Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
There is a time for every word of God, and in its time, whatever God says is perfect. The only truth that exists anywhere is what the Spirit of God is saying right now, not what He said yesterday or a thousand years ago. Of course, many times, what God is saying today is in harmony with what He said a thousand years ago, or six thousand years ago, but if you are living only by what He said to others long ago, you are running the risk of displeasing God by obeying His commandment to others while failing to hear what He is telling you to do right now.
The biblical exhortation is that we should “hear what the Spirit IS saying to the congregation”, not merely to read about what the Spirit said other times and places, and to other people who faced other circumstances than we do.
Moreover, God may give one of His children a commandment that differs from what he tells another one of His children to do. And if you are in the habit of “comparing yourselves among yourselves”, instead of simply obeying God’s word for you, it could cause you some huge problems. God’s doctrine will never change, but His personal instructions for His sons and daughters are so personalized that they might change at any moment, depending on this world’s changing circumstances. This is the point Paul intended to make when he said that “those who are led by the holy Spirit are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14). Everyone else is the child of whatever spirit they are following, whether it is the spirit of man, or “doctrines of demons”, or just the dead religious traditions of church religion.