Yes, I agree, for the Spirit was sent to convict the world, not those already born again, of sin, righteousness and the judgement to come. For before there was a holy bible, there was the Holy Spirit communicating with humans. Actually from personal experience Holy Spirit is still speaking, loud and clear in the absence of the bible.
I kind of like the above post, but what is with "Holy Spirit is still speaking, loud and clear in the absence of the bible."
The "absence of the bible??????
Do we not hear the Him speak to us concerning the Bible? And don't we hear from Him everyday, like when we sit down and pray the Lord's prayer with our Bible available in case He wants to talk about something in it - or even when we go to the store without our bible but with our shopping bag?
I read what other Christians write and often it does not really make sense to me. Jesus said He would never leave me and that He sends His Holy Spirit - who we know does not speak on His own initiative but rather takes the words of God which Jesus has and brings them to us, like a living telephone line. We know that because that is who we live our lives, and that matches up with what is written in the Bible.
So whether I have my Bible (bibles and other reference material) or not is irrelevant to whether I have the Holy Spirit and can talk to HIm at anytime!! So why would anyone write "in the absence of the bible", as if that was relevant to being able to hear from the Lord either with or without the bible.
The Bible is not a substitute for the Holy Spirit - as if I am ok if I have either the Bible or the Holy Spirit - but rather the Holy Spirit of the Lord indwells us so as to bring us the words of God for us - like the instructions God has for us personally, the teachings God has for us personally, the encouragement God has for us personally, the wisdom God has for us personally, and those wonderful words I personally hear from Him "Karl, I love you".
Maybe I am making a mountain out of a mole hill - or perhaps people tend to make a mole hill (the Bible as a percent of what the Lord has to say to us personally) into a mountain (even the mountain of God) ????
Consider: I heard from the Lord about a dozen different times during the day, which I admit is not enough, but somedays He does not have me even reference the Bible. And even then it is not for much time. Today He had me in Isaiah 27 -28 just talking to me briefly about current events and how those without discernment of spirit will be those done away with!
Is 27:11 When its limbs are dry, they are broken off;
Women come and make a fire with them,
For they are not a people of discernment,
Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them.
And their Creator will not be gracious to them.
I mean if we don't truly understand that the Holy Spirit is always with us in this world where we also battle with the dark forces of this world, and the corresponding principle of fact that sin is also always present in us - then how good is our good is our discernment of spirit?
The Bible is not a spirit, either the Holy Spirit, or the heaven spirits with comprise the army of God which there are more with us than against us, nor those powers principalities and dark forces of this world.
So do we not know that the Bible is like a text book that the Lord uses like a Teacher? The Bible then is not a substitute for the teacher. but more like a homework assignment that is given to us to read and even that as instructed by the Teacher Today!
We read that if all that the Lord had done (even in those few short years with His disciples) perhaps the whole world would not contain it. So the Bible is not even a big mole hill, but some people have even thought so much of it as to think knowing it as opposed to actually knowing Jesus Christ was going to save them!
Jn 5:39,40 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;
and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.
Now that is a huge, massive, misunderstanding; to think that the Bible is a replacement at any time for actually hearing what the Holy Spirit has to say to our spirit! And note: the Holy Spirit, as a spirit even the Spirit, does not use sound waves for you physical ears but rather He speaks to your spirit, though perhaps a person doesn't always understand what came to their spirit and what came to their physical ears?
Jesus told the Jews:
Jn 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
So a brief quiz based on the accuracy of the above verse:
Do the people with Moses at the mountain of God when God spoke hear sound waves or the Spirit speaking to their spirit?
Remember that Jesus Christ is and was the Word of God then, and His words are from the Holy Spirit and are spirit!
So, the Israelites with Moses then hear words spoken by the Holy Spirit to their spirit, and those words came across as thunder to them, but words to Moses!
So when Jesus spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus, and those with him heard something, was what they heard sound waves or the Holy Spirit speaking to their spirits?
Again His word are spirit!!!! As is "the words that I have spoken to you are spirit".
This explain why when Jesus spoke audible words, in sound waves, to the Jews when He was in the flesh He was still right by saying:
Jn 5:38 “You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.
and
Jn 5:25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
And yet still they would die in their sins because they did not have His words from His Holy Spirit in them, but were instead thinking their study of the Bible was going to save them!
We are not doing that, right?
We are not making that "mole hill" (The Bible) amount of written words God had others write as if we were standing on and going up to the mountain of God to hear Him, are we?
Reading your Bible is not taking the class! He once told me:
WHAT TEACHER DOESN’T PUT A BOOK IN FRONT OF HIS STUDENTS TODAY; YET NOT JUST A BOOK BUT OVERHEAD TRANSPARENCIES, VISUALS, AND OTHER MATERIAL? FOR I TELL YOU TRULY, IF THEY ARE NOT LISTENING TO ME THEY ARE NOT MY PUPIL, THEY ARE NOT MY STUDENT; I TELL YOU TRULY, THEY ARE NOT MY DISCIPLE UNLESS THEY ARE HEARING FROM ME. SO DON’T TELL THEM TO READ THE BOOK, THEM TO TAKE THE CLASS!”
Yeah - you should have the textbook for the class, and I feel certain the Teacher will tell you to read it (indeed the first words I heard form Him were "Read Your Bible") but it is not Him or the Bible - it is Him!!!! You don't get to heaven and the Kingdom of God unless you believe in Him and faith comes from hearing Him speak to you personally!! So why keep making a mountain out of the mole hill?? The mole hill is a good place to start up the mountain but if indeed you are on the mountain of God you are hearing from God, personally!!