Holding Together The Word And The Spirit

Sermons during my secondary school days in the early 1960s often had lots of nice inspirational stories. But they were generally weak and superficial on the teachings of the Bible, the Word. Like thin Chinese rice porridge, they fill you for a while but leave you hungry and malnourished long-term.

It was not until I went to university in Australia in 1967 that I began to hear sermons which was rich in the Word or biblical content. I still remember vividly when the preacher at one student conference took us through Habakkuk, an obscure book in the Old Testament, and made it come alive and relevant for our modern world. From then on I was determine to master God’s Word and, hopefully, be mastered by it too.

Again, we have all sometimes heard sermons which are full of solid biblical content but leave us cold and spiritually dry. Great preachers on the other hand not only preach the Bible faithfully but do so in the power of the Holy Spirit, thus setting our minds and hearts on fire.

Once I sat through almost a whole hour totally absorbed as Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the greatest preacher in London of the past century, preached to a global gathering of student leaders. There was absolute silence at the end as a sense of awe hung over us. Fifty years on, I can still remember that sermon. We saw light (Word) and felt the fire (Spirit)! That is real preaching.

Fast forward to the 1970s when two things hit the Malaysian church around the same time. First, the Indonesian revival, which began around 1964, spilled over to Malaysia bringing similar revivals, especially in Bario and Bakelalan in Sarawak. At the same time, the charismatic renewal from the West also hit our shores. These movements brought to our churches a new awareness of the power of the Holy Spirit in revivals through signs and wonders, things we had long forgotten. What most people do not realize is that in the 20^th century Christian numbers in Africa, Asia and Latin America grew by a BILLION largely through the amazing work of the Spirit in deliverance and healing, and other signs and wonders. And He is still doing it.

Many Malaysian Christians, however, soon got so caught up with the work of the Spirit in deliverance and healing ministries, prophecies, being “slain” in the Spirit, miracles and the like that they forgot the Word. At best the Bible was preached and taught superficially in many churches. This neglect of the Bible led increasingly to wrong teachings of all kinds including the Prosperity Gospel, false prophecies, extravagant claims on prayer, spiritual warfare, healing and the like. It is the same story throughout church history whenever God’s Word is set aside. Heresy invariably follows!

God has given us both the Word and the Spirit to feed and empower us. Thus the psalmist (119:105) writes: “Your word is a light to my feet and a lamp to my path.” And when assailed by temptation, Jesus the Son of God defeated Satan by standing firmly upon God’s Word in His thrice repeated: “It is written …” (Mat 4:4, 6 & 10). Similarly, Jesus reminds His disciples that “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses …” (Acts 1:8). Without the Spirit’s power our witness will be totally fruitless and in vain.

We need therefore always to hold firmly together God’s Spirit and His Word. The mistake that many Christians make is to emphasize one but ignore the other. That “pulls asunder what God has put together”!

Think about this: Word without Spirit, you dry up; Spirit without Word, you blow up; Word and Spirit together, you grow up!