THE RULE OF THE SPIRIT
[p. 205] THE RULE OF THE SPIRIT
The great comfort in a christian’s life is that he has to be pre-eminently occupied with the present. A natural man, according to his ability and ambition, is working for a future; he has not acquired his goal. A christian has not reached his goal, but it is secured to him. “I go and prepare a place for you .. . and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also”. (John 14: 2,3) The past of our history cannot be altered; as to our sins, they are remembered no more; as to the peculiarities of our nature, some one way, and some another, not sinful, but personal, they have to be ruled by the Spirit of God, and not by our own will, which is evil. If I had no will, and the Spirit of God ruled me, then my body would be a living sacrifice, and I should be doing the right thing each moment.
God made man upright, and what we require for a true walk is to have the rule of the Spirit instead of the rule of our will. The rule of the Spirit is not severe, though it be far removed from the rule of our will. Everything conducive to my well-being as a creature of God the Spirit suggests and supports, when I am simply subject to Him, whereas the will is whimsical; at one time proposing great self-consideration, and at another, to attain some gratification, commending a wanton sacrifice of health. The christian’s history is made up of acts, the deeds done in the body; and all these acts bear on his position in the kingdom. Hence every act is of importance, and each act is good or bad according to the author of it. The Spirit of God does not in principle sanction asceticism, neither does He sanction self-indulgence. The ways of wisdom are really the ways of pleasantness and peace. If I need anything, the Spirit could not be indifferent to it. For the Lord’s service I may have to endure; for instance, I might get wet through when visiting some [p. 206] sick one; but my work over, the Spirit would lead me to seek and enjoy relief.
Sickness is properly a discipline, either to repress a natural faculty where the will has a more ready access, or to call out in me patience, which is a great mark of the Spirit’s power in me. Thus the daily duties in a christian’s life are most interesting, not that you should be so much thinking of what you are doing, as being assured that you are doing it to the Lord; for here really lies the difference; the will only thinks of your immediate gratification, the Spirit of your pleasing the Lord. The result is very marked; where you have pleased the Lord in the act, you have not only your own gain in the act, but you have increased your tie to Him; whereas when you please your will, your pleasure ends with yourself. In the latter you may feel that you have spent your money profitably; in the former you have invested it in the best way. The only way to arrive at this is by making the Lord your sole Object, and you will not do this but as He becomes necessary to you. Ruth cannot do without Naomi; and then she lives for her, goes out into the field to glean - a very laborious work, and proper only to the poor or strangers; but she pleased the object of her heart, as well as provided for her own need.