The Witness of the Spirit Wednesdays with Wesley

Doctrines, experiences to try,
We to the sacred standard fly.
Assured the Spirit of our Lord
Can never contradict his Word.
What e’re his Spirit speaks in me
Must with the written word agree;
If not: I cast it all aside
As Satan’s voice, or nature’s pride.
This verse from a Charles Wesley hymn (973 in Volume 1 of Short Hymns) speaks to the witness of the Holy Spirit and the witness of Scripture and the way they are dependent upon each other. The Scriptures reveal the Word of God inspired by the Spirit of God, and yet the Spirit also enables us to interpret Scripture according to that Word. The Spirit and the Word do not contradict one another, and that’s especially true when it comes to the doctrine of assurance, which we’re continuing to explore in this episode of Wednesdays with Wesley.
Sermon X, The Witness of the Spirit, is actually part 1 of a two-part discourse in which John Wesley will expound on the ways in which we can discern the assuring word of the Spirit of God versus our own inner voice or, more insidiously, against the voice of Satan. That sort of discernment is vital, especially in an age where plenty of people are claiming that they are hearing “new things” from the Spirit of God that diverge from what God has revealed in the Scriptures.
Read The Witness of the Spirit
Send your questions and comments to the host, Bob Kaylor, at revbkaylor@gmail.com.


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