How sweet are thy words unto my taste! [yea, sweeter] than honey to my mouth!
Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. Psa 119:103-104

Some earnest people have magnified the inner light and leading of the Holy Spirit to the neglect of the word that He gave, and through which He still works on human hearts. This is a great mistake and the cause of all kinds of evil. As soon as we put aside the Word of God, we lay ourselves open to the solicitation of the many voices that speak within our hearts, and we have no real test, no criterion of truth, no standard of appeal. How can we know the Spirit of God in some of the more intricate cases that are brought into the court of the conscience unless our judgement is deeply imbued with the word of God.
We must not be content with the Spirit without the Word or with the Word without the Spirit. Our life must travel along these two, as the locomotive along two parallel rails. The word is the chosen organ of the Spirit, and only by our devout contact with it will we be enabled to detect His voice.
We need a widespread revival of Bible study. The mines of scripture, lying beneath the surface, invite discovery and drawing out. Those who obey the appeal and set themselves to diligent study will soon be aware that they have received the Spirits filling.

The best of F B Meyer - 120 Daily devotions.

Thanks for posting this!

Matthew 18:16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

Witness #2

In the Holy Trinity, the Word and the Spirit are ever in each other, one with the Father. It is not otherwise with the God-inspired Words of Scripture. The Holy Spirit has for all ages embodied the thoughts of God in the written word, and lives now for this very purpose in our hearts, there to reveal the power and the meaning of that Word. If you would be full of the Spirit, be full of the Word, If you would have the Divine Life of the Spirit within you grow strong, and acquire power in every part of your nature; let the Word of Christ dwell richly in you. If you would have the Spirit fulfil His office of Remembrancer, calling to mind at the right moment, and applying with Divine accuracy what Jesus has spoken to your need, have the Words of Christ abiding in you. If you would have the Spirit reveal to you the Will of God in each circumstance of life, choosing from apparently conflicting commands or Principles with unerring precision what you must do, and suggesting it as you need, oh ! have the Word living in you, ready for His use. If you would have the Eternal Word as your Light, let the Written Word be transcribed on your heart by the Holy Spirit. 'The Words that I have spoken unto you, they are Spirit and are Life.' Take them and treasure them: it is through them that the Spirit manifests His quickening power.' - Andrew Murray

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said—
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

amen ,and amen

Excellent post-and much needed on the forum! The Spirit of God once laid this truth on my mind through a simple, familiar Bible story-that of the Wise men of the Nativity. The Holy Spirit moved them to realize that a star signified that the King of the Jews was born. Being impressed by God of the great significence of the birth , they travelled to Jerusalem to pay tribute to the newborn King. Here the current "king" sent them to the religious leaders who searched the scriptures to find out where the messiah was to be born-in Bethlehem. From here the Holy Spirit led them via the star to the exact house where Baby Jesus was to be found. With great joy they worshipped the Saviour!
The message is this: to find the Saviour they needed to be led both by the Spirit and the Word. Herod did not find Him-his selfish ambition blinded him to the point of attempting to murder his potential Saviour! The religious leaders had the Scripture, but it did them no good without the Spirit of God to motivate them to search for the Redeemer of mankind for themselves. Likewise, we can only find the way as the Holy Spirit enlightens our eyes through our knowledge of the Bible. The written Word does not enlighten without the Spirit Who inspired its writing. Likewise, we need the written Word to determine whether the spirit that is guiding us is truly from God.

These are all such good Words !
Thank you
Blessings,
Elizabeth

"A minister of the New Covenant: not of the
letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter killeth,
but the Spirit giveth life"—2 Corinthians 3:6.

Firstly, we should note very particularly that the Scriptures never speak of the words of Christ, nor of the Gospel of Christ as the "letter that killeth."

Rather Jesus says—"The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63).

The "letter that killeth" referred to here is the Mosaic Law—the "law of commandments"—

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead by which we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. Rom 7:6

We must speak very reverently of this Letter or Law as it is God's Holy Law of Commandments. This Letter or this Law is "holy, just and good."

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. (Rom. 7:12).

In our attempt to honor God we may dishonor Him in our regard to the "letter that killeth" spoken of in these verses. We must be mindful that it is God's Holy Law given through Moses, and we must worship God acknowledgeing His own eternal goodness and kindness as manifested in all His works, including that Law.

So the killing part of the letter is due to man's sinfulness and not the letter. (Rom. 7:9-13)—

Note the paralell of 2 Cor. 3:6 and Romans 7:5-13 in reference to the Leter/Law/Commandment that killeth. Note the words dead,died,death,slew used by Paul in these verses.

Now consider that:

It is not uncommon to have the verse "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" interpreted to mean that obeying the letter of the law gets us into a deadly legalism, but obeying the spirit of the law will bring life. When we look at the broader context of Paul's statement about the letter and the Spirit, we find that he is contrasting not two ways of reading the law, but the ministry of the two covenants:

Who also hath made us able ministers of the new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away; How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation was glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. 2 Cor.3:6-10

The two ministries are the ministry of the letter,which Paul said brought condemnation,and the ministry of the Spirit which brings righteousness. The ministry that brought death was brought by Moses, the letters were engraved on stone. The ministry of the letter, then, is the law. The ministry of the Spirit that brings righteousness is the gospel (Rom.1: 17). The contrast between the letter and the spirit, then,is not a contrast between a rigid and an easy-going reading of the law, but a contrast between the law and the gospel.

...for until this day the same vail remaineth untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. 2 Cor.3:14

Therefore there's no justification at all for the very popular interpretation of this passage that says— carefulness to observe the letter of God's law kills, so we can safely ignore the "letter of the law" if we fulfill what we think is the "spirit of the law."

This is a very common, but very unsound and dangerous interpretation, very pleasing to the self-will of the flesh. It is particularly dangerous because this thought is so deeply ingrained into this passage in the eyes of many in the churches because this is what they've been taught. And so when it is promoted and presented as truth in the hearing of our ears, or brought to a forum such as this, we are apt quite unconsciously to adopt this view.

But the true meaning does not convey this thought at all—by the letter of God's Holy Law man was and is condemned—that is the whole purpose of the Law, as Paul explains in writing to the Romans; then by God's grace man is redeemed from condemnation, and given the power,by the Spirit, to fulfill the required righteousness of the Law by and through faith in Jesus Christ by believeing the Gospel.

When we recognize that the Word is the Spirit's chosen instrument we will see that captivity to the Word is openness to the Spirit.The ministry of the Spirit is the ministry of the gospel. To be engaged in the ministry of the Spirit, we must promote the gospel. It is this message that the Spirit uses to accomplish His work. Being chained to the Word is not bondage, but liberty. Being chained to the Word is like being chained to a key which itself unlocks the prison doors of those captive to sin and judgment.

"For the Christian experiencing anguish of conscience, real comfort can be taken in knowing that the Holy Spirit is to be sought in the Word. For this individual, being directed to a voice outside of Scripture is exactly the thing that might drive him or her to despair." (Rick R.)

Be not deceived brethren by those who'd teach their interpretation of these verses to justify their disobedience and contribute to the confusion and disorder in the church and world in which we live. Such interpretation amounts to no less than mysticism and everyone doing what is right in their own eyes.

Mat 4:3-11 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou art the son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith to him, If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall uphold thee, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, It is written again,Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up upon an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, And saith to him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus to him, Be gone, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him.

Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made: and he said to the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

If the serpent come to you and speak,whether by man or by woman,by angel or prophet,in all his subtlety as he wrests the scriptures and makes you to be suspect of 'what God hath said' very plainly, stand against that tempter upon the firm foundation of His excellent Word, even as our LORD Jesus did.

it seems to be a common mistake to call the gosple and the letters the letter that kills ,,,the ministery of death writtern and engraven on stones is what kills ,,,, agree

Thank you Savannah for your post, very good words.

Very important point that Jesus said 'It is written' when resisting the devil. Do we know the word well enough so that when the tempter tries to deceive us away from the truth we will not fall for it? Or will we be like Eve who failed to recognise the twisting of God's words?

The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness.

That sure is a statement pregnant with truth.

Where was it written that He was supposed to go into the wilderness? The Spirit led Him.

Jesus had good balance for both the Spirit and the written word.. He did not deny the truth of one at the detriment of the other and vice versa.