The Holy Spirit and the Word

By Larry White
February 25, 2015

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the sayings of Christ, but unbelief also comes by hearing and hearing by the sayings of Men.

Like, "The Holy Spirit only works through the Word." or, "The Holy Spirit dwells in us through the Word." or, "Everything the Spirit does is also done by the Word." and one more, "The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit all dwell in our hearts the same way, through faith." None of that is actually stated in the Bible.

The scripture says that God will strengthened with might our inner selves through his Spirit so that (ίνα) Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith (Eph.3 14-19). The agency that God uses to strengthen our hearts with might is the Holy Spirit. Faith is how we put on Christ, or assume his character and mind. It is the application of his reality of truth in our lives, his character of love and righteousness and his devotion as a son to the father, and that application is through our belief in God and our keeping of his word. That is us clothing ourselves with Christ. The Holy Spirit enables us to do this by the strength he gives us in our inner selves. The Holy Spirit enables Christ to dwell in our hearts by our faith, because he gives us spiritual life and gives us the mind of Christ according to our faith in him. That is the method of the salvation that we have through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. (2Thess.2:13; 1Cor. 2:16; 2Cor. 3:6; Tit. 3:5-6)

The scripture also says that the Father dwells in us as a habitation by the Spirit. (Eph.2:22) That is what makes this possible - the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who represents the Father and the Son personally. His residing and having control in the house of our hearts gives us contact with the spiritual realm where we meet God. The letter, as only a letter, kills us. The Spirit makes us alive. (2Cor. 3:6) It is because we are sons that God sends forth the Spirit of his son into our hearts crying out, Abba, Father, (Gal. 4:6). When we keep his word, the Father and the Son come to us and make their abode with us, and this is done through the Spirit. (Jno. 14: 20-23)

They say that the Holy Spirit dwells in us through the word, meaning that you have the word of God in your heart by reading and therefore the Holy Spirit who wrote those words is ruling in your heart by what you have read.

Actually from the above scriptures that were cited, we can see that he resides in the house of our hearts and rules there according to that which we have believed, the word of God. It is He, the Spirit, through which the life of Jesus Christ is imparted to us, that makes the word live in us because he makes us alive to God. He opens the word to our understanding by making us alive in the spiritual realm; what the text means by "in the spirit" in Rom.8:9, "But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you." We understand what the word means because we have experienced it in the spirit and do so continually moment by moment. (Jno. 7:37-39). We have a fountain of living water welling up within us. We think like Christ Jesus, just as the apostle Paul thought like Jesus, and with that same perspective, that same viewpoint, we can understand what Paul is trying to say in his letters. By faith the Holy Spirit makes us spiritual, (1Cor. 2:13) and it is the spiritual man who receives the things of the spirit. And since we live in the spirit we can also walk in the spirit. We live in Christ and have his mind (1Cor. 2:16; Rom.5:17).

That is the best obedience that we can give God, the very height of it.

LW

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