CoC did not get the connection to Jesus. They did not get the interaction of Jesus with Pharasees. The Pharasees had rules that were not in the Torah. The CoC has rules that were not in the Bible. There is no condemnation of instrumental music. There is no condemnation of Denominations. This shows how later Church history affects the CoC. Of course they don't look at that. The Bible the CoC was put together by the combined church. So how the CoC thinks they were there at the day of Pentecost when it was exactly opposite to what they believe. My church pounded Acts 2:38 without reading the whole chapter. The people were speaking in tongues because they were saved before baptism. God obviously does not operate by CoC rules. The Pharisees wanted to kill Jesus because he did not play by their rules. They were tying to trap him by lying in wait for him to trip up. Is it OK to heal on the Sabbath? You were not supposed to work on the Sabbath. Some modern Jews will not even throw a light switch to on. That is work! Did they know that Pentecost is a Jewish feast day. It is 50 days after First Fruits which is the offering of Aviv barley in the the temple. The Jewish calendar is set on the new moon with ripe barley. Otherwise you have a leap month. It is done by Rabbinical calculations because Jews are all over the world and there is no Temple. There are 12 lunar months. Obviously this does not align with celestial Time. Each month is 29 or 30 days. The start of every month was when the New Moon was sighted in Jerusalem. By using ripe barley this aligned the calendar with celestial time. We align our calendar with leap days every four years. There is a mixture of old and new rules.

ena, I was disconnected from the Old Testament too, just as you said you were. I was so confused about all of the Old Testament. To me, JESUS was someone not in the Old Testament at all, but just somehow showed up in the New Testament. When I was a campbellite, I remember thinking, "how does JESUS fit in?"

Without The HOLY SPIRIT teaching us about the Old Testament, there is no real understanding of the New Testament. The key to learning all of GOD'S spiritual truths is locked up in the Old Testament. A great quote I have read regarding this is: "The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed, the Old Testament is in the new revealed." Also, remembering that everything in the Old Testament is pointing to JESUS. "The Old Testament is CHRIST concealed, the New Testament is CHRIST revealed."

"And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." (Luke 24:27)

"Then He said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me." (Luke 24:44)

When JESUS physically walked on His earth, He was constantly asking those who had rejected Him and were trying "to catch Him in His words, "Have you not read...?" Those groups (listed below) opposing Him thought they were more knowlegeable about scripture than JESUS. They refused to accept that JESUS is The WORD, so He would always have the final Word to all their evil arguments. JESUS would point out that their condemnation errors were due to not knowing an important historical part of the scriptures that they had brought up. The biggest part those evil groups missed was not knowing that all the scriptures they had brought up were directly or indirectly pointing to JESUS

Matthew 12:3, 5-Pharisees
Matthew 19:4-Pharisees
Matthew 21:16-chief priests, scribes
Matthew 21:42-chief priest, elders
Matthew 22:31-Sadducees

ena, The HOLY SPIRIT shared a scripture that syncs beautifully with what you shared about not knowing The Old Testament.
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thouroughly furnished for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16, 17

As I have written before, The HOLY SPIRIT will put all the puzzle pieces together.

The Old Testament is really important because of all the biblical history it reveals:

-- all about GOD'S character, His deep love for those He created, and how He longs to show each person the right path

--how GOD created and then established the rules regarding what He had just created. How GOD controls the spiritual realm, how He created and then established the spiritual laws, how He controls the physical world we live in, and how powerfully connected both of these realms are

--how GOD established His spiritual laws, and the reason He gave for following every one of those laws

--the curtain to the spiritual realm has been pulled back allowing those that want to know what happens there to understand the spiritual implications of this earthly life, and how this spiritual view impacts every human being that walks on GOD'S earth

--JESUS was there since the very beginning, and how everything in the Old Testament points to Him

--the people of King JESUS' lineage

--The HOLY SPIRIT was there since the very beginning as well, and what His powerful function is

--satan's history and role in the spiritual realm, why GOD allows him to do what he does, and how that will affect everyone on GOD'S earth

--how sin entered the world, what GOD thinks about it, how He addresses it, and how that impacts man

--what happens when a person actually met GOD, and what GOD expected of each person regarding obedience and walking in faith

This list above is some of the spiritual truths The HOLY SPIRIT so patiently taught me since I left the campbellites. Once The HOLY SPIRIT taught me these important spiritual truths, I had a much deeper understanding of the Old and New Testament.

Just as JESUS was always correcting those that opposed Him regarding their lack of understanding of scripture, He wants everyone that truly follows Him to understand the deep connections between the Old Testament and the New Testament.