The Holy Spirit and the Word

The Holy Spirit first works in the believer’s life when they read and study the word of God. Peter reminds all Christians, “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:19-21). In the parable of the Sower (Luke 8:4-15), Jesus describes the seed, which is the word of God affecting the hearts of the hearers. Not all change would produce good fruit. When examining the power of the Spirit and the word, everything said to be done by the Spirit also accomplished by the word.

• Both instruct (Nehemiah 9:20; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17)
• Both beget (John 3:5; 1 Corinthians 4:15)
• Both teach (John 14:26; John 6:45)
• Both save (1 Corinthians 6:11; Acts 11:14)
• Both sanctifies (1 Peter 1:2; John 17:17)
• Both testify (Nehemiah 9:30; John 5:39)
• Both dwell (Ephesians 5:18; Colossians 3:16)
• Both convict (John 16:8; Titus 1:9)

Paul told the church at Thessalonica to not quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). “This Spirit is represented as being quenched when any act is done, word spoken, or temper indulged, contrary to its dictates. It is the Spirit of love, and therefore anger, malice, revenge, or any unkind or unholy temper, will quench it so that it will withdraw its influences; and then the heart is left in a state of hardness and darkness. It has been observed that fire may be quenched as well by heaping earth on it as by throwing water on it; and so the love of the world will as effectually grieve and quench the Spirit as any ordinary act of transgression. Every genuine Christian is made a partaker of the Spirit of God; and he who has not the spirit of Christ is none of his. It cannot be the miraculous gifts of the Spirit which the apostle means, for these were given to few, and not always; for even apostles could not work miracles when they pleased; but the direction in the text is general and refers to a gift of which they were generally partakers.”^[1]

The word of God is the power that brings about salvation and transformation in the sinner’s life (Romans 1:16). Everything that has been revealed to us has been done so by the Spirit of God, searching the mind of God. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:10-13).

The world’s wisdom could never begin to describe who God is, what God has done, what God will do, and what He wants from His creation. The believer is not conformed to this world but transformed by renewing their mind (Romans 12:2), which is accomplished by a study of the word of God through the Spirit, revealed to the writers of the Scriptures.

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^[1] Barnes, Albert. E-Sword Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 5:19

By: Justin Odom