The Word and the Spirit not to be separated

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The Word and the Spirit not to be separated

Forum: Theological Expressions
Re:

My Cell Group Experience (Wahshing)
Re:

It's nothing new what you're experiencing. (SK)
Re:

Hi SK, (Wahshing)
Re:

Hi Wah Shing (Royston Ong)
Date: 2001, Aug 20
From: SK SK

Pardon me for writing again and i hope this will be the last in this thread. In reply to what you said, Royston, about the 2 different camps in the Church today which can be boiled down to how one is dependent on Scriptures only and the other weak in the Word but more dependent on the ways of the Holy Spirit. Peter Lord has this to say in his book entitled "Hearing God". 'One of the strongest teachings of the New Testament is that God the Holy Spirit lives in the believer now, to be to the believer all that Jesus was to the disciples....(Jhn 14:16).' -------------------------------------------------------------- 'It is the teaching of the New Testament writers that the christian norm is to walk in the Spirit. Paul, when he wrote to the Romans, specifically defined the children of God : those "who are being led by the Spirit of God" (Rom 8:14). "You abide in Jesus," John writes to the believers and goes on to explain: "The anointing you received from Him {the Holy Spirit} abides in you,and you have no need for any one to teach you; just as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie,and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him" (1 Jhn 2:27)' -------------------------------------------------------------- 'The scriptures are only objective revelations as the Holy Spirit makes them so(my comment: I only heard that it is thru study from Church Fathers, theological theses, commentaries, language translations, hermenuetical exegesis, etc to derive at what the intended meaning of the Scriptures most of the time only). Scripture and man without the Holy Spirit become a subjective revelation. That is, they mean what each individual thinks they mean. (My comment: Just look at the amount of bible study tools and resources we have had for centuries and yet we still have, as many different views concerning a certain portion of Scripture, as we have church buildings.) A look at all the contradictory ideas that different Christians hold, all using the same Bible and even the same passage of scripture is enough to convince us that we need the Spirit of God to illuminate the truth. In outlining the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said he would live in us for many reasons. Among these -- and possibly one of the most important -- is that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth (John 16:13). He will take the Scriptures and tell us what THEY MEAN: what they mean for us individually and what they mean for us now. To read and study the Scritpure while ignoring its Author is one of the ways we 'grieve' and quench the Holy Spirit ( cf Eph 4:30). To grieve and quench the Holy Spirit is to grieve and quench Jesus Christ. Listen to A. W Tozer: The Bible will never be a living Book to us until we are convinced that God is articulate in His Universe. To jump from a dead, impersonal world to a dogmatic Bible is too much for most people. They may admit that they should accept the Bible as the Word of God,and they may try to think of it as such, but they find it impossible to believe that the words there on the page are actually for them. A man may say, "These words are addressed to me." and yet in his heart not feel and know that they are there. He is a victim of a divided psychology. He tries to think of God as mute everywhere else and vocal only in a book. I believe much of our religious unbelief is due to a wrong conception of and a wrong feeling for the Scriptures of Truth. A silent God suddenly begins to speak in a book and when the book was finished lapsed back into silence again forever.... I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not only a book which was once spoken, but a book which is NOW SPEAKING. The prophets habitually said, " Thus saith the Lord." They mean their hearers to understand that God's speaking is in the continuous present. (quoted by Peter Lord on Tozer's The Pursuit of God) Scripture itself speaks of the danger of reading it without the Author, warning us that ,"the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor 3:6). Jesus' prayer at the end of His earthly ministry included a plea for unity in His disciples ( Jhn 17:23). And yet God's written Word, the Bible has become the basis for divisions and animosities. Evvery denominations and even many individuals within denominations differ on what the Bible meant. They use these differences of opinions as an excuse to withdraw, to criticize and to condemn others. Without the Author -- The Holy Spirit -- to interprete it for us, the Bible becomes a dividing wall, killing people's fellowship with one another. But when the Bible is read under the guidance of its Author, its words live and unify the church.' God bless, SK