This is an expansion of the piece I wrote for the Berean Table which was published there on Wednesday. The Berean Table is Sergio’s more accurate name for what he is doing on his Website. I believe it’s a good move.

I want to make sure that my intentions are clear with this article

It is not an attack on Hebraic study. What I am talking about is a basic problem with the church that is seen more clearly in the Jews who know the Messiah. I first noticed it in the megachurches. They make an obvious play for growth by giving people a set of rules to follow. People love a set of rules. Not because they follow the rules, but because it’s a legal game. They are accustomed to finding loopholes which enable them to ignore the requirement of faith. Because the satanic world system is a legalistic system, they have learned how to deal with that method of living.

We are recovering from a religious assault

It has been a real joy to develop relationships with Jewish believers in Yeshua. I am grateful to discover the incredible richness of the original Hebrew, and the glorious wonder of the walk with God found in the Torah. However, it exacerbates major problems in the institutional church which we do not deal with well at all.

Simply put, as I have written regularly, the “church” did two horrific things as they institutionalized it. First, they pushed out the Jews. But second (and equally important) they pushed out the Holy Spirit. Paul calls the Ruach HaKodesh “Christ in you, the hope of glory” Colossians 1:26–27. There are several very important aspects which were simply not available before the Ruach HaKodesh was placed within us at our rebirth (after Yeshua ascended back to the Father). In fact, the whole concept of the Spirit within us is not taught or understood by the vast majority of the institutional church.

But I just got another jolt of it. Being lazy I had just asked gotquestions.chat (a good evangelical AI search engine) where that reference was found. What I got was no reference to the Holy Spirit. The reply was “The “mystery” is the truth once hidden but now revealed: Christ is proclaimed among both Jews and Gentiles, and He dwells in all who belong to Him.” They take that from the mystery talked about in Ephesians 3 where Paul does say that the mystery is that Gentiles can now take part in the blessings of Israel. BUT, the statement in Colossians is talking about the new radical change of the Holy Spirit within which the institutional church (including the evangelicals) desperately wants us to ignore. It is also not a part of keeping the Torah. It’s not covered at all in the Tanakh (outside of the mention in Ezekiel 36:27).

What the institutional church emphasizes is intellectual educational training

This is something that the Rabbinical Jews have raised to the highest religious work. It is one of my concerns about the concept of the Berean dive into the scriptures. I agree that we are to be Bereans in that we are always to discern what we receive from human teachers. But the methodology used is not spiritual, but almost exclusively intellectual. The spiritual method is to ask the Breath of God to show me any problems with the teaching I just heard. This is what Jesus told us the Spirit was sent to do for us. He will lead us to the scriptural references about the problem.

I was reading an interchange in the comments of an article the other day. Two people exchanged at least a couple dozen comments [maybe 20-30 thousand words total] with each other to narrow down and nit pick each other’s exact position on a detail of the article, to the point where I could not even remember what the article was about. Several times I found myself going back to find out what was being chewed over by the pair. They were obviously having a wonderful time.

As we were clearly told by Paul in First Corinthians, “Knowledge puffs up.” It can be a fun ride. But that type of activity usually gets sidetracked quickly into mostly irrelevant details. More than that it can quickly get into dangerous territory and cause things like an institutional church governed by doctrinal squabbles. I’ve been led to believe that the Talmud causes similar problems in Rabbinical Judaism. But I have no experience there.

Intellectual analysis is not part of the Holy Spirit’s training

For me, one of the great joys of the Torah, and the scriptures, in general, is their focused brevity. The Lord has the wisdom to explain completely with a quick word added by His Spirit. The radical difference between the scriptures and the intellectualizing of educated religious leadership is stunning.

I ran across something like this a few minutes ago. I have taught for several decades that the Lord’s focus is on an intimate personal relationship with each of His sheep. It was just something I knew, but I have had a hard time finding quotable verses. This whole concept is something which makes both rabbinical and seminary-trained scholars very uncomfortable.

Here’s an analogy to get us started: IT departments love Windows and Chrome because the inadequacies of these operating systems provide a rich source of employment. In like manner, seminarians use complex doctrinal positions to control the church and pay their salaries. I suspect Rabbis do a lot of that also. They rely on sound bites like Faith Alone… [and all the rest of that bite] to keep people in line—because they cannot be used without complex explanations. The phrase that keeps coming to mind is “Baffle ‘em with B…S…” I used to be very good at that when I was going to school. As a heathen, it was a real nasty part of my character. I got a real rush from twisting little minds into bewilderment. Truth wasn’t the goal. Victory was. Thankfully, the Kingdom doesn’t work like that.

That doesn’t work with the Ruach HaKodesh.

You immediately find yourself talking to empty air. Our intellects are so puny when compared to our Maker. Hopefully, that will be ameliorated a little when we know as we are known.

So, why the rambling intro?

Like I said, I was reading the scriptures. I recently bought a new Bible in a different version which I have never read [CSB this time] for my daily reading. This is always a joyful time for me, because the slight differences in the translations help me notice new insights. I always start with John, then Romans, Isaiah, and through all my multitudinous favorites. It’s a rich time with the Lord.

So, today I’m in John 14 and reading about where Yeshua first tells us about the Holy Spirit. It’s a wonderful set of instructions and promises—elaborately highlighted. Then I was nailed by verse 21:

… And I will love him and will reveal Myself to him.”

This is basically word for word what I have been telling people

It’s just a little add-on to a sentence about keeping the Father’s commandments. It’s part of receiving the Holy Spirit. The New Covenant has some unique blessings.

In helping people move toward the Lord, I commonly tell them to go home into a safe place and ask Yeshua some pointed questions. I promise them, that if they are serious He will answer them—probably by a thought in his or her mind.

How can I hear you? How can I talk to you? What do I need to do? And so on…

I have found that the Lord has a unique path for each of us that fits our character and abilities. His relationships are designed uniquely for each different sheep. That little add-on sentence I highlighted above is how He does it. The Holy Spirit will teach us how to verify the answers we get to our questions.

I just spent from January 2020 to January 2026 focused on that process. I cannot begin to explain all that I learned in addition to what I started with during the first 46 years. I had to scrap quite a few of my former understandings. But He loved me, and revealed Himself to me.

It’s an amazing joy to have the Lord answer direct questions in a verifiable manner. The testing process of 1 John 4 helps me, but I can’t give you your method of verification. That is between you and the Lord. You are to ask Him, “How do you want me to do this?” It’s an ongoing process. If you begin to rely on your methodology, the Lord will change the method. He knows how to keep it in faith. Plus, He knows how to make sure you get the answers you need. It’s all part of His promise to reveal Himself to you.

It’s part of your daily walk with Him

This is what Paul was talking about when He told us to pray without ceasing. It is expected that we talk with the Lord about our lives, questions we have, and the understandings which we need all day long as we live it out. This takes practice. I remember when I first started that I asked questions with Yes/No answers so I could get a clearer handle on how it was going to work.

I had to learn how to sort out thoughts into who was speaking: The Lord, the enemy, or just myself. In reality, when we need to know what to do—the enemy’s input and mine are basically useless or worse. I need to hear from the Lord. If I don’t need to hear from the Lord about a particular question the Lord doesn’t hesitate to respond something like, “Trust Me.”

It’s a new skill to learn how to communicate clearly with a person you cannot see or feel. The faith requirement is a tough test. But Yeshua told us, “I love you and I’ll reveal Myself to you.” I can strongly testify that this is true. More than that, He is witty, funny, quick, and a joy to be around. He knows everything—and everyone. I have learned to completely trust Him in our conversations. If He says I don’t need to know that, it’s good enough for me. Sometimes I ask why. Sometimes He actually tells me.

I ask Him about minuscule things like which way shall I go on my route to work this morning. At the grocery store I ask which pepper is a good one that won’t spoil. When cooking, how much spice should I add. I have learned how to pour in ingredients and stop when He lets me know it’s right. He can compensate for the strength of new spices or the weakness of old ones. He warns me if the milk is going bad. Like I say, I ask about countless things as I learn to recognize His voice.

I ask Him how He felt when they dragged the woman caught in adultery in front of Him, but not the man. I don’t use His answers to build doctrine. I use His answers to know Him better. Much of it is between He and me and no one else’s business. I do not use His answers to pronounce prophetic insight or anything like that. He’s revealing Himself, and He’s the one who determines what is to be shared. He’s Lord and King. I’m just a little kid brother. But as I am found trustworthy, He shares more.

Mainly, it’s a major part of my life

And it should be part of yours as well. I’ve written about this a lot and have a category on this Substack site called Hearing Jesus now. But feel free to ask Yeshua anything. He can handle it. It is how you will come to know Him. Yada: we need to know Him intimately. That takes time and effort on your part. He’ll love the process and so will you.

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