"He left His Word to guide us, His Spirit lives inside us" —from the song Consider How He Loves You by John Wimber

Chapter 1

Two friends 

I have two friends. One of them is a man of the Spirit. He frequently has dreams and visions, and when he ministers to people he gets words of knowledge that are usually accurate. He told me once how he had heard someone interviewing a successful church planter from another country. He said the interviewer kept asking questions like: How do you do it? What's you're strategy? What practical steps do you follow to build and plant new churches? He said the church planter kept answering that you simply do whatever the Holy Spirit tells you to do. "It's all about the Spirit," my friend adamantly said to me. "He speaks to you, and you obey. That's all there is to it." 

My other friend is a man of the Word. He never gets dreams or visions, and while his ministry to people is effective, it mostly involves imparting wisdom and understanding to them. He told me once how he had complained to an instructor at a missions training institute he was attending. "Why can't I hear God's voice like some other Christians I know?" he bemoaned. "Why doesn't God speak to me?" He said the instructor responded by holding up his Bible and saying, "He has spoken to you!" My friend said this was like a revelation to him, and his love for the Bible has grown ever since along with his ability to communicate God's love to others. 

Both of my friends are very dear to me, and I love them both very much. And they're both right in their views of what following Jesus is all about. 

But they're both also wrong. 

At the intersection

An intersection is where two roads meet. The roads are separate, but the place where they meet is common to both of them. And if the roads are both paved then so is the intersection — it's just a piece of road too. And by the way, it's wise to approach an intersection with caution, otherwise a collision may occur. 

It's the same with the Christian life. Some of us, like many Evangelicals, focus on becoming solidly grounded in the Word of God. Others however, like many Charismatics, rely instead on being constantly led by the Spirit. And where these two perspectives meet there are often collisions in the form of heated arguments. But there don't need to be collisions happening, because there's something in common to both views where they intersect. 

That's what this book is about: the intersection of Word and Spirit in the Christian life. We're going to explore these two viewpoints and find what's common to them and why that commonality is important for us. So buckle up your seatbelts as we approach the intersection. What are we going to find there?

Jesus, of course!

--->  Go to chapter 2