Led by His SpiritSample

A brilliant scholar, Henry Martyn, was headed toward a lucrative legal career when he heard a man named Charles Simeon tell about what William Carey was doing as a missionary in India. Martyn immediately changed course and began training to go to India himself. He set sail for India in 1805. He died just seven years later, at the age of thirty-one. But in that brief period of ministry, Martyn translated the New Testament into three different languages and had a powerful impact on both India and Iran. Martyn’s priority was revealed when he said, “Let me be taught that the first great business on Earth is the sanctification of my own soul.”

The purpose of God for our lives is for us to be sanctified—to become more like the image of His perfect Son, Jesus Christ. This is not done through our determination, resolve, willpower, or strength. No matter how hard we try or how diligently we work, the process of sanctification is beyond human power to achieve. Paul wrote to the believers in Galatia, “Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3).

We can only grow in the likeness of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. As we yield our lives to His control and are filled with Him, He changes us from the inside out.