Now here's something more intellectual, but I have plenty of practical examples so stay with us! There are objective truths—truths that are true for everyone for all time—and there are relative truths—truths that are true for some people some of the time. We need both. The objective truth of the Word will give us a solid framework from which we can evaluate what we think might be the Spirit's will for us today. The Bible is fully objective, but also contains some relative truths. I am in no way saying the Bible is relative: that would destroy it!

But by way of illustration, the Father wanted Jesus to go to the cross—and that's not true for us, though we bear our cross by dying to our will. The Spirit wanted Paul to testify before Caesar—but that is not true for us, though we should witness to others. So there are some specific tasks for a person to obey that are not for others, and these are relative to that person. However, these tasks are in line with the general will of God which can be seen in Scripture.

For another example, we can work out from the Bible that God generally wants us to evangelise. We can figure out what to say, because the Gospel is objectively known and doesn't change over time. Jesus' life, death, resurrection and the meaning of these things can be intellectually understood. This is God's general will, and it is good and necessary to study the Word to work that out. But if we listen to the Spirit, we might hear that God wants us to say "God knows you" to the person in the red jacket on our left. That's a relative word that is true for us only in that moment, but it's crucial to be open to because that's how God sometimes directs us to fulfil his will (see Acts 16:6-10).

The Spirit without the Word would be vague and difficult to draw near and know. The Word without the Spirit would be general and feel like God does not know you personally: impersonal principles. But the Spirit and the Word is what God has provided, and together God is known personally, and intellectually.

Now, that relative word might be new to Conservatives (and considered dangerous), but Pentecostals know it well. However, Pentecostals struggle with the objective side. But in this illustration we can see that without knowing the Gospel, we wouldn't know what to say. Sure, the Spirit might tell us even that, but that's not how the Spirit usually operates. God wrote the Word down so that we might read it and live by it and proclaim it! It is "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17). So that's the necessity of the objective Word of truth.

I mentioned the danger of relative words. This is because there is a separate movement of the liberal church and postmodern influences to make the whole Word of God relative. That's different from saying some of the Bible contains relative statements (which are objectively verifiable). If even the facts are relative, this effectively gets rid of an objective standard by which we can decide anything, which is a disaster. That is a completely different matter, and ought to be vigorously opposed.