I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. (Ephesians 3:16 NLT)
The strength of the Lord's people is none other than the strength of the Holy
Spirit in the inward man. Right at the very center of the being, deeper than
thought or reason, deeper than emotion or feeling, deeper than all that which
comprises the more outward man which, under given circumstances, may prove weak
and incapable of standing up to the situation. In the variations of our soul
life, the changes of our moods, our ideas, our attitudes, our feelings, our
minds; deeper down there is that strength which does not let us go. That is the
true nature of spirituality. It is not the tremendously forceful conviction of
our intellects or the mighty power of our wills. When these cannot stand up to
conditions of intense spiritual antagonism, opposition or perplexity, there is
that more inward thing, right in the inward man, which is of God – the Holy
Spirit: “Strengthened with might by His Spirit into the inward man.”
Test that out and the result is that when the mind is bewildered by the
perplexity of a situation, and the arguments are all in the direction that a
mistake has been made, a wrong course has been taken, everything is false – when
all the feelings are churned up, disturbed, anxious, fearful, or when there are
no feelings at all, they are simply petrified by the position – when
circumstances are all arguing in the opposite direction of that which we, in the
purest moments of our fellowship with God determined upon. The world around us –
and very closely around us, even within the sphere of our own natural life, our
own soul life – is an inexplicable mystery. Then spirituality is proved by that
inward strength which abides: that standing when you cannot go forward; that
holding when you can do nothing; that remaining when all the forces are seeking
to sweep you off your feet. That represents a measure of spirituality. That is
the true nature of the child of God. The opposite is to be carried away by
argument, reasoning, appearance, circumstance, and all such things. That proves
a lack of true spirituality. In a sentence, true spirituality is not to live on
the outside; it is to live with God right down deep in the inner part of your
own being, where He, the Spirit, is.