Sound Doctrine or By the Seat of Our Pants

[shad]

To have a sound mind we must have sound doctrine. We start off in this life, from the time we are conceived, with a sick head and heart that has no soundness in it / Is 1:6. Now that is what God told Isaiah. As a believer I have to acknowledge that God knows what he is talking about and apply that to my life. I have accepted Christ, so where do I go from there?

Moms and Dads when raising children in the way that they should go, would not think of giving them unsound advice or foolish instructions. They lay their life down for their kids and make sure they give them the very best in all things with the capacity they have been given.

Mt 7:11 ~ If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Solomon became King and reigned after the death of his father David and went before God and asked for wisdom and knowledge because it was in his heart and it was granted him / 2Chr 1:10-12, 1Kgs 4:29,30. We who lack wisdom must have it in our heart to ask God for it, who will give to all men liberally without hesitation or partiality / Jm 1:5. The heart must be broken and contrite before God or it will not be able to receive anything from the Lord.

To get wisdom we must have knowledge because without knowledge there is no wisdom nor is there understanding. The Holy Spirit can not quicken us in or by the truth when the truth is no resident in us. Would you ask someone to overhaul the engine in your vehicle who has no knowledge or understanding about combustible engines? The knowledge of God's word and doctrine is the basis for all wisdom and understanding.

In the work of the ministry and administering the word of God to build up the members of God's body, there must be pastor/teachers that are equipped and disciplined in the word of God and actually labor in both the word and doctrine / 1Tim 5:17. These are the ones that we are to esteem, give double honor and listen to because of their labor. They are the ones that God has raised up for the church to teach the word and doctrine. We need to be taught so that we can learn submission and have conviction and we need to study doctrine to hide God's word in our heart. This is how we get soundness into our minds and hearts. This is how our faith is built up, by storing up the treasures of God's word in the rooms of our soul.

 

[shad]

Apostasy starts in the heart, being seduced by what we hear / Mk 4:24 and how we hear / Lk 8:18. Satan has a plan to seduce and sift every believer before Christ comes for His church and body in the rapture / Lk 22:31, 1Jn 2:21-26 by getting their heart to depart from the living God through words. For some it will be through divers and strange doctrines / Heb 13:9, for others it will be through signs and miracles / Mk 13:22, but for most it will be through words that do not speak of the cross of Christ, the blood of the lamb and the resurrection of Jesus Christ / Rev 12:11. If Satan can get believers occupied with words and other things that do not testify of the grace of God that comes through Jesus Christ and Him crucified, then he can get the heart to depart from the living God / Heb 3:12 and the power of His resurrection. He can not take salvation or the righteousness of God from them, but he can do the next best thing and lead their heart away from it, so that they are ineffective as a believer with their words / Jn 17:20, Jn 12:47,48, Rom 10:14.

The love of God that the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts reveals the love of the Father that sent His Son to shed His blood, pay for sin through death and be resurrected on the third day. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins and without the resurrection from the dead there is no justification for the believer / Rom 3:25, Heb 9:22, Rom 4:25. If we give place to words and other things that take us away from the blood of Christ, that is revealed in His death, burial and resurrection, our hearts will depart into idolatry / 1Cor 10:14, a form of worship that denies the power of the cross and keeps us from knowing Christ and power of His resurrection / Phil 3:10. This form of idolatry spiritualizes every aspect of the cross and will eventually cause the believer's heart to forget that it was purged from their old sins / 2Pt 1:1-9.

I AM GOING TO BOAST A LITTLE AND I KNOW WHAT SOME OF YOU THINK OF BOASTING. I AM ONLY A FELLOW-BELIEVER WITH NO AUTHORITY OUTSIDE WHAT GOD GIVES THROUGH HIS WORD AND HIS SPIRIT THROUGH GRACE.

If what I said in the above post is not the truth then I do not have the Spirit of truth in me. If what I said is the truth and you have the Spirit of truth in you, the Spirit would witness the truth and you would adjust your life by faith and agree in your spirit with the truth / 1Jn 5:6,8. If you don't have the Spirit of truth dwelling in you then you have nothing to witness the truth and you are lost to the truth because the truth is not in you.

No one can love God without loving the truth / 1Jn 2:3-5, Jn 14:15. To say that you love God and have no love for the truth or that the truth does not matter, is to say that about Christ, who is the person of truth and came by grace and truth / Jn 1:17, 14:6, 15:10. No man can worship God without the truth, to be a true worshiper of God we must worship in the Spirit and truth / Jn 6:63.

 

[Nuhen]

Isn't boasting a sin?

 

[loveschild]

We can boast about God. But we still have to be careful. Even to boast about God always answers my prayers. He showed me it could be a stumbling block to others who aren't getting their prayers answered.

 

[charisenexcelcis]

Isn't boasting a sin?

Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.

 

[HumbleSaint]

Preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine: but after their own lust will they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they will turn their ears from the truth and shall be turned to fables 2 Timothy 4

We are certainly living in those days.

 

[VW]

Jesus is the foundation of the church, and of all truth, for He is the truth.

Jesus is the word, He is the foundation of all that we can and will know of God, He is the rock of all knowledge that it true.

Know Jesus!

 

[shad]

If we do not have sound doctrine we will not have sound faith when trials come and when tribulations shake down everything that is not eternal in our lives / Jn 16:33, Heb 12:27. Trials are specific situations and circumstances that God puts us through to try our faith and to strengthen our inner man. Tribulation is when God takes away the things that we depend upon in the natural and derive comfort and ease from. If we don't have sound doctrine that gives us a capacity to think with God during those times, we will not be able to trust God because His Word has not been stored up in the rooms of our soul for these specific times.​

Some will conclude that God would not put us through anything that we could not bear up under, for he will provide a way of escape / 1Cor 10:13. That may be true only if you know and can discern through the word of God what that way of escape is. Will we be able to discern God's word that says, 'This is the way walk ye in it' / Is 30:21? We won't just be able to say that God has everything under control when our emotions have been devastated by what is going on in us and around us.​

The only time we can say, 'Though He slay me, yet, I will trust Him', is when God's word is alive in the rooms of our soul and our human spirit is quickened with truth / Ps 119:25,107,154. We can not be quickened in the Spirit when the rooms of our soul are empty of God's word. Without sound doctrine in our soul we will be occupied by how things are effecting us and no matter how hard we try to love God. The Holy Spirit will be grieved in our life / Eph 4:30 because we have no truth and no doctrine for the Holy Spirit to quicken us with, in the details of life / Rom 8:11.​

When things are going good, we say God is blessing us but when adversity comes we will not know how to think with God and our emotions will take over. Our lives do not consist in the things that we possess but we must possess our souls through the Word that gives us patience through the Spirit / Lk 8:15, 12:15, 21:19, Rev 1:9, 3:10.You can speak in tongues all you want but that will not help you nor will any gifts of the Holy Spirit that you think you have. Having a relationship with others will not get you through these times because of the flesh, the old sin nature, doctrine of demons and the fact they may fail or be deceived.​

So many think that the Holy Spirit will take of us so why be concerned. We are to sow to the Spirit / Gal 6:8 and what that means is that we sow the Word, we sow doctrine and God's precepts, here a little and there a little, line upon line upon line, precept upon precept / Is 28:9,10,13. The only thing that will get us through these times is to have a strong and sound vertical relationship with God through His Word, through doctrine and through His promises and to walk in the light of that Word / Eph 5:8. God will isolate us through His plan to get us to trust Him by leaning upon His word and not on our own understanding / Prov 3:5. He will get us to forsake our thoughts and our ways even when we think they are from Him / Is 55:8-11...​

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. ​

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.​

 

[VW]

If we do not have sound doctrine we will not have sound faith when trials come and when tribulations shake down everything that is not eternal in our lives / Jn 16:33, Heb 12:27. Trials are specific situations and circumstances that God puts us through to try our faith and to strengthen our inner man. Tribulation is when God takes away the things that we depend upon in the natural and derive comfort and ease from. If we don't have sound doctrine that gives us a capacity to think with God during those times, we will not be able to trust God because His Word has not been stored up in the rooms of our soul for these specific times.​

Some will conclude that God would not put us through anything that we could not bear up under, for he will provide a way of escape / 1Cor 10:13. That may be true only if you know and can discern through the word of God what that way of escape is. Will we be able to discern God's word that says, 'This is the way walk ye in it' / Is 30:21? We won't just be able to say that God has everything under control when our emotions have been devastated by what is going on in us and around us.​

The only time we can say, 'Though He slay me, yet, I will trust Him', is when God's word is alive in the rooms of our soul and our human spirit is quickened with truth / Ps 119:25,107,154. We can not be quickened in the Spirit when the rooms of our soul are empty of God's word. Without sound doctrine in our soul we will be occupied by how things are effecting us and no matter how hard we try to love God. The Holy Spirit will be grieved in our life / Eph 4:30 because we have no truth and no doctrine for the Holy Spirit to quicken us with, in the details of life / Rom 8:11.​

When things are going good, we say God is blessing us but when adversity comes we will not know how to think with God and our emotions will take over. Our lives do not consist in the things that we possess but we must possess our souls through the Word that gives us patience through the Spirit / Lk 8:15, 12:15, 21:19, Rev 1:9, 3:10.You can speak in tongues all you want but that will not help you nor will any gifts of the Holy Spirit that you think you have. Having a relationship with others will not get you through these times because of the flesh, the old sin nature, doctrine of demons and the fact they may fail or be deceived.​

So many think that the Holy Spirit will take of us so why be concerned. We are to sow to the Spirit / Gal 6:8 and what that means is that we sow the Word, we sow doctrine and God's precepts, here a little and there a little, line upon line upon line, precept upon precept / Is 28:9,10,13. The only thing that will get us through these times is to have a strong and sound vertical relationship with God through His Word, through doctrine and through His promises and to walk in the light of that Word / Eph 5:8. God will isolate us through His plan to get us to trust Him by leaning upon His word and not on our own understanding / Prov 3:5. He will get us to forsake our thoughts and our ways even when we think they are from Him / Is 55:8-11...​

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. ​

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.​

If this works for you, so be it. When I was pressed down and shaken, it did not work for me, for what I had feed my soul was knowledge, and that knowledge failed me, left me lost and destitute. Then, when I gave up my knowing, God came to me and made me His. Knowledge will not replace relationship, and if it gets in the way of relationship, then it is wrong. We are His people, and we hear His voice, in the inner man who is being renewed by the strength of the Holy Spirit.

I feed my heart the living word, Jesus Christ.

 

[charisenexcelcis]

I believe that healthy faith requires both objective truth (doctrine, Bible knowledge) and subjective knowledge (experience, revelation). The Holy Spirit gives both through illumination of the word and through revelation of Christ. Objective truth without subjective truth is dry and creates creeds without relationship. Subjective truth without objective truth is unfocused and creates good feelings without salvation.

 

[greatkraw]

my concern is people who base their faith on their experience rather than absorbing bible doctine

I knew a guy once - very well

If I asked him how he knew he was saved I would expect him to say one of 2 things

1 because I speak in tongues
2 because I am a member of the exclusive manchild company

2 is a false doctrine
1 proves nothing

 

[VW]

I believe that healthy faith requires both objective truth (doctrine, Bible knowledge) and subjective knowledge (experience, revelation). The Holy Spirit gives both through illumination of the word and through revelation of Christ. Objective truth without subjective truth is dry and creates creeds without relationship. Subjective truth without objective truth is unfocused and creates good feelings without salvation.

Sounds good. I don't equate biblical knowledge with objective truth. Notice that I did not say the scriptures, but rather biblical knowledge. Biblical knowledge can leave one without salvation. Without relationship there is no salvation. This does not mean that biblical knowledge is bad, because I do not believe that, in any way. Heaven forbid! But biblical knowledge alone will not save. The Holy Spirit is not only needed, He is essential in both objective knowledge and subjective knowledge.

 

[greatkraw]

Sounds good. I don't equate biblical knowledge with objective truth. Notice that I did not say the scriptures, but rather biblical knowledge. Biblical knowledge can leave one without salvation. Without relationship there is no salvation. This does not mean that biblical knowledge is bad, because I do not believe that, in any way. Heaven forbid! But biblical knowledge alone will not save. The Holy Spirit is not only needed, He is essential in both objective knowledge and subjective knowledge.

Vic you are quite right

there are planty who know planty about the text of the Bible

but it is the Holy Spirit which makes it come alive.

To grow spiritually you need the Holy Spirit and you need to feed yourself bible truth

 

[shad]

Questions

Is the Word subject to the Spirit or is the Spirit subject to the Word of God? Does the truth guide us into the Spirit or does the Spirit guide us into the truth of the Father and the Son? Jesus Christ was the Word that became flesh and then He sent the Comforter. When the Spirit speaks expressly to the church, what does the Spirit speak? The Spirit does not speak the words of men nor of himself but the Spirit speaks the Words of God / Jn 3:34 ?

The Spirit is subject to the Words of God in every single situation and that includes any sovereignty on God's part. The Father dictates to the Spirit because the Spirit came from the Father. The Father esteems and exalts the Son and the Spirit bears witness of that exaltation. The Father esteems His Word above His name, so those that spell His name 'G_d' can stop doing that and glorify God by magnifying the Word instead.

The disciples had Jesus Christ (the Word made flesh) for three years before Christ breathed upon them the Spirit. If the Spirit was so important for them to understand Christ and His words, why wait so long to give them the Spirit? The disciples had to trust the words of Christ and have faith in His words. That is why Peter responded as he did in Jn 6:68, 'Where shall we go, thou hast the words of eternal life.'

Thomas would not believe that Christ had been raised from the dead unless he could see him with his own eyes. When Christ appeared to Thomas and the others, Thomas believed but Christ made an amazing statement in Jn 20:29...

Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

We have not seen Him yet we believe His words by faith and the testimony of those who believed. Jesus said in Jn 15:7, 'If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask what you will and it will be done unto you.' If we look a little further down in the chapter we see these amazing words that come from the very lips of Christ...

25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

Isn't that amazing that Christ would say that about His disciples bearing witness, just like the Holy Spirit, because they had been with Him and walked with Him from the beginning. They only had His words abiding in them and that was good enough for Christ. The Spirit did not come until Christ breathed upon them in Jn 20:22. Does that mean that the disciples that had been with Him from the beginning were saved without the Spirit? Yes it does! How can that be? It be, because they believed in His Words, which were spirit and life / Jn 6:63.

 

[VW]

Questions

Is the Word subject to the Spirit or is the Spirit subject to the Word of God? Does the truth guide us into the Spirit or does the Spirit guide us into the truth of the Father and the Son? Jesus Christ was the Word that became flesh and then He sent the Comforter. When the Spirit speaks expressly to the church, what does the Spirit speak? The Spirit does not speak the words of men nor of himself but the Spirit speaks the Words of God / Jn 3:34 ?

The Spirit is subject to the Words of God in every single situation and that includes any sovereignty on God's part. The Father dictates to the Spirit because the Spirit came from the Father. The Father esteems and exalts the Son and the Spirit bears witness of that exaltation. The Father esteems His Word above His name, so those that spell His name 'G_d' can stop doing that and glorify God by magnifying the Word instead.

The disciples had Jesus Christ (the Word made flesh) for three years before Christ breathed upon them the Spirit. If the Spirit was so important for them to understand Christ and His words, why wait so long to give them the Spirit? The disciples had to trust the words of Christ and have faith in His words. That is why Peter responded as he did in Jn 6:68, 'Where shall we go, thou hast the words of eternal life.'

Thomas would not believe that Christ had been raised from the dead unless he could see him with his own eyes. When Christ appeared to Thomas and the others, Thomas believed but Christ made an amazing statement in Jn 20:29...

Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

We have not seen Him yet we believe His words by faith and the testimony of those who believed. Jesus said in Jn 15:7, 'If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask what you will and it will be done unto you.' If we look a little further down in the chapter we see these amazing words that come from the very lips of Christ...

25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

Isn't that amazing that Christ would say that about His disciples bearing witness, just like the Holy Spirit, because they had been with Him and walked with Him from the beginning. They only had His words abiding in them and that was good enough for Christ. The Spirit did not come until Christ breathed upon them in Jn 20:22. Does that mean that the disciples that had been with Him from the beginning were saved without the Spirit? Yes it does! How can that be? It be, because they believed in His Words, which were spirit and life / Jn 6:63.

You equate the written word of God with Christ. It is not. You want to make the Spirit, which is God, to be under the written word of God, and if you must, go right ahead. I will not. I will not deny the written word of God, but I will not place it over the Spirit of God. That would be blasphemy to me. Worse. The Spirit of God was and is so important that Jesus went back to the Father in order for the Spirit to be sent to us. His words have life in us by the Spirit, and to me they cannot exist, that is, His words, in me in the form that the Father or the Son desire unless the Spirit is in me to make the written words alive, to do as He has spoken them to do. It has always been that the Spirit is the power of God, and He has and always will enact the word of God in the physical and spiritual realm. Notice that Jesus did not breath on the disciples for them to receive the Spirit until after the resurrection. This is very important.

In His peace,

 

[aspen]

You equate the written word of God with Christ. It is not. You want to make the Spirit, which is God, to be under the written word of God, and if you must, go right ahead. I will not. I will not deny the written word of God, but I will not place it over the Spirit of God. That would be blasphemy to me. Worse. The Spirit of God was and is so important that Jesus went back to the Father in order for the Spirit to be sent to us. His words have life in us by the Spirit, and to me they cannot exist, that is, His words, in me in the form that the Father or the Son desire unless the Spirit is in me to make the written words alive, to do as He has spoken them to do. It has always been that the Spirit is the power of God, and He has and always will enact the word of God in the physical and spiritual realm. Notice that Jesus did not breath on the disciples for them to receive the Spirit until after the resurrection. This is very important.

In His peace,

You might be way off because I agree with you about our tendency to exalt the the Bible over God - it is not what we should be doing.

However, God has placed himself under his own law - He will not act above it or outside it because it would unethical. His law will also last forever.

Finally, the Bible because it is a compilation of words is reductionistic - it is inspired, but merely a snapshot of God and His will for us - it cannot be more because language is limited.

 

[greatkraw]

You equate the written word of God with Christ. It is not. You want to make the Spirit, which is God, to be under the written word of God, and if you must, go right ahead. I will not. I will not deny the written word of God, but I will not place it over the Spirit of God. That would be blasphemy to me. Worse. The Spirit of God was and is so important that Jesus went back to the Father in order for the Spirit to be sent to us. His words have life in us by the Spirit, and to me they cannot exist, that is, His words, in me in the form that the Father or the Son desire unless the Spirit is in me to make the written words alive, to do as He has spoken them to do. It has always been that the Spirit is the power of God, and He has and always will enact the word of God in the physical and spiritual realm. Notice that Jesus did not breath on the disciples for them to receive the Spirit until after the resurrection. This is very important.

In His peace,

wrong
and
wrong

why are you so keen to exalt the Spirit and belittle the Bible?

I can only assume you are more interested in 'words of knowlege' than what is written down BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

 

[VW]

wrong
and
wrong

why are you so keen to exalt the Spirit and belittle the Bible?

I can only assume you are more interested in 'words of knowlege' than what is written down BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

Nope, just that one day I was studying under the Spirit, and I came to this verse: "You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men, but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another shall come in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?"

I am not keen to do anything like that. I hold the bible in very high esteem, but I hold the Spirit in the esteem that is reserved for my God, for Jesus Himself, and for the Father. That which witnesses is not that which is witnessed to. We confuse the Word with the scriptures. We have for a long time. I cannot convince anyone of this, only the Spirit can, as He did me. It changed my relationship with Him, actually, in my case made a relationship with Him possible. I was one of those He spoke to above, searching the scriptures, believing that in them I had eternal life, but I was wrong.

I am interested in the witness of the scriptures, but I am much more interested in the Spirit of the One the scriptures testify of. To Him I give glory for all time.

In His great peace my brother,
vic

 

[shad]

You equate the written word of God with Christ. It is not. You want to make the Spirit, which is God, to be under the written word of God, and if you must, go right ahead. I will not. I will not deny the written word of God, but I will not place it over the Spirit of God. That would be blasphemy to me. Worse. The Spirit of God was and is so important that Jesus went back to the Father in order for the Spirit to be sent to us. His words have life in us by the Spirit, and to me they cannot exist, that is, His words, in me in the form that the Father or the Son desire unless the Spirit is in me to make the written words alive, to do as He has spoken them to do. It has always been that the Spirit is the power of God, and He has and always will enact the word of God in the physical and spiritual realm. Notice that Jesus did not breath on the disciples for them to receive the Spirit until after the resurrection. This is very important.

In His peace,

The written word testifies of Christ and reveals Christ to man via the Holy Spirit. Christ is the Word that was made flesh and the Holy Spirit is subject to Christ as Christ is subject to the Father, yet they are one. They do not disagree nor function independently from one another, yet have different functions. The Father commissioned the Son and the Son commissioned the Spirit but the Spirit neither commissioned the Father nor the Son but is used by the Father and the Son to commission believers to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

You have quoted the written word that testifies that Christ breathed upon the disciples after the resurrection, which you have stated is very important but gave no explanation why. My question to you is this. Were the disciples with or without eternal life and the salvation of God before Christ breathed upon them the Holy Spirit? If without, then they were not saved and given eternal life until after the resurrection, but if they were given salvation before the resurrection of Christ, then it was because they believed upon Christ through His words. Look at the following passages; Jn 5:44-47, 12:46-50, 17:8-20.

Is it blasphemy for the Son to be subject to the Father? Neither should it be blasphemy for the Spirit to be subject to the Son and His word. The Son said that as He hears from the Father so He speaks / Jn 12:49, 14:10 and so it with the Spirit / Jn 16:13,14. All of these scriptures are in the gospel of John. I hope that you do not have a problem with this gospel as others have. You have to reconcile these scriptures with your faith as any other scripture that is inspired by God. We would not understanding a single thing concerning the Spirit, its function, its administration, its gifts and its fruit without the written word.

 

[VW]

The written word testifies of Christ and reveals Christ to man via the Holy Spirit. Christ is the Word that was made flesh and the Holy Spirit is subject to Christ as Christ is subject to the Father, yet they are one. They do not disagree nor function independently from one another, yet have different functions. The Father commissioned the Son and the Son commissioned the Spirit but the Spirit neither commissioned the Father nor the Son but is used by the Father and the Son to commission believers to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

You have quoted the written word that testifies that Christ breathed upon the disciples after the resurrection, which you have stated is very important but gave no explanation why. My question to you is this. Were the disciples with or without eternal life and the salvation of God before Christ breathed upon them the Holy Spirit? If without, then they were not saved and given eternal life until after the resurrection, but if they were given salvation before the resurrection of Christ, then it was because they believed upon Christ through His words. Look at the following passages; Jn 5:44-47, 12:46-50, 17:8-20.

Is it blasphemy for the Son to be subject to the Father? Neither should it be blasphemy for the Spirit to be subject to the Son and His word. The Son said that as He hears from the Father so He speaks / Jn 12:49, 14:10 and so it with the Spirit / Jn 16:13,14. All of these scriptures are in the gospel of John. I hope that you do not have a problem with this gospel as others have. You have to reconcile these scriptures with your faith as any other scripture that is inspired by God. We would not understanding a single thing concerning the Spirit, its function, its administration, its gifts and its fruit without the written word.

As the written word testifies of Jesus, the Word, so it testifies of the Spirit, the author of the word. It was important, because that was when the disciples received the new life. I believe that they would have been saved if the Spirit had not come, if He had not been given when Jesus breathed on them and said for them to receive the Spirit. But they would not have had the access to the Father, nor to the Son, that is ours by the Spirit. He, the Spirit, is our access to the Father and the Son, as we are now in this world. Now, what could be more important than that?
See, again, you equate what is written to what it testifies of. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are one. The scripture testifies of all three, as being one. When Jesus said that they were searching the scriptures because they thought that in them they had eternal life, and that they testified of Him, He was showing us something very important. Critical, even life giving. Yes, it is through the written word that I learned of the Spirit, but until I asked Him to come and be the voice of God for me and to me and in me, I did not know God, just about Him. And if we, the church, had kept the ministry of the Spirit alive, just as it was in the beginning, and had kept the living Word alive in the body, just as in the beginning, I would have had a much more productive life in the Lord, and would not have been saved by intervention, to turn me from error. I held the written word in esteem over the Spirit, and had no power in my life, because I had only the seed, but the Spirit was not active, because I did not believe in Him rightly. I was in danger of falling away. I had no power over sin, sin which ruled me and my life. The written word did not deliver me from my sin. I had no witness, could only testify to what I knew from the testimony of the scriptures. Now i have the testimony of the Spirit, and of His power to save to the utmost.

Again, I do not denigrate the written word, the scriptures. I exalt in them, in the work that the Spirit has done in my life through His understanding of them. How He has renewed me from the inside by giving me understanding of them, an understanding which is not based upon my study, but upon His revelation. Do I know all of the written word? Absolutely not, and I dare say that no one understands the scriptures as God does. Actually, I don't want to understand them completely. I want to know Jesus, more today than yesterday, and that will only happen as I spend time with Him, in the Spirit.

In His peace,