How to Be Mighty in the Spirit — Allan Brown

Reading of the word this morning. Let some of the blood flow back into your feet. Circulation. The second of false prayers beginning in verse 14 of chapter 3. For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all things what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height. And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.

That ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask, or think, according to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.

And everyone said, Amen. Let's unite our hearts in prayer. Father, we praise thee with the Apostle. We would exalt the preeminent one, Jesus Christ. The altogether lovely one, our Savior, our Lord, our coming King.

I pray this morning that as we are studying your word, that we would not only be hearers, but doers. And that the word of God might dwell in our hearts richly. In all wisdom, we pray together in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen. You may be seated. The outline on page 1, we have a prayer, a threefold prayer, verses 14 through 19. We have the tremendous power available to believers. Verse 20. And then it closes with triumphant praise offered to the Father.

Paul's Prayer for Spiritual Understanding

In verse 21, as you have printed in front of you, this is the second of Paul's prayers for the believers, for the Ephesians. The first prayer in chapter 1, verses 16 through 23, was for an increase of spiritual understanding.

Do you remember what the three things Paul prayed that we would understand were? Does the teacher feel good? If you're not sure, go back to chapter 1 and look with me in verse 18. There's no need to guess.

Let's look. Let's underline it. Let's remember. Let's review. Let's try to imprint it into our hearts and minds. You do that by repetition. Repetition. Line upon line. Line upon line. Precepts upon precepts.

Precepts upon precepts. Precepts upon precepts. That you might know the hope of his calling. Number one. Have you learned anything about your calling? You're called to look over at verse 4. What are you called to?

The Believer's Holy Calling and Inheritance

Holy. To be holy and without blame before him in love. That's a high calling. That's a holy calling. That's a heavenly calling. Amen? That you might know secondly what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in you.

Now that ought to affect your attitude towards yourself, that I'm God's rich inheritance. Can you believe it? You're God's rich inheritance. That ought to put some praise in your heart, some thankfulness, some amazement.

Amen? We should know this. Thirdly, what is the exceeding greatness of his power? Greatness of his power to us who believe. Are you on believing ground this morning? That was the first of his prayers.

The Need for Spiritual Power in Daily Life

Now we come to the second of his prayers. As important as the communication of information is, as vital as it is to have right belief, that right belief should be affecting our behavior. That understanding should get past our mind where we can think about it and talk about it.

And it should trickle into our attitudes and our actions, into the daily fiber of our life. The pressing need, I think you would agree, I don't think there is a born-again believer anywhere on the face of this earth who would not agree that the pressing need is for believers to be, verse 16, strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.

How many feel a need for more strength, more power? Of course, we do. We do. And so it is. We come to the threefold prayer for believers, and under A, for each of us to experience the purifying presence of Christ in us.

Purifying, P-U-R-I-F-Y, I-N-G, the purifying presence of Christ in us. Paul says that he would grant you, and me. And God himself said, it's more blessed to give than to receive. So God's not going to withhold.

He's extending this strength to us. Do you see that this morning? Well, Brother Brown, I believe that. How do I receive that? Isn't that the question? I think every one of us would say, Brother Brown, there have been times when I have been asked to give answers to biblical questions and counsel people about their problems, and you have gone away absolutely impressed with the wisdom that came out of your mouth.

I mean, you gave them promises from God's Word. You told them what God could do for them. You told them all about how they could have victory and freedom. And you gave them such good wisdom, and you said to yourself, I just wish that I would live in the light of all that I just said.

How many have ever kind of felt that way secretly in your heart? My, don't you give good wisdom? Now why don't we just practice that moment by moment? Now the problem, Paul is putting his finger on the believer's problem.

Most believers are not experiencing this tremendous power. And under number one, the pressing need, fill in the blank, the pressing need for spiritual power in our lives. The pressing need is there. And just let's review for a moment about what God has said He has for us.

Back in chapter 1, verse 3, He has already blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Why then such feebleness and such a lack of power? Let's look at verse 12. Is God's purpose that we should be to the praise of His glory?

Look at verse 14, that we should be the praise of His glory. Look at verse 19. He extends to us exceeding great power. Keep your finger here in Ephesians. Let's just look at a couple more of what is God's purpose for your life and my life.

Go over to Colossians, please, just to the right in your Bible, just a few pages. Colossians chapter 1, verse 11, the parallel passages to this passage in Ephesians. Look at verse 11. Meditate on that verse for a moment.

Strengthened, Colossians 1, 11, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, resulting in all. Wow. Whenever you encounter that little all, pay attention to it. All patient and long suffering with joyfulness.

To be patient and happy and praiseful all at the same time. Don't we all want that? Don't we all need that? Please look with me for a moment to Romans chapter 8, verse 37. Probably a favorite verse of many of us here this morning.

Romans 8, 37. Nay, in all these things, talking about famine, distress, persecution, nakedness, peril, sword, being persecuted and even killed for the testimony of Jesus Christ. And then Paul ends up with these words, nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors.

More than conquerors. More than conquerors. Turn to page 2 in your notes. We can, well, I'm going to answer that question in just a moment. Can we have this power if we don't use it? Well, no. And we can't use this power until we have it.

The Source and Sphere of Spiritual Power

As believers, there is a further qualification in order to have this power. And that's where I'm leading up to. Because on page 2, number A, fill in your next blank and that's going to pinpoint your, the answer to your excellent question.

The source of the power. Right in the word source. S-O-U-R-C-E. Look at verse 16. What is the source of this power? It's by His Spirit, the Holy. Now where must the Holy Spirit, where is He going to be exercising this power?

B, fill in the next blank. The sphere. S-P-H-E-R-E. The sphere. S-P-H-E-R-E. The place, the location of this power is in the inner man. The inner chambers. Now you say, alright, we plug into that power.

There's your question. And here's the answer. Number 2. The prescribed H-O-D. The prescribed method to gain power in our lives. Look at verse 17. You should underline it. You should color it with a different color.

You should claim that. You should appropriate this. That Christ may dwell something for you. We must distinguish between two important truths. The, there is a difference between the, fill in the blank, residency.

R-E-S-I-D-E-N-C-E. The residency, C-Y. The residency of Christ in the believer's heart. Now what does the word residency mean? Has anyone asked you what is your residence? Your residence is where you live.

Therefore, the residency of Christ in the believer's heart would be the actual fact of his presence. But did you know something, my dear friends? This is crucial. There is a difference between his residency and in number B.

The presidency. P-R-E-S-I-D-E-N-C-Y. The presidency of Christ in the believer's heart. You say, Brother Brown, what are you saying? I'm saying that when I went to South Carolina for Thanksgiving, and Brother J .D. Smith, Sister Edith Smith, were so kind and said, Brother Brown, we would like, after we asked, of course, but we would be thrilled to have you folk use our home as a meeting place.

My wife coming from Alabama to Easley. Me and the two boys going from Florida to Easley. What a joyful anticipation to be back with my wife. We're not separated, by the way. I told you that yesterday.

I went to China. We went to China for a year, and I learned some Chinese methodology. Sometimes, sometimes, in the will of God, there's some distance that can, geographically, that can occur. So we met at the Smith's home, and that was our residency.

But I was not in presidency in that home. J .D. Smith is the owner. Sister Smith is the hostess. They were in charge. Now, they were gracious to us. They showed us the bedroom. They invited us to go into the refrigerator whenever we wanted.

They showed us where they had some other goodies stashed. They said, make yourself at home. We used that as our residency, but we were in no way president in that home. We were not in charge. We were guests.

Christ's Residency and Presidency in the Believer

Now, coming to the residency, there is an important distinction that when you become a born-again believer, Jesus Christ enters into your life through the person of the Holy Spirit. Let me show this to you.

I've written some passages. I hope God will help each of us to see this clearly. I think probably one of the reasons why we don't have more power is because we don't understand and appropriate what I'm talking about right now.

In Romans chapter 8, verse 9, please turn to that passage. If you are here this morning in a born-again relationship, if you are saved, then the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, dwells in you.

Do you see Romans 8, 9? You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God, that's the Holy Spirit, dwells in you. Drop down to verse 11. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead, that's the Holy Spirit, dwells in you.

Every born-again believer has Jesus Christ in their heart, dwelling through the person of the Holy Spirit. You say, Brother Brown, how does that work? I thought Jesus Himself is in my heart. Jesus Himself is in your heart, but not in His bodily form.

In His bodily form, where is His body? At the right hand of the Father, seated at the right hand of the Father, right? And who is the person that the Father sends with the Son to teach us the things of Christ and to represent and unfold to us the things of Christ?

Who is that person? The Holy Spirit. And so when we talk about Jesus, come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Jesus does come into your heart when you get saved. He comes in through the residency of the Holy Spirit abiding in your heart.

Is that clear? I hope that's clear. And so I can say Jesus is in my heart. I can say the Holy Spirit is in my heart. I can say God lives in my heart. I can say that all three dwell in my heart. They do, through the person of the Holy Spirit.

And I'm going to show that to you in just a moment, but I want to show you another verse, 1 Corinthians chapter 3. In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 16, know ye not that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

Now did you know, my dear friends, that Paul was writing that to Corinthian believers who were not where they should be totally through lack of information and knowledge. These were not entirely sanctified individuals.

There were divisions among them. They were yet carnal. They were walking as men. Do you remember that in the beginning of chapter 3, verse 1? I could not speak to you as unto spiritual, but as carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

You're yet carnal. And yet back in chapter 1, he said that I'm writing to the church of God at Corinth to them which are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints. And I thank God for the grace which is given you.

And people scratch their heads and say, Brother Brown, how can Paul call these people saints and then call them carnal and then call them babes and then say Christ is dwelling in them? How can that be?

Well, let me tell you, there's only one way that can be. These people did not have the light. They did not understand that the practices in their life were contrary to purity of life. They were not walking behind light.

They did not have light. Paul was giving them light. And to new Christians, to people who are walking in all the light they have, you can have a relationship with Christ if you're walking in all the light you have.

Do you believe that? 1 John 1, 7, if we're walking in the light as he's in the light, we have fellowship, one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ is cleansing us from all sin. Now there will be no willful, known, deliberate sin in the life of the person who's walking in all the light.

There can't be because that's walking against light, not in light. Does that make sense? Now when you're born again, the Spirit of God dwells in your heart. And you say, well, Brother Brown, then why is Paul praying in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 17, for these born-again believers that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith?

Comes in when we're born again through the Presidency of the Holy Spirit. If Christ dwells within me, why is he praying for these believers that Christ may dwell? Wasn't he there? How many see the question?

How many understand the question? I'll be happy to say it again if you don't understand. My purpose is not to get through material. My purpose this morning is to try to teach. Why is Paul praying that Christ may dwell?

The answer to that is take a careful look at this word, dwell. And I gave you a note on your paper so you could read it with me, under B. You filled in the blank, the Presidency of Christ in the believer's heart.

And then I have the word dwell equals. Are you with me? You see that? Dwell equals a compound word, meaning to make oneself completely at home. Well, Brother Brown, are you telling me this is a different word than the word in Romans 8, 9?

In Romans 8, 11? And 1 Corinthians 3, 16, where it said Christ dwelled? Is it a different word, Brother Brown? The answer, yes, my dear friends. It is a compound. It is a strengthening. And it is crucial in its significance.

Total Surrender to Christ's Purifying Presence

Well, what is the cruciality then? It's this. That when I went to South Carolina and for a few days made Brother Smith's home my residency, I did not go into their bedroom. I did not go into their private bathroom.

I did not poke through their drawers. I did not go out into his garage and look through his tool chest. I did not go handle any guns he might have or to see if did he have any. I did not go poke around, and he's glad I didn't, probably.

It was none of my business, right? That would have been poor manners. I would have been totally out of bounds. I would have been taking advantage of hospitality. He said, make yourself at home. But I knew what he didn't mean.

He didn't mean take charge. And brothers and sisters, when we are born again, Christ comes into our life, residency. But there's a need for him to have total control, to have presidency, where you relinquish consciously, willingly, deliberately, and keep relinquished your right to your life, to your memories, to your future, to your body, to your thoughts.

For when, where Christ is, the holy, sinless Son of God, where he takes presidency, there must go everything, and that is unholy. He will look at our memories. He'll walk down the pathway of memories, and the pictures on the wall, and the recordings in your mind, and the feelings.

He says, I will now take charge of these. Do you give them to me? There can be no bitterness remaining in your thoughts, in your mind. There must be only forgiveness. There must be no critical, judgmental attitudes remaining in your heart, because it's out of the heart, Jesus says, comes the thoughts.

Comes the speech. Come the issues of life, out of the heart. And it's necessary for Jesus Christ, in his purifying presence, for you and I, to as a conscious, deliberate choice, say to the indwelling Christ, Lord Jesus, I want you not only resident in my life, I purposely choose to turn over every key to the secrets of my past, every ambition and dream for my future, I turn over everything to you, for all eternity, for you to have presidency.

This doesn't happen at the moment of the new birth. Residency happens. This is why Paul was praying for these Ephesians, that the only way you and I are going to be able to have this power, have this strength, have this patience, have this joy, have this stabilizing factor for our life, to enable us to respond in a Christ-like manner, as if he is not only resident, but president.

Through his cleansing, purifying presence. And this is why Paul in Romans would say, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, you present your bodies a living sacrifice. You didn't do that when you got saved.

You surrendered your sinful activities. You were dead in trespasses and sins. When you came to Jesus, you never presented him, your body, as a living sacrifice that could be called holy. You were dead.

It was a stinking, vile corpse. You were asking for life. And in Romans 6, 4, when you were born again, he gave you newness of life. You became alive, spiritually, unto God. And you became part of the brethren.

And then Paul says to those, now I beseech you, by the mercies of God, out of a response of gratitude for his mercy, that you present your body, now, a body in which resides Jesus Christ, present your body as a living sacrifice.

There is the total surrender. Brothers and sisters, that comes as a definite act of our will, subsequent to being born again. And that comes, that must be maintained. That must be maintained. And there's our problem.

We've said to Jesus, I thank you for your residency. Oh, I give you presidency. I give you all. And we mean it at the moment we're saying it. And we walk out of here and totally switch channels. And we're back acting like we acted, and walk, walking like we walked, and thinking like we're thinking, responding like we've normally responded.

And we wonder, what's the matter? You say, how do I make Christ present? It's by faith. By faith, you must believe what God says, trust and commit to what he promises, that if you fully yield all, surrender, memories, everything.

You say, Brother Brown, I'm not bitter. That word, bitter, is a misunderstood word by most Christians, because since we're not to be bitter, most Christians, by definition, say, I'm not bitter. I'm a Christian, and if we're not to be bitter, then I'm not bitter because I'm a Christian.

I'll tell you, here's a test to know whether or not you're bitter. It's not primarily a feeling. It can be a feeling, but it's not primarily a feeling. It's whether or not you have snowballs in a freezer frozen in your memory, and upon the proper occasion, you can open up the freezer and you can pull out your snowballs and you can recount time and place and conversation and person who did you wrong.

And you talk about it on occasion, and you communicate that, and that kind of talk is not appropriate, it's not gracious, and it's not edifying, and because it doesn't have age, appropriate, gracious, and edifying.

A, appropriate, G, gracious, E, edifying. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 29 says it's corrupt communication. And I remember, well remember, when God gave me light on the snowballs that were in my freezer.

I wasn't bitter, and I don't hold grudges. And God said, no, okay, you're not bitter, and you don't hold grudges. What are these snowballs? Well Lord, it's helpful to set the record straight sometimes and just trot out the facts.

Especially when you're being attacked and falsely accused and maligned, just open up the freezer and trot out the facts. And God said, why don't you just let me melt all those, and you quit defending yourself.

That's a helpless feeling. That's a terrible feeling. Quit defending myself. I've heard people say, well, my husband, in the last 25 years of marriages, he's forgot 14 birthdays, he's forgot 23 anniversaries.

Where in the world is their mind? They've got an iron-trap mind that sorts on the negative. And they can tell you what's wrong with their husband, what's wrong with their wife. They can crank those things out.

That is not the Spirit of Christ. It's the Spirit of this world. That's called walking in the flesh when we do that. Is that clear? And this is why Paul prayed that Christ may dwell, make himself completely at home in our hearts by faith.

Faith, the Holy Spirit, and Christ's Presence

The method, number one, sub-point one, the method by faith, method. The means, the means, M-E-A-N-S, the means. Turn to John 14, 18. I've been telling you, it's the Holy Spirit who comes to represent Christ.

Now, let me show that to you. John 14, 18. He's telling them in verses 15 through 18 that I'm going to go away, and I'm going to send another Comforter. Verse 16, another Comforter that he may abide with you forever.

Drop down to verse 18. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Notice, circle the word I. That's Christ. I will come. How does he come? In verse 16, it's through the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, another Comforter.

That's how he comes. Thirdly, the measure, the proof that Christ has made himself completely at home in his purifying presence. The measure, M-E-A-S-U-R-E, number three, the measure. You say, Brother Brown, I believe Christ is not only resident in my life, but president in my life.

Well, here's a little test that you can take. You can know that that's so when there are no... I have D-E-F. That's a mistake. Just forget about that lettering. But under D, no reservations. Reservations.

R-E-S-E-R-V-A-T-I-O-N-S. No reservations to your surrender to the will of God. Are there any reservations about what you're willing to do? When he is president, there are no reservations. You've made a full surrender.

Next, there are no rivals. R-I-V-A-L-S. Rivals to your loyalty and love of God. No rivals. Lastly, there's no retreat. R-E-T-R-E-A-T-S. No retreat from the known commands of God. No reservations.

No rivals. No retreat. Is that the way it is in your life? Brothers and sisters, this is why we don't have the power. There's a pathway. There's a prescribed method of procurement. It takes total surrender.

There's no other way. And you must maintain that relationship with the Lord. The purifying presence. Page 3. B at the top. For each of us to know. Here's the second aspect of his prayer. To know the preciousness.

P-R-E-C-I-O-U-S-N-E-S-S. Preciousness of Christ's love for us. Let's look at 17B and 18. Again, Ephesians. He said, not only that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, but you being rooted and grounded in love.

The Stabilizing, Enlightening, and Energizing Power of Love

Brothers and sisters, there's a cure for instability. There's a cure for being up and down. There's a cure. You can be instant, in season, and out of season. Do you believe that? And it's found in being rooted.

That's number one. The stabilizing force of love. The stabilizing force of love. Rooted and grounded in love. Now, what kind of love? J. A. Beat says that wherever it is not clearly specified, that it refers to love toward your fellow man.

Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful that as we have the influence of that kind of love that thinketh no evil, the kind of love that rejoiceth in the truth, the kind of love that is not provoked, the kind of love that should be manifested one for another.

Secondly, there's not only the stabilizing force of love, but there's the enlightening force of love. Enlightening. E-N-L-I-G-H-T-E-N-I-N-G. There's something about love that just opens your heart and mind to understand more about the breadth and the length and the depth and the height.

Oh, Brother Brown, how can I love that kind of person? Oh, I tell you, there's a breadth of love that includes everybody. There's some problems that are perplexing. There's a height of love that encompasses those problems, that you can be loving in the midst of those problems.

And I face perplexing issues. Sure, we all do. But a breadth of love and a height of love and a depth of love, not only that reaches where we were in our depth and lifts us to a height, but enables us to have a breadth and a length and a height and a depth to our love.

To our love. And then thirdly, the energizing force of love. Energizing. E-N-E-R-G-I-Z-I-N-G. The energizing to know the love of Christ. And I gave you a reference of 2 Corinthians 5 .14 that says, the love of Christ constrains me.

There's something energizing about coming into proximity with that love of Christ, to know it personally. There is something thrilling and motivating and energizing about that, that gives you joy, that gives you long-suffering, that gives you patience, that gives you the perseverance to keep on keeping on.

Amen? And thirdly, C. Not only the purifying presence of Christ and the precious love of Christ, but for each of us to be filled with the plentitude, P-L-E-N-I-T-U-D-E. The plentitude. That means there's plenty of it.

Being Filled With the Fullness of God

The plentitude of Christ's life in us. Look at 19b. That you might be filled with what? With all the fullness of God. Now brothers and sisters, if we had men and women, born again men and women, walking around, filled with all the fullness of God.

Christ not only resident, but president. The precious love of Christ not only flowing into our life, but out of our life. Our life filled with the fullness of God. What would it be like? I tell you what I think it would be like.

I think that it would affect our aim. If I may use Brother Ken Faye's outline from Saturday afternoon. It would affect our aim. That we would, whatever we eat or drink, we would be doing all for the glory of God.

Because I'm filled, I'm filled with the fullness of God. About being filled with that which is contrary to God. Why? It would affect my aim. I want to do everything for His glory. Because I'm filled. I want to seek His approval.

That everything I do, I can do in His name, with His sanction. I want to avoid every appearance of evil. I want to avoid it. Because I'm filled. And being filled with the fullness of God, we have the Prince of Peace.

And the peace will be the arbiter in our life. My brothers and sisters, our theme this morning is how to be mighty in spirit. This is the reason why there's not more might and power and strength when God has already extended it to us.

God's Abundant Power and the Believer's Response

Now, you say, Brother Brown, you've kind of snowed us under this morning. I don't mean to do that. My goal is not to depress you. My goal is to encourage you. Let me tell you, in verse 20, the tremendous power available to believers.

Let's look at verse 20. You say, Brother Brown, I'm looking at myself, and I don't like what I see. Well, let's look away from ourselves unto Him who is able. A, the focus of our faith is unto Him. The focus of our faith, unto Him.

The fact, fact, to be believed. And here's my question. Do you believe this? That He is able to do exceeding, abundantly, above all that you ask or think? Do you really believe that, those facts? The flow, and here it is, brothers and sisters, the flow of God's power.

It's according to the power that works in us and bears our problem. We hinder the power of God through resisting the Spirit, through quenching the Spirit. May God forgive us. May God restore us. May God heal us.

May God liberate us. May God do His mighty work in our life. Now unto Him who is able. The focus of our faith. The fact to be believed. The flow, F-L-O-W, the flow of God's power working in us. Is the Holy Spirit having unhindered right away, my dear friends?

Ignorance, Unwillingness, and Unbelief

We close this morning with verse 21, with the triumphant phrase, Now unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Question comes as we close, bottom of page 3.

What can keep the mighty resurrection power of God from doing its full work in maturing us and maintaining us in a victorious, abundant life in Christ? Any one of the following three things can stop the purposes of God in and through our lives.

Turn the page to page 4 and do a little personal examination. The first is the word ignorance. I-G-N-O-R-A-N-C-E. Ignorance. It simply means, I didn't know such power was available to me, Brother Brown.

I didn't know. Well, thank God, you now know. And you can't claim ignorance anymore, hopefully. I hope none of you have said, this is over my head. Oh, this is supposed to be in your heart, not over your head.

This is to be in our hearts, flowing out. Amen? Not going over our heads. If it's not ignorance, then the second blank, could it be unwillingness? That yes, I believe what you're saying, I see it in the Word of God, and I'm being convicted in my heart even now, but I'm not ready to fully surrender my life to Christ.

Well, God, help you to be ready. God, increase your hunger and thirst. And God's able to do that. And if you're not ready, it must be because you need to hunger and thirst more, and are you praying, God, increase my hunger and thirst.

I know I need to be fully surrendered. I know I need to be empowered, and I'm not. And I get momentarily, from time to time, concerned, but not deeply stirred enough to really have your Spirit president in my life.

There's a song that says something about, what a shame, he paid so high a price. What a shame that we're just stirred, but not really changed. And God's here this morning to change us. If it's not ignorance, if it's not unwillingness, could it be the third unbelief, unbelief, U-N-B-E-L-I-E-F, E-F, unbelief.

I really don't believe that such victory is a daily possibility for a Christian. And I hope none of you are here that would be in unbelief this morning. Well, what shall we say, then, to these things?

Closing Prayer for Full Surrender and Spiritual Infilling

If Christ, if God before us, who can be against us, amen? He that spared not his own son, but freely gave him up for us all, shall he not also with him give us all things? Let's stand and bow our heads for prayer.

Father, we praise you this morning for the work of Jesus Christ at Calvary. We thank you for the ministry of your Spirit to each of our hearts and lives. We thank you for the pungent power of your Word.

And I pray that each one of us would say yes to the blessed Holy Spirit as he's been talking to us this morning. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed and no one looking around, I wonder how many would say this morning, Brother Brown, God indeed has talked to me.

I am thankful for his faithfulness. He has put his finger on an area of need in my life, and by his grace I am going to walk in the light. I will do what he told me to do. And you'd signify that commitment before God with an upraised hand.

Can I see your hands this morning? God bless you. God bless you. A host of hands. How heaven rejoices today. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh upon us. Melt us. Melt us. Bend us. Break us, Lord, until we have a broken and a contrite spirit.

The sacrifices of God are a broken heart, a broken and a contrite spirit. Increase our hunger and thirst for you and for righteousness and true holiness. And may every one of us continue to say yes to your will and to your way.

Strengthen each one that raised their hands this morning. I just pray for a mighty infilling and a mighty suffusion of your spirit into their life. That whatever you've shown them, whatever you've put your finger on in their life, that not only will they say now yes, but continue to say yes and to act out what they've made a promise to you today.

Thank you for this wonderful time together. Thank you, Lord, for this gracious congregation. Bless each of us and draw us close to thyself, we pray, in the precious name of Jesus, with thanksgiving. Everyone said amen.