Jesus is the truth (John 14:6). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth who will guide us into all truth (John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13). The Bible is the book of truth: the Spirit-inspired scriptures God has given as wholly reliable revelation of who He is, who we are, and how we are to live (Psalm 119; 2 Timothy 3:16–17).
Since all scripture is God-inspired, we have no right to delete or disregard the portions we do not like, do not understand, or have never experienced (2 Timothy 3:16; Matthew 13:53–58; Revelation 22:18–19). And since the traditions and doctrines of man are not scripture, we have no right to treat them as though they are (Matthew 15:1–9; Mark 7:1–13; Colossians 2:8). The perspective used in this book is that all scripture is God-inspired, and we must understand every scripture in the context of all other scripture.
There is no new truth. However, it can be extremely helpful at times to reframe how we express truth so we can hear truth in a fresh way and more fully receive it.
Several years ago, I envisioned a motto phrase suitable for a bumper sticker: “Be with Jesus, be like Jesus, be for Jesus.” It was a short, catchy way to summarize the three interrelated aspects of the Christian life—an intimate daily relationship with Jesus, a process of sanctification by which one becomes more like Jesus, and a daily commitment to serve Jesus. The more we are with Jesus, the more like Him we become. The more like Him we become, the more effectively we serve Him. The more effectively we serve Him, the closer we are to Him.
The phrase led to a newspaper column, which led to a book, which led to multiday conferences in my region based on the book. Then, given the opportunity for single-service speaking engagements where I could not adequately teach the full contents of the book, the Lord led me to reframe its core truths through a new phrase: “God lives in you! What are you going to do about it?”
Every biblically grounded Christian knows you receive the Holy Spirit when you embrace Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior (John 3:5–6; Acts 2:38–39). Amidst the debates on what that means today in terms of supernatural power and spiritual gifts, we have tragically failed to answer the more important question: Who is the Holy Spirit we have received?
The Holy Spirit is God!
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