in'. At the very outset of his Christian life Paul realized this, for among his first recorded

words after his conversion was the famous question, `Lord, what wilt Thou have me to

do?' (Acts 9: 6). With some, however, it is not so much that they do not know the Lord's

will in service, but they shrink from what it will cost them or feel their inability to carry it

out. We should face this issue squarely, and realize that creature strength is useless here.

And yet how often have we all attempted the Lord's work in the power of the flesh and

failed! Even the great Apostle was on the same level as the humblest believer when it

came to power for service. Listen to his words in II Cor. 3: 5, `Not that we are

sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God'.

We are inclined to invest Paul with superhuman qualities, so it is good to realize that

he was a person of like limitations as ourselves. When he wrote to the Galatian believers

he made a tremendous declaration in the twentieth verse of the second chapter, `I have

been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live'.

How was this seeming paradox explained? If he was a crucified man he was dead,

and yet he declares `I am alive'. This being so, the resurrection power of the risen Christ

must have been operating in his experience, so that he could say `Christ liveth in me'.

When later on he was writing his second letter to the Church at Corinth, he speaks of his

experiences in Asia and declares he was `pressed out of measure, above strength,

insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves,

that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God Which raiseth the dead, Who delivered

us . . . . .' (II Cor. 1: 8-10).

It was glorious resurrection power which overcame all the Apostle's limitations and

enabled him to triumph in the midst of superhuman difficulties. In the eleventh chapter

he is compelled to write of things about which he would rather have kept silent. His

apostleship had been challenged and he had been compared unfavourably with the

Twelve. He was forced to boast `foolishly' in his sufferings and labours for the Lord

Jesus Christ. And as we read verses 22-28, do we not feel a sense of shame and realize

afresh how very little our Christian profession has cost us? Humanly speaking the long

list of terrible experiences he endured for Christ's sake was beyond the strength of the

human body to withstand. Yet he triumphed through them all to the glory of God. He

knew in his experience the truth of the promise of Rom. 8: 11, `He that raised up

Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His spirit that dwelleth in

you'.  Again we see resurrection power in operation overcoming the failures and

weaknesses of the human body, so that the believer is able to accomplish the Lord's will.

This wondrous theme is further elaborated in the epistle to the Philippians. In chapter 4,

verse 11, Paul states `I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content'.

Our English version is not strictly accurate. The Apostle did not say that he was content

with every experience he passed through. The Greek word autarkes means independent

and whatever extremes of circumstance that came his way, whether being abased or

abounding, whether being full or hungry, whether having everything necessary or

suffering need, he was independent of them all. How could this be? The next verse (12)

shows the way. He tells us that he had been `instructed'. Here the word is mueomai

which is linked with musterion, giving the word mystery or secret. It has the thought