How is that so many people use the “confirmed by the Holy Spirit” line yet couldn’t be farther apart in their “answers”. A lot of people “confess” Jesus with their mouths, which I understand comes from our Father, but yet have so many different answers to life in general, which they all back up with Scripture and “confirmation” of the Holy Spirit. This “confirmation” of the Holy Spirit has me bewildered. I could be naive, but I didn’t think or believe it was possible for “true” believers to have a Holy Spirit “confirmation” and have two different answers. Am I missing something here?
I’ve also found that some people go around claiming their views have been “confirmed” by the Holy Spirit. More often than not, this is just an attempt to give more authority to their personal opinions and is not Biblical. The Bible says we’re not to take what people say at face value but to check the Scriptures to prove the validity of their opinion (Act 17:11). This is true whether they quote Bible verses or offer the claim of supernatural confirmation. In some circles, this practice is called “trust and verify”. Paul complimented the Bereans on it. He said they received the word with an open mind but searched the Scriptures every day to verify that what he was preaching was true.
Obviously, when two people have contradictory views, both cannot have been confirmed by the Holy Spirit. At least one is saying something that’s not true, and maybe they both are. I guess people don’t understand that this casual misuse of the Holy Spirit’s authority is a violation of the commandment against bearing false witness.