Page 37 and self-sacrificing on the other. Even in my life today, the leadership of the Holy Spirit virtually always involves one of two things: Serving and ministering to others or exposing some inward attitude, motive, reaction, or outlook in me that God wants to deal with. The method by which the Spirit leads is always toward a greater discovery of Christ. Sometimes these promptings will cause one to perceive things outside of natural means in order to help someone spiritually, emotionally, or physically. I will give you a very recent example to illustrate this. A relative of mine was suffering from a severe cold. She told me that she was going to take some medicine. For reasons that I cannot explain, I felt inclined to watch her take the medicine to make sure the dosage was correct. Again, there was no natural reason for me having this inclination. I’ve never checked on someone’s medicine dosage before, and I had no good reason to do it this time. The directions said to take two tablespoons of the medicine. A measuring cup was included with the medicine bottle. The medicine was poured to the two- tablespoon mark. As I looked at it, I knew it was far more than two tablespoons. We then measured it, and sure enough, it was four tablespoons! The measuring cup was not accurate. If I had not been there to check on the dosage, my loved one would have overdosed on the medicine. I was simply following an instinct I had. And there was no harm in doing so. A sensitive spirit
First level theological issues would include those doctrines most central and essential to the Christian faith… Denial of these doctrines represents nothing less than an eventual denial of Christianity itself… The set of second-order doctrines is distinguished from the first-order set by the fact that believing Christians may disagree on the second-order issues, though this disagreement will create significant boundaries between believers… Third-order issues are doctrines over which Christians may disagree and remain in close fellowship, even within local congregations. I would put most debates over eschatology, for example, in this category… Christians should never separate from a church over third-order issues.
Albert Mohler