The Spirit of Power

2 Tim. 1:7, These words are never more true and necessary because the circumstances we are in require it. God gives them to us, now, to meet some tendency in the flesh, the natural mind (1 Cor. 2:14 vs. 16), that we may guard against it in the Spirit. He that is spiritual, led by the Holy Spirit, concerning the Person and work of Christ, discerns all things—all things as known by God, who is for us. (See 1 Cor. 2:15; 1 Jhn. 3:20-21; Rom. 8:31-39).

The Lord always deals with us just as we are, and in all His ways, He takes into account the circumstances we are in, and does not, like “philosophy,” take us into other circumstances.

While He leaves us in the world, the place of our cares and trials, He leaves us liable to all that happens to every man—but, in the new nature (2 Cor. 5:17), teaching us to lean on Himself alone. (Heb. 11:1; 2 Cor. 4:17-18; 5:7; 1 Pet. 1:7-8; Phil. 4:13,19).

Many times our thoughts can be that because we are Christians, we are to get away from trials, or else if, in them, we are not to feel them. This is not God’s thought concerning us in Christ. (1 Pet. 4:12-13; Rom. 8:18).

The theoretical Christian may be placid and calm, may have many books with nice words, but when he has something from God to ruffle his placidity, you will find he is a Christian more conscious of the difficulties there are in the world and of the difficulty of getting over them. The nearer a man walks with God through grace, the more tender he becomes as to the faults of others. The longer he lives as one in Christ, in His grace and truth, the more conscious of the faithfulness and tenderness of God, and of what it has been applied to in himself.

So thankful for Heb. 4:14-16; 2:9-18; 2 Cor. 1:3-6).