…I thank Thee that Thou art risen from the dead, that at this very moment Thou dost indwell me in the person and power of Thy divine Spirit; that Thou hast never expected of me anything but failure, yet Thou hast given to me Thy strength for my weakness, Thy victory for my defeat, Thyself for all my bankruptcy! I step out now, by faith, into a future that is limited only by what Thou art! To me to live is Christ!
– Ian Thomas –
The Holy Ghost is the director of the work of God upon the earth. And what we should do if we are to work rightly for God, and if God is to bless our work, is to see that we stand in a right relationship to the Holy Ghost, that we give Him every day the place of honor that belongs to Him, and that all our work and (what is more) in all our private inner life, the Holy Ghost shall always have the first place.
– Andrew Murray –
Jesus gave his life for me, to take my life from me, to live his life through me.
– Alistair Begg –
Saints are often drowsy, and listless, and half asleep; but the word and Spirit of Christ will put life and vigor into the soul.
– Matthew Henry –
Have you by faith grasped Jesus? Are you by faith cleaving unto Him? Faith is the eye which sees the Ladder—the hand which touches it—the strength which holds it—the feet which mount it. Has the Holy Spirit opened to you this figure, which was new life to Jacob? There is a ready test. Is the world beneath your tread? Do you trample on its love, its fashions, its maxims, its principles?
– Henry Law –
Do you desire to subdue sin? Would you be holy? Would you imitate your Master? Do you desire to rise to superlative heights of spirituality? Are you wanting to be made like the angels of God, full of zeal and ardor for the Master’s cause? You cannot without the Spirit: “Without Me you can do nothing.” Oh branch of the vine, you can have no fruit without the sap! Oh child of God, you have no life within you apart from the life which God gives you through His Spirit!
– Charles Spurgeon –
The Holy Spirit has come to make the life of Jesus Christ real in your flesh.
– GW North –
The whole purpose of the Redemption is to give back to man the original source of life, and in a regenerated man this means “Christ . . . formed in you.” Am I willing that the old disposition should be crucified with Christ? If I am, Jesus Christ will take possession of me and will baptize me into His life until I bear a strong family likeness to Him. It is a lonely path, a path of death, but it means ultimately being “presenced with Divinity.” The Christian life does not take its pattern from good men, but from God Himself, that is why it is an absolutely supernormal life all through.
We might as well pray for God to invade and conquer us, for until he does, we remain in peril from a thousand foes. We bear within us the seeds of our own disintegration. Our moral imprudence puts us always in danger of accidental or reckless self-destruction. The strength of our flesh is an ever present danger to our souls. Deliverance can come to us only by the defeat of our old life. Safety and peace come only after we have been forced to our knees. God rescues us by breaking us, by shattering our strength and wiping out our resistance. Then He invades our natures with that ancient and eternal life which is from the beginning. So he conquers us and by that benign conquest saves us for himself.