Quotes about Teaching

The two must be united — the Word and the Spirit — because only in these can we know for sure the will of God and learn to pray according to it. In the heart, the Word and the Spirit must meet; it is only by such indwelling that we can experience their teaching.

The power of the church truly to bless, rests on intercession — asking and receiving heavenly gifts to carry to other men. Because this is so, it is no wonder that where — owing to lack of teaching or spiritual insight, trust in our own diligence and effort, the influence of the world and the flesh, and that we work more than we pray — the presence and power of God are not seen in our work as we would wish.

And if he enjoys the reading of the Word little, that is the reason he should read it much, for the frequent reading of the Scriptures creates a delight in them. The more we read them, the more we desire to do so. Above all, he should seek to have it settled in his own mind that God alone by His Spirit can teach him, and therefore, as he asks God for blessings, it serves him to seek God's blessing prior to reading and while reading.

The teaching of the Spirit — not without or against the Word but as something above and beyond it and in addition to it, without which we cannot see God's will — is the heritage of every believer. It is through the Word and the Word alone that the Spirit teaches, applying the general principles or promises to our special need.

In this way our Lord teaches us that with infinite fatherliness and faithfulness is how God meets us in secret, so our part should be the childlike simplicity of faith with the confidence that our prayer will bring a blessing.

We must learn from Jesus, how He is meek and lowly of heart. He teaches us where true humility takes its proper place and finds its strength. This happens when we take hold of the knowledge that it is God who works all in all, that our responsibility is to yield to Him in perfect surrender and dependence, in full compliance to be and to do nothing of ourselves.

It it universally admitted that the Holy Spirit has not, in the teaching of the Church or the faith of believers, that place of honour and power, which becomes Him as the Revealer of the Father and the Son. Seek a deep conviction [p 141 ] that without the Holy Spirit the clearest teaching on holiness, the most fervent desires, the most blessed experiences even, will only be temporary, will produce no permanent result, will bring no abiding rest.

Many believers keep their minds occupied only with the external Christ on the cross or in heaven, and wait for the blessing of His teaching and His working without understanding that the blessing of Pentecost brings Him into us, to work His life in us.

Jesus did not teach His disciples how to preach but how to pray. To know how to speak to God is more vital than knowing how to speak to men. It is power with God not man that is of supreme

We offer ourselves as learners; we would indeed be taught of Thee. 'Lord, teach us to pray.

Jesus Christ is able, by His divine grace, to prevent the power of self from ever asserting itself or gaining the upper hand; Jesus Christ is willing to become the life of the soul; Jesus Christ is willing to teach us so to follow Him, and to have heart and life set upon Him alone, that He shall ever and always be the light of our souls.

This teaches us that no outward instruction, even from Christ himself, or His words in Scripture, can bring us the full blessing—until the Holy Spirit works it in us.