Day 16: The Spirit And God’s Word

Today we’ll look at the relationship between the Spirit of God and the Word of God. There is always perfect harmony between them. They never are in disagreement. There is total intimacy and complete harmony.

Let’s start with an example from creation. In Psalm 33:6 the psalmist says:

“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.”

Now where the English translation says “breath,” the word actually in Hebrew is spirit. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their host.” So, the whole creation originally came into being through two agents: the word of the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord.

It’s important for us to see that they operated together in perfect harmony. Neither operated without the other. And that’s true in our lives today. God’s results are achieved in us by His Word and by His Spirit working together.

If you turn back to the original record of creation in Genesis 1:2–3 we find this account:

“The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

So, there we see the Spirit of God moving or hovering, like a dove, over the face of the dark waters. It’s interesting, that the first specific person of the God head mentioned in Scripture is the Holy Spirit.

“Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”

In that verse we see God’s Word went forth, He spoke the word “light” and the thing, light, came into being. But it was not without the Spirit of God. First of all, the Spirit of God moved, prepared the way, for the Word of God. Then the Word was united with the Spirit and the Word and the Spirit together produced creation.

Now, it’s so important to understand this because this is precisely how God operates in our lives. By His Word and by His Spirit working in harmony. Never the one without the other.

Reflect: God’s results are achieved in us by His Word and by His Spirit working together. In my search to be led by the Holy Spirit, how do I relate to God’s Word?