| Romans 7:1-6 "Do you not know, brothers and sisters-for I am speaking to those who know the law-that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man. So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code." Christian should behave in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. In the original text the new way of the Spirit refers to "rely on the Holy Spirit", which means as Christians, we no longer just follow certain written codes. Rather, we live by the leading of the Spirit every day. A book authored by Lauren Cunningham, founder of YWAM, mentioned how they trusted in the leading of the Spirit and lived by faith when they just started. Before the YWAM university started each year, all the teachers and students would gather together and pray for the fiscal need of that semester. The way they prayed was not to bring up the needs in turn, but to believe that the Spirit would inform each person of others' needs, then it was up to that person to offer support to other brothers and sisters. A sister came with only $70, still $30 short of the $100 goal she wanted to reach. Therefore, she prayed that God might send someone over to give her the $30. Nevertheless, she heard that the Spirit told her to give the $70 to another sister. She responded: "Lord, I still need $30. How come you ask me to give $70, which is all I have, to another person?" Eventually she yielded to God. Then a professor was led by the Spirit to give her $100, which was all he had. He was wondering what he was going to do afterwards. To his surprise another professor came to him and said: " As a professor, I never gave any money to a fellow professor. But the Spirit led me to give you $100. I wonder whether I heard Him wrong." So the former professor shouted out his thanksgiving to the Lord, and gave $100 to the first sister. How wondrous is the leading of the Spirit, isn't it? In fact, this is not something unique, but something that happens in the everyday life of a Christian. Have you experienced the leading of the Spirit? May God help us not to live every day by the written code, but by the Spirit. 
Pray with Pastor Tong Liu Lord, I thank you, for you are the true and living God. Once again I commit each brother and sister to you. May you deliver us from the written codes so we can live every day by the leading of the Spirit. We thank you and we pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen! |
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