“If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall
live” (Rom. viii. 13).
The Holy Spirit is the only one who can kill us and keep us dead. Many
Christians try to do this disagreeable work themselves, and they are going
through a continual crucifixion, but they can never accomplish the work
permanently. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, and when you really
yield yourself to the death, it is delightful to find how sweetly He can
slay you.
By the touch of the electric spark they tell us life is extinguished
almost without a quiver of pain. But, however this may be in natural
things, we know the Holy Spirit can touch with celestial fire the
surrendered thing, and slay it in a moment, after it is really yielded up
to the sentence of death. That is our business, and it is God’s business
to execute that sentence, and to keep it constantly operative.
Don’t let us live in the pain of perpetual and ineffectual suicide, but
reckoning ourselves dead indeed, let us leave ourselves in the hands of
the blessed Holy Spirit, and He will slay whatever rises in opposition to
His will, and keep us true to our heavenly reckoning, and filled with His
resurrection life.