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

How the Word of God Becomes Spirit and Life

Fellowship New Testament Old Testament Organic Church The Gospels

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.

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As the spirit receives this, it becomes spirit and life to you in you.

But brethren, if it is taken in the head, I’ve said this to you this morning, I Corinthians 2 is so clear that the soul is incapable of taking in the spirit. The soul cannot discern spiritual things, and in that respect, when you come to the word of God and read it in the mind and in the soul and in the conscience, the Word of God says that it is dead letter. Because it just comes up to an impenetrable wall, and it becomes knowledge to you. The soul cannot take in the spirit. It cannot take in the spiritual any more than my ear can take in food because it’s the wrong organ. The ear cannot take in food, but the Spirit takes the Word, and the Word comes in. And the Spirit literally is the Word. I don’t know if you can understand that, but the Spirit takes the Word, and it is the Word. Brothers, when it comes in you, it is Spirit. When it comes in here, into your spirit, it is Spirit. And what is the Spirit? The Spirit is life. And you feed on Christ.

Now, I’m going to repeat that because that’s deep.  This book, when taken into you by your mentality, becomes a death to you; but when it is taken in by your spirit, it is the Spirit. It becomes, even though it is living, it becomes living to you, and it comes into you as Spirit, the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. The word becomes Spirit and is taken into your spirit as Spirit and life.

Now then, turn with me to II Timothy 3:16. All scripture is God-breathed. And what is God’s breath? Brother, two things. It’s the Word of God, and it’s the Spirit. God’s breath is the Word of God, and it’s the Spirit. So, brother, the Scripture has been God-breathed. Now then, it has to be spirit received. The word of God is God breathed. Now it has to be spirit received. It is received into your spirit as Spirit and as life.

All right, brethren. We are looking at our relationship to the living word of God. I think that we need now to just stop. Is there any question at this point as to where we are? This is God breathed. It cannot be taken into you as life if you take it in through your mentality. When it comes into you in your spirit, it is taken as Spirit itself, it is taken into you as life, and it is taken into you as the word of God. It is the word of God. It is the spirit, and it is life. It is life-giving when it comes into you in the Spirit. All right.

Now then, would you all turn to Romans 8. I’m going to have to do it again, sisters and brothers, put your finger there. Before we do that, can someone find Jeremiah in the Old Testament, right after Isaiah. Jeremiah 15:16. And someone else take Ezekiel 3:1-3. Will someone else take Psalms 119:103? Alright, Jeremiah. Listen to it.

Jeremiah 15:16 Your words were found and I ate them, and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart;

Now, brethren, we feed on Christ, and we can feed on Christ in the Word. Has anyone ever told you before that you can eat the Scripture? You can eat the Word with an organ. What is the organ you have for receiving Christ? The Spirit, and Christ is the Word. So as you come with your Spirit, you can feed on the Word. And when you feed on the Word, the Word becomes, it is, but for you it becomes Spirit. We feed on the Word, and the Word becomes Spirit to us and is taken into us. All right, what’s the next one?

Ezekiel 3:1-3 Then He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” So, I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll. He said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you.” Then I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

Alright, praise the Lord. Brethren, you can come to the Word of God, and you can eat it, and it’s like honey. I did not say it was like knowledge. It is like honey. It is sweet, and it is precious. All right? Someone else over here has Psalms 119, is that right? Alright.

Psalms 119:103 How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Praise the Lord. The words of God, when taken in and eaten in your spirit, they are even sweeter than words, or than honey. The words are sweeter than honey. Brethren, we come to the Word of God to eat the Word of God and to feed upon the Word of God, and we take in the Spirit, and we take in the life.

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