Word and Spirit
Are you living a Spirit-filled life?
In the description of the tabernacle in Exodus 35 we learn that there’s a lamp and a lamp stand for illuminating the Scriptures. Thousands of years later, nothing’s changed.
What do I mean? As we read, as we live, as we worship, our lives are to be illuminated by the Spirit of God. Without illumination, the stone tablets that contained the Ten Commandments would lie in the dark. Similarly, without the Spirit of God, we will dry up.
His Spirit is like the lampstand – making hidden and darkened things in the word of God visible to us (1 cor. 2:11 and 2 Cor. 3:14). His presence – which is a person, not a feeling – needs to be invited into the things we do, think, and say. He is our Counselor and we are to do all things through His wisdom (John 14:26). We are His temple and He lives in us (1 Cor. 3:16). We are to be sanctified and brought toward holiness by His Spirit (Rom. 15:16). And with the help of the Holy Spirit, we are called to guard the Truth (2 Tim. 1:14).
But what is the Truth? The Truth is contained in God’s word, which is why we can’t live solelyby the Spirit. Without the Word we will drift off the path.
1 John 4:1 reminds us well: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
We don’t want a false spirit, but we certainly want God’s Spirit. Which is why we need the Word and the Spirit.
Spirit of God, would you reign in us? Would you illuminate Truth? Move miraculously in our lives, Oh God, and affirm all Truth that we have learned in your Word. Amen.
