At His Disposal
When you receive the Holy Spirit, your life is placed at Christ's disposal, making it possible to live a new life directed by the Spirit.
Major Ian Thomas emphasizes that upon redemption through Christ's atoning death, believers receive the Holy Spirit, which imparts the very life of Christ within them. This transformation allows Christians to live out the life of Christ, as He desires to express His sinless humanity through them. By placing their minds, emotions, and wills at Christ's disposal, believers become active members of His body, the church, and experience a new law of the Spirit of Life that re-establishes their relationship with God. This shift from an ego-centric to a Deo-centric life enables them to fulfill God's commandments through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
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The moment you are redeemed through the atoning death of Christ upon the cross, you receive the Holy Spirit within your human spirit. You have "passed from death to life" - raised from the dead - and the Life which has been imparted to you by the Holy Spirit is the very Life of Christ Himself; " He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ. He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him" (Ephesians 2:5, Amplified New Testament).
The life that the Lord Jesus Christ lived for you nineteen hundred years ago condemns you; but the life that He now lives in you saves you! The Christian life is the Life which He lived then, lived now, by Him in you. As He behaved in the sinless Humanity which the Father had prepared for Him then, so He wants to behave in your humanity presented to Him now.
Your mind placed at His disposal through the indwelling Holy Spirit; your emotions, your will, all that you are and have, made available to the Lord Jesus Christ as a living member of His new corporate body on earth, which is called the church.
This is the new law in action, the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, re-establishing the "faith-love" relationship between your soul and God, making it possible for you to "declare" the Son, as once the Son "declared" the Father. Your "behavior mechanism" once more wholly "Deo-centric" instead of "Ego-centric." " so that the commandment of the law may find fulfillment" in you, whose conduct, no longer under the control of your lower nature, "is directed by the Spirit." A radical change of government!
From: The Mystery of Godliness. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House. ©1964.
Sermon Outline
- The Life of Christ in You
- The Christian Life
- Your Life at His Disposal
- The New Law in Action
- The law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus
- Re-establishes faith-love relationship
- Directs conduct by the Spirit
Key Quotes
“He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ. He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him.” — Major Ian Thomas
“The life that the Lord Jesus Christ lived for you nineteen hundred years ago condemns you; but the life that He now lives in you saves you!” — Major Ian Thomas
“Your mind placed at His disposal through the indwelling Holy Spirit; your emotions, your will, all that you are and have, made available to the Lord Jesus Christ as a living member of His new corporate body on earth, which is called the church.” — Major Ian Thomas
Application Points
- Make your mind, emotions, and will available to the Lord Jesus Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
- Allow the Spirit of Life to direct your conduct, re-establishing the faith-love relationship between your soul and God.
- Recognize that your old life is condemned, but the life of Christ in you saves you.