When it comes to the written Word, is it not said that every word that makes up the glorious written testimony and witness of the infallible love of God has been inspired by the Spirit? (2 Timothy 3:16). Which means that just like with the very last words of David, where David says, “The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue” (2 Samuel 23:2), that every word of the Bible is “God-breathed” and “God-sired”, that no man spoke or wrote on his own, or by what he thought or felt, but by the unction of the living Spirit of God.

     And when it comes to reading the Word, is it not the very same Spirit who then also unlocks the life of every Word for those who dive into its unplumbed depths? Which is to say that unless the light of the Spirit shines upon the words being read, man reads them in darkness? Which is to say that for the mind and the spirit of man, the words don’t come alive. They remain as dry and lifeless as the dead bones of Ezekiel’s valley, where the breath of the LORD has not yet entered into them, that they may take on a living form with sinew and skin? Which is to have “a body” (have substance) and take form (have function and meaning).

     So if every word that graces the many pages of the Bible has been inspired by the Spirit, and if it is also true that unless the same Spirit quickens our understanding of those same words, the Word will remain folly to those who read it, then what does this fundamentally tell each and every one of us? That the primary trust anchor and the topmost priority for coming to understand and know any and all things spiritual is not the Word, but in fact, the Spirit. The same Spirit that inspired every word and who will likewise unlock the revelation of every word. Which is not to say that the Word is not important, for it most certainly is, for it is the owners gold manual for understanding and apprehending the nature of the heart of our Father, who like us is Spirit, and for coming to a knowledge and an understanding of the meaning and purpose of life, but that an essential underpinning and critical dependency exists that unless we turn to the Spirit, the words will remain as barren and lifeless as dust — just like the barren and lifeless dust that made up Adam and every man thereafter before it became God-breathed.

     For are we not told that the sons of God are those who are led by the Spirit? (Romans 8:14). Does it say the sons of God are those who are led by the word? No, it says the sons of God are those who are led by the Spirit. But here is the thing of magnificent beauty. What does the Spirit lead those sons through? Through the Word. Which means the Spirit first has to lead us to the Word. TO and THROUGH the Word that is FROM Him. For is it not written: “For FROM Him and THROUGH Him and TO Him are all things? (Romans 11:36). But not to and through words of folly, which is what the Word is to those who read it without the Spirit, but words of wisdom and of knowledge and of understanding and of counsel and of the fear of the Lord and of might (Isaiah 11:2). Words where the light inside has “come on” that they may be a lamp unto our feet and a light to our path (Psalm 119:105). For what does the Word ultimately lead those sons of God all towards? To the same resurrection life that then filled Ezekiel’s valley of dead bones. Which is the life that repossesses us, reforms us, reconstitutes us, reestablishes us, redeems us from the valley of the shadow of the death, and then fully completes us and releases us. Which, just like when the bones became flesh, is when the Word becomes flesh. Which is when the Words that are spirit become life. (John 6:63).

     So what is the point of all of this? Is it not that unless — for absolutely everything — we rely specifically and singularly on the Helper who Jesus promised He would send if He was to return to whence He came from rather than stay, which like Mary is to choose the good thing that will not be taken from us, which is to sit at the Helper’s feet for everything, that the value of the scriptures will remain at best nothing more than the “dry and dead bones” of the head knowledge of the Pharisees, which is a whitewashed knowledge that appears beautiful on the outside, but in the inside is full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean (Matthew 23:27).

     In other words, be not like those who puff themselves up with the head knowledge of men thinking that they are above when in fact they are below, for they dwell below in the deepest parts of Ezekiel's valley of dead bones, being all those like their fathers before them, being spiritual Pharisees, being stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and whose ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit. (Acts 7:51). Which are they who have made their hearts like flint so that they can not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts has sent by His Spirit. (Zechariah 7:12). Which whilst you may think you are spiritual, is to be like a natural man, for a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for the things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. (1 Corinthians 2:14).

     For God says “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever” (Genesis 6:3). For He says, “those who are not with Me are against Me.” (Matthew 12:30). For when it comes to every man who does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, who sets his heart like flint that he cannot hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts has sent by His Spirit, who is one who trusts his own understanding, and who therefore does not depend on the Spirit, being one who is not led by the Spirit and is therefore not a son, is it not written, “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has INSULTED THE SPIRIT OF GRACE?” (Hebrews 10:29).

Oh great God of all creation, let not one who you have called fall like a sparrow out of the sky, but may we all mount up on wings like eagles, having come alive to the living wind of the Spirit, delighting in all its ways, and being forever led by its leanings and leading, so that in all things we may renew our strength by resting upon the trade winds of the glorious Spirit of the LORD.