Death no longer has dominion
over Him.…the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon
yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God… —Romans 6:9-11
{CHAMBERS} “Eternal life is not a gift from God; eternal life is the
gift of God. The energy and the power which was so very evident in Jesus will
be exhibited in us by an act of the absolute sovereign grace of God, once we
have made that complete and effective decision about sin. “You shall receive
power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8)— not power as a gift
from the Holy Spirit; the power is the Holy Spirit, not something that He gives
us. The life that was in Jesus becomes ours because of His Cross, once we make
the decision to be identified with Him. If it is difficult to get right with
God, it is because we refuse to make this moral decision about sin. […] Even
the weakest saint can experience the power of the deity of the Son of God, when
he is willing to “let go.” […] Then Jesus will have complete and effective
dominion in us, and people will take notice that we have been with Him.”
{ELGIN} (Acts 4:13) “When
they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled,
ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been
with Jesus.” The difference in Peter and
John was that they had the Spirit of God in them. Peter had just been with Jesus when Peter
denied Jesus. Peter was operating out of
his flesh – his old nature when that happened.
But in Acts, they were speaking with power and wisdom that could not be
explained except that these men had been with Jesus. They reflected Jesus in their words and with
the authority by which they spoke. It is
the same with us. The power of our new
life is totally, 100%, dependent upon the power of the Holy Spirit in us. Imagine that you are driving down the road
and someone reached over and turns the ignition key to the off position. The engine stops .. the power steering is
gone .. the car is unresponsive – dead if you will. Well, that is how it is when we attempt to
live the Christian life on our terms … without the Holy Spirit.
(1
Thessalonians 5:19) “Do not quench the Spirit” Like turning the key to off,
we can disregard the Holy Spirit … trust in ourselves … and fail. Are you having trouble being the Christian
you know you should be? Most probably it
is because you are not walking in the power of your new nature. (Galatians 5:16-18) “So I [Paul] say,
walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the
flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary
to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do
whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
And that, my friend, is the truth!
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