From Grant to You – God’s Word and the Holy Spirit
posted by Navigators on July 15th, 2024 in Blog | The Word
First published in Compass Winter 2024 issue.
Dear Friend,
In [the most recent issue] of Compass, we continue to consider God’s word. Sometimes one group can so emphasise the Bible and another the Holy Spirit, but there is an intimate connection between the Holy Spirit and the word of God. Both the Hebrew (ruah) and the Greek (pneuma) can be translated breath or spirit. So the connection between the Spirit of God and the word of God is as close as the connection between breath and speech. Indeed, you can’t have speech without breath!
Genesis 1 demonstrates this deep connection: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the breath of God, or the Spirit of God, was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, through breathing out, “let there be light” (Genesis 1:2,3). Or Isaiah 59:21, “As for me, this is my covenant with them” says the Lord: “My Spirit is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth.” Or Isaiah 61:1 that Jesus quotes in Luke 4:18, “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor”. Where the Word of God is, there the Spirit of God is. They can’t be separated. As Ephesians 6:17 says, “The sword of the Spirit is the word of God”. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that “All Scripture is God breathed” or as other translations put it “All Scripture is inspired by God”. The word of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The command in Ephesians 5:18,19, “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,” is parallel with the command in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. . . singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” Being filled with the word of Christ and being filled with the Spirit are parallel, because the Spirit comes where the word comes and fills us with faith.
The Spirit makes much of Jesus. This means he comes to ignite joy in our hearts over the glory of Jesus and there will be no greater joy than the fullness of joy in the glory of Jesus. Jesus himself said in John 5:39 that we must not see the Scriptures as an end in themselves. He said, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify of me, and yet you refuse to come to me to have life”.
