Word and Spirit

"Which one comes first? Bible or Holy Spirit?" 

It's a question I get asked often these days. 

I need the Bible. I need it to guide my steps in a treacherous world. Before becoming a Christ-follower, I lived long under the tutelage of sinful flesh. I have to overcome worldly habits and ways of thinking. Without his guidebook, I would not understand how he wants me to live.  

But I also love the Bible more every year -- and even more after studying it intensely for the last 18 months. Now I love it in a new way, because I realize the Bible has never been owned or controlled by anyone. It has endured centuries of abuse, and in spite of this, it is as fresh as morning to me, a Gentile who reads it thousands of years later.

Jesus prayed, "Thy Word is truth" (John 17:17) -- so it is God's Word, truer than I will ever be. But it is also a "wild" Word, unrestrained by centuries of discussion. The Bible contains a narrative capable of resisting every attempt to reduce it to maxim: it is a mystery that never loses its power and depth. When I read it, there are still things I don't understand. This is not a surprise. I am a finite creature trying to understand an infinite Creator. His ways are higher than my ways. In Proverbs I read that it is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to search it out (25:2). Little children can understand some of this mystery, yet my lifetime is too short to learn it all. Here, in the Word of God, lives revelation and hidden treasure, glory and sorrow, truth and unanswered questions. Not a jot of it will pass away until all has been accomplished (Matt 5:18).

I like to think of the Word as a pure crystal sea. Wherever I dive in, I am enfolded. I am held. I am washed. I am awakened. 

We never need to choose between the leading of the Holy Spirit and the authority of Scripture. There is nothing the Spirit of God does which does not conform to the written Word of God. But even more, the Word itself is filled with the Spirit, for the Spirit of God indwells the Word (John 3:34). This is one way in which it is "God-breathed" (2 Tim 3:16). 

To parse out the expressions of God into separate categories and make them compete with one another does him a grave injustice. He never meant for us to take him apart. He is Father, Son, and Spirit, three in one. He reveals himself in many ways: through written Word, Holy Spirit, divine works, his creation, his church, and most emphatically through his Son who is his perfect image (Heb 1:1-3). 

Jesus himself is the Logos, the "Word of God" (John 1:1-4). He is the very message and essence of God in human form (John 14:8-11). But this does not relegate the written words of scripture to some kind of imperfection. God is a vast, limitless, glorious creator. Why would he not be infinitely creative in his revelation? In our foolishness, we, as his creatures, sometimes separate his expressions as though they were epochs of history or pieces of a book. But He is not limited by our machinations. He is the Living God who is One and who is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8).

When I read the Bible, the ultimate Author is as near as he can be. God's very presence, his holiness and goodness and magnificence pour from the page into my soul. To stand before his Word is to stand under the waterfall of his Spirit. They are one.

Jesus said that true worshippers will worship in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:23). To study with my spirit open to God is to love him with all my mind. This is how I worship him in Spirit and in truth. 

But it requires effort from me. True worship does not consist only of ecstatic experiences, although surely we are privileged to know him in that way as well. The forms of worship which require careful effort are not portals of a dimmer revelation. They are all avenues of knowing and honoring him. 

Is there a love in the universe that is effortless? What distinguishes love is not effortlessness, but earnestness. And, some would say, sacrifice. 

  

 What are some ways in which you worship God?