Do you ignore your cross?

'If in the disposition which Christ displayed in relation to His cross we are willing to take up ours, then we shall find that the power of His cross abides in us and enables us to lose our natural life.

Each time the cross is taken up, each time does the soul life suffer loss.

Each time the cross is circumvented, each time is the soul life fed and preserved.'    - Watchman Nee - The Spiritual Man.

We need to lose our natural life because of this- 

1Co_2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

If we cling to our natural life, holding fast to our natural man, then we CANNOT receive the things of the SPIRIT of GOD.

Isn't that what we want? Don't we want the things of the Spirit of God? If we don't then why are we bothering with any of this- stop reading now and go do whatever it is you want to do without the Spirit of God. I want the things of the SPIRIT of GOD, but I cannot receive them with my natural man in control!  The things of the Spirit are foolishness to our natural man. We CANNOT know  the things of the Spirit of God, we can't receive them, we can't know them in our natural state! So, YES, we need to LOSE our natural life!

The power of Jesus Christ's cross will abide in us and we WILL lose that natural self.

We have a natural self that the soul can choose to indulge in.  The spirit life in us needs the Spirit of God and does NOT need the natural life.  When the soul life indulges in the fleshy, natural temptations and sin is conceived we are wounding the spirit in us.

When Watchman Nee says this--

'Each time the cross is taken up, each time does the soul life suffer loss.

Each time the cross is circumvented, each time is the soul life fed and preserved.'

Our natural life suffers a loss when we TAKE up the cross that Christ has prepared for us individually, the cross that will forever be connected to HIS cross.  We NEED the natural life to suffer a loss, we need it desperately. 

When we CIRCUMVENT the cross, when we refuse to take up the cross presented to us and skirt around it to indulge in our natural life- we are hurting the spirit and feeding the natural life we need to LOSE.  How often we are presented with our daily cross only to ignore it. We must stop ignoring our cross!

More tomorrow by the grace of our LORD, our SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST!