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Yielding to the Spirit’s Control, May 27
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Romans 8:13, 14
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The will of man is aggressive, and is constantly striving to bend all
things to its purposes. If it is enlisted on the side of God and right, the
fruits of the Spirit will appear in the life; and God has appointed glory,
honor, and peace to every man that worketh good.
When Satan is permitted to mold the will, he uses it to accomplish his
ends.... He stirs up the evil propensities, awakening unholy passions and
ambitions. He says, “All this power, these honors, and riches, and sinful
pleasures, will I give thee”; but his conditions are that integrity shall be
yielded, conscience blunted. Thus he degrades the human faculties, and
brings them into captivity to sin.
But God is ever seeking to impress our hearts by His Holy Spirit, that
we shall be convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come.
We may place our will on the side of God’s will, and in His strength and
grace resist the temptations of the enemy. As we yield to the influence of
the Spirit of God, our conscience becomes tender and sensitive, and sin
that we have passed by with little thought, becomes exceeding sinful.
God calls upon men to oppose the powers of evil. He says: “Let not
sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts
thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from
the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”
Romans 6:13, 14
....
In this conflict of righteousness against unrighteousness, we can be
successful only by divine aid. Our finite will must be brought into sub-
mission to the will of the Infinite; the human will must be blended with
the divine. This will bring the Holy Spirit to our aid; and every conquest
will tend to the recovery of God’s purchased possession, to the restoration
of His image in the soul.
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