Quote:
Originally Posted by testallthings
Evangelical,
it seems that for you there is no relationship between the Word of God and the Spirit. For me and many others the Word of God cannot be separated from God. After all He has been pleased to give us this precious book called the Bible (or the Holy Scriptures). Reading the Bible in a formal way, and without prayer, doesn't give us anything except some knowledge. There are probably many who are just doing that and I agree with you that it is like the Pharisees who read the Scriptures but didn't want to go to the Lord Jesus. You said that if we want to receive the Spirit we need to ask for Him. True. But if we ask in a formal way (like those who read the Bible just with their mind), will the Spirit come?
There are probably many more who having in their possession dozen of Bible rarely open them. Isn't this a bigger issue?
I believe that the Word leads us to God, and God to the Word, and the Word to God, and so on. In my previous post I always said that we have to come to the Word of God with prayer. Even when I mentioned G. Mueller's experience I mentioned prayer. Here is his own testimony:
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testallthings,
To me the Word of God is the Spirit's inward speaking. So yes there is a relationship between the Word of God and the Spirit. The quote by Piper equates the amount of the Spirit with the amount of knowing God's Word, and we know that Piper believes God's Word = the Bible.
It is wrong to equate the measure of a person's spirituality with how much they know the Bible, as Piper has done. Whether it is Muller or anyone. The men God chose to use in the new testament were unlearned men. I can find many references where Jesus said "when you pray". Jesus taught his disciples to pray. There is no verse where Jesus said "when you read and study the Bible". Jesus and his disciples had prayer times together. We find no example in scripture of them sitting down together for a "bible study".
The majority of Christianity do not believe in the Holy Spirit's speaking for today. They say the Spirit ceased when the Bible was written. This was when their "Bible-god" was born.