How the Holy Spirit Teaches

0:00John 14:26: the Bible is not exhaustive

Thank you. Hallelujah. Well, you can join me in your Bibles in John chapter 14. John chapter 14 today. We’re continuing. We’re in part three of a series that we’ve been in called Rooted in the Bible. We are rooted in the Bible. This is one of the values of our church, if you haven’t figured it out. I’m trying to really lay some foundation and framework for us so we can step into everything that God has for us. And so this morning I want to continue in that series to the second level of hearing from the Lord. Now, I’ve mentioned this is a six-week series, but I’m talking through four levels of hearing from the Lord. Last week we talked about the first, which is through the power of preaching. The power of preaching. Today we’re going to talk about — and this is the title of the message if you’re looking for it — how the Holy Spirit teaches. How the Holy Spirit teaches.

According to the Apostle John, it was hours before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ that Jesus takes his disciples aside and tells them exactly how the Holy Spirit is going to communicate with them. What’s incredible to me is that in the church today we have people walking around talking about hearing from God who I know beyond the shadow of a doubt do not meet the qualifier that I’m going to share with you this morning. We treat this so flippantly when we have explicit instruction on how the Holy Spirit will teach. Jesus told us exactly how it’s going to happen, and it’s found in John chapter 14, verse 26. It says, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” In the first week of this series we talked about the value of the Bible. If you believe the Bible — the Bi— what? It would happen to me right there. The Bible is valuable, say amen. Amen, the Bible is valuable.

The Bible is inspired. We talked about that. It’s inspired. It’s inerrant. It’s infallible. It’s immutable. It’s authoritative. But there is one thing that the Bible is not. You feel everybody get a little tight when you say that phrase right there. Everybody hang on. What you about to say? There’s one thing the Bible is not: the Bible is not exhaustive. The Bible doesn’t tell you everything about everything. I know, because you can’t turn in your Bible and find out how to change the oil in your car. You cannot flip back to the maps and find your local Walmart. There is no recipe for spaghetti in the Bible, and we all know that spaghetti is anointed by the Holy Ghost. Amen. Look at your neighbor, say, “Wake up,” or these jokes are going to get worse and worse. Amen. So the Bible is not exhaustive.

But John chapter 14, verse 26 tells us what the Holy Spirit is going to teach us. He’s going to teach us all things. Everybody say all things. He’s going to teach us all things. In fact, John 16, verse 12 says, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” By the way, this is in the same setting as the other verse. “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, and he will not speak of his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” Not only is the Holy Spirit going to teach you all things, but according to John 16 he’s going to teach you all things at a rate that you can receive them. Because if the Holy Ghost gave you all information about all things at all times, I don’t know what to tell you, your little brain would explode. You’d have brain goo just shooting on your neighbor. The Holy Ghost gave you all revelation, but he’ll teach you things at the rate you can understand them.

4:19What Jesus said: the whole Bible

But John 14, that we opened with, tells us also not just what the Holy Spirit will teach you, but how he will teach you. And he’s going to teach you by bringing what Jesus said to your remembrance. That’s exactly what Jesus said. Jesus said the Holy Ghost will teach you all things, and he’ll bring to your remembrance the things I have said to you. Well, that raises another question. That’s a great instruction, but now we have to ask this: what exactly did Jesus say? What did Jesus say? Well, John chapter 1, verses 1 through 13 say — in the beginning — I’m sorry, 1 through verse 3 — “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Let me just pause right here. If you were to jump down to verse 14, which I’m not going to show you, it tells you “and the Word was made manifest and dwelt among us.” So we know what we’re reading here. The Word — the reason it’s in all, or in capital letters, or it’s capitalized, is because this is talking about Jesus. Jesus is the Word. So, “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” That should be the giveaway right there. “He was in the beginning with God, and all things that were made through him” — I’m sorry, “all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” So immediately John 1, as soon as John opens it, connects Jesus to the creation of all things. Well, where is the creation of all things mentioned?

Let me help you. Genesis chapter 1, verse 1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” So with Jesus, we have Jesus now connected, according to John, who also told us how the Holy Ghost was going to teach us. Now I’m feeling good. I’m calling him the Holy Ghost. I’m ready. That’s when you know I’m ready to go. And so John chapter 1 connects him to Genesis chapter 1. That’s the first line in your Bible. Amen. But John also tells us in the book of Revelation that Jesus professes to him that he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. In fact, in Revelation chapter 22 it says, “Behold, I am coming soon” — somebody say amen — “bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.” Verse 13: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Now, if you jump down to verse 20 — verse 20 is the very ending section of the Bible. There’s another verse after it, but basically all that says is thanks for reading, come again. It really does. It says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.” That’s what it says. Thanks for reading. That’s the Bible way to say that. Thanks for being here, see you next week. Verse 20 says this: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’” So Jesus has connected himself to Genesis 1:1 and the very end of Revelation. Let me just cut here to the end real quick, because the Bible says that all scripture is breathed by God and profitable for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. All scripture is inspired. Jesus connected himself to Genesis 1 and to the end of Revelation. Folks, let me just tell you this. He’s the Word. He didn’t just speak the things he spoke to the disciples. He spoke every word that is in your Bible. That’s what Jesus said. He is the author of it. He is the author of the Bible. He didn’t just say the letters in red. He said the letters in print.

In fact, I have come to find that if you’ll spend enough time in the concordance of your Bible, you might get a revelation out of there. Amen. I’m telling you, I trust this book. It’s God-breathed. It’s inspired. The Holy Spirit — here it is. The Holy Spirit communicates to his people by bringing the scripture out of our memory to the forefront of our mind. Most people do not know how to hear from the Holy Ghost because they don’t know what they’re listening for.

I don’t care how many preachers talk about it like God walked into the room when they were praying or writing their sermon. And I try not to do that. I get a little fun sometimes, I try. And I never want to put on that air that I’ve got a bat phone in my office that I can call heaven with. The bat phone too secular for y’all? Y’all know it. Y’all remember the red bat phone. Amen. Have any of y’all ever seen the original Batmobile in person? That’s another conversation for another day. I’m sorry, that’s getting off topic here. But I never want to give you that perspective. But a lot of preachers get up and talk about what God said, and “I heard from the Lord,” and “the Spirit of God spoke to me,” and have never told you what to be listening for. And it’s very possible that the Holy Ghost has been speaking at an above-polite volume trying to get your attention, but you didn’t know what to listen for, or you didn’t give him the resource to speak to you. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

9:19The primary level: no skipping levels

Now, I just want to remind you, this is the second level of hearing from the Lord. I am going to take you in this series through two other levels. However, this being the second level, this is also the primary way that the Holy Spirit communicates with his people. This is the prime. So if you live at level four, you’re probably usually operating at level two. If there were 17 levels, you’d probably be operating at level two all the time. This is — I’m about to teach you the thing you need to know to take your life to a whole nother level. Amen. So this is the second level, but it’s the primary level, which also means I need to tell you this.

There’s no skipping levels. I don’t trust people who tell me they heard from God — and I’m not talking about pastors, I’m talking about you right now. I’m here to preach today. Amen. I don’t trust people who tell me, “I heard from the Lord,” and I can know beyond the shadow of a doubt you ain’t cracked a Bible open since any time. I don’t trust you when you say that stuff. And I don’t have to look very far, because usually it’s followed by something crazy. Lord Jesus, we be hearing some crazy stuff up in the church sometimes. So these are levels. You don’t skip levels. If you want to go up, you gotta go up. Amen.

So what I want to do is I want to give you some insight to this experience this morning, because I want to help you know what you’re looking for. I want to help you know what you should be expecting. I also just want to say this — I’ll save it. I’ll take it back. I preach the end before the beginning. Amen. But he’s the beginning and the end. Hallelujah. Amen.

11:181. While you read the Bible

All right, number one. Number one, write this down. The Holy Spirit brings the scripture back to your memory while you read the Bible. Another way you could say this is the Holy Spirit will teach you through the Word when you’re in the Word. Have any of y’all ever heard this?

Let me give a disclaimer real quick that I ought to toss in here. There’s a lot of people who will go, “If you need a word from God, brother, you got one right here.” And that’s what they’ll do. They’ll make it like — they’ll say you just aren’t in the Bible, and you could just read this and tell you everything you need to know. I’m not talking about just knowing what the Bible says. Where we’re headed today is God giving you a specific word for a specific situation in your specific life with your specific circumstances at your specific income level in your specific job with your specific spouse and your specific kids. I’m talking about God speaking to you. This is how he does it. Everybody with me? I got to stop leading worship. I’m ready to go. Amen. Huh? I’m feeling good. My fingernails are doing good. I’m ready to rock. Amen.

So the Holy Spirit will teach you this way. So have you ever heard this phrase, that the shortest pencil is better than the longest memory? You ever heard that phrase, the shortest pencil is better than the longest memory? It’s a way to say if you want to remember something, write it down. Right? Okay. Let me ask you it a different way. You ever been to the Chili’s and the waitress tried to impress you by not writing it down, and the whole time you thinking, “I didn’t come here for a show, I just want the burrito to be right”? Okay, sometimes writing it down is better. It’s better than the longest memory. Well, the good news is, is the Holy Ghost has not just given us the Bible, he has not just given us the scripture so we can know it. It’s actually a giant reminder. This is a reminder. It tells you everything you need to remember. This is the best memory of what God has done. This is a memory written down.

So when you read the scripture, God can begin to teach you, the Holy Ghost can begin to communicate with you while you’re in the scripture. The first way he does it is through what’s called the doctrine of illumination. I’m not going to spend a lot of time here, but basically the doctrine of illumination says that the Holy Spirit has to give you the ability to understand the scripture for you to understand the scripture. Let me say it another way. You can understand some of the Bible with an education, but you’re not going to understand much of the Bible without illumination. You need the Holy Ghost to give you insight to the scripture.

So the first way is through illumination. The other way though that he’ll teach is just through basic instruction. And I’m not talking about “thou shalt” and “thou shalt not,” that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m not talking about the Bible says so. I’m talking about specific instruction for you. And just to give you an idea of how this works — we were in Michigan. We were having a great time in ministry. We were at this church for a while. But we went up there and we started to have major impact in a little town called Adrian, Michigan, almost overnight. We saw God do so many great things in this church. In fact, I think we grew from like 400 to over a thousand in less than a year. We were having a good time. I was having fun. I was the worship leader at the church. I had a good relationship with the pastor, and to be honest with you, after about the first year there I just thought I’d be there forever.

In fact, I thought I’d be there for about 20 years. I’d be working on that right about now. It’d be a few years away. I’d be there about 20 years, he’d step aside, and I’d just take over and stay there for another 20. We were having a great time in Adrian, Michigan, having a good time. I was reading my Bible one day and I’m in my office, and I remember this specifically because I never read the Bible in the office. I always do it at home. I still do this. I read at home, because I don’t want to give nobody the excuse, “Well, you’re just the preacher.” No, no, no, no. This stuff works when you’re not the preacher. This stuff works when I’m wearing the businessperson hat. This stuff works when I’m wearing the parent hat, the husband hat. This stuff works all the time. This isn’t just a preacher thing.

But I’m in my office and I’m reading one day and I come to Exodus chapter 15, verse 27. It says this — actually it says, “Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.” Immediately I read this verse. Immediately the Holy Ghost — somehow it shot off in my body — goes, “You are not in your promised land. You are in an oasis.” Now, by the way, you had to know that there’s a promised land coming. You got to read your Bible a little bit to get this word. But immediately I knew, you’re in an oasis. You’re not in your promised land.

Well, things got kind of ugly up there in Michigan. Pastor was involved in some gross misconduct. We got hurt in the process, but we made it. You know how we made it? Because we had a word from God early on. I already knew my destiny was not tied up in this church, because I was already only there for a season. Somebody say amen. Hallelujah.

16:322. Phrases and fragments from memory

Number two. Number two, the Holy Spirit will draw phrases and fragments from the Bible out of your memory. He’ll draw phrases and fragments from the Bible out of your memory. Now, let me give you a disclaimer. I am not big — and I’m not a big proponent, I’m not a big promoter — of scripture memorization. This surprises a lot of people when I say it, but I have never been someone who has taught that you should sit down and start just learning, you know, word by word what the Bible says and put it in your memory. And the argument is always, you know, “Well, what if they come take your Bibles away?” Well, I can tell you right now, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to memorize the whole thing between here and there. I can pretty much guarantee you that. Y’all awake out there? Amen. And it ain’t going to happen.

So I’m not big on Bible memorization. Now, full transparency. That’s the disclaimer. Here’s the full transparency: I’m this way about everything. I don’t try to memorize anything. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’m the only person who ever came through the Alabama public school system who improvised Shakespeare in lieu of memorizing it in front of a live audience. Amen. I’m not kidding. I was up there doing my best Macbeth from my own creation. Amen. Hallelujah. So I’m not big on memorizing in general. So I just want to say that so you have some perspective of who’s telling you this. But there is also a case to be made, when you read John 14, verse 26, that when it comes to the responsibility of Bible memorization, the greater portion of that responsibility actually rests on the Holy Spirit. Because John 14:26 says this — look at this, it says, “But when the Help—“ Do I have that with an emphasis? Yeah. “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sent in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance.” Let’s read that together: “He will bring to your remembrance.” He will. He will do it. He’s going to bring it to your memory.

And so often when the Holy Spirit teaches you, what he’s going to do is he’s going to draw little phrases and fragments that are stored in the archives of your brain from time that you’ve spent in the scripture, and suddenly it’s going to come to the forefront of your brain. And you’re going to know, because you know what you’re listening for, because your pastor told you. You’re going to know, “Hey, wait a minute. That’s from the Bible. That’s coming to my mind out of nowhere. What could that be? Oh, it’s the Holy Ghost teaching me something.” So he’ll bring these little things out. They’ll come to the forefront of your mind, and suddenly you’ll have divine insight on some area of your life. Amen. Amen, I’m talking about divine understanding.

This happens in Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1, verse 13. This is right after Jesus has ascended to heaven. Judas, who was one of the apostles who betrayed Jesus, he killed himself. He’s gone. And this is what happens in the upper room. It says, “And then when he had entered, they went up to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James.” Not the same Judas. It’s another Judas. That’s why it says the son of James. All right. “All these were in one accord and were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers. In those days Peter stood up among the brothers — the company of persons was in all about a hundred and twenty.” Think about what the Lord did with a hundred and twenty in the upper room. I get excited about what he can do with our church. Amen.

“And said, ‘Brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in the ministry. Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.’” This is real good, fun scripture right here. Nobody — y’all even listening to this? Amen. That’s it. Y’all got to lean into these jokes. Amen. Hallelujah. “And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.” This is what I want you to hear: “For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and, ‘Let another take his office.’”

Okay, those two verses right there that he quotes from the Psalms — Peter’s quoting these from the Psalms. It’s from Psalm 69 and Psalm 109. Here’s what I need you to hear: neither one of these verses are particularly messianic. There were people amongst the Jews who were looking for the Messiah to come. There were people who had their antennas up waiting for Jesus. The biggest problem they had is that Jesus didn’t look like they thought he was going to look. But there were people waiting for Jesus. There were prophecies. There were Psalms. There were indicators in the scriptures telling them that Jesus was coming, and they were awaiting him. Here’s the thing though, these two Psalms — neither one of these Psalms are particularly messianic. In fact, if we didn’t read them in hindsight, they really wouldn’t line up with what was expected for a Messiah to come to Israel at all.

But this is what happened. Peter is up in the upper room and they’re praying and they’re spending time in the presence of the Lord, and because we know a little bit about Peter’s personality, it stands to reason he’s probably pretty ticked off about what Judas did. Like, he was probably pretty irritated. And I don’t know about you, but when I get irritated I’d be thinking about that stuff more now too. And so he’s probably up in the room praying, “Thank you, Lord. Holy— I can’t believe this.” And he’s looking at other disciples. I mean, he’s looking at Andrew going, “Can you believe? What in the world?” And I bet every time that Judas came to his mind, all of a sudden he was hearing, “Let another take his office. Let another take his office.” And finally, I bet Peter just pauses everybody in the upper room and he goes, “Folks, I don’t know what to tell you. Every time I think about this I keep hearing these two little Psalms, and they’re little fragments of the Psalms. I keep hearing these two little things. I think we need to vote and replace Judas, so we go back to a full twelve.”

It was by a little bit of scripture that Peter got the insight to add a twelfth apostle back in. It was just a little bit of scripture that kept coming to his mind. It’s the Holy Spirit teaching him. That’s how it happens.

Last year, I’m driving to the grocery store. We had had some upset in our business and I was a little like, “Ooh, that ain’t good,” because I — you know, I don’t love money but I like it a lot, hallelujah. And so we’d had a little upset in our business, and I was driving to the grocery store. I’m in a roundabout. Do y’all know what a roundabout is? Right? So I’m in a roundabout. While I’m in the roundabout — this is a three-second thing — I’m in the roundabout, all of a sudden I hear the Holy Ghost go, “Cast your net on the other side.” As soon as he says it, through my whole being I knew, I know where the fish are. And the Lord had told me right there in the roundabout that everything was going to be all right. I got a word from God. It was that quick. It was a verse. It was a word. I knew I’d heard from the Holy Ghost.

Some of y’all are looking at me like, “I thought this would be deeper.” That’s the problem. That’s the problem. Now I’m ready to go. That’s the problem. Y’all are listening to all this nonsense on TBN and Daystar. I’m just fed up with it. I’ve tried to play ball. I’m looking at the camera, not y’all. I have tried to play ball. I’m friends with some of y’all. What are you doing? We get up here and we let preachers talk nonsense, and we make it so complicated and difficult. The Bible actually tells you they’re going to do this. I don’t remember if it’s Galatians or Ephesians or somewhere in the New Testament — if not, it’s in the Old Testament, or it’s in the Bible somewhere — but the Apostle Paul tells us, he says there are people who make much of you but not for your benefit. They make much of you so you’ll make much of them.

I’m tired of preachers getting in the pulpit. I feel like I’m doing a pastoral conference every week. I’m tired of pastors getting in the pulpit and saying a bunch of garbage that takes people to the brink of nothing. This stuff isn’t that hard, when the Bible says it in plain language that we know. And here’s what’s crazy, Holy Ghost. We don’t teach any of the stuff that’s clear, and then we teach the stuff that could not be more clear — or could not be more unclear — that has six different theological opinions, that really doesn’t do anything for your life today at all, and we teach it like it is the key cornerstone of the Christian faith. And I’ve watched men get up and do an hour of homiletics on nothing, and then people be like, “This is great.”

I don’t need a Sunday frenzy. I don’t need us to come in here and to think the preaching was great. I just need it to be helpful. And the church reacted to this 20 years ago strongly. Twenty years ago we had people who ran in the other direction, and they said, “This is so not helpful that we’re going to run over here. We’re only going to teach practical wisdom that anybody with two cents and a box of crayons could figure out. Hey, if you want a better marriage, don’t yell at each other.” Oh, thanks. And we pulled all of the spirituality out of the pulpit as a response to it. And that’s normal. If you look at 2,000 years of church history, we do this. We over-spiritualize, we under-spiritualize. But I’m telling you, there’s something about if you can just look at how the Bible can spiritually help you in very pragmatic ways, God will change your life through his Word.

But it gets tough for people like me, because it’d be easy to get up here and throw you a bunch of false prophecies and watch the finances in this church take off and go through the roof. And every time I have to say the truth, I have to just in the back of my mind go, “This might cost you.” Oh well. Messing with the wrong guy. Amen. That’s number two. None of that was in the notes, by the way.

27:553. Association processing

Number three. Number three, the Holy Spirit will activate association processing. Association processing. Did you know that your brain is fascinating? I think Mr. Spock said that at some point. Your brain is fascinating. It’s just fascinating. You have a big, beautiful brain. Look at the person next to you and say, “You got a big, beautiful brain.” You got a big, beautiful brain. Here’s something crazy about your brain: the neurons that transmit information in your brain move up to 268 miles per hour. Now, that doesn’t sound super fast when you think about — for instance, you’re down from North Alabama right now. You said it didn’t sound real fast when you think, okay, well, I could get from Mobile to Huntsville in 90 minutes. Which, hey, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Say amen. Hallelujah. I’m ready to go.

But it doesn’t sound that fast when you hear that. But when you consider that it’s moving 268 miles per hour in that much space — that’s how big your big, beautiful brain is. 268 miles per hour. Wow. Information’s flying around in your brain all the time. Association processing is this: it’s when your brain connects a chain of information almost instantly. And I don’t know if you have these moments, but sometimes I can go from here to where I need to be in about 0.8 seconds. Just like, I get a bunch of information that hits me all at once and I can make a decision. I’m not even talking about spiritual stuff, I’m just talking about that’s how my brain works, just moving fast.

Well, the Holy Spirit, what he’ll do is he’ll draw up scripture in your mind and then he’ll do what I call — he’ll play pinball with your brain. You know the little pinball machines, you draw back the thing and the ball goes all around? And what’ll happen is the Holy Ghost will pull back and he’ll drop a verse in your brain. He’ll pull up something from the archives, and all of a sudden he’ll start hitting all this information in your head, and the next thing you know you’ll have insight that seemingly came out of nowhere. But it was all triggered by just the Holy Spirit bringing it to your remembrance, the things that Jesus has said.

Again, another example from Acts. We see this in Acts chapter 10. I’m not going to read it, but in Acts chapter 10 the Apostle Peter is up on a roof. He’s praying. He falls into a trance and he sees a sheet come down from heaven with a bunch of animals that were against Jewish dietary restrictions. And so all these animals are coming down in the sheet and the Lord goes, “Eat it.” And he says, “I can’t eat that. I don’t eat that stuff. I’m a Jew, I don’t eat stuff like that.” Barbecue ribs — he was turning them down. Just how could you do that? Hot dogs, can’t eat them. And so three times it happens, and the Lord says, “Eat that,” and then it disappears. And the Holy Spirit — Peter’s up there perplexed by it. The Bible says he’s perplexed by what he had just heard. And then someone comes and knocks on the door, and it was a Gentile showing up asking him to come to a man named Cornelius’s house. And this is the same situation, this is the same interaction where the Gentiles are grafted in to Christianity, to the kingdom, in this moment. That’s Acts chapter 10. Okay, that’s what happens.

Acts chapter 10 is written — about the Bible, to get a little juice out of it — Acts chapter 10 is written from the Apostle, or not the Apostle, but Dr. Luke’s perspective. Luke traveled with the Apostle Paul, and Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. They’re both more of historical accounts of what happened in the early church, with Jesus’ life and in the early church. Well, that’s written from Luke’s account. Luke said Peter was up on the roof, the sheet came down. That’s how it went.

Okay, so he gives that story. Peter on the other hand gives us a little more insight into his understanding of how the Gentiles are grafted in. Are you ready? The Gospel of Mark is written from Peter’s perspective. Peter mentored Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Mark. In Mark chapter 7, Peter must have told Mark at some point, “Well, actually it was something Jesus said that let me know that the Gentiles could come in and that all things were clean to eat.” Because in Mark chapter 7 Jesus says something to Peter, and that’s written in the note there in the scripture: “Thus Jesus declared all things clean to eat.” So what probably actually happened was Peter was up on the roof, he had a vision that came right after the Holy Spirit reminded him what Jesus had said to him. The Holy Ghost had drawn it up, and then he has this vision, and Peter don’t know what to do with it. Which doesn’t surprise me — seems kind of like he was living there sometimes. Amen.

But he has the vision, has the word, knock knock knock, it’s a Gentile at the door. Well, no duh. This is where we’re going, I guess. Amen. Lightning-fast information coming through your brain being triggered by the Holy Ghost. Oh, that’s good. I’m excited about it even if you are— Amen.

33:38Give the Spirit something to draw on

So I said a few minutes ago that I’m not big on Bible memorization. And can I have you come back to the keys? If we’ve got you here, we might as well use you. Amen. I’m excited. And I’ll start the next 45 minutes of this message. So I mentioned earlier, I’m not big on Bible memorization, and I’m not stepping away from that. But what I do want you to know is that the only way the Holy Spirit can communicate with you in this way is if you have some Bible in your memory for him to draw upon. And this is the issue, is that a lot of people want to walk around talking about hearing from God but they don’t have any Bible in their memory. And it’s obvious they don’t have any Bible in their memory. And they want to act like they’re getting a word from the Lord, but we know how the Lord’s going to communicate. So some of you are desperate to hear from the Lord and you don’t know why you’re not. It’s because you have not given him anything to communicate with you with. To some degree the scripture is the universal translator that operates between humanity and the Holy Spirit. It is the way that heaven is funneled down into your ability to comprehend.

In fact, the Apostle Paul even said one time, he says, “I speak in human terms because of your natural limitations.” The Bible helps with our natural limitations. That’s how the Holy Spirit can communicate with us. But if we don’t store up some of that Bible in our memory, we’re never going to be able to hear from the Lord. Now, I’m not big on Bible memorization again, I’m not stepping back on that. I know there’s like three people, that’s the only thing they got from this message: “He don’t believe in memorizing the Bible.” But I do believe in reading your Bible a lot. And if you’ll read your Bible a lot, what will happen is the verses that need to brand themselves on you, they will. I have never intentionally memorized a single scripture that I can remember. Some perplexing statement right there. So maybe I have, but it’s just all — no. So I’ve never done that. But actually I will tell you, I have. Just scripture just comes out, like it’s all — there’s a lot in there. And sometimes huge portions that just come out, because I’ll just let it brand itself to me.

And so I decided to do a little bit of research to see what the average amount of verses an individual had stored up in their brain was, just naturally, naturally living in someone’s brain. Fortunately, I did find a statistic that gave me some insights. The average American unbeliever — these are unchurched, unsaved, non-Christian Americans — if you live in the United States of America, you have somewhere between one and three verses that you’ve picked up from somewhere. That may be “I know the plans I have for you.” That may be “don’t judge.” They’re not going to quote them real good because they’re unsaved. Amen. But they got a handful of verses in them. They may know John 3:16. They know a handful of things.

Okay, so they’ll have one to three verses inside of their brain. For a nominal Christian, somebody who would say that they’re born again, would say that they’re saved, they’re not active in church, not active in their faith — they have between 10 and 20 verses in their brain at any given time that if you tapped them, they could come out. They may not be able to say, “Here’s all 20 I know,” but under the right circumstances you could draw those 20 out.

A regular church attender, someone who comes to church on a regular basis, has between 50 and 100 verses stored up in their brain. Which, by the way, means coming to church on a regular basis puts you in a pretty good position to be able to hear from the Holy Spirit. In fact, if y’all have noticed, I use a lot of Bible when I preach, and I’m force-feeding you. I’m trying to get it in you. Okay? Because all you need is a little bit and the Holy Ghost can talk to you.

So a regular church attender, 50 to a hundred verses. People who are engaged with the Bible on a regular basis — now remember, we qualify being engaged in the Bible as reading at least four days a week, reading the Bible in at least 18 months, and when you finish reading the Bible you intend to start again. Okay? Remember, we defined that in week one of the series. Those people have between a hundred and three hundred verses in their mind that can come up at any given time. Do you believe the Holy Spirit could give you insight for your situation with what I showed you today, with just two hundred verses in your brain? Yeah.

Now, I found out that people who teach the Bible — and I didn’t believe this, but Ashleigh said she thought it was probably true — that people who teach the Bible and are engaged in daily Bible reading, which unfortunately are not synonymous — and one person got that, yeah — but people who are engaged in the Bible and teach the Bible, one to three thousand verses in their brain at any given time. That’ll make you sign up to lead a small group in the new year. Amen. One to three thousand verses at any time that you can just pull up.

What I want you to know today is the more that you engage with the Bible, the more you store in your archive, in your memory. And the more you have stored, the more the Holy Spirit can draw out. And the more the Holy Spirit has to draw out, the more specifically he can communicate with you about any given situation in your life. But I do want to just tell you, this doesn’t happen overnight. You don’t leave tomorrow and have 3,000 verses for the Holy Ghost to draw on in your brain. It’s not going to happen.

39:45Next week: time with the Lord

So next week, what I’m going to teach you — if you’ll take this week and next week, make sure you’re here, I’m telling you — I’m going to give you the tool set you need to take your life to a whole nother dimension. You’ll be living on the 16th level while everybody else living on the second level. I mean, now, I’m telling you, we’ll take you to a whole nother place. What I’m going to teach you next week is how to develop a time with the Lord every day. This is another thing that I believe that the church has done a very bad job about, making it look harder than it is. And it really isn’t that hard. It’s not hard to read. It is not hard to pray. It is not hard to hear from the Lord. And if we’ll just get the hard out of it, if we’ll just get the difficulty out of it, if we’ll take the mystical spiritualism fantasy out of it, I think your life will change. I think your life will change.

Do you know what the good news is about Acts chapter 1, when the Holy Spirit spoke to Peter in that way that I shared with you? It’s before he got baptized in the Holy Ghost. This isn’t available to the highest echelons of spirituality. This is available to every believer who’s given their life to Jesus Christ. So make sure that you’re with me next week, because we’re going to talk about how to develop your time in the secret place. If you’re thankful for the Word this morning, give the Lord a praise. Amen. Hallelujah.