Core Teaching #1 - God's Word

Core Teachings of Connection Life

Every ministry has a set of core foundational truths. They may not always put them “out there”, but they exist. These core truths (or values) are kind of put in place by the leading of the Holy Spirit to guide the ministry to stay on track of its main purpose.

Connection Life is no exception. We are this way, however, not because that is what we do as a ministry, but because these guidelines are given to us from the Holy Spirit. As mentioned above.

#1 The Word of God
The Bible is the most important Book ever written and put into a person’s hands. This was written by God. And that is really all we need to say. But it’s not all we are going to say.

This Book is called the Word of God because it is a letter/story God has given us for a number of very important reasons:
-To know and hear God - Hebrews 1:1-3
-To understand how we should act as God’s people - Ephesians 5:1
-Because God’s Word is our Guide - Psalm 119:105
-Because God’s Word helps us to not sin - Psalm 119:11
-To learn how we are meant to change and become a new person - Romans 12:1-2, John 3:5-7

These are just a small sample of reasons to study God’s Word. The list goes on and on.

A simple fact of God’s Word is that we can go on and on about it. The way that Grace came to be despite the need for the law. The way Jesus found joy in knowing the results of His sacrifice even before He went to the cross. The words of wisdom that even the sinners still live by. The incredible supernatural miracles that are still happening in the world. Which happen now because of the precedence set by God in the Bible. The fact that the just (God’s people) live by faith and that faith comes by hearing the Word of God.

The biggest struggle to the Word of God is the lack of commitment by God’s people to know it. Not memorize it, but know it. And, yes, there is a difference. We often find ourselves confused in our day to day life because we don’t take the time to read and study His Word.

The “owner’s manual” that God gave us will help us in every way and in every step we take. It is real and powerful, cover to cover.

We have a motto of sorts: “If there is dust on your Bible, there is struggle in your heart.” If we continue to be away from the Bible, we will continue to have difficulties in our relationship with God. And it is that relationship that guides us, encourages us, and builds our connection to the One who made us.

A core truth or value is a guideline. It is something that doesn’t change. It may increase in understanding or importance. But it doesn’t change. If it does, it was never a core value to begin with. In this understanding, our first core value is the Word of God as our guide.

We do not believe that God only speaks through the Bible. However, we do believe that He speaks most clearly and most frequently through it. We also believe that anything that is done “by God” or the people of God must align with the Word of God or it is not of God.

We know by Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:20-21, Matthew 24:35) that God wrote the Bible through the “pen” of those given as its author.

Now I have said all that to explain why it is so important that we teach this core value to others. And taking that even further, it is our deepest desire to not just teach the Word of God but to inspire those we teach to go forth and learn the Word of God from the Holy Spirit Himself.

If you do not understand the Word or struggle with it, the solution is to understand not just the words and passages, but to understand the One most important Key to hearing God from the Bible. In the Book of John, this is addressed by Jesus Himself.

Jesus called the Holy Spirit the “Spirit of Truth”. (John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13, 1 John 4:6) He explained that to understand the Word (Truth), we must be willing to seek the Spirit of Truth (Holy Spirit) in the process. So this is why when we are teaching we seek the Holy Spirit to do the teaching before we start.

In other words, the Bible has many, many passages that have plain and simple meanings. But there are also many areas that are not so plain. In addition to that, a good bit of revelation comes to us from scriptures that we are very familiar with but the Holy Spirit reveals more to us. We can hear a verse that we might have read a hundred times, understanding it a certain way. Then the Holy Spirit reveals a new understanding. One that might be just what we needed to hear at that moment.

So it is our desire to teach and bring better and stronger understanding of the Word. In hopes that we might inspire others to dig deeper for themselves.

Yes, every answer you will ever need can be sourced from the Word of God. And we are determined to find all of them. Well, at least as many as God will show us.

And that is our #1 Core Teaching.