Would it not be the height of folly if Tasmania were to resolve to cut the supply of power from that mountain lake and to substitute handpower? Would not the factories soon close down, and the incipient harvest of prosperity suddenly wither? Yet it often seems as though the modern Church were in danger of making a similar mistake. In scores of cases she [the Church] is disconnecting herself from the dynamic of Pentecost, and is endeavouring to find compensation for her loss of spiritual power in brilliance of intellect in the pulpit, in highly organized and expensive machinery, and by calling to her aid incidental accessories, which are borrowed from the world; and which, even where they may be comparatively innocent, are totally unfit to secure the great ends for which she was called into being, according to the purpose and plan of her great Architect (F.B. Meyer). Romans 8 is the central passage on how to walk by the Holy Spirit so you are connected to the divine power source.
There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus because the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. The Law was powerless through the flesh, but God sent His Son, Jesus, in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering and so condemn sin in the flesh. Walking in the Spirit and not the flesh fulfilled the Law’s requirement in you. Those who walk in the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh and those according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. The mind set on the flesh is death so you are hostile toward God, not subject to the law of God and cannot please God. The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace so you belong to God in righteousness with His Spirit indwelling you. God’s Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead gives life to your mortal bodies (Rom. 8:1-11). God’s Spirit indwells you with resurrection power to produce life and peace so you can obey the Law and please God.
You are obligated by the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the body in order to live. Those led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. You received a spirit of adoption as sons crying out, “Abba! Father!” instead of a spirit of slavery leading to fear again. The Spirit bears witness we are children and heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ if we suffer with Him in order to be glorified with Him (Rom. 8:12-17). God’s Spirit produces intimacy with God in suffering as co-heirs with Christ to glorify Him.
Our present sufferings are not worthy to be compared to future glory. The creation waits eagerly for the sons of God to be revealed. God subjected the creation to frustration in hope that it will be liberated from bondage to decay and brought into glorious freedom of the children of God. The whole creation and ourselves groan and suffer the pains of childbirth together until now. Having the first fruits of the Spirit, we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons and the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but with perseverance we wait eagerly for what we do not see (Rom. 8:18-25). God’s Spirit redeems your body as you are liberated into glorious freedom as a child of God.
The Spirit helps our weakness for we do not know how to pray but the Spirit intercedes with groans that words cannot express. God searches the hearts and knows the mind of the Spirit because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. He causes all things to work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He predestined to become conformed to the image of Jesus hat He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Those He predestined, He also called, those He called, He justified, those He justified, He glorified (Rom. 8:26-30). God’s Spirit intercedes according to God’s will to conform you into the image of Jesus.
If God is for us, who is against us? He will freely give us all things since He delivered up His own Son for us. No one will bring a charge or condemn those God chose since He justifies and Christ died and was raised to sit at the right hand of Him who also intercedes for us. Nothing will separate us from Christ’s love including trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger or sword. If was written that for His sake we face death all day long and are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Christ who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, life, angels, demons, things present or to come, any powers, height, depth or other created thing will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:31-39). God gives freely all things including His abiding and eternal love.
Praise God for His indwelling resurrection power producing intimacy with Him in suffering as He redeems your body into glorious freedom as His child. Thank Him for interceding according to God’s will so you can be conformed into Christ’s image as He gives freely all things, especially His abiding and eternal love.
