God has called the church of Christ to live in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the church is living for the most part in the power of the human flesh and of Willard energy and effort apart from the Spirit of God. If the Churchill acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is her strength and her help, will give up everything and wait upon God to be filled with the Spirit, her days of beauty and gladness will return, and we will see the glory of God revealed among us.

The first lesson is this—You may be a very earnest, godly, devoted believer, in whom the power of the flesh is still very strong. That is a very solemn truth. Peter, before he denied Christ, had cast out devils and had healed the sick. Yet, the flesh had power; and, the flesh had room in him.

The Gospel is good tidings. Its obedience is part of that good tidings—that grace, by the Holy Spirit, will do all in you. Believe that. Obey in the joyful hope that comes from faith—a faith in the exceeding abundance of grace, in the mighty indwelling of the Holy Spirit, in the blessed love of Jesus, whose abiding presence makes obedience not only possible but certain.

Christ spoke of power to the disciples, but it was the Spirit filling their whole being that worked the power.

The Spirit of God is love, and "the fruit of the Spirit is love.

The end and design of all that is written in Scripture is to call us back from the spirit of Satan, the flesh, and the world, to full dependence on and obedience to the Spirit of God.

What a difference between the carnal and the spiritual Christian (I Cor. 3.1-3)! With the carnal Christian there may be much religion and much zeal for God, and for the service of God. But it is for the most part in human power. With the spiritual, on the other hand, there is a complete subjection to the leading of the Spirit, a deep sense of weakness and entire dependence on the work of Christ-it is a life of abiding fellowship with Christ, wrought out by the Spirit.

They do not realize that the most dangerous source of sin is the love of the world with its lusts and pleasures.

Oh, that the Holy Spirit might be held in honor as a power to fill us with the very life and nature of God and of Christ!

Him, that I have allowed self, the flesh, and my own will to work where the Holy Spirit should have been honored! May God forgive me that I have allowed self, the flesh, and the will to actually have the place that God wanted the Holy Spirit to have.

The whole difficulty is that we wish to pray in the Spirit and at the same time walk after the flesh. This is impossible.

The Spirit must be honored not only as the author of a new life but also as the leader and director of our entire walk. Otherwise we are what the apostle calls ''carnal'' or fleshly.