FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10
Galatians 5:16-25
Romans 8:1-14

“For the LORD God
is a sun and shield.”

THE HOLY SPIRIT’S POWER IN THE BELIEVER’S LIFE (I)

The Holy Spirit manifests His power in the believer’s life in six ways: sanctifying, strengthening, transforming, enlightening, interceding and sustaining.

(a) Sanctifying: In God’s salvation plan, we are not merely delivered from the bondage of sin, but we are “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit” (1 Pet 1:2). The Spirit within performs a sanctifying work in the believer’s life by giving him power to separate from sin and the world, to resist temptation, to deny self, and to mortify the deeds of the flesh, “if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom 8:13).

(b) Strengthening: The Spirit is sent from the Father to be by our side in the place of the Son, as our COM (“alongside of”) FORTIS (“strength”) or Comforter, the Strengthener by our side! The blessed Spirit is omnipresent to aid all believers, in all places, at all times. He strengthens us in our weakness, lifts us when we are cast down, illumines us when we are perplexed, guides us into all truth, supplies grace to meet every need, and keeps us all the way Home. “His power can make you what you ought to be.”

(c) Transforming: The indwelling Spirit gradually changes us to be like our Lord. This is part of God’s plan, that we should be “conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom 8:29). This process of moral transformation is painful at times. Nevertheless it is for our good. As we yield ourselves to the Spirit, we learn to “delight in the law of God after the inward man” (Rom 7:22), to sorrow for sin (Rom 7:14, 24), to abhor our own proud looks and high thoughts, and to reverence God. Finally, we are “changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3:18).

THOUGHT: “For we are his workmanship…” (Eph 2:10).
PRAYER: Lord, may Thy almighty power be seen in my life. Amen.