God has spoken in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments (2 Tim. 3:16). This is part of the basic Christian confession. Another part is that the God who has spoken speaks to us every time we read the Word, hear it read, or hear it preached (1 Thess. 2:13). Do you have that conviction? Sadly, I’ve found that many Christians either do not know this or have so rejected extremes in the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches of their past that it’s as though God were silent to them.
Did God speak in times of old? Absolutely (Heb. 1:1–2). Does God still speak? We should be able to say the same: “Absolutely!” But how is this the case? The answer is the Holy Spirit. As one Reformed standard states, “The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means …” (Westminster Larger Catechism, Q&A 155). As the Apostle Paul described it, “The sword of the Spirit … is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17). It’s not the bare Word read, the act of preaching itself, or especially the preacher, but the Holy Spirit who takes the Word written and causes it to be the Word living to our souls. Psalm 19 rejoices in this when it says “The law” is “the law of the Lord,” “the testimony” is “the testimony of the Lord,” “the precepts” are “the precepts of the Lord,” “the commandment” is “the commandment of the Lord,” and “the rules” are “the rules of the Lord.”
Consider three points on how the Word works by the power of the Spirit when we read and hear it. Keep reading
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