His Victorious Indwelling .... today

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of Sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Romans 8:15-17 It is indeed a wonderfully blessed thing to be a Christian, for a Christian is a man "in Christ" - he is "in the Spirit," and has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. The Spirit is in him who believes in Jesus, and gives him an experiential sense of that which is now his, and what will be his. Nay more, the Spirit being in him, the next thing is his mouth is opened, and he cries, "Abba, Father." But more than that, the Holy Spirit ministers to us, and shows the things of Christ to us, and brings us into the enjoyment of the Lord's love, and the Father's love, and ministers to us the comfort of the fact that we are the children of God. More still - "If children," then we are "heirs"; "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." Co-heirs, co-sufferers, co-glorified with Christ - that is really the word here. We are side by side with Christ. We are sons of God, even as He is the Son of God - not in His eternal Sonship, but in the place he took in grace as Man, and which He brings those into who believe in Him. As He said to Mary, "I ascend to my Father, and your Father, to my God and your God." The Holy Spirit comes down, to give us the sense, and knowledge, that we are co-heirs, co-sufferers, and that we shall be co-glorified with Him. W.T.P. Wolston