What is the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures?
The Pentecostal Movement has been accused of being an experience-centered movement, and indeed it is! But it is also a Bible-centered movement. It is beautiful to see how the Holy Spirit and the written Word are always in perfect agreement. This must be so, because the Word is the result of the inspiration of the Spirit. The following list of references, where the Holy Spirit and the Word are mentioned together, illustrate the importance of recognizing the ministry of both the Spirit and the Word, and demonstrate the harmony between the Word and the Spirit:
2 Samuel 23:2 The SPIRIT of the Lord spoke by me and His WORD was in my tongue.
Proverbs 1:23 I will pour out my SPIRIT unto you, I will make known my WORDS unto you.
Isaiah 40:7, 8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the SPIRIT of the Lord bloweth upon it … The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the WORD of our God shall stand forever.
Isaiah 59:21 My SPIRIT that is upon thee, and my WORDS which I have put in the mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth.
Zechariah 4:6 This is the WORD of the Lord … not by might, nor by power, but by My SPIRIT saith the Lord.
Matthew 22:29 Ye do err, not knowing the SCRIPTURES, nor the POWER of God.
Mark 16:20 Confirming the WORD with SIGNS following.
Luke 12:12 The HOLY GHOST shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to SAY.
John 3:34 He … speaketh the WORDS of God: for God giveth not the SPIRIT by measure unto Him.
John 6:63 It is the SPIRIT that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the WORDS that I speak, … they are SPIRIT, and they are life.
John 14:26 The HOLY GHOST, … shall … bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have SAID unto you.
Acts 1:16 SCRIPTURE must needs have been fulfilled, which the HOLY GHOST by the mouth of David spake.
Acts 4:31 They were all filled with the HOLY GHOST, and they spake the WORD of God with boldness.
Acts 6:10 They were not able to resist the wisdom and the SPIRIT by which he SPAKE.
Acts 10:44 While Peter yet spake these WORDS, the HOLY GHOST fell on them.
Acts 10:37, 38 The WORD … which was published throughout all Judea … how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the HOLY GHOST …
Acts 11:15 As I began to SPEAK, the HOLY GHOST fell on them.
Acts 11:16 Then remembered I the WORD of the Lord … ye shall be baptized with the HOLY GHOST.
Acts 13:4, 5 Being sent forth by the HOLY GHOST … they preached the WORD of God.
Acts 15:7, 8 That the Gentiles … should hear the WORD … giving them the HOLY GHOST.
Acts 16:6 They … were forbidden of the HOLY GHOST to preach the WORD in Asia.
Acts 18:25 Being fervent in the SPIRIT, he SPAKE and TAUGHT diligently …
Acts 28:25 Paul had spoken one WORD, Well spake the HOLY GHOST by Isaiah …
Romans 15:18, 19 To make the Gentiles obedient by WORD and deed through mighty signs and wonders by the power of the SPIRIT of God.
1 Corinthians 2:13 We speak the WORDS which the HOLY GHOST teacheth.
1 Corinthians 12:8 For to one is given by the SPIRIT the WORD of wisdom.
1 Corinthians 12:8 To another the WORD of knowledge, by the same SPIRIT.
2 Corinthians 6:7 By the WORD of truth, by the POWER of God.
Ephesians 1:13 After that ye heard the WORD of truth … ye were sealed with that HOLY SPIRIT of promise.
Ephesians 6:17 The sword of the SPIRIT, which is the WORD of God.
1 Thessalonians 1:5 Our Gospel came not unto you in WORD only, but also in power, and in the HOLY GHOST.
1 Thessalonians 1:6 Received the WORD in much affliction, with joy in the HOLY GHOST.
1 Timothy 4:12 Be thou an example of the believers in WORD … in SPIRIT …
Hebrew 2:3, 4 First began to be SPOKEN … God bearing witness with … gifts of the HOLY GHOST.
Hebrews 6:4, 5 Partakers of the HOLY GHOST, and have tasted the good WORD of God.
1 Peter 1:12 That have preached the GOSPEL unto you with the HOLY GHOST.
2 Peter 1:21 The prophecy came not … by the will of man: but holy men of God SPAKE as they were moved by the HOLY GHOST.
1 John 5:7 There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the WORD, and the HOLY GHOST.22
If any people should be people of the Word of God, it should be those who believe in the Pentecostal Baptism with the Holy Spirit. They have an inspirational ministry. They believe in prophecy, in speaking with other tongues with interpretation, in inspirational revelations. How can one tell if these come from God or not? Just because one claims to have a revelation from the Lord does not mean it should be accepted as if it was from God. There needs to be a norm, a final court of appeal, by which all manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit can be judged. In fact, the Scripture admonishes the judging of all prophecy, which Paul recognizes as perhaps the greatest of the gifts. “Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge” (1 Cor. 14:29). “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Is. 8:20). There is such a “court of appeal” to which one can come. It is the written Word, which the Holy Spirit inspired. Peter calls it “a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as a light that shineth in a dark place” (2 Pt. 1:19). Those who minister, in any capacity whatever, are never so fully “in the Spirit” as when they are doing so in full accord with the clearly revealed teaching of the Bible, the Word of God. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,” is an admonition which is given seven (7) times in the book of Revelation (2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22) and each time it follows a written epistle from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
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