The Hard Drive

1 John 2:27
You have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don't need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true-it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ. (NLT)

It is easy to become excited about the new computers we see advertised. They have the latest version of Windows and appear to allow easy access to displaying things from one computer to another and even to our wide screen televisions. The ads make us think that purchasing that computer is all we need to do. When we get it, we will have everything we need.

As you probably know, that is not the whole truth. Windows 7 may be a great new operating system, but is it the end all to everything else we use our computers for? No. We can browse the Web with the included software and connect to other computers, but there is more we need. The hard drive is not already filled with everything there is. We have to purchase other applications to use our computer to do things such as word processing, picture editing, spreadsheets, desktop publishing, Web page editing, accounting, and the list goes on.

We are constantly adding to the base computer additional applications to allow us to fully utilize the power it has. As we grow in our knowledge, we add additional applications to use more and more of that power.

Many of us believe it is the same with being a Christian. We have been taught that man has to teach us as new Christians what it takes to walk the walk. They give us a tremendous amount of knowledge to help us understand the Bible as they understand it. We learn what we should and should not do as Christians.

If I read 1 John and understand what he is telling us, I see that we do not need man to teach us at all.

The Holy Spirit teaches us all things. We already have the hard drive filled with all knowledge inside of us. We were given it when we believed. This is the Christ within that Paul speaks of. To know more, we must ask for it to be revealed to us.

There are things we know are on our computer but we cannot find them. So we do a search by typing some key words and let the machine search through all the content to locate the file for us. We even use the Web to do the same thing. We bring up Google and type in a phone number and are taken right to the person's address and a link to see their location on a map.

The Holy Spirit is our search engine. When we need something and ask in Jesus name, He locates the answer for us and brings it to our mind. As we remain in fellowship with Christ, the Holy Spirit teaches us everything we need to know, and what he teaches is true.