“God will take us where we have not planned to go in order to produce in us what we could not achieve on our own.”
“When you give up on yourself, you begin to rely on him (Christ). When you are willing to abandon your own little dreams, you begin to get excited about his plan.”
“At some point, every [situation] brings you to the end of yourself, and with God there is no healthier place to be.”
THE above quotes are from another rich New Growth Press book titled Relationships: A Mess Worth Making, written by Timothy Lane and Paul Tripp. I’ve really come to appreciate the work of New Growth publications, for its insights in Christian growth and discipleship instructions, bringing to mind much of what I treasure in Miles Stanford’s The Complete Green Letters.
PICKING up where we left off in the previous comment regarding “The Spirit’s Goal,” we are reminded that there are indeed those moments and times when the Spirit brings you to the end of yourself, and with God there is no healthier place to be.
WITH that reminder, let’s see what further instruction, comfort, and encouragement Miles has for us today.
In the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15, Jas 1:2; Prov. 21:30
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Chapter 63—The Spirit’s Goal – Part 2
The Spirit of Christ
Spirit-fostered growth can never be attained through meeting conditions or having experiences. Nor does the Spirit depend upon such means. He is carrying out the commission of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is in charge. “No man can [even] say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit” (I Cor. 12:3).
The Word further calls us to be “filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). The purpose of His infilling is to manifest the life of the Lord Jesus in us. Galatians 5:22 and 23 enumerate the facets of the fruit of the Spirit—“love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.” These are the characteristics of Christ Himself. To be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with the Lord Jesus.
The Spirit of Truth
It was “through the [same] eternal Spirit” that the Lord Jesus “offered himself to God” at Calvary (Heb. 9:14). “Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ … written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God” (2 Cor. 3:3). We obtain our growth by “obeying the truth through the Spirit” (1 Peter 1:22). We are to ”walk in [dependence upon] the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).
Especially bitter is the disappointment of the one who has truly sought to depend upon the Spirit and yet has sunk down into failure and darkness. Often his heartbreak is brought about by overemphasis on the fullness of the Spirit in deeper life books and conferences. Even so, the Spirit uses this disillusionment to bring defeat and thereby prepare the heart for victory and growth in the Lord Jesus. …to be continued
