We Need Both the Word and the Spirit

The other day, I heard an old song playing: “Come, Holy Spirit, We Need You.” The moment I heard it, I was no longer standing in my kitchen. I was a little girl again.

I could see the small church where I grew up. I remembered the Sunday afternoon revival meetings, the lingering presence of God between services, and the old hymns that carried something deeper than music.

The preacher would invite people to sing, and we children would walk up front with the adults. We sang songs like: “Come, Holy Spirit, we need You…” “Deeper, deeper in the love of Jesus…” As those memories came flooding back, tears filled my eyes because I realized something I had never fully understood before: Even as a child, I knew the Holy Spirit was there.

I didn’t understand doctrine yet. Nobody had explained spiritual gifts or discernment to me. But there were moments throughout my life when I would simply know things deep in my spirit. Looking back now, I believe the Holy Spirit touched my life in those revival meetings long before I had language for it.

After my mother passed away in 2023, my sister found journal entries where Mom had written about those church services. She believed that something powerful happened spiritually in my life during that season. That Dad truly received the Spirit during that time. That made a lot of things that I didn’t have language for before hearing that make sense. I also felt the Holy Spirit moving from that time.

Reading those words answered questions I had quietly carried for years. My father carried a quiet joy about him, too. He was always whistling songs around the house. He was cheerful, steady, and positive. He didn’t preach sermons, but he carried peace.

My mother struggled more deeply with grief and unforgiveness for many years. She often cried over missing her own mother and longed to live near her again. Pain hardened places in her heart over time. But the beautiful part of the story is this: before my mother left this earth, she learned to forgive. In the last year and a half of her life, something softened in her spirit again.

God healed places where her soul wounds had been for decades. Today, she is with Jesus, whole and free. As I reflected on all these memories, one truth kept rising in my heart: We desperately need both the Word of God and the Spirit of God. The enemy constantly tries to separate the two. Some people cling tightly to Scripture but resist the Holy Spirit's moving. Yet the Bible says: “The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life” (2 Corinthians 3:6).

Without the Spirit, the written Word can become dry religion, intellectual knowledge without transformation. Others pursue spiritual experiences while neglecting the foundation of God’s Word. But the Holy Spirit never contradicts Scripture because He inspired it.

Jesus said: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17)

Romans 8:14 reminds us: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

The Word gives us a foundation. The Spirit gives us life.

The Word keeps us anchored in truth. The Spirit keeps our hearts tender and alive. We do not have to choose between truth and presence. God intended us to walk in both. That old song reminded me that long before I understood theology, the Holy Spirit was already drawing me close. He was planting seeds that would grow throughout my entire life.

Maybe you have moments like that, too.

A worship song.

A prayer meeting.

A grandmother’s prayers.

A childhood church service you never forgot.

Moments where Heaven touched your heart before you fully understood what was happening.

Perhaps today God is calling you back, not just to knowledge about Him, but to intimacy with Him through both His Word and His Spirit.

Take a few moments today to sit quietly with the Lord. Read John 14 slowly. Invite the Holy Spirit to breathe life into the Scriptures again. Pray simply: “Come, Holy Spirit. Teach me Your Word and lead me into Truth.”

And listen.

He still speaks...