A Life Governed by the Holy Spirit

The number one mark of a life governed by the Holy Spirit is that such a life is continually and ever more and more occupied with Christ, that Christ is becoming greater and greater as time goes on.  The effect of the Holy Spirit's work in you and I is to bring us to the shore of a mighty ocean which reaches far, far beyond our range, and concerning which we feel…..oh, the depths, the fullness, of Christ.  If we live as long as ever any man has lived…we shall still be only on the fringe of this vast fullness that Christ is.

Now….immediately that becomes a challenge to us before we go any further.  These are not just words.  This is not just rhetoric….this is truth.  So this begs us to ask ourselves  a question….Is this the kind of life that we know?  Is this true in our Christian experience?  That is the mark of a life governed by the Holy Spirit.  Christ becomes greater and greater as we go on.  If that is true for you….well then that is the way of life.  But….we must remember….if ever you and I should come to a place where we think we know, we have it all, we have attained, and from that point things become static, we may take it that the Holy Spirit has ceased operations and that life has become stultified. 

Amongst men….there is one man given to us, I believe, as the example for showing forth God's ways….the Apostle Paul.  The words which he uses to define and express what happened to him right at the commencement are these…."It pleased God…..to reveal his Son in me". Gal 1:16

We know that Paul did a great deal of teaching and preaching.  He put out a lot of stuff.  He had a long and very full life, not only in the amount that he put out, but in the concentrated essence which has defeated all the attempts to fathom.  At the end of that long life, that full life, that man who said concerning its commencement, "It pleased god….to reveal his Son in me", is crying from his heart this cry…."that I may know Him" Phil 3:10….indicating surely that with the great initial revelation and all the subsequent and continual unveilings, even being caught up into the third heaven and shown unspeakable things, with all that, at the end he knows nothing compared with what there is to be known.

That I may know Him!  That is the essence of a life governed by the Holy Spirit, and it is that which will deliver us from death, from stagnation, from coming to a standstill.  It is the work of the Spirit.  So…God….right at the beginning, brings Christ forth…presents Him….attests Him….and in effect says, This is that to which I will conform you, to this image!

But…..having first the presentation, the basic lessons begin.  The Holy Spirit is not satisfied with just giving us a great presentation…..He is going to begin real work in relation to that presentation.