Daily Bread – September 29, 2022 (The Fifth Day – Genesis 1:20-23) John 16:13 – But when the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all truth; for indeed, He will not speak on His own; but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will announce to you what is coming. Speaking on Behalf of God We should all give the most serious attention to the fact that the Holy Spirit does not speak unless He hears from the Father. It had already been established how Jesus did not speak out of His own perception of things (John 5:30, 8:26-29, 12:49, 14:10). Furthermore, Jesus said if a person spoke on their own, they did so only because they sought their own glory (John 7:18). Now, this places all who will speak on behalf of God in a very serious situation. If neither the Holy Spirit nor the Lord Jesus would speak out of their own thoughts and perception, then surely our resolve should be that we would not speak on our own. The prophet Isaiah said if a person did not speak according to the Word of God, it was because there was no light in him (Isaiah 8:20). Paul said if they preach any other gospel, then let them be anathema -meaning under a divine curse (Galatians 1:8-9). The pride and arrogance of men drive them to champion their own opinions even in the face of trampling over that which is sacred. The supposed Biblical scholars of our day take minor inconsistencies found in thousands of different hand written manuscripts and pretend to use them as their license to say whatever they want about God’s holy Word. Ministers champion the ideas of their favorite denomination, and parishioners that of their favorite ministers. Yet, we should all be trembling with a holy reverence not to speak anything on behalf of God unless it is plainly declared in His Word. If you want the favor of God in your life, then you will take note of the fact that God will dwell with those who tremble at His Word (Isaiah 66:1-2,5). If we are going to be used by God to declare His will, then we must be consecrated to the sacred realm of only speaking by His Word. Specifically, the Word we are referring to is not a subjective opinion, but that which was delivered to us in the pages of the Bible. Equally, we must recognize that the Word of God must be delivered by the power and authority of the Holy Spirit flowing through us, and not by our own intellectual skills (1 Corinthians 2:1,4,13). Blessings, Pastor Mark Spitsbergen