How to Know if a Bible Teacher is Biblical
Have you just discovered a new preacher and wonder if what they teach is Biblical?
The good news is that if you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, you can trust the Holy Spirit within you to bear witness with the truth when you hear it.
How to Know if a Preacher is Biblical
It is so important that we know the Word of God for ourselves. A true teacher of the Bible will never contradict the written word of God.
There is an example in the Bible of how people responded when they heard someone teaching the truth. It is found in Luke 24.
After Jesus had risen from the dead, he appeared to some of his disciples and began to walk with them and explain the Scriptures to them. After the experience, the disciples said that their hearts burned within them as He taught them.
And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” Luke 24:32
When you listen to someone who is rightly dividing the Word and correctly explaining the Scriptures, your spirit (the part of you that is born again) will bear witness to the truth you are hearing.
As you listen to a true Bible teacher, Jesus will open up the Scriptures to you and give you understanding.
And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Luke 24:45
Although your carnal mind may be struggling to make sense of it, you will sense a peace, an excitement, or something within you bearing witness with the truth. You can trust that the Holy Spirit within you will not lead you into error or deception.
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; John 16:13
This witness of the Holy Spirit within you will guide you into all truth.
There are times in life when we may encounter truth but are just not ready to understand and receive it. But if you are someone who truly wants to know God and His ways, the Lord will bring the truth back to you again and again until you are ready to receive it.
You can trust the Holy Spirit to bear witness when you hear teaching that is Biblical. Your mind may think it sounds a bit crazy, or too good to be true, or too far from what you’ve known all your life, but within you, the Holy Spirit will assure you that what you are hearing is true.
For more about how to hear the Holy Spirit speak, read 7 Ways the Holy Spirit Speaks.
When You Hear Truth, Don’t Harden Your Heart
When you hear the Bible explained in a way that you have not heard before, your carnal mind may want to reject it.
The Bible is spiritual, and it must be understood and received spiritually. You must believe that it is the truth first, and then understanding will come.
Your natural mind cannot understand the things of the spirit. God’s truth has to be spiritually discerned.
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14
Receiving God’s wisdom requires humility. If you think you already know everything, how can God teach you anything?
If you are sick and depressed and struggling through life, God doesn’t want you to continue that way. But it will require you to humble yourself and say “maybe there’s some things I could learn”.
Once you do this, God can pour His supernatural wisdom into your life and transformation can begin.
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 1 Corinthians 3:18
It is so important how you respond when you hear the truth. Do not harden your heart and close up your ears! If you don’t understand it at first, that’s OK.
Keep listening and ask the Holy Spirit to give you revelation. He wants you to understand.
If you reject truth because you don’t understand, then the devil has successfully stolen that Word from you and you will never get to the place where God wants you to be.
If you don’t understand the Bible when you read it, it is imperative that you find an anointed teacher to explain it to you.
When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart… Matthew 13: 19
When you hear truth and reject it, you are closing your eyes and hardening your heart. The Bible calls this a wicked heart of unbelief. And it will keep you out of the wonderful life God has for you, in the same way it kept the Israelites out of the promised land.
For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Hebrews 3:16-19
What is the Ministry Gift of a Teacher?
The teacher is listed as one of the five ministry gifts found in the book of Ephesians.
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, Ephesians 4:11
The teaching gift is a special gift given to certain people in the Body of Christ in order to explain the Word of God and the things of the Kingdom to the Church.
The teaching gift is for the Body of Christ.
God wants you well and prospering (3 John 2), and He will lead you to teachers who have the knowledge you need.
God says that His people perish for a lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). If you are suffering in any area of your life, God has good news for you! But He has to get that knowledge to you and He usually does this through the Bible and a teacher to explain it to you.
Bible teachers are a gift to the Body of Christ. Jesus gives us teachers so that we can be edified for the work of the ministry.
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, Ephesians 4:11-12
Teachers Help Us Understand Biblical Truths
We need teachers to explain things to us in a way that only someone with a teaching gift can do. Some preachers been given a teaching gift, the ability to explain things in a way that you can understand.
When you listen to true Biblical teachings, you will find that things in the Bible you never understood suddenly become so simple. This is a result of the teaching gift in operation and the Holy Spirit giving you understanding.
There is an example of this is Acts chapter 8. There was a man from Ethiopia who was reading the book of Isaiah but needed a teacher. He needed someone to explain what He was reading. The Bible requires understanding for all the dots to connect.
So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him…..Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. Acts 8:30-31, 35
There are many good teachers in the Body of Christ. Find one that you like and become a student of the Word. It will change your life in every way!