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hearing the Spirit

At Basics this year I picked up a book by Christopher Ash, entitled Hearing the Spirit.  An excellent -- and greatly needed study -- on the relationship of the Holy Spirit and God's Word.  And it's a vital corrective to many who are trying to "hear the Spirit" apart from God's word.  

A couple of highlights: 


"The Spirit breathes into our hearts the Word He first breathed out from the Father.  There is a stable meaning in the text. What it said, it says.  What God spoke, He speaks.  It has a fixed meaning."

"So the Spirit does not supplement the sufficiency of the word, but He works in us the efficacy of the word.  He renders the word effective.  The Spirit is, in a sense, mute without the word.  But on the other hand the word is inactive without the Spirit.  The word does not work on its own, as it were ex opere operato; it works as the Spirit renders it effective."

-- Christopher Ash, Hearing The Spirit (Christian Focus, 2011)

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