The Letter Kills

I awakened this morning about three o’clock, as I so often do, again wrestling with all the seeming contradictions of Scripture. The “but what about” Scriptures were bombarding my brain. (See But What About . . .? I had a prolonged discussion with my husband about how difficult it is to relate to a God I find described in Scripture. While He is supposed to be love and infinitely compassionate, I see Him assigning untold numbers to everlasting torment.

I know the Scripture which promises me that if I lack wisdom, I can ask of God and receive it liberally without having Him fuss at me for being so ignorant of the truth:

James 1:5  If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

Of course I couldn’t sleep with all these thoughts racing through my mind; so I got up, got dressed and, with my heart crying out for wisdom, opened my computer and read these words from Walter Lanyon which I had on my desktop:

“When the letter of anything goes, the spirit comes. If I (the personal) go, the Comforter shall come —that is, the revelation of the Spirit will come. The letter killeth, the Spirit giveth light. When you begin to see this, you will begin to understand that it is only the spirit of the Truth that will be anything to you, and you will begin to give up the dead formulae.

“It is by My Spirit, saith the Lord—not by might or power. Not by force or effort, but by My Spirit. By the Spirit which is hidden in the letter you shall be able to set free the new expression. The Spirit is like the life of a seed. The shell must first fall away before the plant can be made alive. The shell must first be destroyed before the life can come into manifestation. So is it with the Word. The letter must drop by the way and the spirit must be released.

“Why do you not release the letter from your life and see the glorious Spirit work out into expression? The signs will follow. Remember that as soon as the seed is cast into the ground, into the secret place, the shell or letter of it starts to drop away and releases the new life and beauty. The glorious promises that you repeat over and over are all filled with the possibility of manifestation. It is the adherence to the letter that killeth.”

I knew for a certainty that this was the voice of God speaking to me in my anguish. I experienced the truth of “before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear “(Isaiah 65:24). I now knew why I was so confused by Scripture —it was my adherence to the letter that was killing me. I began to worship God for giving me His Spirit to guide me into all truth. I now knew that it is the words spoken to me by the Spirit, not the words on the written page, that would bring me into a knowledge of God. I knew that as I dropped the letter, the spirit of the Word would be revealed to me. The peace of God enveloped me as I soaked in this Word of God spoken to me. I understood now why I had been drawn by the Spirit of God in me to read the works written by Walter Lanyon —though he is considered by orthodox Christians to be in error.

Several days later I came across these words from Lanyon, words in which were contained the WORD.

“LET there be light, and there was light. We seem to hear those words spoken in English by a great and terrible Jehovah. Until we begin to understand that words are only sounds, noises, explosions of breath, which, in limitation, attempt to express the Secret Power, we will fail to sense the Spirit and will die filled with the dead letter.

How utterly impossible it is to make anything happen by mere use of words. The Word (the power and the Glory) which is spoken of in the Bible is thickly hung with words made by man, like barnacles on a ship. These words are only alive to the degree that they convey the SPIRIT of the WORD. The moment we find the SPIRIT of the WORD, we discard the words, as we discard the shell of a nut once we have the kernel. The still small Voice is the loudest voice in the world, because it does not speak words, but the WORD.

He [Jesus] spake to us in parables because of our inability to grasp the WORD. Yet those parables are as dead and worthless as the mottoes which adorn many walls if the SPIRIT is not discerned.

The Spirit of the WORD quickeneth, the letter killeth. The Spirit is the WORD, and the letter is the words. It is wonderful to contemplate the WORD.”

Lanyon’s writings have always made my heart sing and brought me hope that I could some day experience the joy of my salvation. He was not bound by the letter as most of us are; he was able to release the letter and find the spirit of the Word —the Spirit that gives life and light and produces the righteousness, peace and joy which characterize the kingdom of heaven. He never gets hung up on seeming contradictions or descriptions of God which seem to show Him to be anything but love. Lanyon makes me want to run into the arms of the God he presents to me —who is indeed the God of Scripture when the letter is released and the Spirit comes forth.