Abide Above

We're on chapter 8, the Spirit's ministry. True or false? Now, the next couple of weeks we're going to talk about the Holy Spirit and maybe, you know, I've got a mind that July, August, and September we'll spend three months talking about the Holy Spirit if you want to go there. That's kind of where I'm headed. But this is probably a good beginning because in our day and age, The person and work of the Holy Spirit is so construed that it's hard to decipher what's real about Him and what isn't. So, as we go through the next couple of weeks, I think we hopefully get a decent foundation.

Okay, true or false? The Christian life is developed through an experience or even a series of experiences that may be enthralling. Huh? It's like going to Greek class? Maybe. Well, it's either true or false. There's no in-between? No. No, not really. Then I'll say false. You're right. And the paragraph that I took this from is that the Christian life is not developed through experiences or even a series of experiences, no matter how enthralling they may be. Rather, spiritual maturity and fruitfulness develop as one grows in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. This will be repeated some this morning.

First of all, who is the Holy Spirit? Who is He? He's not the force. He's the experienced giver. Well, first of all, he's God. And we call him the third person of the Trinity, which sort of puts him in third place. No, he's not at all. It's interesting, the three persons of the Godhead have designated for themselves specific roles. You know, the Lord Jesus became a man. He's the Savior of the world. He died and he's the Logos of God. He's the one who is the expression of who God is. What's the Holy Spirit's job? What role has he taken on? Comforter. Comforter? What else? He's the Revealer.

Yeah, manifests the light, he's the enabler. When the Lord Jesus was walking around on the planet doing his ministry, by whose energy was he doing it? His own? It's by the Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit has some unique roles that he plays in creation and especially within believers and within the body of Christ. And he's essential. He's essential.

The problem has been, as we talked a little bit last week, I think believers have a difficult time determining, or distinguishing is a better word, between what's soulish and what's spiritual. And Christians think that highly emotional experiences are somehow spiritual, when in fact they're not. and so therefore they seek for the Holy Spirit to create experiences in their life and excitement and energy to the soul rather than what he's designed to do is to... He's called the Holy Spirit, not the Holy Soul. So he has... What's interesting, if you study the Holy Spirit, what you find is that he has specific things he's going to do. and he's been sent to do, and he's not going to do other things, no matter how hard you want him to. And he sticks to his agenda. And what's interesting is, what do you think the first part of his agenda is? With mankind, what's the very first thing he does?

Apply the cross. Apply the cross, well, to a non-believer. He's a convictor. He convicts the world of sin. Without him, there would be no conviction. So he's got a monumental task, right? So he convicts the world of sin, he convicts the individual human being of his separation from God, and from that presents the Lord Jesus as his Savior. Without him, there's none of that. There's no understanding at all.

Now with the believer, He has specific things he's going to do, and Craig's right. The first thing he does, he comes to the believer, because the believer doesn't know any better, and begins to apply the cross to the old man, from a conditional standpoint. That's the first thing he does. And believers think, oh, this can't be, this must be Satan attacking me, because this is really uncomfortable, or this is something that can't be of God.

But if you understand the sequence and the principles under which he operates, it does make a lot of spiritual sense. And that's kind of the direction I want to go in today, so that we can see really what he's doing and what he isn't doing. There will be valid experiences resulting from your growth, but they do something specific.

They glorify God, they glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, never self. And I mean never, even though we're all hoping. True or false, nothing powerful or spectacular occurred at the time of Paul's filling with the Spirit, and there were no signs involved. Absolutely true. Now, has there ever been a guy filled with the Spirit like this guy, Paul? Not that I know of.

But his first experience was he's blind. He goes, you know, and sits around for three days and prays and is trying to figure out what's going on. He's filled with the Spirit. And then the Lord sends this guy Ananias to see him. And Ananias has got great news for him, right? Here's what he says. He's a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name. before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, and I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name's sake." Oops, didn't want to hear that part.

Now do you think suffering and the filling of the Spirit go together? Absolutely they do. Absolutely they do. True or false? Believers are sometimes suddenly filled with the Spirit for reasons which are related primarily for spiritual growth. How many think that's true? I've got one. How many think it's false? How many are too chicken to raise their hand? Answer's false. It's false.

There isn't any denying that many believers are suddenly filled with the Spirit, but they're primarily related to service, not growth. They're not meant to be the norm, though. Nor are they to be the means of growth into the image of the Lord Jesus. Here's where the problem starts, or is, because the misguided insistence upon seeking an experience has wrecked and is wrecking untold numbers of lives, whether the experience be by faith or by conditions.

Usually, isn't it? A lot of people think the filling of the Spirit is just their emotional... They're euphoric. Yeah, euphoric. And what has probably happened was they got a hold of a fact by fate that really set him free in his grace. That's what I meant. There's such an eagerness for young believers to be quote-unquote filled with the Spirit in itself. And that's why it's important to find out, just objectively, what is the Holy Spirit doing? What's his job? He fills for service usually, not for growth. Because what is growth? How does one grow? We've been at this so long, and he... That's what he knows about Christ.

Right to the old man. Well, again, you have to distinguish, I think, between position and condition. positionally, you need to learn your position, you need to know, because you need to know what to believe. But on a conditional standpoint, there's the application of the cross to the old man. For what reason? To put him out of business. And as that application of the cross is applied to the old man, it leaves room, for lack of a better way to say it, for the new life to grow conditionally.

But how does that take place? Hmm? Reckoning. Reckoning. Close. How does it take place? What is the specific thing that, or what is the specific thing you do while you're growing? Behold. Yeah. That's the whole secret. Beholding as an emir of the glory of the Lord, with an unveiled face, I'm transformed from one state of glory to another, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Beholding, how do you behold? Even as by the Spirit of the Lord. You see, that's His job. Now, believers will say to me, yeah, okay, I see the verse, I understand the concept, but I'm trying to behold as hard as I can.

How come it isn't happening? How come it isn't happening? Time, and the application of the cross to the old man, even though you may think you're spiritual, you may not be. I mean, you don't know where you are spiritually without the Holy Spirit, do you? I don't.

So if he continues to apply the cross and you're hoping for something warm and fuzzy, you end up having to trust him with your life and with your growth, with every little aspect and nuance. At the same time, you're reading and growing and studying and learning and fellowshipping And that's all by Him, too. All of it is. You know, the cross, that's where the glory of God is revealed.

And we're so busy worrying about our soul life at the time that we can't get ourselves to abide above. Like, those who'll save their life will lose it. Well, isn't it interesting? Which man is so busy trying to abide above? Absolutely. The flesh is really busy trying to do this Christian thing. Oh, abide. Okay. We've got to get busy and do that. See that? Well, you don't, again, I don't think you even are aware that that's who's trying to do it without the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Okay. True or false. The filling of the Spirit causes one to focus on the Spirit. No. And self. Yeah, false. Because what is his work? What is his work? To get you to focus on who? Christ. Yeah. And it amazes me how people can study John 14, 15, and 16, and that's specifically what Christ said.

He says it over and over again. I'm going to send the Comforter. He's going to remind you of all the things that I've told you. He's going to glorify me. That's his whole job. He's not going to do all this other stuff, you think. He's going to do what we've worked out. And there are specific things that he's doing. So, I don't know what's so complicated about that, other than the flesh makes it complicated.

But that's what his job is, is to glorify Christ and to reveal Christ to the believer. Why? We've talked about this before. Why does Christ have to go before the Spirit is sent? Because of the covenant between the Father and the Son. Okay. Why in that timing, though? Because the Father sends the Son. The Father sent the Son. The Son sends the Holy Spirit. Okay. The sin issue is now dealt with. Right. Okay. What I'm after is this.

If 2 Corinthians 3.18 is that we behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, when was he glorified? And he rose and he ascended into heaven and he was glorified as a man. So the sum total of the very essence of God radiates out of this man now who is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the person that the Holy Spirit reveals to us.

You understand? That's a critical point. It's not the Jewish Messiah. It's not even the resurrected Christ. It's the ascended and seated glorified man. So the beholding that you're going to do vis-à-vis the auspices of the Holy Spirit is the glorified Christ in the heavenlies now. You think he'd get your attention if he saw him?

Absolutely. So I think the plan is a good one. It's a really good one because it eliminates all the self-effort The good old self can't behold the glory of the Lord, wouldn't want to anyway, just was looking for a little relief. I have a friend who, whenever we have discussions like this, he always puts a little caveat on the end of his sentences, if the Spirit's willing to do it. You know, like, what do you mean? Well, what he's saying is, well, this is a lot of conversation. I don't see it happening in my life. I guess the Spirit isn't willing to do it. What do you think about that? How would you respond to him? Is he willing? It's accomplished already. Okay. Positionally. How about conditionally? The Spirit's job. It's his job, right. Now, is he waiting for you to do something? No. No, he's not.

So, true or false, the Holy Spirit fills a believer based on yieldness? I hope not. Answer, false. We talked about the emphasis on the conference ministry that shifted from crucifixion to surrender. The Holy Spirit, however, does not fill the Christian on the basis of yieldedness. Why not? Remember the key verse? When it comes to yieldedness, what's the key verse? Remember?

Romans 6.13. As those that are alive from the dead. Because those that are alive from the dead, what life do they have to yield? New life. Now, does a new life need to be taught how to yield? Does it need to learn how to love God?

No, it's in the life. See, it's already in the life. and will always yield. It just does. That's the way it is. You see that? So there isn't any yielding conditions placed on the believer. But you hear that today, don't you? Don't you hear that, boy, you've got to yield, and if you don't yield, boy, nothing's going to happen? Just study your Bible more.

Well, that's a condition. Or surrender. Oh, wait a minute. Surrender. That's a good one. The Holy Spirit, as Miles says, the Holy Spirit freely ministers the life of the Lord Jesus to that new nature all the time. Okay. Growth in the new life is always balanced by the Spirit's application of the death of the cross to the self-life. True or false? True. Sure, absolutely. And the key phrase is that surrender is no substitute for death.

Do you understand that? When the Holy Spirit is applying the cross to your Adamic old man, is he trying to get it to surrender? No. He's trying to get it so it won't function. Do you see that? And your old man isn't going to go quietly. Your old man doesn't read the Bible and say, I guess I'm done. They busted me. I best quit trying. No. As a matter of fact, up goes the ante. And the reason is that if you think about the existence of the old man, The one thing he won't do is not do. Do you understand what I just said? The one thing he won't do is not do.

So he's always manipulating to have a piece of the action, to be able to be in the curve, so to speak, or in the loop. He doesn't know what faith is. He can manifest faith. He'll do anything just to be doing. And the difficult part is, The difficult part is that when it begins to dawn on the believer, because of the work of the Spirit, that the real thing he's up to is to have the old man not do anything. That's really scary. Is it not?

Because you've relied on that guy your whole life. And you think, oh, I won't be able to feed my family, pay my rent, I'll sleep in every day. Because we don't understand that the new life in Christ is a dynamic operating principle life that functions spiritually and wholly all the time and meets every obligation and then some you could ever think of. See that?

I remember I called up Myles one time when I was struggling through this and I said, I said, Miles, I'm really worried about this, you know, being conformed to the image of Christ. You know, I'm a realtor and I'm a salesman and as a salesman, you know, I have to get up in the morning and hit the bricks and pound it all week long because nobody pays me for getting up. I only get paid when things complete, you know. He said to me, he said, as you are transformed into the image of Christ, you will be eons beyond in terms of how good you are at what you do. Isn't that cool?

It's the same thing in your life. Whatever you do for a living, as the Holy Spirit conforms you, you will be so good at what you do. You know why? Because your focus will go off of you and on to Christ. And you will become a true servant in what you do. And you may end up with a different job. Maybe. A better job. Or you'll do whatever God has called you to do infinitely better. Or a worse job. Well, who gauges better or worse? The old man. See?

We had a shower yesterday at my house, and I had to worry about it for a while because I couldn't pull this off. This is not my skill set. What's really neat is that I got to watch him, the body of Christ, function on a practical level, where he did the flowers and done it. Well, I mean, there are so many women. I was marveling at how the Lord brings it together. He had to get me off myself there.

But it's really beautiful because it's not you, it's your eyes. And all of those people that are contributing are doing it effortlessly. Yes. There's no angst in them. There's no, oh, I gotta. It's just joy. Yeah, they do it. They just do it. Because that's the way the life functions. Yeah. See? It's just the way it is.

These guys must really be good at showers. They're getting better with all these babies around. You think we're going to have to put a baby shower? Mike, I think you made a good point at the Thursday Bible study, maybe a couple of months ago, about the life of Christ being lived through us, through these bodies that we've got will wear him out.

Yeah. Rest doesn't mean our bodies don't get beaten up. That's right. That's exactly right. Read 2 Timothy, and read it from the perspective that Paul knows he's going to go home soon, and how he is physically spent. from 30 some years, but the guy was always at rest.

That's the amazing thing, is that physically you're expending energy. You think about it, why do you think we need a new glorified body? Because this life we have needs that body to function. We've got this new incredible resurrected life of Christ in an old sinful body. You can't keep up. You can't. So to fully manifest the glory that we have been called to, it's going to take a new body to do it. See that? It's pretty cool. True or false, the trend in deeper life teaching has focused upon the responsibility of the Christian. True.

Yield, surrender, abandon, obey, separate, consecrate, cease from sin, cast out self, or the Holy Spirit will neither be able to function nor fill. When you're reading deeper life books and you're not quite sure what the perspective of the author is coming from, you can be sure by looking for two things. Does he glorify Christ and does he sneak this in? They always sneak this in. They seem to do it. Even the better ones, even the better ones do it. They really do. And you know why I think they do it?

Because they don't have confidence in the Holy Spirit to do His job. There's always something, and to be honest, as we grow spiritually and the Holy Spirit is applying the cross to the old man, we are quietly saying, God, what would you have me do? This is just terrible. And, of course, we're surrounded by a bunch of Job's friends. Now, if you can figure out what you did that made God mad and fix it, He wouldn't be so mad. And then, of course, your wife comes up to you and says, I'll curse God and die. The Holy Spirit took charge while we were yet dead in sins and brought us to the Lord Jesus by faith.

Did he do that? True or false? True. Absolutely true. Which also means that he will conform us to Christ's image by faith. He is God dwelling within each believer and he will abide in us forever. Do you think you can circumvent his program? It's cool if you really are convinced you can't, because then you'll let him get on with what he's doing. Is every believer going to be conformed to the image of Christ? Every single one? What do you think? No, I didn't say here. Let's pick on Richard since he's not here. The minute Richard left the planet, what happened with him? He was face-to-face with the Lord Jesus. And so, what happened? There he was, conformed.

Isn't that cool? So, even if you're the most carnal Christian there is, you're not going to miss the bus. And the conformity process is going to take place. And every single believer will manifest the glory of God. Every one. Thanks to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is hopefully waiting for a series of conditions to be met so that he may have the privilege of filling us. What do you say? I love what Miles says. He's not cringing in some corner of our being in some dark garret. Hopefully waiting for a series of conditions to be met so that he may have the privilege of filling us. That's how the old man operated. And you know what, Mike? We laugh at that, but I'm telling you, there are legions of believers that hinge their Christianity right here. They've made themselves the first cause. Go ahead.

I would never imagine him cringing, waiting for me to do something, but I can imagine him sitting up there and saying, No, I'm not going to bless Matthew unless he does something. No, I'm not going to bless myself because I'm better than Matthew. That's the way I would see it. He better do better or I'm not going to touch that. That's a great point. What do you think about that? It's different than the way I've seen it many a time.

He has certain principles that he's guided by. Principles are key when you talk about the Holy Spirit because They seem so basic, but when the application of those principles comes into a believer's life, it's helpful for the believer to know what he's doing. And we talk about the application of the cross to the old man. That very thought is from the old man. So how does the Holy Spirit react to that?

He's applying the cross. That's what he's doing. He's not waiting for you to initiate the behavior. He's already moved. And the reason he has is because the work that he functions from is already complete. You understand what I mean by that? He's not... That's right. And it's always done from a completed fact. He's applying the cross because you were crucified.

Not going to be. You hear believers say, you say, how's it going? And they say, well, I'm trying to die to self. What's the problem with that? Wrong tense, right? They're dead. Well, when a person's in that position, it's like he's in a ring. And he's got to come to the point to where The towel has to be thrown in because it's never ending. The towel has to be thrown in and he has to see that he died. Now just what you said, now you've installed a condition on which I have to meet and go through and experience in order to grow. No, but it's just the life is... It works a certain way. It's a principle.

And until the self, what that is, until that person sees who that is, and the ugliness of it, can he be thoroughly convinced and rid of it. But not until... Now do you think, let me ask the class, do you think the Holy Spirit works in that direction? Convincing you about what the old man really is? Absolutely he does.

So don't be surprised. Even if you're the cleanest guy in the room, when the Holy Spirit begins to show you and continues to show you who you really are in Adam, he's doing it specifically so that you'll agree with him about the application of the cross. Now, that can be a most trying and difficult time, and it is. There's no getting around it.

But it's helpful to know what he's doing, from what position he's working from, and what the principles are of the application of what he's up to. It helps to know. That's where older believers can help out the younger believers so much. They've been through it and they know what's happening. And not that they can do anything, but they can come in alongside. Right. And just prop them up a little and show them the Lord. Yeah.

Because what you find, I think, and I agree with that, you find in a young believer's life that the Spirit's working, that sin is going to be a huge issue. And it isn't going to be sins. It's going to be the power of this sin nature that's got him. He's been doing his Christian thing for X amount of years and now it's like, what is going on?

A mature believer can come in alongside of that person and say, hey, let's talk about this. This is not unusual. This is normal. Get your Bible and I'll show you. the young believer can see in the word of God what the Holy Spirit's up to. And so it isn't panic time.

It's the law of sin and death that he's learning. The two come together at the cross, the law of sin and death and the law of spirit of life in Christ. One dies and one is born there. The normal spiritual growth is Romans 7. You don't get to jump over that. In me, that is in my flesh. My flesh... Well, he tried to. He did. He said if you could learn everything up to 7 and have it be part of what you're about, you could jump to 8. But that would be a fleshy assumption. that we could learn.

I think there's, which I see in my own life and I see in other people's lives, I want to learn it so badly that the patient has to wait for the Holy Spirit to heal Christ. Because I want it to go through my brain, you know, I can read, I can figure things out, I can look at a recipe, I can do this. And it's, I'm constantly coming back to, I don't get to know until the Lord says, okay, now this part I'm going to show you. And I think the fact that when the believer gets to that point where the cross is being applied to the man, that the Holy Spirit will not give in.

Well, He can't. You know, that's terrific, Mike, that you say that, because that's right. He won't stop. And that's why people can go on for years and years. He does not stop. And you know what else? There's no power in heaven and earth that's greater than He is. None. And He's operating from a completed work.

To me, that's encouraging because I'm going to arrive at the end. I know that I am. Paul said that he was confident that whatever he entrusted to Christ will be. Yeah, we'll complete it. Go ahead. I know what you're saying, but it seems, well, like you said, some believers will be conformed when they die. All will. All will. Yeah. But I mean, some will have to wait until they die. Okay.

Do you mean like when they're face to face with Jesus, then they aren't going to be... Well then, like there may be no spiritual growth until that point? No. Can they fight off? We're going to find out next week that you can do two things. You can resist the Holy Spirit and you can quench him. You resist him through sin. and you quench him through lack of faith. But it still doesn't stop him.

Every single believer, even the ones that turn back, he's at work in. Because when a believer sins, what does the Holy Spirit do? When you sin and lose fellowship, now what goes on? What's happening in the spiritual realm of things? The Holy Spirit is convicting you of your sins. For what purpose? To restore you to fellowship, right? The fellowship is the thing that does the conforming. It's the beholding that conforms you.

So let's say... Well, it's a principle more than it is a condition. I'm just trying to figure... I understand. If we say that the Spirit is going to do His work anyway, I'm just trying to figure out why. If the Spirit is doing this for every believer, it doesn't matter. If you believe in Christ, the Spirit is working through you, is conforming you, what is the point of any of this? I mean, why even... I mean, if there is no condition, it doesn't matter what we do, God is working through us, we shouldn't do anything. I mean, isn't this putting conditions... I mean, and I'm not... I just don't... I mean, I know... That's good. That's a great question.

What's God's purpose in creation and everything that He does? To glorify Himself. To glorify Himself, right? To reveal His glory. Now, how does He reveal His glory within believers, or through believers. Transforming us? Transforming us, and whose glory is it coming out of us? Christ. It's not yours, it's Christ, right? So there's the purpose. So you can say, well, I'm not interested in the purpose, or I'm whatever. I got my fire insurance paid up, I'm going to the Bronco game. See ya." The Holy Spirit says, oh, okay.

I remember for years, I loved that show, It's a Wonderful Life. You're dating yourself a little bit here. I was like Jimmy Stewart, crying. I want to live in it. every young believer is like that. But he goes through that until he really sees who died on that mountain.

Here's one other thing you have to understand about the new life in Christ. That life has its own taste, its own energy, its own focus, and its own desires. So you can be functioning in the flesh and not care. The problem you've got is you've got this other life in you, which is reality, which is the life of Christ. And so even though your flesh is doing whatever dance it wants to do to prevent the life of Christ coming forth, the Holy Spirit's within you applying the cross to Adam and bringing the life of Christ forward in you, which includes the desires and the will J.B. Stoney said that with the life of Christ comes a taste for the things of God. That is so evident in a young believer because yesterday he couldn't stand to be even in church and around Christians. Today he can't stand to be with his old buddies. Well, where did that come from? It comes from the life. See?

So, even though there's plenty of evidence that Christians aren't growing fast enough or they're you know, the church is in a really sick state, you know, still the Holy Spirit's at work, and he's still doing his job. And every single believer is growing, even it looks minuscule, is growing. Having said that, there certainly are cases when the Holy Spirit takes somebody out of the planet. He'll do that.

Have you heard of sin on the death? That idea? Is that the same thing? Is that like an instant conforming? Well, actually, you think about the reality of the believer's existence. There are two tremendous days in a believer's history. One is the day he becomes a believer, and the next terrific day is the day he gets to go home to be with his Lord. So if you're a believer and your witness is really bad and the Lord's going to take you out of here, isn't that a blessing?

It is to me. So we better get sinning. Do you understand what I'm saying? No matter how you slice it, God's grace and his blessing is on the believer. Even if he's a terrible witness, And the Lord takes him home because he is. Okay! Can you say even this fighting, this struggle against the Holy Spirit is a growth? Absolutely.

Because it's your old man that's doing the fighting, right? It's the one who wants to sin and wants to be in control and manifest itself through you. The spirit lusts against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit. They're contrary one to another. So what? So that you can't do the things that you want to do, right? Well, now think about this. It's the Holy Spirit lusting against who?

You? Who? Your old man. Not you, because who are you? That's right. So here's this battle going on within you, between who are the combatants? The old man and the Holy Spirit. Isn't that cool? And so what are you doing? You have this desire to do the things of God. And as long as this battle goes on, you can't get to doing them. But guess who wins?

We all know who's already won. Sure. Sure. So, I think it's... It helps the confidence of a believer to understand who his champion is. It's the Holy Spirit of God. He has no chance of losing. None. At the time, though, that newborn looks that way. He is just at the mercy of the Lord. Have the buzzers been going off? Oh, okay. I didn't hear it. What's the difference between indwelling and filling? Okay, what's indwelling? Indwelling is what the Spirit does when we become saved.

Sure. You become spiritually alive by the presence of the Holy Spirit. You've been recreated in Christ. The Holy Spirit indwells you permanently. He's not there as a visitor. So then what is filling? For service, possibly. It's interesting you know that like you mentioned that the Holy Spirit filled Paul and what was he able to do? Have some guy lead him to some place and pray for three days and learn about how much suffering he was going to go through.

Do you realize that all the suffering and all that you encounter in your Christian life is via the Holy Spirit and he's the enabler for you to get through it? He's the one. You see that? I wish I could see it more clearly. When one is filled with the Holy Spirit, what are they filled with? Premium. What are they filled with?

God himself. Yeah, it's the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the really cool things we're doing on Thursday night is we're studying the Gospel of John, and what's amazing to me this time through it is I'm seeing the life of Christ function. It's really neat to see His principles and why and how He does things.

He only does the will of His Father. That's all He does. That's such a shock to me, because he never takes account of himself other than in Gethsemane and now that we're at the point where he's about to face the cross. And he does say, you know, boy, for this purpose I came in the world, it would be kind of cool if I didn't have to go through this.

So it demonstrates the weakness of humanity, but the power of the Spirit. The power of the Spirit in the believer will make the will of God, the most important thing to him, above self. See that? That's the second buzzer, right? I got close. Our dear Father, how we are dependent on Your Spirit for growth and life and everything. But being dependent on Him is such a joyful thing because His job is to reveal the glory of Your Son to us. And we look forward so to that moment by moment, day by day. Father, we thank You. We pray in His precious name. Amen.