Now God in His grace has made the same divine power that sustained the Lord Jesus Christ available to each Church-age believer. Our Lord pioneered the spiritual life that is now given to us.

 

JOH 15:9-10 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.”

 

                Because the Lord set the precedent for our lives as believers, we discover the source of His inner strength through the study of the doctrine of the filling of the Holy Spirit. In learning to function under the power of the Spirit, we are learning about Christ, for He functioned under the same power that is in view in 2PE 3:18 where the Word of God mandates for us to “grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Spiritual growth from this divine source of strength allows each Christian to fulfill his own personal destiny as the Lord fulfilled His.

As the believer understands God the Holy Spirit, his love for the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus Christ will increase by quantum leaps. We come to know Christ by living our lives filled with the Holy Spirit and learning and applying Bible doctrine. This produces spiritual growth in us, which is the very purpose for which God keeps us alive. God desires to bless us to the maximum, infinitely more than we could ask or imagine, EPH 3:20, “Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.” However, He can not even begin to do this unless His Spirit is controlling our soul. Being filled with the Spirit is tantamount to being controlled by the Lord Jesus Christ.