The Holy Spirit does a work for our bodies as well as for our minds and
hearts. We read in Rom. viii. 11, R. V., “But if the Spirit of Him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He that raised up Christ
Jesus from the dead _shall quicken also your mortal bodies through His
Spirit_ that dwelleth in you.”
_The Holy Spirit quickens the mortal body of the believer._ It is very
evident from the context that this refers to the future resurrection of
the body (vs. 21-23). The resurrection of the body is the Holy Spirit’s
work. The glorified body is from Him; it is “a spiritual body.” At the
present time, we have only the first fruits of the Spirit and are waiting
for the full harvest, the redemption of our body (v. 23).
There is, however, a sense in which the Holy Spirit even now quickens our
bodies. Jesus tells us in Matt. xii. 28 that He cast out devils by the
Spirit of God. And we read in Acts x. 38, “How God anointed Jesus of
Nazareth _with the Holy Ghost_ and with power, who went about doing good
_and healing_ all that were oppressed of the devil.” In James v. 14, the
Apostle writes, “Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the
church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of
the Lord.” The oil in this passage (as elsewhere) is the type of the Holy
Spirit, and the truth is set forth that the healing is the Holy Spirit’s
work. God by His Holy Spirit does impart new health and vigour to these
mortal bodies in the present life. To go to the extremes that many do and
take the ground that the believer who is walking in fellowship with Christ
need never be ill is to go farther than the Bible warrants us in going. It
is true that the redemption of our bodies is secured by the atoning work
of Christ but until the Lord comes, we only enjoy the first fruits of that
redemption; and we are waiting and sometimes groaning for our full place
as sons manifested in the redemption of our body (Rom. viii. 23). But
while this is true, it is the clear teaching of Scripture and a matter of
personal experience on the part of thousands that the life of the Holy
Spirit does sweep through these bodies of ours in moments of weakness and
of pain and sickness, imparting new health to them, delivering from pain
and filling them with abounding life. It is our privilege to know the
quickening touch of the Holy Spirit in these bodies as well as in our
minds and affections and will. It would be a great day for the Church and
for the glory of Jesus Christ, if Christians would renounce forever all
the devil’s counterfeits of the Holy Spirit’s work, Christian Science,
Mental Healing, Emmanuelism, Hypnotism and the various other forms of
occultism and depend upon God by the power of His Holy Spirit to work that
in these bodies of ours which He in His unerring wisdom sees that we most
need.