Can True Believers Be Ignorant?

Can true believers in Christ be ignorant? Can they do this in the very face of what the Holy Spirit has written? Absolutely! I have and continue to cry out to the Father regularly to deliver me from the false teachings of the different factions in Christianity. We are all impacted by Rome and her daughters. Several years ago the Lord showed me clearly:

            I did not believe much of what God said in the holy scriptures.

Instead, I believed what the teachers had taught me God meant.   

I have not been the same since. I seek the Lord’s help constantly for deliverance from the false teachings of ALL the different Christian churches, denominations and sects. I choose to believe what the Holy Spirit has written and bring my mind under subjection to what he said. I could give many examples of my rejection of scriptural truths. I have been systematically going through 1 Corinthians and find myself today looking at chapter 12, which I rejected for nearly 50 years.

1 Corinthians 12: ISV

1Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I don’t want you to be ignorant. 2You know that when you were unbelievers, you were enticed and led astray to worship idols that couldn’t even speak.

3For this reason I want you to be aware that no one who is speaking by God’s Spirit can say, “Jesus is cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

·         4Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, 

·         5and there are varieties of ministries, but the same Lord. 

·         6There are varieties of results,

·         but it is the same God who produces all the results in everyone.

7To each person has been given the ability to manifest the Spirit for the common good. 

·         8To one has been given a message of wisdom by the Spirit;

·         to another the ability to speak with knowledge according to the same Spirit; 

·         9to another faith by the same Spirit;

·         to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit; 

·         10to another miraculous results;

·         to another prophecy;

·         to another the ability to distinguish between spirits;

·         to another various kinds of languages;

·         and to another the interpretation of languages. 

11But one and the same Spirit produces all these results and gives what he wants to each person.

Just because wicked people perform false signs and wonders does not destroy the priceless gifts God has given. Almost exactly 50 years after giving my life to Christ I was given the gift of various prayer languages and later witnessed to a Cherokee Indian in his language. I used to ridicule the gifts. 

I am not ashamed of Jesus the Messiah, his Father or his Holy Spirit. Neither am I ashamed of the gifts he has given me. I am simply a child who looks to his Father and Jesus Christ his son, who is Lord over all. You can trust what God the Holy Spirit has written.  

Do not be afraid, but fear God. Do not mock his precious gifts or say such ignorant statements as “I don’t need the gifts, I have Jesus”. Brothers and sisters, how can we love God and not want the gifts he desires to give to us? Actually, we are told in verse 11, the Holy Spirit "produces all these results and gives what he wants to each person".