Me2,
Yelsew,
"man cannot bring into reality anything spiritual based on his own intellect or rational."
as in reading the bible and thinking that we can receive revelation of God while we read the bible.
God doesnt works that way. He teaches us. He speaks to our spirit. He proves the wisdom of what the communication is about. from the unseen evidence to the seen evidence.
Me2, Again you are quite simply WRONG about this. Why do you think we have books by the millions? It is because man has the inherent ability "to learn by reading".
What is learning if not "seeing" the ideas, concepts, "promises", etc. that someone else has put into words, published in the form of books, so that those ideas, concepts, promises, etc. can be communicated to a "wider audience"? Why do you read books if not to learn? Why do you read the bible if not to learn of God?
If one merely reads the bible without applying the things learned from it, one is spinning their wheels. However, if one applies the principles "learned" from the printed bible, then the spiritual truth of the principle learned and being applied, is revealed unto the reader. The more of the bible one reads and applies to his own life, the greater the revealed truth of God becomes. The more one applies the teachings of the Christ to one's own life the more Christlike one becomes. That is a simple principle that far too many Christians ignore.
The power of God is revealed to man through the scriptures. If you do not know that then I suspect the reason you carry a bible is so you can "thump them infidels over the head with it".
it is true if we have the Holy spirit assisting us as we read the bible that he can interpet what the enigmatic statement spoken of into something we can relate to.
yet we have to have been taught first. been shown evidence that what was taught is a reality and then while reading the bible we can see others who have had parallel experiences or parallel understandings of truths of God. it will not be a new revelation. but perhaps a different way of viewing the same truth from the evidence shown them in their lives.
It is true that the Holy Spirit assists us in our understanding of the bible. However, if we do not take the initiative to open the bible for our own edification, the Holy Spirit will not open it for us, nor reveal any truth from it to us. The unbeliever can read the bible and thereby get essential principles from it. The unbeliever can discover from the bible that "all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God", thus establishing in the mind of the reader, a need to be saved from sin. The unbeliever can read the discourse between Jesus and Nicodemus and realize that by believing in Jesus man can have everlasting life, thus establishing in the unbeliever the methodology by which man can be saved. It follows that all the principles of Christianity can be "discovered" by the unbeliever simply by reading the bible. It is when man has the basics in his mind that the Holy Spirit sheds Holy Light on those principles for the reader, and reveals to man his true condition, and brings to the man the need to cry out
ABBA FATHER Save me!
man can only allow God to communicate to our spirit and bringing into reality the evidence unseen to transform "hope" of truth into reality.
Again, you are wrong. You are right in that man allows God to communicate to our spirit, but you are wrong about transformation. That which is hoped for, remains hoped for until it is reality. Eternal life hoped for "is reality" in man so long as man has faith, "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen". It is man's faith that causes him to pass from death, "the first death" into life. Those who do not have faith when passing through the first death face "the second death" which is being judged and cast into the lake of fire. If man, for whatever reason allows his faith to die before his natural life dies, he will be judged and will experience the second death. Scripture says so! That is why the substance of things hoped for must not be allowed by the man to die.
we are not taught of men. we are taught first of God. his spirit speaks to our spirit. then he will prove what was communicated into a reality with the addition of seen evidence.
Bring up a child in the way he should go, and he will not soon depart from it. Is that not being taught of men? Me2, the process of coming to faith and remaining in faith is a life long adventure. One in which men teach other men about God. When that teaching results in one believing there is a God, and asks God to come into his life, then God works on the new believer and bringing him to the salvation sanctification of perfect faith in God. Faith sanctifies men! Those with it are sanctified into eternal life, those without it are cast away into the lake of fire.
faith or hope of evidence unseen, becoming seen.
youve posted that faith comes by hearing and hearing the "word" of God.
the holy spirit is teaching us the "knowledge of Good and evil"
..that is the "word". the Holy spirit speaks to our spirit. it is our spirit "that hears". and we through any physical manifestation can not detect or comprehend this "communication".
The Holy Spirit works on
the willing mind of man, regenerating it by bringing forth the truth of God within the life of man.
Those who are unwilling do not receive the Holy Spirit, and therefore do not respond to the Holy Spirit, thus remaining unregenerate. Belief, which is regeneration unto willingness, must take place before the Holy Spirit "teaches us anything".
