Q.  Thank you so much for the wonderful teaching on God’s Word.  You are doing a great job in helping so many others to understand fully what is written there.  May God bless your life.  In Expressing Our Gratitude on June 13th you said  “When we’re walking with the Lord we have to override the Holy Spirit’s direction to prevent Him from  manifesting good works in our life”. I don’t understand us having to ‘overide’ the Holy Spirit’s direction.  I thought we are to obey the Holy Spirit’s direction or allow Him to lead us.  Can you explain?

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Q.  Wouldn’t it be more accurate to state that the Gospels were written under either the “guidance” or “authority” of the Holy Spirit rather than the “inspiration”?  I realize that at first blush this might seem like hair splitting; however, I think that using a word slightly stronger than “inspiration” would better convey the authority of the Gospels.  People might question less and read more.

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Q. It seems to me that Jesus gave up his divinity when He became a man. He was still God and man but in order to pay the price to redeem us he had to do it as a sinless man. I don’t believe he ever used His divine power to do any of the works that He had done, but that He operated only in faith. Otherwise Satan could have said he (God) was operating illegally in the Earth.

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Q.  I have a question about the Holy Spirit being given at Pentecost.  If the apostles received the Holy Spirit on that day, what did they receive when Jesus breathed on them in John 20:22 before His ascension?  I am confused about these two events.

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Q. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”  Could you help me to understand this in greater depth? I gather from this verse that unbelievers (those not born again) who do not have the guidance of the holy spirit reject the word of God or simply don’t understand it. Following this trend of thought, is it only believers who can understand the word of God? How then do unbelievers become believers if they cannot understand the things or word of God?

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Q.  I understand that children before the age of accountability are saved (based on Romans 7:9.) Are they indwelt with the Holy Spirit at that time?

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Q.  Recently someone was quoting John 20:21-22 as proof that if we forgive someone, they are forgiven – and if we do not forgive them, they remain unforgiven. This was put forward as “proof” that we are able to forgive sins in others just as God does, or in spite of God, as the case may be.  I know this is not the intention of this verse, but I am not sure how to refute it. Can you help?

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Q.  I have two questions. My first question is about the Pharisees. Throughout he gospels we see that the Pharisees just about hated Jesus. My question is, why? Why did they hate him? I mean, he was healing the sick and giving sight to the blind. Why weren’t they compelled to follow Him?  My second question is: why did Jesus teach in parables? When I was reading the gospel of Mark recently, it seemed like He didn’t want the people to understand His message. Why is that?

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Q. My Bible study on Sunday night the question came up about King Saul’s salvation. One lady thought there was a verse in the Psalms that said he was saved. The leader of the study thought he was not saved. I could not find the verse. Can you shed any light on this?

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Q.   I’ve been a believer since I was little and now I’m having trouble because after a life changing experience I’ve realized that in the past I may not have believed it in my heart after all.  I have problems knowing if the Holy Spirit is guiding me.  I’ve always felt bad when sinning because I knew it was wrong, but there have been times in my life when I sinned knowingly and didn’t care.  Since I didn’t care, was I saved?

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