“It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63, KJ2000).
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A Wilderness Voice 
Susanne, I was blessed and admonished by your article and by your telling about your long talk with that Christian woman on the phone. The part that got to me was when you wrote,
“Brothers and sisters, without sharing secrets here, I can tell you whenever we refrain from trying to dominate a talk by telling others what we think they should know, about God or else, and instead pray silently by waiting on God to give us the cue to speak up, we can be sure that God will always show up in our conversations. Promise!”
Oh boy! How often I have presumed to speak without waiting on God for the “what and when” He would speak through me. Thank you for sharing this.
Words and how we used them are very important. Jesus said,
“It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63, KJ2000).
It only stands to reason that if Christ’s words give us life, then the words of our enemy sow seeds of death into our hearts and that is nature of his temptations that appeal to our flesh.
As for the scriptures being able to keep us out of trouble and from falling to false teachers and cults, I once had a Bible teacher who knew the scriptures better than any of us younger Christians that were under his influence and he had a quick mind and lots of personal charisma. It seemed to us that he could even read our minds and head-off any argument to correct him before it was even spoken out. This was very intimidating to say the least. As a result we were never taught how we needed the Holy Spirit and that HE would lead us into all truth. Even if the Spirit spoke a scripture to us that countered his false teaching, he would intimidate us with his strong soul.
I can’t help but believe that this is what the believers were subjected to that John was writing to in 1 John chapter 2 where he said that there are already many anti-christs and how important it was to rely on the unction which they had been given. A Spirit led teacher encourages believers to listen to the voice of God within them. YES, we need to have a good understanding of the Bible, but we also need to be given spiritual understanding by the Spirit of Truth as to what God is really saying to us in its passages. It is not “either or” as some false teachers insist, but both. Jesus made this clear when He spoke to the teachers of the law saying,
Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me, that you might have life. (John 5:39-40, KJ2000)
One more thing, if we rely on Bible teachers alone without spending time reading it on our own in prayer, we can be subjected to their spin in how the scriptures are presented just as we see when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness. Few people today teach from the scriptures without their own personal agenda tainting what is taught. It was AFTER being filled with the Spirit and forty days of prayer and fasting that the enemy came at Him to test him. He was ready to ward-off this assault as a result. He also spent time alone with the Father in the wilderness many times after that.
You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you: because he trusts in you. (Isa 26:3, KJ2000)
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Thank you very much for the reblog, my dear brother! 🙂 I was just wondering why the picture on my blog was not here on AWV also… praying for a solution.
You are absolutely right that a Spirit-led teacher will always point others to Christ, never to himself and his (biblical) knowledge. It is only carnal man who does such things so that he gains approval of man when they listen to his sermons, podcasts, YouTube videos, and when they read his books etc. Love of money is the root of evil, isn’t it…
As for this woman with whom I talked, I listened to her heart for a pretty long time and it was so saddening for me to see how she has been led astray by preachers, even in her own family. These guys have much greater knowledge of the Bible than she has ever had since she has difficulties to memorize anything. Although she has been looking for Jesus and He sometimes spoke to her, too, whenever she gets into contact with these preachers again, she feels condemned (once a week at least, so to say). Jesus promised her (privately) to care for her, but they tend to throw Bible verses into her face that contradict God’s promises. And she cannot help but either believe them or reject it without being able to quote Scripture against their false quotations (from not Spirit-led ppl, that is), just as Jesus did with Satan in the wilderness. Bible knowledge IS necessary, though it should not be our source of life. As in the Scripture you quoted, my brother, it is Christ’s Spirit that gives life to everything He wants to come alive.
Not much time right now… another appointment with the oral surgeon and then some… 😛
Thanks again for the encouragement of reblogging my article, Michael!!! 🙂
Your friend and sister in Him – forever,
Susanne 🐱
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Thank God, picture problem fixed! 😉
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Susanne, I remember when Jesus was first calling me to listen to His voice and follow HIM and not the voice of strangers behind the pulpit (John 10:5). The more I would listen to them, the more depressed I got. Finally, He started speaking to me while the sermon was going on and I would follow Him off on an altogether different track that really spoke to my heart from what they were teaching which had no life in it. Finally, one Sunday He said to me, “Why do you keep seeking the Living among the dead?” Well, that was the beginning of my exodus from the church systems of men.
His call is an individual thing. I KNOW that He can lead us to where the good pastures are where He speaks to our hearts, but for a long time I just kept changing churches hoping that the next one would be better, yet I did not hear His voice in the preaching of any of these men. I finally got the picture that “the LORD is my shepherd” not a man. Paul wrote,
“But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (1Cor 13:10-11, KJ2000)
As we mature and start to follow HIS voice He leads us to green pastures and makes us to lie down by His River of Life and often this path to get there is filled with obstacles as we learn to listen to and obey His voice. I pray that this sister you spoke of finally gets a breakthrough and finds the comfort that is only in snuggling up to our ONE True Shepherd. May the Lord continue to give you His words for her heart when she calls. Thanks for the fix on that reblog. 🙂
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You are very welcome as to the fix of the pic on AWV, Michael. Thank you for praying for this woman as well. Much appreciated! Thank you also for sharing your own and confirming religious history!
Indeed, His call is an individual thing and it is only Him who calls whomever He wills, whenever He wills. Our job is to simply wait on and to listen to Him since we cannot ‘save’ anyone, as much as we might want to do it at times.
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It is a great point to warn others that we must study the scriptures and have a personal relationship with Jesus.. So many are destroyed by lack of knowledge.. Thank you for sharing 🙂
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You are welcome, Mary Ann.
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Thanks for the article,the Lord just used it to slap my jaws, which i needed,Ijust got off the phone and read this . i did way to much talking and not much listening, i know better but it’s a bad habit i have, calling back now to repent. Thanks again ~wayne
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You’re welcome, Wayne.
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