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The Living Word – Spirit, Soul, & Union with Christ • Jun 01st 1969

“The Words I Speak Are Spirit and Life” | How to Feed on Christ in Your Spirit

What did Jesus mean when He said:

“The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life.” (John 6:63)

In this deeply practical and theological teaching, Gene Edwards explores how believers are meant to approach Scripture — not merely with the mind, but with the human spirit.

The burden of this message is simple but profound:

The Word of God can either kill or give life.

2 Corinthians 3:6 declares, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The same Bible, the same words, can be received in two completely different ways. When taken into the mind alone, the Word becomes knowledge. It may impress the intellect, but it does not impart life.

But when the Word is received in the human spirit, it becomes Spirit — and therefore life.

This message walks carefully through:

  • John 6:57–63 — eating and drinking Christ
  • Hebrews 4:12 — dividing soul and spirit
  • 1 Corinthians 15:45 — the last Adam as life-giving Spirit
  • 1 Corinthians 6:17 — one spirit with the Lord
  • Ephesians 6:17 — the Spirit as the Word of God
  • Jeremiah 15:16 and Ezekiel 3 — eating the scroll

The question is not whether Scripture is inspired.

“All Scripture is God-breathed.”

The question is: How do you receive it?

You cannot feed on Christ with your intellect alone. The soul cannot discern spiritual things. The mind may analyze, compare, and study — but life is received in the spirit.

The Word of God is not merely information.
It is Christ Himself.

When you come to Scripture, you are not merely reading a text. You are coming to a living Person. And that living Word becomes Spirit within you when received by the Spirit.

This message also addresses a common struggle among believers: confusion between soul and spirit. Many sincere Christians serve God out of human energy, mental effort, and religious zeal — yet lack the sense of inward life.

Hebrews 4 tells us the living Word divides soul and spirit. It discerns thoughts and intentions. It exposes what is merely human and what is truly of God.

But this is not meant to produce introspection or anxiety. It is meant to lead us into rest.

“You labor to enter the rest.”

The solution is not to obsess over whether something is soulish. The solution is to turn to the Spirit and receive the living Word as life.

Scripture can be eaten.
It can be sweet as honey.
It can become inward nourishment.

When the Word dwells richly within you, you are filled with the Spirit. When you are filled with the Spirit, the Word dwells richly in you. The two are not separate realities.

This message calls believers back to a simple but transformative practice:

Come to the Word in your spirit.
Receive it as life.
Feed on Christ.

Now we come to the word, and what does it say of the word here? The word can do two things. Are you aware of this? The word can what? Kill. And the word can also give life. What? The letter kills; the spirit gives life.

Now, brethren, I just want to say this to you: there is something…this is speaking of the word of God… the word of God can be a dead letter that kills, or if it is taken in by the Spirit, it can give life. Did you get that? It can give life, or it can be death. How do you get it into you as death? In the mind.

Brethren, I have been studying the book of Ezekiel. I believe if I take a dragon’s tooth out of Ezekiel and put it with a bear’s ear in Daniel; brethren, if you’ll notice, if you put this dragon’s tooth with a bear’s ear in Daniel, you will be able to see that there comes a time where I believe I have found the exact date of the pan-millennial mid-tribulation post-rapture, and you know and just so much. Where is the life?

Brothers and sisters, there is something that we need to learn here. We need to sense that which is life and that which is death when it’s ministered. Now, don’t be judge of any man, but you must be very careful to not be awed by the mind. The mind gets high on knowledge, but that’s not the spirit. It’s not just the spirit, but it’s not only when we come to the Word, but also when it is ministered, that we need to really consider: is this ministering life?

Brother Nee used to tell the story that when he was young, he was under the tutelage of a deeply spiritual woman. I had a dear sister friend in Christ who’s gone on to be with the Lord. She was a Methodist missionary in China. She completely gave up the system, and as an American, she went and put herself under Brother Nee. Later, she came back to America. I knew her for the last three years of her life. She knew the sister, I hope you can follow this, who was under Brother Nee as a youth. She was a deeply spiritual woman. Her name was Sister Barber. Sister Barber took Nee, a brilliant young Christian in his late teens, and really taught him the deep spiritual things, and Brother Nee said as a youth he used to go and say, Sister Barber, oh, I found this great man, and he would take her to the meeting, and this man, of course, would preach some great things, and they would leave, and she would say to him, Henry…Nee’s name in English is Henry. Brother Henry Knee. Nobody knows that it just came out. I’m sorry. Henry, did you sense life?? And he’d think about it. No, he didn’t. And he’d take her again to another one. Henry. Did you sense life? And he’d think about it.

Then one time a man came through, and he said, You’ve got to hear this man. This man is really preaching life. She went with him to the meeting. They left. And you know what she said? She said, “This man has had a real living experience with the Lord, but it’s already become old.” She was a very discerning woman, and I really know what she means. Men who have a great experience, a living experience of the Lord, and then they go out and they give it over and over and over, and they do not build on that which God has done. He had had a living experience of the Lord. There was something in his past of the ministry of the Lord.

My brethren, there is something of the Word of God that can be death when taken into the wrong organ, into the soul. The soulish man cannot really feed on Christ. On the other hand, when the Word becomes spirit, it is life. It gives life. Do you understand?

Alright, brethren, we have to learn to come to the word of God not with our brain or intellect, but with our spirit. Okay, what is the next verse? Yes, brother.

I Corinthians 15:45 – So also, it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

Alright, thank you, brother. Now then, first Adam, soul. Do you have that man in you? You have the man Adam in you. He is a living soul. Is he a life-giving soul? He is an entity within himself. He is just a living soul. There was a Last Adam. Hallelujah. Praise God. There was an Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam. And finally, one day God said I’m going to put an end to this, and there was a last Adam, and that last Adam was who? Jesus Christ, and He became the what? Can you guess? He became the new man. And in that day, He became a life-giving spirit.

Now then, if you wanted great power, where would you go? Well, I would suggest that you go to the army or to the navy, or to the Marines. There’s power there. If you want wealth, where would you go? Well, I would recommend you go to Fort Knox. Maybe you’d better hurry. There’s not much left there, but Fort Knox has wealth. If you want to have wealth, go to Fort Knox, but if you want life, where do you go? The army can give you power. Fort Knox can give you wealth. But the Spirit gives you life, so you come to the Spirit for life. Jesus Christ is that Life. What else is he? He said He is the Word, so when you come to the Word, you come to the Life; when you come to the Life, you come to the Word. Okay, do we have another scripture?

I Corinthians 6:17. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.

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