When
Christians first believe {agree to submit to God’s ways}, they generally turn
to God with their whole heart. They then are enabled to partake of His grace and
receive the gift of His Spirit. The indwelling Spirit provides them with a real
desire to follow the ways of the Lord. But this is only the doorway into a
spiritual life in which God wants to become our All. The ultimate intention of
salvation is to turn people from a self-centered way of life to a God-centered
way of life.
God
uses tribulations to separate His called-out children from their love for the
world. He wants them to turn to Him as their only source of spiritual life. But
as He takes them through a spiritual wilderness on the way to His life of
promise, with the intent of teaching them to live by faith in Him alone, many
begin looking back to the things of this world for relief. Like
While
God is seeking to make His children holy, they are generally looking for
personal blessings. Consequently, when trials begin to occur in their lives,
they tend to be drawn away from the straight and narrow path that leads to the
Kingdom-life of God.
Jesus
had thousands of followers after He fed the five thousand. But when He began to
explain how they would need to sustain themselves on Him alone, which would
require them to fully surrender their will to His will (John 4:34), they turned
away. “On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This
is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’…From this time many of his disciples
turned back and no longer followed him.” (John 6:60, 65)
Jesus,
in His Parable of the Sower said, these are the “the
ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They
believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.” (Luke 8:13
Emphasis added) They are willing to follow Christ while He is blessing them in
the temporal realm, but they reject His way of the cross. They prefer to
develop a spiritual life by following after their own personal desires. They
are unwilling to die to this old worldly form of life so they may have a
supernatural life from the heavenly realms. “In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has {from the self-life}
cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33)
Falling
away from Christ’s way of life in the time of testing does not necessarily
imply a separation from the organized church. These people will often hold to
fundamental beliefs about Jesus. But they do not trust Him enough to fully
surrender to His way of life. Christ’s message to the church at
The
salvation offered by the Lord is not man-centered. Christ has come to save His
followers from their fallen nature. He does it by purifying the hearts of His
tested disciples so they may “serve Him without fear, in holiness and
righteousness before Him all the days of [their] lives.” (Luke 1:74-75
Emphasis added) He provides them with a pure heart so they will have the
capacity to overcome all the temptations of the world and continue to live in
an entire devotement to God. (Acts 15:8-9)
Until
this Kingdom-life has been established within the heart, even earnest believers
will periodically find themselves being pulled away from the life of holiness
and righteousness that God requires of His children. The devil uses many crafty
devices to draw these unstable Christians into fleshly activities. Even while
they remain members of a church body, they are drawn back to serving
themselves.
The
leaders of Christ’s church have not been reminding Christians of their need to
deny themselves and take up their cross. Because there has been a neglect of
this all-important doctrine, we do not find very many church members entering
into Christ’s Kingdom-life. Let us therefore begin to exhort one another daily
while there is still an opportunity, “lest any of you be hardened through the
deceitfulness of sin.” (Heb. 3:13)
Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things
we have heard, lest we drift away. (Heb. 2:1)
Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which
leads to life {the Kingdom-life}, and there are few who find it. (Matt. 7:14)
God’s
children do not have the right to live for themselves or even to do what they
please. God “has saved us and called us with a holy
calling…according to His own purpose.” (2 Tim. 1:8-9) His intent is to
separate us from the self-serving ways of the world so we will be available for
His exclusive use. He created us to live for His purposes.
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely;
and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless… (1 Thess. 5:23)
For this is the will of God, your sanctification. (1 Thess. 4:3)
If
you have not been looking for a salvation from your self-centered and
self-serving nature, then you are not following the true Christ. Phoebe Palmer, in her book Full Salvation, has
described this principle more clearly:
There are many who take upon themselves the name of Christ
who do not renounce the world. They seem to have found
some broader, easier way than the way of the cross. But the Bible presents but
one direct way to heaven, and that way is the narrow way of the cross… The
Bible… presents no way of going around the cross without getting out of the
way. Jesus says, “If any man will be My disciple, let
him deny himself, take up his cross, {not try to go around it} and follow Me.”
Those, therefore, who attempt to go around the cross
instead of taking it up, get out of the way to heaven into the by-path that seemeth to be right, but the end whereof is
death. And these are the “many” to which the Savior refers when He says,
“Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we
not prophesied in Thy Name? And in Thy Name have cast out devils? And in Thy
Name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew
you!”…How evidently had these people died in their deception! And now they come
to the very door of heaven, expecting admission, but the Savior says, “I never
knew you.”
Now would you love to imagine yourself in the way to
heaven in some other way than the way of the cross? Christians are called the
light of the world, and would you love to take upon yourself a profession as a
light of the world and have others follow you, as you are wishing to follow
other worldly-minded professors, and then find in the end that souls have been
lost by following you instead of being saved through your influence? Suppose
one puts up a beacon-light in a wrong place and a vessel is decoyed from the
right channel and stranded and all on board perish. Who is responsible for the
loss of life?
Now do you desire to take upon yourself the profession of
Christ, without giving up the world? Would you be willing to be looked up to as
one of the lights of the world, without having previously taken upon you the
cross of Christ?
Christ’s
true disciples will follow Him through the cross. “So likewise, whoever of you
does not forsake all that he has {from his self-life} cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:33) These true believers in Jesus
Christ stop living for themselves {they come out from the ways of the world}.
They begin denying themselves by offering their flesh-life to the cross, so
they may enter into a life of self-sacrificing love as Jesus did. (1 John
2:5-6) They will therefore begin saying with Jesus, “My food {or spiritual
sustenance} is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and
to finish His work.” (John 4:34)
In
contrast to how Jesus lived, much of the church today has become man-centered.
The members of Christ’s body are not being set free from their self-centered
nature. Most Christians will frankly admit they expect their pastor to provide
church services that will make “them” happy. After all, who is more important?
Activities
that are centered around the desires of the members of
Christ’s body will actually feed their flesh-life and make it stronger. As long
as the work of the church remains man-centered – starting with man, centered in
his needs, thinking of his welfare, and seeking his blessing – people will be
led away from Christ and His way of the cross.
It
should be very obvious today that we have been led terribly off course by our
leaders. There are many within the church now walking on the broad road to
destruction. They have been unwilling to take up their cross and lose their
self-life so they can find Christ’s Kingdom-life of perfect love. (Matt.
16:24-25)
There
needs to be a real change in the way the church functions. It was never
intended to provide spiritual life by acting as a social organization. The
church is a place where seekers after the life of God are to be encouraged to
press forward in their faith until God has become their “all in all.” “Exhort
one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin.” (Heb. 3:13) Everyone who enters into
Christ’s Kingdom-life will be found living in an entire devotement to God.
As
Christians, we will need to renew the way we think before we can walk in the
ways of the Son. In the past, we have responded to our own selfish desires.
Whenever there was something within the grasp of our fleshly desires, we simply
did it. This is how the world lives. The children of God are to live
differently.
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life,
to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to
be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created
to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph. 4:22-24)
There is something Christians are to
seek. But it does not include anything from this world. Christians, according
to Jesus, are not even to focus their attention on the things they will need to
eat, drink and wear. (Matt. 6:31-33) The primary concern of Christ’s disciples
is to seek after the
Once
we have been credited with Christ’s righteousness through a faith that is fully
yielded to Him, we are expected to seek out His Kingdom-life. We are then to
depend on Him to take us through the cross and into the reality of His
resurrection life. He has promised to manifest His life
of true righteousness within the inner being of everyone who obeys Him. (John
14:21)
In
this process of seeking out the Kingdom-life of God, we need to be laying aside
every weight that holds us back. (Heb. 12:1) We are responsible for pressing
forward in our faith until we have received the promised “abundant entrance”
into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Pet.
1:10-11)
The
moment believers are able to trust in the Son to save them from their sin, they
enter into a glorious new “position in Christ.” But there is a serious problem
in the way this doctrine of imputed righteousness is generally presented. The
primary emphasis is on the individual. When man is placed at the center, these
new Christians will naturally begin to build on a false foundation. The church
has remained in a carnal condition because the members of Christ’s body are
being taught to think about their imputed righteousness from a self-centered
perspective.
If
the scriptural teachings about imputed righteousness are twisted and become
man-centered, the hearers will remain in a bondage to their fallen nature. They
will never learn what it means to die to this old way of life and be gloriously
lifted by the power of God into the Son’s Kingdom-life of perfect love. This is
why all our messages, even those about imputed righteousness, must be God-centered.
A. W.
Tozer, as quoted from Born After
Midnight, once said, “The flaw in current evangelism lies in its humanist
approach. It struggles to be supernaturalistic but
never quite makes it. It is frankly fascinated by the great, noisy, aggressive
world with its big name, its hero worship, its wealth and its garish pageantry.
To the millions of disappointed persons who have always yearned for worldly
glory but never attained to it, the modern evangel {gospel} offers a quick and
easy shortcut to their heart’s desire. Peace of mind, happiness, prosperity,
social acceptance, publicity, success in sports, business, the entertainment
field, and perchance to sit occasionally at the same banquet table with a
celebrity - all this on earth and heaven at last…”
“In this quasi-Christian scheme of
things, God becomes the Aladdin lamp who does the bidding of everyone that will
accept His Son and sign a card. The total obligation of the sinner is
discharged when he accepts Christ. After that, he has but to come with his
basket and receive the religious equivalent of everything the world offers and
enjoys…”
“This
concept of Christianity is in radical error, and because it touches the souls
of men, it is a dangerous, even deadly, error. At the bottom it is little more
than weak humanism allied with weak Christianity to give it ecclesiastical
respectability. It may be identified by its religious approach. Invariably it
begins with man and his needs, and then looks around for God; true
Christianity reveals God as searching for man to deliver him from his
ambitions.” (Emphasis added)
If we
are ever to enter into the divine purpose that God has for His children, we
will need to follow the Son’s path of the cross. God’s spiritual children will
be found living for His kingdom and glory. They surrender their own wills so
they may be led by His Spirit and filled with the Son’s Kingdom-life of
sacrificial love.
And He
Himself gave some to be…pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints
for the work of ministry…till we all come to the unity of the faith…to a
perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Eph.
4:11-13)
The full stature of Christ is not
merely some distant hope to be realized, but a very present opportunity for
everyone who believes. How glorious is our Father’s plan for mankind. He has
purposed to provide many children through whom He would manifest the spiritual
life of His Son. He has predestined to conform every
yielded believer into His spiritual image. (Rom. 8:29)
The apostle John, in writing his first
epistle, wanted to help his readers understand what it means to enter into the full stature of Christ’s spiritual life.
To help distinguish the “spiritual” Christian from other less mature stages of
Christian life, he separated all Christians into three categories. He said, “I
write unto you little children… I write unto you young men… I write unto you
fathers….” (1 John 2:12-14)
When referring to the little children,
John says they are conscious of two main points: “God is our Father” and “our
sins are forgiven for His name’s sake.” Their faith has enabled them to believe
in a loving Father who takes care of them. They are also conscious of being
reconciled to God and being at peace with Him. These little children possess a
basic understanding about redemption. Through repentance they have turned and
submitted to the Lord. But their understanding of what this implies is very
limited. Only as the Lord is able to strengthen them in their faith and reveal
His deeper truths within their hearts will they begin to realize the real
nature of their calling.
Next, John describes Christians who
have matured into young manhood. As “young men,” we are required to bring every
facet of our life under the authority of Jesus Christ. But we can still only
form pictures in our mind about Christ’s nature of love because His life of
love surpasses knowledge (Eph. 3:19).
Two things have occurred in this level
of Christian growth: “You have overcome the wicked one” and “you are strong,
and the word of God abides in you.” These Christians have turned from their old
way of life and have begun to earnestly follow after the ways of their Lord and
Master. The Son can say of these disciples, “They are not of the world, just as
I am not of the world.” (John 17:16) These “young men” have been willing to
devote themselves fully to serving their Lord. They have taken steps to
separate themselves from the self-seeking ways of the world so they may become
like their Master. While other disciples may have turned back to the ways of
the world after learning of the cost of discipleship, these devoted Christians
have remained with their Lord. Even when passing through very difficult times,
they keep saying to Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life.” (John 6:68)
The “young men” are Christians who no
longer need milk. They are fully grounded in God’s word and committed to doing
everything their Lord teaches. Through experience, they have moved from a
position of defense to a position of offense. Instead of always running from
the arrows of Satan, they have “overcome the wicked one.” They have also
learned to serve God by fighting against the powers of darkness through prayer
and supplication.
The “young men” of the Christian faith
want to see people fully submitted to Christ’s Lordship. They desire to press
the “little children” forward in their Christian walk. Their form of
righteousness, however, is still based on what they have worked out through
their own efforts. They therefore have a tendency to preach law. They also have
a tendency to be critical when others have not yet reached their current
standard of righteousness.
Unfortunately, many of these “young
men” in the faith tend to think they are spiritually mature. In truth, however,
what they are trying to do for Christ they are attempting to do in their own
strength. They study for the purpose of making themselves more effective
Christians. Most of their thoughts are centered around
the activities they have planned to do for the Lord. Instead of receiving their
spiritual life and work from Christ through the Spirit, resting from all human
efforts, they remain engrossed in what
they can do for Him. In effect,
they are still more focused on doing
than on being. They have not yet
entered the Sabbath-rest where God’s children cease from their own works.
There remains
therefore a rest for the people of God.
For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works… Let us
therefore be diligent to enter that rest… (Heb. 4:9-11 Emphasis added)
We now come to what John considers the mature Christian life – the spiritual fathers.
These are the ones who “have known Him who is from the beginning.” They have
come to know the Eternal Life of perfect love. Because they have been willing
to submit to all their Lord’s teachings, including the dying that must take
place to self and all forms of self-sufficiency, He has come to reveal the firstfruits of the Father’s eternal life within their inner
being.
The spiritual fathers have made their
calling and election sure by permitting Christ to establish His Kingdom-life of
love within their hearts. (2 Pet. 2:10-11) Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them {the “young men” who have
fully responded to His way of the cross}, it is he who loves Me…and I will love
him and manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:21) While they have had to go through
some very severe trials to stretch their faith in the time of testing, they
have continued to respond to the teachings of their Lord until He has
established His Kingdom-life within their hearts.
Blessed is
the man who endures temptation {in the time of testing}, for when he has been
approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to
those who love him. (
It is this inner manifestation of the
Son’s life from heaven that makes these Christians mature.
Because they have yielded fully to the Spirit and have died to the flesh-life,
Christ has raised them into a participation with Him
in His life in the heavenly realms. They have come to know the eternal life of
love. “But whoever keeps His word {by denying themselves and following Him
through the cross}, truly the love of God is perfected
in him.” (1 John 2:5)
No wonder John writes twice about these
fathers who have “known Him who is from the beginning.” They have fought the
good fight of faith and have taken hold of His eternal life. (1 Tim. 6:12)
Through a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit they have come to know the love
that “surpasses knowledge” and have become “filled with all the fullness of
God.” (Eph. 3:19)
These spiritual fathers truly have the
glory of God – His spiritual image – resting on them. Because their faith has
shown itself to be complete, enabling them to lose their self-life, they have
entered into a new life in the heavenly realms, coming “to a perfect man, to
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph. 4:11-13)
It is the “fathers” who have truly
learned what it means to live by grace. They can say with Paul, “By the grace
of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored
more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with
me.” (1 Cor. 15:10) This supernatural work of God’s
grace enables these spiritual Christians to die daily to self and to live
wholly for the good of others through the life they are receiving from Jesus
Christ. They know their life has a source outside of themselves.
Once we have become spiritual fathers
and possess a personal knowledge of how we are required to receive our
spiritual life from God through the power of the Holy Spirit, we will not
condemn people for not attaining to a certain level of legalistic
righteousness. Our heart does, however, sense a burden for people who are still
failing in their own attempts to be righteous. Our desire is to exhort and
encourage them to come out from the self-centered and self-sufficient ways of
the world so they may enter into our Lord’s Kingdom-life of perfect love.
As God has said, “I
will dwell in them {with the Kingdom-life}…” Therefore “Come out from among
them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean {all heart
idols – anything we use from the temporal realm to lift us}, and I will receive
you…” Therefore, having these promises,
beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (2 Cor
6:16-17; 7:1)
Chapter Three:
STARTING WITH THE CORRECT POINT OF VIEW
Our heavenly Father
had a purpose for creating human children. The church today needs to gain a
better perspective of His original purpose. Paul, having been taken into the
third heaven, was provided with insight into this matter. He reveals some
important points in the opening verses of his letter to the Ephesians.
Instead of starting
out with a lesson about redemption, Paul begins by explaining the purpose that
God had “before the foundation of the world.” We learn that God had planned to
use the Son to reveal His spiritual life through each of His children from the
beginning. Man was never intended to have an independent life.
This plan for
providing spiritual life to man had nothing to do with the Fall.
“He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” (Eph. 1:4) From the
beginning God had planned to have many children who would reflect His spiritual
image by receiving their life through the Son. “And this is the testimony: that
God has given us eternal life {His life of perfect love}, and this life is in
His Son.” (1 John 5:11)
Paul also says this
plan originated in God Himself. In other words, His current purpose for our
lives is not a response to the Fall. “Having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His
good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself.” (Eph. 1:9) His plan, which
He has not changed, came from His own heart before the foundation of the world.
While God’s plan was
temporarily delayed because of the Fall, God has not changed
His purpose. He still has a plan to provide a family of children who have been
enabled to display His spiritual image in this world by receiving their life
from the Son. While the fall interrupted His plan, Paul assures us that
Christ’s work on the cross has permitted God to go ahead with His original
purpose. “That in the dispensation of the fullness of the
times He might gather together in one all things in Christ.” (Eph. 1:10)
He would do this wonderful work “according
to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Eph. 3:10 Emphasis added)
Once
we understand God’s original purpose and recognize its eternal perspective, we
can begin to see how redemption is something much more than merely forgiving
fallen men and women for their sins. God still has His original purpose. He
desires to have a family of children who will display His spiritual image in
this world. Even the fall could not stop Him from going forward with His plan.
While it will be
difficult for the “little children” and “young men” to fully understand this
high calling “in Christ Jesus” while they are still being influenced by the
powers of the flesh, they will be without excuse for not believing what the
Scriptures teach. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to
the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
(Rom. 8:19) Since God has the power to
make His children like Him in love in this world, and since He has a current
plan that permits Him to do the work through His Son, every individual is
responsible {and accountable} for
yielding to His plan.
Therefore
we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift
away… How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation…? (Heb. 2:1, 3)
Love
has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because
as He is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17 Emphasis added)
There is a tendency to reject as
unsound any teaching that sounds like a “new doctrine.” But the truth we are
explaining is not a new doctrine. It was established by God before the
foundation of the world. While this teaching may have been lost in the darkness
of a carnal church that is living on the natural plane, as the church once lost
her understanding about justification in the dark ages, these truths have
always been in the Bible.
The
lack of vision and perspective in the church has occurred because we have
overlooked God’s original purpose for creating man. Like infant children, we
have had a tendency to selfishly focus on our own purposes. It has kept our
thoughts on our personal justification, and this has blinded us to the deeper
things of God. We have not realized that reconciliation is only a necessary
prerequisite that permits God to go back to His original purpose.
We will need to
recognize the meaning of redemption from God’s perspective if we are to enter
into all truth. Only as we see how
redemption is related to bringing fallen man back into the spiritual image of
the Son can we recognize the true goal of our faith. We must remember that
God “has saved us and called us with a holy calling…according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in
Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed {in a display of the
true meaning of salvation through a mortal body} by the appearing of our Savior
Jesus Christ...” (2 Tim. 1:9-10 Emphasis added)
The gospel message
tells us about a conquering Savior who has come to provide a way of escape from
the fallen nature. All of Adam’s fallen family may, by sharing with Christ in
His risen life, escape from sin, self, the world, the devil and death.
“He who overcomes {by dying to the Adam-life} shall not be hurt by the second
death.” (Rev. 2:11) In other words, we need to enter into the spiritual realm
in this world while it is still called “Today.”
After the Son lived
as God had purposed for Adam, He {Christ}, as the Second Adam, received a right
to communicate His overcoming life to His followers. And as Paul has so clearly
taught in the Scriptures, the Son’s
risen life is much more powerful than the fallen life that everyone inherits
from Adam at birth. “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much
more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will
reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:17 Emphasis added)
Let us believe God’s
word! The abundantly full spiritual life that is now available from Jesus
Christ is more powerful than the fallen life everyone receives from Adam. We
are therefore expected to enter into His overcoming life in this world. In
fact, according to the Scripture, those who do not enter into the Lord’s full
redemption and begin walking as He did in divine love, cannot expect to stand
before their Maker with “boldness” on the Day of Judgment. (1 John 4:17)
Therefore,
leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying
again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.
(Heb. 6:1 Emphasis added)
Chapter Four:
GOD’S
SPECIFIC CALLING
What is more tragic
than to see individuals who are placed here by God to fulfill some unique and
glorious destiny still wandering aimlessly without any desire to discover their
divine purpose or calling? Thousands who
sit in church pews week after week are missing out on God’s eternal plan for
their lives. This sense of divine destiny is the one thing alone that can give
meaning, direction, and purpose to life.
Man was designed as
the masterpiece of creation. With God at the center of everything, human beings
were to manifest the light from God’s heavenly life of love and fulfill His
preordained plans. When we consider how we can only enter into God’s purposes
when we die to our own plans and purposes, we can better understand Paul’s
instruction to the Romans: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to
God, which is your reasonable service…that you may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God.” (
Most people never
enter into the perfect will of God for their lives. Because they are unwilling
to die to their own will, they do not have an opportunity to discover the good
and pleasing plans that God has made for them. Their independent walk also
keeps them separated from the abundantly full spiritual life of the Son {His
Living Water}. This is why they never find true fulfillment. They end up going
through life always looking for another means to help them find an enjoyable
spiritual life.
God
has created every object to fulfill some specific purpose. Each object was
designed to fulfill a part of the plan He made for His universe, giving it
shape and meaning and warmth. He designed His creation in a way that enables
everything to be fulfilled according to its order. This also applies to the
highest order of His creation – His children. Even though He gave human beings
a free will, God did not intend for His children to be loose cannons causing
chaos in His ordered world.
The Son has provided a visible representation of what the
Father expects from His children. The Son, if He was to remain without sin, had
to follow every leading of the Holy Spirit. He received
all His instructions from the Father. His life therefore remained in harmony
with the divine will. Because He was not living for His own will, but for the
will of the Father, He listened for the still small voice of the Spirit and
responded to His Father’s desires. (John 5:30) He could therefore say, “My food
{or spiritual sustenance from heaven} is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” (John 4:34)
Similarly, God has
made specific plans for each of His children. “I know, O Lord, that a man’s
life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.” (Jer. 10:23) He
expects each of His children to lay down their own personal wills so they may
be led by His Spirit. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
these are sons of God.” (Rom. 8:14)
Unfortunately, the
world remains in darkness because most people are unwilling to wait on the Lord
to receive His specific instructions for their lives. There is a natural
tendency for even the “young men” of the Christian faith to walk by their own
human wisdom. Even when they set out with a real commitment to serve the Lord,
they generally end up serving Him in the power of the flesh. They never quite
reach the point where they are willing to die to self-will, so they may live
fully under the control and power of the Holy Spirit.
These “young men” of
the Christian faith are represented by Martha. (Luke 10:38-42) We are told that
“Martha was distracted by much serving.” She was a child of God who was working
very hard for the Lord in her own strength. Because Martha was still relying on
her own human efforts to serve the Lord, she remained “worried and troubled
about many things.” Obviously, everyone who is still living and working in
their own strength will have many things to be worried and troubled about.
In contrast, Mary
chose to wait on the Lord until she had received a clearer revelation of His
life and will. We therefore find Jesus saying to Martha, “Mary has chosen that
good part {Jesus’ presence}, which will not be taken away from her.” She had
chosen what has also been translated as “the one thing needful.”
God has special
plans for each of His children. He has already made plans for our lives. (Eph.
2:10) And the only way we will ever know His good, pleasing and perfect will is
by waiting on Him to reveal each of our steps in life.
Trust
in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on our own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your
paths. (Prov. 3:5)
“For I know
the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to
harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and
come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.” (Jer.
29:11-12)
God has the power to communicate His plans to those who
truly listen to Him. When we have turned from the path of
the evildoer {self-seeker} by laying down our own will, God will take us into
His garden of holiness and begin revealing His plans. We are to become like
Jesus, who said, “I do nothing of Myself… The Father
has not left Me alone, for I always do those things
that please Him.” (John 8:28-29) “But let patience have its perfect work, that
you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (
Because the Son
lived only to do the Father’s will, the Father
continued to communicate His good and perfect will to the Son. And if we will
live as the Father’s children in this same way, we can expect Him to reveal His
plans for our lives.
Jesus said, “My sheep hear My
voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life.” (John 10:27-28 Emphasis added)
Everyone who truly listens to His voice and lives according to the Father’s
preordained purposes, can also expect to share with
Christ in His eternal life of love. In effect, we will find both the firstfruits of our Lord’s heavenly life and a fulfilling
work when we are responding to His voice and living according to God’s purpose.
It is very easy to
become caught up in pushing programs that are not in tune with God’s ways.
These works can be recognized by the way they exhaust our strength and do
little to further the Lord’s Kingdom-life of love – His eternal life – here on
earth. These efforts have produced many frustrated Christians and have resulted
in a few shipwrecks along the way.
Could we look back –
many miles back – where the pathway is still crowded with “would-be-experts”
and “hope-to-be-successes,” we would find earnest Christians starting on the
wrong path of Christian service. They have longed to reach a real measure of
usefulness in their service to the Lord. But they were never willing to pay the
price of dying to self so they could become vessels of Christ’s life and work.
This is why they have never found real rest for their souls.
Apart
from gladly entering into God’s specific purpose for our lives, there can be no
real preparation for our high calling in Christ Jesus. The Spirit is the only
One who can equip people for their unique service in God’s Kingdom. And we
cannot expect the Lord to equip us and send us forth with a true anointing from
His Spirit until we have died to the worldly way of living by self-will and
self-sufficiency.
This
is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient
paths {of a Spirit-directed and Spirit-empowered walk}, ask where the good way
is {in order to learn God’s purposes}, and walk in it, and you will find rest
for your souls. But you said {and many in the church are still saying it by
their actions}, ‘We will not walk in it.’”
(Jer. 6:16)
We can
find the byways filled with people who are unwilling to treat the plans and
skills they have developed through their own human effort “as loss” in order to
enter into the Spirit-empowered service that God has planned for them to do.
Because they desire to use their abilities to provide a reputation for
themselves, they have been unwilling to become nothing in themselves as Jesus
did. This is why God does not exalt them into a position where they can share
with Christ in the power of His resurrection-life. (Phil. 3:7-10)
Your
attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ: Who, being in very nature
God…made Himself nothing {of no
reputation}, taking the very nature of a
servant {to be led by Another}… He humbled himself
and became obedient to death… Therefore God exalted Him… (Phil. 2:5-9 Emphasis
added)
Here is the basic
essential for entering into the full stature of Christ’s spiritual life. We
must follow the pattern shown to us by godly examples like Paul and Jesus. It
always begins with an utter {full and complete} dedication of ourselves to God
so we can live for His purposes. Only by offering our bodies to the Lord as
living sacrifices, whereby we submit to being vessels of His life and work, can
we expect to discover and enjoy God’s heavenly will.
I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present
your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable
service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and
perfect will of God. (
So
whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God… For I am not seeking my own
good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. Follow my
example, as I follow the example of Christ. (1 Cor.
10:31-11:1 Emphasis added)
THE CROSS – A PART OF GOD’S PURPOSE
It may come as a
real surprise when we suggest that God has always planned for the “cross” to be
an innate part of His children’s nature. The spiritual principle of the cross
was not initiated because of the Fall. The principle
of the cross has been eternally woven into the very nature of the Father.
The meaning of this
principle of life was demonstrated by the Son when He lived in a mortal body.
Jesus expressed the meaning of a cross-life when He said, “My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life… I lay it down of Myself.” (John 10:17-18)
The Son continually
laid down His life {refusing to live for Himself} so He would be in a position
to benefit others. In other words, He lived in a cross-position. He then said to everyone who plans to follow Him,
“If anyone desires to come after Me {into this same
Kingdom-life}, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
(Matt. 16:24)
The cross is far
more than an act of history. It expresses a very unique quality and manner of
life within the triune Godhead. It is a part of the self-sacrificing nature
that has been displayed by God through His world and in His work of redemption.
The cross-life lives for the good of others. His heavenly love, with its
inwrought cross, has been displayed by God in all His dealings with man from
the beginning.
If the members of
Christ’s body are to become spiritual Christians – sharing with the Son in His
life of sacrificial love – they will need to permit the cross to do its work in
their lives. Only when God’s children are infused with the Son’s cross-life can
they walk as Jesus did. “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with
Him.” (1 Cor. 6:17)
Jesus told His
disciples to follow Him. He established a very specific path for entering into
resurrection life. By examining His life, we can find that Jesus was not
required to crucify Himself. The Father worked out every detail once He had
fully surrendered to the cross. He will do the same for us. If we will deny
ourselves and take up our cross, permitting it to be inwrought into our very
nature by a divine work of God, He
will then be able to resurrect us spiritually and establish the Son’s
Kingdom-life of perfect love within our hearts. (1 John 2:5-6)
Christians cannot
enter into a close and intimate fellowship with God until they are willing to
share with the Son in His self-sacrificing nature. And to do this, they will
need to have His way of the cross as an innate part of their inner nature. Only
then can they be “made perfect in one.” (John 17:23) It is by entering into
this participation with Christ in His divine nature, which includes His inwrought cross, that His life of love can begin
welling up from within and be reflected in everything they do.
When God first
presented His way of life to Adam, the purpose of God was clear. Man was
expected to ratify God’s purpose by making a daily choice for God’s way of the
cross in every decision of life. If he would sacrifice his own rights in order
to live for the glory of God and the good of others, not choosing to live for
his own pleasures, he would be provided with the eternal life from heaven.
Through this continual laying down of his own life, and by trusting in God for
everything {all his personal needs, including his spiritual life}, Adam would
be enabled to abide in the life of God. “As God has said: ‘I
will dwell in them and walk among them.’ ” (2 Cor.
6:16)
The children of God
would be permitted to eat from the Tree of Eternal Life while they walked with
the cross-principle in their lives. If they would submit their will to God’s
will, and always listen carefully to what He said, their soul would remain perfectly
satisfied. “Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is
good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.” (Isa.
55:2) The Spirit would keep them filled to overflowing with the Son’s life of
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control. (Gal. 5:22-23)
Unfortunately,
Adam decided to turn from the way of the cross. He chose instead to begin
living for himself. After turning from the Tree of Life, he began to live for
the lust {desires} of the flesh, the lust {desires} of the eye and the pride of
life. His center for living turned from God to self. He thereby separated
himself from the spiritual life of heaven.
After man became his
own god, everything he did revolved around the little kingdom he began to make
for himself. This turning from God to
self is what separated the race of Adam from the eternal life of God and left
mankind with the emptiness of spiritual death.
“My
people have changed their Glory {the Son’s eternal life of love} for what does
not profit. Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; Be very desolate,” says the Lord. “For My people have
committed two evils {which keeps them separated from the Kingdom-life of
heaven}: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn
themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (Isa. 2:11- 13)
Choosing his own way
meant that Adam would feed on the tree of knowledge. He would develop a worldly
wisdom to help sustain his own form of spiritual life. He would do this by
asserting his own rights and pursuing his own private goals. “God made man
upright {totally God-centered}, but they have sought out many schemes.” (Ecl. 7:29) This evil, which has become the self-seeking way
of darkness, is the life that every man has inherited from Adam.
Everyone
now enters into this world with an empty soul. It is missing the presence of
God. And wherever the Living Water from the eternal life is not flowing, there
you will find an emptiness that naturally results in a self-centered nature.
This is the “sin nature” that everyone has inherited from Adam because of the Fall. It is a nature that continues to be centered on self
because it is missing the indwelling presence of God.
The only way to fill this void within
the soul, which naturally causes sin {self-will and self-seeking}, is to become filled with Christ’s spiritual life from heaven.
The Son is now willing to give His heavenly life to everyone who will deny
themselves {surrender their own kingdom} and follow Him along His narrow way of
the cross. It is not possible to find
His fulfilling spiritual life from heaven without entering into this
cross-principle. “Whoever loses his life for My
sake will find it.” (Matt. 16:24-25)
The life we are to
find by following Jesus through the cross is the firstfruits
of the eternal life of God. As Jesus has said, this eternal life is to begin
welling up from within our inner being in this world. “Indeed, the water I give
him will become in him a spring of
water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14 Emphasis added)
We need to stop
deceiving ourselves into thinking we can share with Christ in His heavenly life
without first passing through a real death to the old flesh-life at the cross.
A death of the old Adam-life always proceeds
resurrection life. “For if
we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we
also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.” (Rom. 6:5 Emphasis
added) This death to the self-life must take place before there can be an
abundant entrance into Christ’s Kingdom-life within the heavenly realms.
As
God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them…” Therefore “Come out
from among them {the self-seeking ways of the world} and be separate, says the
Lord. Do not touch what is unclean {what is not holy to God}, and I will
receive you.” (2 Cor. 6:16-17)
Death on a cross is
usually a slow process. The independent and self-sufficient ways of the world
do not die easily. The cross often needs some time to complete its full work on
the old self-centered way of life. But everyone who perseveres in their faith
will receive the promise. We therefore exhort every believer: “Fight the good
fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.” (1 Tim. 6:12)
Although
the eternal cross is everywhere written into the very fabric of the universe,
self-centered man has been blinded to the cross-principle. This is why so few
people, even in the church, are passing over into the Son’s eternal life of
perfect love.
While
we may marvel at the blindness of Adam and his fatal choice, Christians today
need to be examining their own lives to determine if they are following in the
same self-centered path. Everyone who continues to follow the way that Adam
chose can expect to experience the same spiritual death.
How
much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled
the Son of God under foot {by rejecting His way of the cross}, who has treated
as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant {after being called out to a
God-centered way of life}, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace {by not
responding to His voice}… It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God. (Heb. 10:29, 31)
Examine
yourselves to see whether you are in the {one true Christian} faith; test
yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you {with His
cross-principle of life} – unless, of course, you fail the test? (2 Cor. 13:5)
It was and still is
the Father’s intention to have a family of dearly loved children who willingly
embrace the inwrought cross and thereby display the Son’s eternal life of love
in this world. Only those who lose their life for His sake will have an
opportunity to find His life from above.
It
is not hard to live the Christian life – it’s impossible! Our heavenly Father’s
purpose
can
be realized only through a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. If we hope to receive the reality of the
Son’s spiritual life from heaven, we will need to live by His Spirit.
Adam was confronted
with this same choice in the Garden of Eden. There were two ways open before
him as represented by two trees. Man would have to decide which tree he would
use to sustain his spiritual life. He would either receive his spiritual life
from the Spirit of God, or he would choose to develop a self-sustained
spiritual life through a work of his own efforts {the flesh}. There was no
neutral ground.
Every human being is
still required to make this same decision. Because of the critical nature of
this choice, we need to keep in mind the clear teaching of Scripture: “For
those who live according to the flesh {those who live by their own sufficiency
for their own purposes} set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who
live according to the Spirit {those who live under His control and power}, the
things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded
{self-centered and self-serving} is death, but to be spiritually minded is life
{the Kingdom-life from heaven} and peace… So then, those who are in the
flesh {rejecting the way of the cross} cannot please God.” (
Man will either feed
upon the tree of knowledge in an attempt to develop his own spiritual life
through self-centered pursuits, or he will yield to the Lord’s way of the cross
and enter into the life and work planned for him by God. Everyone who receives
their spiritual life by eating only from the Tree of Life – the life of the Son
– will also gain access to God’s boundless resources for fulfilling His purposes.
If
you abide in Me {the life of dying to self and living
for God}, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall
be done for you. (John 15:7)
The self-seeking
ways of the flesh cannot be partially combined with the Son’s life of self-denying
love. Again, “No one can serve two masters.” (Matt. 6:24) In other words, it
does not do any good to serve God for self-centered purposes. As long as the
activities are coming from the flesh, they will remain self-seeking in nature.
The results are the same: “For those who are self-seeking and who reject the
truth {the way of the cross} and follow evil {self-will}, there will be wrath
and anger.” (Rom. 2:8) This is why Scripture says, “Make every effort…to be
holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” (Heb. 12:14)
Some
have tried to serve in the church while still living for themselves.
But when we examine their lives we can see how their “fruit” is still coming
from a carnal {self-serving} nature. Many of their actions are still in conflict
with the Son’s life of sacrificial love.
The man who still
has self at the center will periodically find himself involved in jealousies
and quarrels. (
It was God’s
intention that Adam would live in unity with the eternal life of heaven. That
is, the human spirit would live under the direction and government of the Holy
Spirit. Adam’s soul-faculties – the mind, will and emotions – were to be
controlled by the Spirit of God. As long as He lived by the Spirit, he would
have a godly life that was free from carnal {self-centered and self-serving}
actions.
However, when Adam
chose to act independently of the Spirit, he was choosing to develop and expand
his own soul-powers. He became inwardly focused, and the fruit of a carnal
nature began to be manifest through his body. Watchman Nee says, thereafter
“man was not only a living soul, but from henceforth man would live by the soul.” His life became
self-centered. “Therefore, by their fruit you will know them.” (Matt. 7:20)
When Adam turned
from a God-centered life to a man-centered life, his human spirit lost contact
with the life of God. God had said, “For in the day that you eat of it you
shall surely die.” (Gen. 2:17) While he did not physically die, self-will
resulted in a loss of the Kingdom-life of God. Instead of being vitally connected to God and living under His
heavenly government, man’s spirit was left lonely and self-centered. He began
to experience spiritual death.
The
scientific definition for describing death provides an indication of what
occurred when man died to the spiritual realm. Death occurs when something is
unable to correspond with its environment. When Adam turned away from the way
of the cross and began living for himself, he died
spiritually. With his spirit separated from the heavenly realms, he lost his
ability to correspond with the divine life and nature of God. There can be no
real correspondence and harmony between the flesh-life and the Kingdom-life of
God.
We can now better
understand God’s purpose for sending a Messiah. The
Your
kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. (Matt. 6:10)
Therefore,
brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure…for so an
entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of
our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Pet. 1:10-11)
Chapter
Seven:
The first eight
chapters of Romans provides a description of the two
different aspects of God’s work of redemption: justification by the Blood of
Christ and deliverance from the sinful nature by the Spirit of Christ. It is
essential, if we are to fully understand the salvation of the Lord, to
understand both parts. For, alas, many believers have wandered around in a
wilderness of defeat for many years because they have depended on the Blood
without permitting the Spirit to take control of them. Because they remain very
much alive to, and submitted to the desires of their flesh, they often find
themselves being overpowered by their sinful nature.
While it is important to know about Christ’s finished work
at
A real faith will
show itself by yielding to the life it is intended to produce. “Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt you
to inherit the land.” (Ps. 37:34 Emphases added) The “land” represents the life
of promise. Our faithful God will reward everyone who responds to His ways
while they are waiting on Him to establish His Kingdom-life within their heart.
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him… He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek
Him.” (Heb. 11:6 Emphasis added)
We submit to God by
surrendering to the Son’s self-sacrificing way of life. Living for the glory
of God and for the good of others is the only spiritual life that Jesus has to
offer. We therefore cannot expect to enter into a
participation with Him in His life and nature without first turning from
the old self-centered ways of the world. Even when His Kingdom-life of love has
not yet been fully established within the heart, the believer is expected to
consciously enter into a life of living for the good of others. This fruit is
the sign of a real faith in God.
Therefore
bear fruit worthy of repentance… He who has two
tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do
likewise. (Luke 3:8, 11)
What
good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can
such a faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily
food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,”
but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way,
faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead…
You
foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not
our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his
son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working
together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the Scripture was
fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as
righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is
justified by what he does and not by faith alone… As the body without the
spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. (
Christians are able
to receive credited righteousness as they lay their lives down in service to
others while they are waiting in faith for the Lord to establish His
Kingdom-life of perfect love within their hearts. God tests the people He has
called out from the ways of the world. He requires them to yield to His Son’s
sacrificial way of life before He grants the promise. “Blessed is the man who
perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the
crown of life that God has promised to those who love him {to those who
continue to obey Him in the time of testing}.” (
Jesus Christ expects His followers to begin serving Him by
following the instructions He has provided in His Sermon on the Mount.
Even though the old carnal nature {our “old man” –
Because
narrow is the gate and difficult is the
way which leads to life {the Kingdom-life}, and there are few who find it.”
(Matt. 7:14 Emphasis added)
He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me…and I
will love Him and manifest Myself to him {in due time, after he has been
approved} (John 14:21)
But
may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
after you have suffered a while {in dying to your-“self”}, perfect, establish,
strengthen, and settle you {in His heavenly Kingdom-life}. (1 Pet. 5:6, 10)
Only God knows what must be done and how long it will take
to turn us from a self-sufficient life to a life of pure faith.
While the process is difficult, we will eventually come to a state of
helplessness where there is nothing we can do but wait on the Lord in
submissive faith. But we should not
expect to receive the blessing if we have not already begun to live for the
good of others.
You
cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this
the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself?… Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose
the chains of injustice…? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to
provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will
quickly appear {the Kingdom-life will be established within the heart}, and
your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your
rear guard. (Isa. 58:5-8 Emphasis added NIV)
The Lord has the
necessary power to heal our fallen nature and fully establish His Kingdom-life
within our hearts. And even though this life must be received by faith, the
temple of our bodies will need to be properly prepared before the fire can fall
and God’s glory can be manifest in and through our lives. Most Christians will
therefore find that the life of promise is not as easy to receive as many have
taught. Because the way is “difficult” (Matt. 7:14), Christ instructs His
disciples to make an earnest effort to enter in. “Strive to enter through the
narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”
(Luke 13:24)
Christ’s teachings about the difficulty of entering into “life” does not
refer to the reconciliation and regeneration that takes place when the new
believer trusts in His shed blood. There is nothing the sinner can do to
prepare himself to be justified other than to make a conscious decision to turn
from known sin to the ways of God and to depend on the Lord’s shed blood to
cover His sins. But the Lord can
require His disciples to submit to His teachings. He gives them His
Spirit so they can become Spirit-led sons of God. (Rom. 8:14) And these justified children need to respond
to the leading of the Spirit if they ever hope to be led into the Kingdom-life
of promise.
And to whom
did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?
So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief. Therefore, since a
promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have
come short of it. (Heb. 3:18-4:1)
For
if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son
{through the Son’s shed blood}, much more, having
been reconciled, we shall be saved by His {indwelling} life. (Rom. 5:10 Emphasis added)
It is possible to fall away during the desert testing
period. This is why we are to “assemble” with other Christians and to “exhort
one another daily.” (Heb. 3:13) The Lord did not intend for His church to be a
mere social gathering where people help each other feed their flesh-life, but
rather, we are to be encouraging each other to die to the ways of the flesh so
we may be lifted into our Lord’s Kingdom-life of perfect love. Because of the
difficulty of this dying process, we need to be supporting each other as we
press forward in the way of submissive faith.
Therefore
we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift
way. (Heb. 2:1)
Do
not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit
the promise. (Heb. 6:12)
Then
your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly
appear. (Isa. 58:8)
The word “renew” in
Isaiah 40:31 has the meaning of “exchange.” The text could correctly read, “But
those who wait on the Lord shall exchange their strength.” Reconciled
Christians need to be waiting for a whole new form of life from heaven.
They are to use the Spirit’s enabling to turn from their old manner of trying
to create a spiritual life by the strength of the flesh, exchanging it for the
spiritual life they can now receive from Christ through faith. God’s power will be perfected within their
hearts as they die to self-sufficiency, and learn to rely on God for all
things. (2 Cor. 12:9)
When a child of God
has learned to wait on the Lord, he begins to acknowledge his own weakness.
Only then will he be able to truly rely on God’s power. It is this state of
childlike dependence, where pure faith begins to come forth, that God’s mighty
hand can be put to work. In contrast, a
person who is still strong in his own sufficiency will have a very difficult
time waiting on God for anything.
Let us therefore learn this lesson
well. Everyone who learns to wait on God can expect to be clothed with power
from on high and enter into the life of promise in due time.
Wait
on the Lord; Be of good courage, and He shall
strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord! (Ps. 27:14)
Truly
my soul silently waits for God; From Him comes my salvation…
My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him… In God is my salvation and my glory… (Ps. 62:1, 5, 7)
Commit your way to the Lord, trust also
in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring
forth your righteousness as the light… Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for
Him… (Ps. 37:5-7 Emphasis added)
And
it will be said in that day: “Behold, this is our God; We
have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; We
have waited for Him; We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation {His
Kingdom-life}.” (Isa. 25:9)
But
those who wait on the Lord shall renew {change the source of} their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run
and not be weary… (Isa. 40:31)
Then
you will know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed who wait for
Here is where faith in God truly proves itself. Real faith
knows that only God has the power to provide a never-ending river of divine
spiritual life. The
true believer will therefore submit to God and His ways while waiting for the
Lord to establish the Kingdom-life of perfect love within his heart. “Wait
on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the land.”
(Ps. 37:34)
We often hear Christians asking God to
strengthen them. Even though they remain full of themselves and are still
living for their own pleasures, they want God to supply strength to their
fleshly lives. It is amazing how these people can go to their devotional
services and act as if they are fully surrendered to God. But God is the One
who examines the heart. He can recognize hypocrisy when He sees it. And He will
not use His power to establish the Son’s Kingdom-life within the heart of
anyone who has not yet denied themselves and taken up their cross.
For
the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose
hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chron. 16:9)
A. W.
Tozer said, “I suppose it is proper to say that God
makes His people strong, but we must understand this to mean that they become
strong in exact proportion to their weakness; the weakness being their own and
the strength being God’s. ‘When I am weak then I am strong” is the way Paul
said it… What has happened is that he {Paul, and all
others who will follow Christ in His way of the cross} has switched from his
little human battery to the infinite power of God.”
We should see how shrinking from the way of the cross
arises from an ignorance of the blessedness to which the pathway leads.
The most joyous moment in the life of the bride ought to be the moment when she
loses her own name and independence at the marriage-altar. Taking her husband’s
name instead of her own, she loses her life in his.
Similarly, the most blissful moment in our life will
come when we have totally renounced self, which includes all right to an
independent life, and have placed ourselves without reservation into the hands
of our Lord. This is how we enter into God’s
ultimate purpose for our lives and begin discovering His good, pleasing and
perfect will. John Gregory Mantle has provided some lines to help us understand
this path and see its glorious results:
Thus
in Thine arms of love, O God, I lie,
Lost,
and forever lost to all but Thee.
My
happy soul, since it hath learned to die,
Hath found new life in Thine
Infinity.
Go
then, and learn this lesson of the Cross,
And
tread the way that saints and prophets trod:
Who,
counting life and self and all things loss,
Have found in inward death the life of God.
WHAT THE CROSS REALIZES FOR GOD
To provide some
insight into why we must receive a whole new form of life from another realm,
we will look at how God deals with the human race through two representative
men – Adam and Christ. We have a choice of being connected to either Adam’s
family tree or Christ’s family tree. If
our source of life is to change, we must make a conscious decision to trade
families.
Many people wonder
how they can change their lineage after being born into Adam’s family. They
think it is necessary to remain under bondage to the sinful nature they have
inherited from Adam until they physically die. But, glory be
to God, the Gospel tells of a Messiah who has come as the Last Adam to deliver
His followers from this bondage. His salvation has made it possible for His
followers to exchange their old Adam-life for His Kingdom-life.
Because they have
never been taught, most Christians have been unable to grasp with the hand of
faith this Gospel promise. They do not realize that in this age of fulfillment
{the New Testament age}, Christ has provided every “believer” with an access to
both His death and His risen life. We will therefore attempt to bring these
teachings into a clearer light. Let us begin by quoting some simple statements
of truth:
I tell you the truth, everyone who sins
is a slave to sin. Now a slave {to sin} has no permanent place in the family
{of God}, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free {from
the sinful nature inherited from Adam’s family}, you will be free indeed. (John
8:34-36)
For
we know that our old self {the old man who lived by the desires of the flesh}
was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we
should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died {to the
self-life} has been freed from sin. (
Jesus
Christ was crucified on the cross and laid in the tomb as the “Last Adam.” All
that was in the first Adam was gathered up and put to death in Christ. And so,
if we submit to this death with Christ on the cross, the old life that is
dominated by the desires of the flesh can also be put to death.
In the same way that Christ is able to
manifest His spiritual life through us, He is also able to manifest His death
to the flesh-life through our inner being. He is not required to wait until we physically die to do
this work. “For if we have been united together in the
likeness of His death {while we remain in this world}, certainly we also shall
be in the likeness of His resurrection.” (Rom. 6:5)
As
children of faith, we are therefore expected to begin reckoning ourselves dead
to the old Adam-life. God will be testing our faith in Him and in His word by
the earnestness of our reckoning. “According to your faith will it be done to you.” (Matt. 9:29)
This walk of faith is more than something we merely hold
as a belief in our head while we continue to live by the desires of the flesh.
There can be a real death to the flesh-life worked into our very being if we
will begin denying ourselves. We are required to
take up our cross and become joined with Christ at the place of death to self,
through a yielded faith. There is no other way to find His Kingdom-life.
(Matt. 16:24-25)
While the first man
{Adam} is of the earth and carnal, the Second Man {Jesus Christ} is from heaven
and spiritual. By this one master stroke {Christ’s death at the cross}, God has
worked out a death for the Adam-life in everyone who believes in Him. It is
through this small gate of uniting with Christ at the cross that we are enabled
to pass over into His Kingdom-life from heaven. “For so an
entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Pet. 1:11)
We sometimes hear
people say, “We have tried to make this identification with Christ in both His
death and resurrection real in our lives. Yet in spite of all our knowing,
reckoning and yielding, we have not received the victory and the blessing we
have desired.”
By listening
carefully to the way these people speak, it is easy to recognize their problem.
Their words reveal it. These people are showing far more concern for themselves
than they are for God’s purposes and glory. They are far more alive to what
they want God to do in their personal lives than they are interested in
entering into God’s plan for their lives.
If
they could, most people would use Jesus Christ and His work on the cross to
further their own Christian goals and increase the enjoyment they can have from
this world. The cross, however, is not a threshold to selfish attainment. It is
a place to end all selfishness. While most Christians are still looking to
improve their own lives, God is waiting for them to come to Him, to be used
wholly by Him, for His purposes.
Of course, the
Lord will wonderfully improve the spiritual lives of His disciples when they
are participating with Him in His divine nature. But they will be entirely
transformed in the way they live because the Kingdom-life results in an entire
devotement to God and His glory. “For from him and through him and to him are
all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” (Rom.
11:36 NIV)
Even among those who
continually attend deeper life conferences and retreats, there are many falling
into this same trap of the devil. After spending years acquiring more knowledge
about the deeper life, they still tend to think about themselves. Their minds
are still filled with their own plans. This veneer needs to be shattered and
everything that keeps their thoughts focused on self uncovered. The cross is a
place to die! We need to begin our reckoning right here!
Let us therefore
remove our eyes from this old self-life and begin looking at God’s divine
intention. The fire cannot come down from
heaven to consume the remains of our flesh-life until we have provided an
unblemished offering of ourselves to God.
Chapter
Nine:
TO LIVE BY
THE LIFE OF ANOTHER
There
are some Christians who can look back to some long ago crisis and say, “I was
filled with the power of the Spirit twenty years ago.” But unfortunately,
because they have gone back to living by their own human efforts and for their
own personal goals, they have lost the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.
Those
who wait {continuously} on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run
and not be weary… (Isa. 40:28-31)
We need to emphasize the importance of continually abiding
in Christ’s risen life. While we walk in this world doing the
work of our Master, our hearts must always be in the heavenly realms with Him.
Our strength can only be renewed while we remain crucified to the old self-life
and are living through the life of Christ. “I have been crucified with Christ;
it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20) If we are not
willing to continue in the path of dying daily, we cannot expect to continue
sharing with Him in the power of His resurrection.
There is another glorious aspect of Christ’s risen life
that we must not overlook. When
the flesh-life has died, our spirit actually crosses over into the heavenly
realms where we are enabled to share with Him in the power of His throne.
(Eph. 1:3) We are “raised up together and
made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:6 Emphasis added) In other words, Christ’s fully sanctified
disciples are enabled to sit together with Him so they may share with Him in
the power of His throne.
When the believer is
living through Christ’s Kingdom-life, he will also have the opportunity to
begin sharing with the Lord in His authority over the principalities and powers
of darkness. A few verses earlier in this same Epistle we read that God “raised
Him {Christ} from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand…far above all
principality, and power, and might, and dominion… and hath put all things under
His feet…” (Eph. 1:20-22 KJV) Therefore, those
who are willing to share with Him in His death to the flesh-life, will also be
raised into a position where they are enabled to share with Him in His dominion
over the powers of darkness.
God
originally intended for man to have dominion over the world in which he had
been placed. Fallen man gave up this right when he was separated from the life
and will of God. But once a Christian has become wholly sanctified to God,
their spirit is raised above the darkness that now covers the earth. Entering
into the heavenly realms, they are enabled to share with Christ in the power of
His throne.
If
you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will
ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. (John 15:7)
Not only will these fully sanctified {set
apart} Christians live in continual
spiritual victory, they will also be provided with sufficient power to
accomplish the work that God has planned to do through their lives.
Being granted a real dominion in their appointed sphere of work, they will be
enabled to aggressively attack the powers of darkness and gain many victories
for the
We are largely
playing at Christian work these days. We go in and out of services and
meetings. We are content to offer some of our money and perform some useful
services. But we never really discover
what God has planned for us to do through the power of His Spirit.
As
our Sovereign God, He is the One who must decide all things. It is an ordered
life – a God-planned life. We are therefore expected to walk under the guidance
and power of the Holy Spirit. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
these are sons of God.” (Rom. 8:14) Of
course, if we are unwilling to walk as the Son did, we cannot expect the Spirit
to work with divine power through our lives as He did with Jesus.
Listen again: “For
we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
(Eph. 2:10 NIV, Emphasis added) From the beginning, God has specifically marked
the niche that each of His children were to fill in His Kingdom. When we enter into the work He has
planned to accomplish through our lives, He also supplies divine power to
complete the work.
What has God planned
for you to do in His Kingdom? How will He manifest His life through you if you
do not submit to His plans? If you do not seek out His will, it is tantamount {equivalent} to a rejection of the Potter’s right
to use the clay as He pleases. Can there be anything but a severe judgment for
those who devise their own plans according to their own will?
God
made man upright {holy to the divine will}, but they have sought out many
{self-willed} schemes. (Ecl. 7:29)
“Therefore hear, O nations; observe, O witnesses, what will happen to them… I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words…” (Jer. 6:18-19 NIV)
Chapter Ten:
LIVING BY THE CROSS
Many of God’s
children approach the way of the cross with bewilderment and hesitancy. Not understanding
what was in God’s plan for man before the Fall, nor
realizing what can be possessed in the heavenly realms through a union with
Christ’s risen life, they shudder at the thought of a constant working of death
into their self-life. We can hear them say, “I’m not ready for that pathway, I want abundant life and joy –
not
death.”
Multitudes of
believers remain captive to a worldly system of temporal security and rewards.
And while they work hard to create a spiritual life for themselves using this
system, they remain worried and upset about many things. There can be no deep
peace for those who live by the flesh. The
spiritual life they have developed for themselves, no matter what they may have
accomplished, keeps dying. “For to be carnally minded is
death.” (Rom. 8:6) Christ’s Living Water does not well up from within
them to eternal life because they have been unwilling to lose their self-life.
Paul said, “I die
daily.” The Lord’s inwrought cross had become a part of his very nature.
Because Paul was sharing with Christ in His death to self, the self-life was
never permitted to rise up. And out of this death to self, there was a
continual working of life from heaven. The Lord was able to show Himself
through Paul “in the power of an endless life.” (Heb. 7:16) He was
therefore able to say, “To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.”
(Col. 1:29 NIV, Emphasis added)
Some people have
passed over into the new risen life during some crisis experience in their past.
But they have neglected to take up their cross daily in a continual sacrifice
of themselves for the good of others. Gradually, over time, they permitted the
self-life to reassert itself. And, as a result, they have lost the power that
once worked through them.
“I
die daily.” The apostle Paul realized that fruitfulness in his ministry came
from his willingness to continually die to himself. It was this life of
sacrificing himself for the good of others that permitted Christ to reveal His
life of perfect love through him. He had learned the secret to being fruitful.
“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but
if it dies, it produces much grain…” (John 12:24) Because he died to self
daily, the Father honored him with the mighty working of His Spirit. (v.
26)
Conformity to death
on the resurrection side of the cross means a deepening weakness in ourselves, not an increasing sense of strength in ourselves!
Our natural desire is to feel strong in ourselves {self-sufficiency} so we can
do this or that great work. But to be
strong in ourselves is to live as the world does in spiritual death. In the
Kingdom-life of God, we perfect the power of God in our lives through a
weakness that continually depends on the Lord for everything.
“We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of
Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” (2 Cor. 4:10
NIV)
Paul said, “I came
to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my
preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of
the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on
God’s power.” (1 Cor. 2:3-5 NIV) While he felt weak
in himself, he knew the power of God was working in the words he spoke. It was
only in this sense of weakness in himself, in a real
dying to the self-sufficient ways of the flesh, that he could truly penetrate
the hearts of hardened sinners and give hope to carnal Christians. It also helped his hearers understand that they
too must turn to a life of relying on the power of God.
It will be helpful
to quote the testimony of Mrs. Jesse Penn-Lewis. She tells of a crisis that
brought her to the point where God was able to use her for His glory. It should
be noted that the power to effectively reach the hearts of her hearers came
well after she had entered a ministry of service to the Lord. She said:
As I read
the book, I clearly saw the way of the cross and all that it would mean. At
first I flung the book away, and said, “No, I will not go that path. I shall
lose all my glory experience.” But the next day I picked it up again, and the
Lord whispered so gently, “if you want deep life, and unbroken communion with
God, this is the way.” I thought, “Shall I? No!” And again I put the book away.
The third day I again picked it up. Once more the Lord spoke,
“If you want fruit, this is the path…” And then, by His grace I said, “I choose
the path for fruitfulness,” and every bit of conscious experience closed. I
walked for a time in such complete darkness – the darkness of faith, that it seemed almost as if God did not exist. And
again, by His grace, I said, “Yes, I have only got what I agreed to,” and on I
went to some meetings, and then I saw the fruit. From that hour I understood,
and knew intelligently, that it was dying, not doing, that produced spiritual
fruit. The secret of a fruitful life is – in brief – to pour out to others and
want nothing for yourself: to leave yourself utterly in the hands of God and
not care what happens to you.
Everyone who wants to become fruitful in furthering God’s
Kingdom-life of love here on earth must take the awful and awesome path of the
cross. We can expect to be taken through a real
trial of faith after surrendering to the cross in our own
During this dark
night of the soul, it will be necessary to be reminded that God is faithful to
His promises. It will be necessary to hold to our faith. God never forsakes
those who are earnestly seeking Him. And He does have the power to raise the
dead.
Paul
said, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that
we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.” (2 Cor. 1:9) Before we will begin to truly rely on the
resurrection power of the Holy Spirit, there will need to be a real death to
our old independent and self-sufficient way of life. As Mrs. Jesse Penn-Lewis
had to learn, the joy and personal glory that comes from using temporal means
to work for God in the early stages of our Christian walk, will need to die.
The Father can only honor those who have been willing to become a seed that is
buried in the ground and then waits on Him for resurrection-life and power.
“Then you will know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed who wait
for Me.” (Isa. 49:23)
These teachings will
sound very foolish to the wise and learned. “For the message of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing {in spiritual blindness}, but to us who
are being saved {from the sinful nature} it is the power of God.” (1 Cor. 1:17) We therefore need to trust God and begin
responding to the Lord’s way of the cross. This
place of dying to self daily to live for the good of others will release the
power of God within the church. A light from heaven will begin to shine in
this world of darkness through the sanctified followers of Jesus Christ – a
light that is able to touch the hearts of even the staunchest {strongest}
resisters of truth.
Arise,
shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen
upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
and deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, and His glory
will be seen upon you. The Gentiles {unbelievers} shall come to your light, and
kings to the brightness of your rising… Then you shall see and become radiant,
and your heart shall swell with joy… (Isa. 60:1-5)