I totally agree.
I agree, and I'm not quite sure why we have a different perspective on this. Perhaps there's something in my explanation that didn't come across as I intended, or maybe you're interpreting it differently. I believe that not everyone possesses the same gifts of the Holy Spirit, which can sometimes lead to misunderstandings among our fellow believers. The reason I initially commented on your post was that I appreciated it and agreed with your thoughts. I certainly didn't mean to upset you by responding to your question "Would you recommend to me any preacher and his sermons on the internet who you believe is teaching "the whole counsel of God?"". Wishing you peace, and may God bless you as you continue to share the message of Jesus Christ.
I posted “I’ve Written Very Boldly” on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, based off Romans 15:14-16 and Revelation, chapters 2-3. You responded that same day in agreement with what the Lord had guided me in writing and posting. I thanked you for your response, and I agreed with you. End of discussion.
Then, on Thursday, March 20, while I was in the middle of writing “Spiritual Sacrifices Acceptable to God,” the Lord paused me, and he encouraged me to ask you a question, which had to do with you recommending any preacher who you believed was teaching “the whole counsel of God” and who was not compromising the truth in any way. And then the Lord incorporated the content of my question to you, in some manner, into the devotion I was in the process of writing, as I was being led by the Spirit in what to write.
That same day you responded, “John MacArthur teaches verse by verse and I have listened to him for years. He does not beg for money, and his sermons are available online for free.” And now God knew that was the name that you were going to recommend when he had me ask you that question.
I responded back to you the same day letting you know that I was quite familiar with John MacArthur and his teachings, that he teaches more truth than many do, and that I had watched and listened to many of his sermons over the years (my husband was a huge fan of his). But then I let you know that I do not agree with everything that he teaches under the Reformed faith theology, and with what I have heard him say about the physical nation of Israel (but that is very limited), and with what I believe is his view on spiritual gifts (I believe that he believes in the cessation of some gifts of the Spirit), nor do I agree entirely with him on his view on how the Holy Spirit moves and works in the lives of those who are true followers of Jesus Christ.
In your response back to me, that same day, you stated that you were okay with the teachings of John MacArthur, and you stated that we should not argue about things that are not salvation issues. I put a like on what you said, because you were talking about avoiding foolish and stupid arguments and arguments over disputable matters. I absolutely agree with that!! But then I went on to let you know that our salvation is not the only critical subject that needs to be talked about, but we need to talk about anything that impacts our walks of obedience to the Lord in a negative way.
Then I explained to you what I was talking about, but you did not receive it in the way that I meant it, and so we had some back and forths on that subject. So I am going to attempt, once more, to explain to you where I am coming from in this, and why I believe it is a critical subject which needs to be talked about, which is not stupid or foolish. And I just ask you to pray.
If you pay close attention to how John MacArthur (who may not do anymore teaching) has taught on the subject of the Holy Spirit, in relationship to his ministry, and in relationship to all who he categorizes as not hearing from the Spirit, I believe that you will see that, although he prays for guidance of the Holy Spirit in what he teaches, he also leans heavily on “the dead men” for what to preach. And he does not believe that we can hear the Spirit speak to us apart from the written Scriptures. In that video with him and the man who was interviewing him, the man stated something about how MacArthur uses a “broad brush” in his condemnation of the charismatics (I do not identify as a charismatic) who are hearing from the Holy Spirit.
Now, like I said previously, I absolutely agree that there is much abuse of this subject, especially among the charismatics, and that many people are claiming that they heard this or that from God, or from the Spirit, but what they claimed they were hearing from God actually contradicted the teachings of the Scriptures. For example, when someone says that the Spirit took control of them and they had no control of their own bodies, and so they did all sorts of things we might regard as not normal, then that is contradicting the teachings that, as followers of Christ, we are to be self-controlled. But the Scriptures teach us not to despise prophecies, but to test them to see if they are of God, so that we don’t end up quenching the Spirit.
I also do not believe there is any biblical foundation for the cessation of some of the gifts of the Spirit. And Peter quoted Joel on the day of Pentecost in stating that what Joel had prophesied was then taking place but that it was also a prophesy of what we can expect to take place in these last days before the return of Christ. God will and he has poured out his Spirit on his followers (both male and female), and they are and will be prophesying, and some are dreaming dreams and seeing visions. And I believe that is happening right now, and it is happening in my life (for the past nearly 21 years, especially). But is there much abuse of this? Absolutely there is!! But we don’t “throw out the baby with the bathwater,” so to speak. We test what we hear in prayer and in the study of the Scriptures, taught in context.
For this is one of the ways in which God called me to this ministry, and this is one of the ways in which he speaks to me through his Spirit and he leads me in what to write, which includes devotions, poems, memes, songs (not writing anymore of those) and video talks, in conjunction and in agreement with the teachings of the Scriptures, taught in their appropriate context, and biblically applied to our lives today in all practicality, especially with regard to the times in which we now live, which are very troubling times when the gospel is being destroyed and so many people are being deceived, and so we need servants of the Lord who will listen to the Holy Spirit and who will speak the truth of God’s word to the people for this day and time.
But if we tell Christians that some of these gifts of the Spirit no longer exist, and if we tell them that they cannot hear from the Spirit apart from the Scriptures, then we are hindering them and their walks of faith in obedience to the Lord in obedience and surrender to the will of God for their lives, in their callings, in their assignments from God, in their God-chosen body parts, with the gifts given to them of the Spirit, as he chooses. And then we end up limiting and quenching the Spirit and hindering those who will hear from the Lord if we teach the cessation of particular spiritual gifts and if we limit the Holy Spirit to only speaking through the written word. And I am not accusing you of such. But I believe this has been MacArthur’s practice.
Well, this is long enough, and all I can ask of you is that you take what I have shared with you to the Lord in prayer, and that you seek his counsel and his wisdom and understanding on this subject, and that you see, as I believe you do, that being able to be led of the Spirit in how we live and in the things that the Lord would have us to do, or where he would have us to live, or what gifts we have, or what body part belongs to us, is critical to our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord in being who he designed for us to be even before he laid the foundations of the earth. Before he even formed me in the womb of my mother, he had planned for my life who he has made me to be and what he is having me do. And my life is surrendered to his will.
And the year the Lord called me to this ministry, in 2004, I gained possession of my grandmother’s journals. She died when I was 2 years old, so I never knew her. But as soon as I began reading her journals I began to cry. I was so much like her in so many ways. We had the same love for Jesus, the same passion for sharing the gospel, the same concern for the hurting, the lonely, the rejected, and the needy, and for all who were confessing faith in Jesus but were still living like the devil. She used the same phrases that I use, and we shared many of the same favorite Scriptures.
But she kept quoting something (without a Scripture reference), and when I looked it up, it was Habakkuk 2:2-3, from which the Lord gave me this calling to write down what he teaches me from his word each day and to place these writings on the internet so that a herald could (run with it – the title of my blog). And she prayed that God would raise up someone like who he then made me to be, only she thought I would be male. But God chose me, a woman, for his purposes and for his glory and for his praise.
Sincerely, with the love of Jesus, Sue J Love, Christ’s Free Servant
