Dear Church,

As believers we need both the Word of God and the Spirit of God, doctrine and experience, truth, and power – we just cannot settle for one. I have visited several ‘holy roller’ churches where the emphasis is only on supernatural experiences and the word of God is twisted to make room for supernatural experiences. I have also been in a few reformed churches where they have ‘renamed and remade’ the trinity as the Father, Son, and the Holy Bible– the Spirit of God remains not mentioned.

Both are wrong – the truth is the church needs every word of the Scripture to live from and all spiritual gifts God has made available to us. As followers of Christ, we follow Jesus and Jesus allowed the Holy Spirit to direct his steps, even if some of those steps led him into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Listen to Luke 4:1-2 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.

It is the Holy Spirit who always leads us deeper into God’s goodness – even if it doesn’t always seem like it is at that time. It is the Holy Spirit that ignites our passion for the word of God and interprets it as life (life = application with divine power). You see that for each temptation Satan brought before Jesus, Jesus answered with Scriptures. It was the Word of God that sustained Jesus in the midst of his trial, and it was the Word that silenced the devil. As Christians we are called to walk by the Spirit and live by the Word. We need both in our life. It’s the way Jesus walked, and the only way to eternal life.
 
Be Encouraged,
Mathews