(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

Other members minister in our meetings. They may speak by the Holy Spirit, and, though they have no idea God is speaking to us directly through their anointed word, yet the work is done. It’s an amazing process that creates unity because of the flow of the Anointing.

(end quote)

(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

In the multitude of ministries, there’s more safety than if we try to walk independently or think our understanding is superior to anyone else’s. We may get something wrong. However, if we belong to a local assembly that follows the order of Scripture, those set into authority according to the pattern of Scripture can help us. A body of multiple elders, when each one is in submission to all the others, is safer than a chief elder or pastor who runs the show. If we walk in submission, those who God has set can correct us if we’re wrong. Someone may wonder how we determine which local assembly God wants us to be in. God must reveal that to us. We go where He sends us.

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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

We need to be wary of any teaching that needs to explain away certain passages of Scripture as not important, not for today, or just poetic. The Holy Spirit will give discernment if we yield to Him and desire the truth. God will give us discernment regardless of our personal feelings. When we’re in His will, He gives a sense of His presence, His love, peace, joy, and all the fruit of the Spirit. Even then, He warns us He has more to show us and tells us not to have closure before the time. If we know anything, we don’t know it as we ought to know it. Consider your most cherished doctrine. You don’t understand it as you ought to know it.

(end quote)

(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

And any one of us may run off this way or that way and may even try to teach something God never told us to teach. The human mind is deceitful and desperately wicked. However, if we walk in humility before the Anointed One, and listen to His voice as the Holy Spirit teaches us, He will continue to correct each of us. Sometimes, He’ll speak through a brother or a sister. If a revelation is from God, He’ll confirm the revelation with two or three witnesses. He’ll use intuition, conscience, and Scripture. God often speaks through the created world. He then ratifies that revelation through brothers and sisters and Scripture.

(end quote)

(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

The body of Christ builds the body of Christ. Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 14 explain that in some detail. These Scriptures go beyond the church service. You’ll notice, in Ephesians 4:11, there is the office of apostle and four ministries.

This office of apostle was lost to the church somewhere. This verse says it will be there until we come to unity and total completeness. That particular office brings authority to divine revelation and ends debate since the apostles walk in submission to each other and Christ. They must be set by Christ. They can’t call themselves. We can see the pattern of Scripture is not a pattern of independence or one person receiving an independent revelation and then trying to convince others of it. It’s not a pattern of a chief elder or chief apostle. When the office of apostle is fully restored, the apostles will receive and establish the doctrine. Many want to be apostles. Many are clamoring for the position. Many put the label on themselves.

We don’t have a universally accepted body of apostles who are called by God and receiving the revelation to equip the saints. Scripture indicates God will restore this office in the church. Meantime, we can encourage, build up, and comfort one another. We can learn how to hear God’s voice and yield to His righteousness in willing submission. During this time, we’re subject to misinterpretations of Scripture. We all are.

(end quote)

Today’s quote shows how we need the Holy Spirit as our teacher. We don’t try to add to Scripture. The human mind does it without our effort.

(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

We can easily go beyond Scripture. When we interpret Scripture, we can add to it without realizing we’re adding anything to it. Each of us has a deceitful and deceptive fleshly nature. Each of us has learned doctrines that seem true but may not be true. That’s why we need to build on the Foundation of Christ rather than our doctrines. We have strongholds in our minds the Holy Spirit will need to correct. The Scripture cannot be broken. However, we can misinterpret it. May the church yield itself to Christ so the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth. We should not fully trust independent teachers. They’ll make mistakes from time to time just as we do. The order God originally established included several apostles who were in submission to each other. Each one worked under the government of all the others. And the Bible shows us how Paul had to correct Peter when he got off course. Independent teachers don’t have the benefit of that order today, and it makes it difficult for them. Some of them surround themselves with people who are willing to agree, so they insulate themselves from correction.

(end quote)

(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

God is real, and we know He’s real because He does what He says He does. He speaks to us. But how does He speak to us? He speaks through Scripture, observation, and every other method mentioned in Scripture. However, when He speaks, He speaks only the truth. When He speaks, He gives us a true premise and a sound basis for thinking. But what if we add to His words or diminish His words through speculative explanations or interpretations? If we add to His words or diminish them, we destroy the true premise. We need that true premise if we’re going to think rationally. So He asks us not to add to His words or diminish His words through theories, unrevealed theologies, or other forms of speculation.

(end quote)

(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

The Bible is a way of knowing the truth since God imparts divine revelation through the Bible to all who seek Him as they search the Scriptures. However, the Foundation of the Bible is God, but many thinkers are trying to interpret the Bible by the power of the fallen human mind. In other words, they’re using assumptions to interpret Scripture, adding to God’s words and dismissing God’s words. And this practice can’t lead to knowing anything. It ignores the voice of God speaking through the Scripture and leaves only the dead letter. On the other hand, whoever continually and patiently seeks the mind of the Holy Spirit while reading Scripture will receive knowledge as the Holy Spirit streams through the pages of the Bible. God imparts knowledge through Scripture, but He also imparts knowledge through every method that He mentions in Scripture. And yet, not one of those other methods will ever conflict with the revelation He gives through the Bible.

(end quote)

(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

Humans can sense the world around them and react with animalistic instinct without divine revelation. Humans can also memorize Scripture, poems, songs, hand motions, and lies without divine revelation. They can learn to playact, pretend, deceive, or persuade without divine revelation. They need divine revelation to reason rationally to a conclusion. They need divine revelation to know the truth.

(end quote)