2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 11
The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence
Day 11
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:11
The Spirit of Him Who Raised Jesus from the Dead
The Spirit of God gives life. In John 3:5-7 Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” The Spirit of God gives spiritual life through the new birth that comes to us when we put our faith in Christ. A few chapters later in John 6:63, Jesus told His disciples, “It is the Spirit who gives life...”
Will Give Life to Your Mortal Bodies
Believers in Christ are not exempt from the reality of sin’s consequences. Our bodies remain mortal even though our spirit has been transformed through the indwelling Holy Spirit. However, the Holy Spirit is not done with His work in us. Just as Jesus was raised from the dead, so too we will be raised from the dead. The same “Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead” lives in you, if you belong to Christ. He has established a pattern of bringing God’s children back from the dead. He brought Jesus Christ, the Son of God, back from the dead. We are now God’s adopted children through faith in God’s Son. As His adopted children, we will also experience the same powerful, resurrection work of the Holy Spirit. We are dying physically, but we are alive spiritually. The source of our spiritual life is God’s Spirit dwelling in us. The Spirit of God worked powerfully in the Son of God by bringing Him back from the dead. The Spirit of God also dwells in us and ultimately He will perform this same resurrection work in us. Douglas Moo described it this way, “Since the Spirit is ‘life,’ his presence cannot but result in life for that body which he inhabits. The Spirit’s life-giving power is not limited by the mortality of the body but rather He overcomes and transforms that mortality into the immortality of eternal life in a resurrected body.” (New International Commentary of the New Testament, The Epistle to the Romans, Moo, page 493) The Spirit of God provides us the abiding hope of a physical, resurrected life in the future. He abides within us now, giving us an abiding spiritual life. His abiding presence speaks hope to our hearts today concerning His future work in us.
Prayer Focus
Thank You for the promise of eternal life, a spiritual life that is already ours and a physical life that is yet to come. Just as You raised Jesus from the dead to eternal life, so I believe Your promise to give this same eternal life to my physical body. Thank You for giving me Your Spirit to dwell in me. Now may the evidence of Your Spirit’s indwelling presence abide with me today. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to You, my God.
From DL Moody’s Secret Power
THE BOON OF LIBERTY
The next thing the Spirit of God does is to give us liberty. He first imparts love; He next inspires hope, and then gives liberty…God does not use men in captivity. The condition of many is like Lazarus when he came out of the sepulcher bound hand and foot. The bandage was not taken off his mouth, and he could not speak. He had life, and if you had said Lazarus was not alive, you would have told a falsehood, because he was raised from the dead. There are a great many people, the moment you talk to them and insinuate they are not doing what they might, they say: “I have life. I am a Christian.” Well, you can’t deny it, but they are bound hand and foot. May God snap these fetters and set His children free, that they may have liberty. I believe He comes to set us free, and wants us to work for Him, and speak for Him…The Spirit of God comes to give liberty, and wherever you see the Lord’s work going on, you will see that Spirit of liberty and People won’t be afraid of speaking to one another. What we need today is love in our hearts. Don’t we want it? Don’t we want hope in our lives? Don’t we want to be hopeful? Don’t we want liberty? Now, all this is the work of the Spirit of God, and let us pray to God daily to give us love, and hope, and liberty…If I know my own heart today, I would rather die than live as I once did, a mere nominal Christian, and not used by God in building up His kingdom. It seems a poor empty life to live for the sake of self. Let us seek to be useful. Let us seek to be vessels meet for the Master’s use, that God, the Holy Spirit, may shine fully through us.