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These are the best gifts that God could give us. That is at the

beginning of this epistle. The epistle goes on to tell us a good

deal as to what God has given and is prepared to

give to those that love Him. You might say, ‘I cannot find

enough love in my heart for God.

How does it come about?’ It comes about by letting the love of

God have full sway in your heart. It is not what you can do; just

let God have His way with you and your heart will be changed.

How? By being engaged with Christ. God has given us an

object for our hearts in Christ. As we engage our hearts with

Christ we shall find that the Spirit will help us so that our hearts

are formed after Christ. We may grieve the Spirit, but He has

in His keeping the very best to bring us into— the truth. “He

shall guide you into all the truth”, John 16: 13. Now that goes a

little further than what I am saying, because it involves the

assembly, involves our being together, but God goes a long

way in this epistle with the individual because He has every

facility to enable us to fill out our part in what Scripture speaks

of as the assembly.

In chapter 8 there is another allusion to the Spirit. We often

speak of Romans 7, which relates more to experience rather

than what can be preached about. If we let the Spirit have His

way how quickly our hearts would be formed after Christ, and

God would have His way. You get disturbed about things and

you say, ‘Well, I find I have the mind of the flesh and how does

God regard me—as in the flesh or as in the Spirit?’ The Spirit

of God says here, “Ye are not in flesh but in Spirit, if indeed

God’s Spirit dwell in you”. There is no effort about this; if we let

the truth have its way with us we shall find it is not dependent

on our efforts. Our responsibility is to let the Spirit have His

way, and so the Spirit dwells in us. That does not mean that

we are striving and anxious about things; the Spirit dwells in

us. It means He is at home there. “Ye are not in flesh but in

Spirit”. Now, if we can get hold of that it will settle a good many

disturbances in our minds. God