The Power Available To Us

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. - Romans 8:9-11

The Power that raised Jesus from the dead is available through his Word and by trusting and obeying him. No fear. What happens to us is God’s affair. No to self and yes to Jesus.

“How much depends on our choices, how much on the work of the Spirit of God? Don’t ask. Both truths are clear but hard to harmonize intellectually. I only know that the more I take at face value what He says and choose to open myself to His grace, the more I discover the eminent practicality of His Word. He makes available to us the very same power that raised our Lord Jesus from the dead. If we want His peace and obey Him, even in the least measure, He gives it. “If by the Spirit you put to death all the base pursuits of the body, then you will live” (Rom 8:13). There it is in one verse: by the Spirit you—the work of the Holy Spirit and my will, in combination. Grace working on nature.

The reason for the fear, resentment, and worry presented me once more with a dilemma and a choice. It was a crux (the Latin word for cross), crucial (a derivative of the same word) to my living in harmony with God—agreeing that it was not I, but Christ. Not my life, His. I am not my own, I am bought with a price; therefore I belong to Him and what happens to me is His affair. The old life, mine, is gone. Crucified. Dead. The new life—the daily yes, Lord—lives at the expense of the old. Both cannot flourish together. It’s one or the other. It’s no to the self, yes to the Lord.” A Path Through Suffering - Elizabeth Elliot