Our Precious Indwelling Friend

An Excerpt from Anne Dutton's (1692 - 1765) Letters on Spiritual Subjects

A spiritual appetite that allows the Lord’s own to relish spiritual things is a gift from the Spirit of Christ. It is He who takes of the things of Christ and the Father and allows us to understand them. "The natural man can’t receive the things of the Spirit of God—for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually perceived."

It is the loving, caring Spirit of Truth in His special functions as Comforter and Guide who directs His people into all truth. It is He who removes the fog from our minds to understand abundant Truths and the knowledge of God in Christ. We cannot draw correct conclusions about the Things of God without the actual presence and superintendence of the Holy Spirit giving us insight. His light and heat kindles understanding, then it is He who even inflames our wills to apply and practice this knowledge. Let us thank and adore Jesus Christ for giving us so great an Indwelling Friend that warms and brightens and eventually ignites our inner man.