The Father, the Son and the Holy Bible

[Jonathan david]

Not really because personal revelation is never authorative, it's never meant to find its way into a new book to be added to the Bible, called "the book of Colonel" or something. When some guy visiting church sits down at the same cafe table with me and the Holy Spirit tells me to tell him the same sentence that some lady in an other church told him as an answer to the same question about his personal life and with the same tone of voice then that is not to be added to the Bible, nor is it generally authorative. As an example.

Yes, true, and you will get to explain it to the Inquisitors.
My point is that there need be no Inquisition in the first place.
Pastor Robert Morris, in his excellent book, Frequency, tells the story of his senior pastor, who was forced to face a credentialing committee, because he believed "that God speaks today" (through the HS).
After a 3 hour grilling, he had a question for the "Inquisitor General."
1 Are you called to the ministry? YES
2 Who called you? GOD
3 Can you show me the verse in the Bible where God called YOU to the ministry? DEAD SILENCE

[Colonel]

Yes, true, and you will get to explain it to the Inquisitors.
My point is that there need be no Inquisition in the first place.
Pastor Robert Morris, in his excellent book, Frequency, tells the story of his senior pastor, who was forced to face a credentialing committee, because he believed "that God speaks today" (through the HS).
After a 3 hour grilling, he had a question for the "Inquisitor General."
1 Are you called to the ministry? YES
2 Who called you? GOD
3 Can you show me the verse in the Bible where God called YOU to the ministry? DEAD SILENCE

That sounds familiar actually, I encountered cessationists on CARM that somehow believed that God had called them to ministry. I never figured out how that came to pass though.

[Jonathan david]

There is a real practicality of the harmony of the Word and the Spirit.

The way I would put it,
Regarding PRINCIPLES, the Word gives us sufficient general principles to live our lives (including specific commands).
Regarding INSTANCES, The Word, however cannot literally cover every type of specific instance or aspect we will encounter in life. That is why the Holy Spirit is vital to "fill in those blanks", so to speak.

EXAMPLES:
1 The Word guides us on the many HOW aspects of marriage, but won't tell us literally WHO to marry. Thank God the Holy Spirit (if we are listening to his voice), will confirm to us,"Go for it!", or "Run away!" The Word and Spirit can also work together: You get a pull in your spirit to go to 1 Kings 16:31 = Jezebel ).

2 The Word wont tell us WHAT job to take, but the Holy Spirit will. "No, silly, don't just take JobA because it pays more than JobB. I want you to be "the light" at JobB, a place of darkness that I am calling you to clean up."

[Quest]

This may oversimplify but here is how I see this...the Bible is what God said and the Spirit is what He is saying...What He SAID helps affirm what He is saying..

[Jonathan david]

AW Tozer in The Crucified Life
One important point many fail to understand is that the Bible was never meant to replace God: rather, it was meant to lead us into the heart of God. Too many Christians stop with the text and never go on to experience the presence of God.

[Quest]

There is the danger though, of interpreting scripture from other sources and believing it's the Spirit doing it....Satan is really good at spinning scripture to have just enough truth to make it a palatable lie....

I trust the Spirit to always confirm His voice with scripture ALONE, and 'that two or three'.

[Colonel]

There is the danger though, of interpreting scripture from other sources and believing it's the Spirit doing it....Satan is really good at spinning scripture to have just enough truth to make it a palatable lie....

I trust the Spirit to always confirm His voice with scripture ALONE, and 'that two or three'.

The Bible, the Holy Spirit then add a bunch of Jewish fables ?

[John]

I'll just say this and I think most will understand what is meant although I know a few will take it wrong.

I have a friend, actually a former student who the Lord led to spend a lot of time every day in worship. Several hours a day as a matter of fact. To make a long story short, after several weeks of this, he began to have some spiritual experiences that were a little out of the norm for him. One day he was experiencing one and and got a little scared because what he was experiencing he couldn't find specifically in the Bible. When he began the experience and started to get afraid, he said all of a sudden he had a vision and he saw the word "ACTS" in bold fiery letters referring obviously to the book of Acts. And audibly Lord said to him, "The promise of the Father was not the Bible, the promise of the Father was the Holy Spirit".

So yes, many have replaced actual interaction and fellowship of the Holy Spirit with the Bible. I've even personally heard people say what you said there that the way we hear God is from the Bible, totally limiting how God speaks to them. Obviously we do, but that's not the only way. As someone who has personally heard the 'audible inner voice' of the Holy Spirit I know Him speaking to us outside the Bible is real. If one has never experienced it it's hard to describe. It's audible, as clear as anyone physical talking to you, but it comes from inside. Obviously it won't contradict the Bible. But every experience a person could have with God is not limited to what happened in the recorded scriptures.

The Word will validate the experience. Without that witness many have gone astray.

[Quest]

The Bible, the Holy Spirit then add a bunch of Jewish fables ?

Or fine historians and theologians....

[Jonathan david]

The Word will validate the experience. Without that witness many have gone astray.

This is a very good spot to define/apply what we mean by using the Word as "validation."

Using Fuego's example:

I would use the Word in the following way in support of Fuego's friend highlighted elements (You all know the verses, you Bible scholars):
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
- Visions are biblical
- God speaks to his people in many ways, even audibly, all through Scripture (even a donkey)

SPECIFIC INSTANCE (CONTENT)
- Fiery Letters "ACTS" is an "amplified" Biblical "vision", with no biblical contradiction, call it God's vivid attention-getting artistry
- God's audible statement is not counter-biblical, but "explanatory" and "interpretational" and is in reasonable harmony with how we should view Scripture in the spiritual realm.

It's these instances that God has full prerogative to speak any message any way he wants. I would posit that we often WILL NOT find the exact instance in the Bible that we are experiencing, because there are billions of situations that it CANNOT cover.

There is no specific Bible verse that the Holy Spirit will impress me to STOP my car at a green light and I don't know why. (Then 2 seconds later a speeding car speeds across the intersection that would have been certain death).

But, again there are general principles that do validate my hearing from God , that the Holy Spirit will give me DIRECT and IMMEDIATE INSTRUCTIONS at any given time to guide, direct and protect me, as God gave instructions to Cornelius in Acts 5 via an angel.

1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. 2 He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. 3 One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!” 4 Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked.

The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”

So we see that Cornelius was in-tune with God, being devout and a man of prayer. People in that flow will be more like the "sheep who hear God's voice," who have an affinity and confidence in recognizing that voice, and thereby not so easily swayed by the wrong voice.