God’s Power in You
by William Law
Published by Whitaker House ©1998

 

 

 

 

The contents of this book have been taken from The Spirit of Love and The Spirit of Prayer. The language has been updated somewhat, though I prefer the original wording and phrasing which, though difficult at times, gave a beauty to the expression of ideas that the modern version does not match.

Portions of this book may seem strange to many Christians, for the concepts presented here, though Scriptural, are given in ways with which most Christians are unfamiliar. I would encourage any reader of this volume to try to look past the unfamiliar expression of ideas to the heart beneath and to look to God wholly and completely to express the deep truths to be gained here directly to your heart.

Part I: The Spirit of Love

1. What is the Spirit of Love? — When Christ is everywhere, Wrath and Hatred Will be nowhere. Whenever therefore you willingly indulge Wrath or let your Mind work in Hatred, you not only work without Christ, but you resist him and withstand his redeeming Power over you.
2. The Needed Response to the Spirit of Love — In a Word, there are, in all the Possibility of Things, but two States, or Forms of Life; the one is Nature, and the other is God manifested in Nature; and as God and Nature are both within you, so you have it in your Power to live and work with which you will; but are under a Necessity of doing either the one or the other.
3. Man’s Nature versus God’s Goodness — Goodness and Happiness are absolutely inseparable from God, and can be nowhere but in God. And on the other Hand, Emptiness, Want, Insufficiency, etc., are absolutely inseparable from the Creature, as such; its whole Nature cannot possibly be any Thing else.
4. The Need for Perpetual Inspiration — To suppose that we ought, and may always be in this Spirit of Holiness, and yet are not, and ought not to be always moved and led by the Breath and Spirit of God within us, is to suppose that there is a Holiness and Goodness which comes not from God; which is no better than supposing that there may be true Prophets and Apostles who have not their Truth from God.
5. The Seed of Heaven in Man — Judge not therefore of your Self, by considering how many of those Things you do, which Divines and Moralists call Virtue and Goodness, nor how much you abstain from those Things, which they call Sin and Vice. But daily and hourly, in every Step that you take, see to the Spirit that is within you, whether it be Heaven, or Earth that guides you. And judge every Thing to be Sin and Satan, in which your earthly Nature, own Love, or Self-seeking has any Share of Life in you; nor think that any Goodness is brought to Life in you, but so far as it is an actual Death to the Pride, the Vanity, the Wrath, and selfish Tempers of your fallen, earthly Life.
6. Jesus Is Our Only Salvation — His Sufferings, his Death, and Cross, were the Fullness of his Victory over all the Works of the Devil. Not an Evil in Flesh and Blood, not a Misery of Life, not a Chain of Death, not a Power of Hell and Darkness, but were all baffled, broken, and overcome by the Process of a suffering, and dying Christ. Well therefore may the Cross of Christ be the Glory of Christians.
7. Christ, the Second Adam — Mankind, as such, must of all Necessity be born of, and have that Nature which it hath from a Man. And this is the true Ground, and absolute Necessity of the one Mediator, the Man Christ Jesus. For seeing Mankind, as such, must have that Birth and Nature which they have from Man; seeing they never could have had any Relation to Paradise, or any Possibility of partaking of it, but because they had a paradisiacal Man for their Father.
8. More than Knowing — Every Kind of Virtue and Goodness may be brought into us by two different Ways. They may be taught us outwardly by Men, by Rules and Precepts; and they may be inwardly born in us, as the genuine Birth of our own renewed Spirit. In the former Way, as we learn them only from Men, by Rules and Documents of Instruction, they at best only change our outward Behaviour and leave our Heart in its natural State, and only put our Passions under a forced Restraint, which will occasionally break forth in spite of the dead Letter of Precept and Doctrine.
9. The Spirit of Love Delivers Us — I would have you judge of your State of Love by these Angelic Tempers, and not by any Fervour or Heat that you find in yourself. For just so much, and so far as you are freed from the Folly of all earthly Affections, from all Disquiet, Trouble, and Complaint about this, or that, just so much, and so far is the Spirit of Love come to Life in you.
10. The Absolute Importance of Faith — God must do all, or all is nothing; but God cannot do all, till all is expected from Him; and all is not expected from Him, till by a true and good Despair of every human Help, we have no Hope, or Trust, or Longing after any Thing but a patient, meek, humble, total Resignation to God.
11. True Yieldedness to God — Stand turned to this patient, humble Resignation, for this is your true Performance of this Duty at that Time; and though you may have no comfortable Sensibility of your performing it, yet in this State you may always have one full Proof of the Truth and Reality of it, and that is, when you seek for Help no other Way, nor in any Thing else, neither from Men nor Books, but wholly leave and give up yourself to be helped by the Mercy of God. And thus, be your State what it will, you may always have the full Benefit of this short and sure Way of resigning up yourself to God. And the greater the Perplexity of your Distress is, the nearer you are to the greatest and best Relief, provided you have but Patience to expect it all from God. For nothing brings you so near to Divine Relief, as the Extremity of Distress.

Part II: The Spirit of Eternity

12. The Entrance of Evil into the World — By the nature of his state, Man had his trial, or power of choosing, whether he would live as an angel, using only his outward body as a means of opening the wonders of the outward world to the glory of his creator; or whether he would turn his desire to the opening of the bestial life of the outward worldling himself, for the sake of knowing the good and evil that was in it. The fact is certain, that he lusted after the knowledge of this good and evil, and made use of the means to obtain it.
13. The Need for a New Birth — Nothing could possibly be the redemption, or recovery of man, but regeneration alone. His misery was his having lost the life and light of heaven from his soul, and therefore nothing in all the universe of nature, but a new birth of that which he had lost, could be his deliverance from his fallen state.
14. The Life of Christ in Us — Do not all Christians desire to have Christ to be their savior? Yes. But here is the deceit; all would have Christ to be their savior in the next world, and to help them into heaven when they die, by his power, and merits with God. But this is not willing Christ to be thy savior; for his salvation, if it is had, must be had in this world; if he save thee, it must be done in this life, by changing and altering all that is within thee, by helping thee to a new heart, as he helped the blind to see, the lame to walk, and the dumb to speak. For to have salvation from Christ, is nothing else but to be made like unto him; it is to have his humility and meekness, his mortification and self-denial, his renunciation of the spirit, wisdom, and honors of this world, his love of God, his desire of doing God’s will, and seeking only his honor.
15. The Pearl of Eternity — when God has all that he should have of thy heart, when renouncing the will, judgment, tempers and inclinations of thy old man, thou art wholly given up to the obedience of the Light and Spirit of God within thee, to will only his will, to love only in his love, to be wise only in his wisdom, then it is, that everything thou doest is as a song of praise, and the common business of thy life is a conforming to God’s will on earth, as angels do in heaven.
16. The One Way of Salvation — All the activity of man in the works of self-denial has no good in itself, but is only to open an entrance for the one only good, the Light of God, to operate upon us.