Morgan Wallen's father, Tommy, is back with another new episode of his popular Sunday Scripture series, Tommy's Sunday Seven, where he shares weekly meditations on the Gospel with listeners via Wallen's Morgan Wallen Radio on SiriusXM.

Tommy is a Tennessee pastor, making his insights on the Bible all the more fascinating and engaging. As well as reflecting on the message of various parts of Scripture, Tommy gets candid with fans about his own walk with faith and his struggle with addiction.

In this episode, Tommy delves into the sometimes complex relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Sometimes, as Tommy points out, there can be confusion regarding the Biblical idea that, if a non-believer reads the Word of God without any intention to welcome the Holy Spirit, a “veil” will be over their eyes. This means they will, in theory, not be able to gain anything from the Word.

By contrast, according to this popular Christian principle, if a believer reads the Bible with the intention of receiving the teachings of God and the Holy Spirit, then they will be blessed with true understanding of the subtleties and wonder of the Word of God.

Tommy tackles the tension this can create between the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Word of God. Many scholars have wrestled with the challenge of aligning a belief in the omnipotence of both, with a belief that the Word of God's power relies on both the Holy Spirit and the way in which the reader approaches it. By the same token, on this reading, the Holy Spirit is in turn dependent on the Word of God, because it is seemingly through the Word that the Spirit acts.

Tommy cuts through all the postulating and over-thinking, and instead simplifies the message. He explains that, rather than trying to work out whether the Holy Spirit or the Word of God is more powerful or ‘integral’ to the Christian experience, we should instead view the Spirit and the Word as being mutually dependent. Both rely on one another in order to speak to us, and are ineffective by themselves.

Ultimately, in Tommy's eyes, it boils down the idea that the Holy Spirit speaks to us through the Word of God. Perhaps it's easier to view these as two means of God's communication that are interwoven with one another, rather than entirely distinct channels. Both are seen as crucial, and both work through us studying the Bible. But as Tommy underlines throughout this episode, when reading the Bible, in order to receive the Holy Spirit and to be able to lift the ‘veil’ over our eyes to see the truth of the Word, we must read with a heart that is open to God.

Tommy muses, “As it is written, “What no eye has seen, or ear has heard, or no human heart has conceived, God has prepared these things for those who love Him. Now, God has revealed these things to us by His Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thought except his Spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now, we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. We speak these things not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God's Spirit because it is foolishness to him. He's not able to understand it since it's evaluated spiritually. The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything””.

He goes on, “So this week we will look into the Spirit of God, Genesis 1, Verse 2: “Now the earth was formless and empty; darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the water”. The verb translated “hovering” conveys the ideal of a ‘shaking’ or a ‘fluttering’. A significant parallel scripture appears in Deuteronomy 32:11: “As an eagle that protects its nest that flutters over its young, He spread out his wings and took them. He carried them on his pinions (wings)”. Where the same verb describes divine protection, like an eagle ‘hovers’ over its young, suggesting an intentional connection between the spirits ‘hovering’ over the primordial chaos and God's protective presence in redemptive history. The Spirit ‘hovers’ over the waters to guide creation and protect it, guiding creation into a divine purpose”.

Tommy expands on this idea, “Right up front, God's Word lets us see His Spirit is evidence of His working, even though we cannot see Him. In John Chapter 3, as Jesus explains salvation to Nicodemus, Jesus says, “The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it's going. So it is with everyone who is born of His Spirit”. These passages, Genesis 1:2, and John 3, Verse 8, center on the Holy Spirit's consistent role as the agent of transformation and renewal in creation and salvation. They reveal the complementary dimensions of the Spirit's work. The Spirit moves with the intentional freedom toward God's goals. In the darkness of creation, the Spirit ‘hovered’ over, preparing for God's command to create, establishing a pattern where the Spirit works when the Word of God is given. Similarly, in spiritual rebirth or salvation, the Spirit moves freely yet purposefully to accomplish God's redemptive work. The Spirit's dependence on God's Word reflects a fundamental theological principle: the Spirit of God operates according to the Word of God rather than independently. This relationship isn't about the Holy Spirit's weakness, but about the divine design on how transformation occurs.

“The Word of God is what the Spirit of God uses to show us our separation from God because of our sinful state compared to God's sinless holiness, and what has to be done to reconcile this relationship. That's why there's such an attempt to discredit the Bible. Again, we are left with a choice: what are we going to believe?”

Tommy expands on this point, “Martin Luther insisted that we must first hear the Word, and then afterwards the Holy Spirit works in our heart. He works in the hearts of who He will and how He will, but never without the Word. John Calvin also emphasized the Word as the instrument by which the Lord dispenses the illumination of His Spirit to believers, noting that Scripture remains dead and ineffectual until God speaks through it, and only when its proper reverence and dignity are given to the Word does the Holy Spirit show forth His power. Practically, this means if we want the Holy Spirit to do His work in our hearts, we must study the Word, and if we wish Him to do the work in the hearts of others, we must give them the Word. Yet the Word alone will not accomplish this.

“It is the Word and the Spirit together, and we must look to the Spirit to make His Word accomplish what God intended it to accomplish. That is: our salvation, or the restoration of our relationship with Him. Listen to what first Peter 1:22 and 23 says: “You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth. So now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart, for you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living Word of God”. Now listen to First Thessalonians 2, Verse 13: “This is why we constantly thank God because when you received the Word of God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is - the Word of God, which also works effectively in you who believe”. From these passages, we see the Spirit of God is the one that reveals the truth about God's Word to us. Charles Spurgeon said, “The Word of God is the Holy Spirit's sword. He will never use our wooden weapons””.

Tommy concludes Episode 3 by outlining, “This means the Spirit does not and will not work through human wisdom, eloquence, or our own ideas. The Spirit and the Word work together, never separately. Look back at our text. The Spirit of God ‘hovered’ until God spoke in Verse 3: "Let there be”, and there was establishing a pattern. God's Spirit works when God's Word is given. If we want the Spirit to do a work in our hearts, we must study the Word of God. Thanks for tuning into Tommy's Sunday Seven. Next week we'll look at the Son of God, Jesus Christ”.

Tommy's Sunday Seven airs on Morgan Wallen Radio via SiriusXM every Sunday, with Tommy exploring key pillars of the Bible through his concise, seven-minute episodes.