Thursday, April 25, 2013

Ya Gotta Have Both!

Pardon my grammatically incorrect title!
I heard something today which I thought was worthy of sharing.

"It's dangerous for us to approach The Bible without the Holy Ghost, and it's dangerous for us to approach the Holy Ghost without the Bible."

Approaching the Word without the Spirit can make one a first class Pharisee.
2 Corinthians 3:6 lets us to know that "...the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."
Romans 8:7 says "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
We need to the Spirit to illuminate our hearts and open our understanding.  The disciples needed Jesus to open their understanding of the Scriptures (Luke 24) We can't do it on our own - we must have His Spirit!
(Also see 2 Corinthians 4:1-4)
 
Approaching the Spirit without the Word can make one a first class charismatic.

There are many across America who faithfully attend church services and are actively involved in their churches, yet there is something missing! They gather together and love to "worship", yet there is no depth in what they are doing because they do not have the truth. 
John 17:17 states "Thy word is truth."
We cannot divorce the Spirit and the Word: they belong together!
We must embrace the whole Word of God and not just part of it.  If we have been born again of water and Spirit and are living a holy life, there is no Scripture that we need to be afraid of! We can embrace and obey from Genesis to Revelation.
Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

Many pick and choose what scriptures they think are "for us" today, but what does the Apostle Paul tell us in the book of 2 Timothy?

II Timothy 3:16 tells us that "ALL scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."

We can live by every Word of the Bible; it was inspired by God for US and is profitable for all the things listed in the above verse.

The bottom line is, we need the Spirit and the Word. They cannot be separated, and if we're only trying to "embrace" one, we will be lost. 

4 comments:

Hanna said...

PREEEEEAACCHHHHHHH!!!!!

Stephen Hodge said...

Amen preach it! my goodness if we believed in women preachers youd be ranked high up there lol..jk. All joking aside it is so sad that no matter how much the world seeks for God they are seeking in vain without seeking the HolyGhost Romans 8:9 tells us But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. we MUST have the HolyGhost

Emily Keating said...

Good post Jen! So true gotta have both!

Jennifer Connell said...

Hanna and Stephen - LOL Thanks, but no thanks! haha

Emily - Thanks, love you! Hope to see you around soon! :)