God Speaking
Dearly beloved of God, what is your reference for learning? We all must have a reference outside of ourselves from which we learn regardless of our field of study.
When it comes to spiritual matters, the Word of God is our only rule for faith and practice. The Word of God is God speaking, and it reveals the Will of God to us.
If we replace God’s Word, which is revelation from God to man with any other source for learning our spiritual understanding will be erroneous. We cannot replace the Word of God with other sources such as philosophy, tradition, and denominational creeds and doctrines if we want to understand spiritual matters.
The Word of God interprets itself; it does not need a commentator to give us spiritual understanding. It interprets itself in the verse, the context, or where the identical subject appears previously in the Scriptures.
Truth cannot contradict itself. Every verse concerning the identical subject must agree if we are to have the truth.
All scripture is God-breathed, and it is profitable for doctrine, which is the revelation God gives us to believe; for reproof when we do not believe correctly, and correction, which is teaching that gets us back to right believing so that the man of God may be equipped, throughly equipped unto all good works.
The Word of God is our only rule for faith and practice. We cannot replace what came out of the mouth of God with what comes out of the mind of a certain interpreter if we are to understand spiritual matters. He/she is not our reference for truth concerning spiritual matters; God’s Word is.
Truth is not determined by what seems reasonable to the commentator; it is determined by what came out of the mouth of God.
The Word of God means what it says. Read Romans 10:9; it means what it says. Read Romans 8:32; it means what it says. Read I Thessalonians 4:15-18; it means what it says, and it says what it means.
If we want enlightened understanding about spiritual matters we will have to take God at His Word, dearly beloved. He determined every spiritual reality, and He is the only One capable of revealing that truth to us, and He does so by His Word.
When it comes to spiritual matters we must allow God to speak for Himself if we are to gain spiritual understanding. God is not a man that He should lie. His Word is true and faithful, and every Word that He has spoken shall be fulfilled, from the new birth to our hope of glory and eternal life.
Remember that when you open the Word of God you are standing in the presence of God; He is the One speaking.