“It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63
In one of Charles Wesley’s great hymns entitled, “Come, Jesus, Lord, With Holy Fire,” he writes down his prayer to God: “Come, Jesus, Lord, with holy fire, Come and my quickened heart inspire, Cleansed in Thy precious blood, NOW to my soul Thyself reveal, Thy mighty working let me feel, Since I am born of God.” Wesley captures in these few words some of the greatest and most glorious, life-changing truths of Scripture. But in doing so, he is not content with just the knowledge of the truth. His pursuit is the knowledge of God, and he is persuaded of one thing in particular: God alone, by the Spirit, can bring him there. It is as another hymnwriter put it, “…’Tis His to lead me there, not mine but His, at any cost dear Lord, by any road.”
When the Apostle Paul wrote his letters, in particular the letter to the Ephesian believers, he brings the seeking believer first to matter of justification by faith, and redemption by the blood of Christ, then to the believer’s identification with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. After the revelation of such glorious truths concerning the greatness and wonder of God in Christ concerning so great salvation, he then is led of the Spirit to bring the believer through the swamp of sin’s slavery and degradation, to prepare the believer to receive the transforming power of Christ by the Spirit. The believer is then brought into the blessed, peaceful realm of divine truth to see, and understand that in Christ, in the kingdom of God, there is a dominating factor or law. Paul expresses it like this: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (8:2) This Holy Spirit is the “Spirit of life,” the very Spirit of Christ, possessing the power according to the promise, to raise the dead, strengthen the believer to overcome every enemy, being led by the Spirit, Christ being revealed by the Spirit. This is that Spirit of power and strength for which Paul prays in his letter to the Ephesians. This is the Spirit of Pentecost, which was poured out, the effect of which changed the then known world, and continues so today. But how is the knowledge of the truth concerning the Spirit’s present ministry to quicken, (giving life, and making alive), to be known? What is the believer to believe God for in this regard, and how is he to walk by the Spirit?
First, one must grasp that this Spirit is the one who communicated to the Lord Jesus, when His body was dead, and in the tomb, the quickening power to bring life out of death, by His intervention, and action. It must also be understood, and we see it declared in the writings of the Apostle Paul, that this same power which “quickens mortal bodies,” is also that which quickens the unbeliever to live, and the believer, to know the saving victory, and strength of Christ. In the book of Zechariah, though the circumstances were somewhat different than those in Jesus’ day, during Pentecost, and in the years that followed, there is revealed to us today a declaration of the absolute, and unique, but certain work of the Spirit. Zechariah wrote: “The word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ saith the Lord.” (3:6) God’s quickening work, life-giving work, is only done by the Holy Spirit. This fact has forever been the case in the past and will be forever, not only in the present but in the future. Thus, the believer, like Wesley, must appeal to God alone, who by the Spirit, WILL certainly quicken the believing soul to live and overcome by faith, by the very strength of Christ. “Christ pours His power into us” when we seek Him specifically, and only, to provide.
Dear Father, Quicken us this day. In Jesus’ name, Amen.