If your sound is on, you are listening to Chopin’s “Minuet Waltz.” Chopin said he intend the music to depict a dog chasing its tail, which pretty much is the picture we have of anyone today who tries to separate The Living Word from the Written Word.

Regardless of how “spiritual” a person claims their relationship to Jesus Christ is, how do they know for certain that it is the Holy Spirit who is inspiring them? More importantly, how do the rest of us know that this person is inspired by the Holy Spirit?

After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. Gen. 15:1

The above verse is the first time recorded in the Bible that “the word of the Lord” came to a human. This same syntax is used hundreds of times in the scriptures. Therefore we can only conclude that the term, “the Word of the Lord” is not meant to be applied to the scripture, but to an entity that is capable of appearing to someone and saying something to them. What we have in the scriptures is the record of those appearances and sayings. 

Hab. 2:2 “And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.”

 Deut. 31:19 “Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.” 

Isa. 8:1 “Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man's pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz.” 

Isa. 30:8 “Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever.” 

Jer. 30:2 “Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.” 

Jer. 36:2 “2 Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.” 

Rev. 1:19 “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.”

It should be evident from the above quotations that the Holy Scriptures (Writings) are not per se that to which Hebrews 4:12 refers where it is written, “For the word of God is quick [Gr. living], and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart,” but rather to the Word who, in the beginning was God, and who was with God, and who became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:1-2 & 14) So what I have now in my hand is not the Living Word of God who lives in my heart, but the written record of the Word of God that I may know that He who guides my way is He who made the worlds.