Thursday, October 27, 2016

The Lord needs to be first in our lives, truly first.

Please read the following long excerpt from the book- 'The Spiritual Man' By Watchman Nee.

And by GOD'S grace and will tomorrow we will go over it in much more detail.   Right now I'm praying earnestly for my sister who is suffering in so many ways. She is being tested and tried so horribly right now. In fact, two of my sisters are suffering in their own ways. God please, PLEASE, help them, bless them in their storm, please. Hold them close, be their strength, their strong tower, hide them under Your wing! Please, Father God, please give them Your strength to endure with YOU, and let them grow ever closer to You!  In the name of our Savior, our Lord, Jesus Christ now and forever! Amen.

Excerpt-

'Upon losing its natural affection on the cross the soul cedes ground to the Holy Spirit that He may shed abroad in the believer’s heart the love of God, and enable him to love in God and with the love of God.

Let it be observed that, humanly speaking, this expression of the soul is quite legitimate, for it is most natural and is not defiled as is sin. Is not the love we have mentioned shared by all men? What illegitimacy can there be in loving those of one’s family?

Hence we know that our Lord is summoning us to overcome the natural, even to denying man’s legal right . . . for the sake of God.

God wants us to love Him more than our Isaac.

It is true that this soul life is given by the Creator; nevertheless, He desires us not to be governed by that life principle.

People of the world cannot understand why; only the believer who is losing himself gradually into the life of God can comprehend its meaning.

Who can appreciate God’s asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac whom God Himself had first given? Those who apprehend God’s heart make no attempt to cling to God-imparted gifts; rather do they desire to rest in God, the Giver of all gifts.

God wills for us to be attached to nothing aside from Him, whether it be man or a thing or even something conferred on us by Himself.

Many Christians are quite disposed to leave Ur of the Chaldees, but few there be who can see the need to sacrifice on Mount Moriah what God has given.

This is one of the penetrating lessons of faith and relates to our being united with God. He requires His children to forsake everything that they may be wholly His.

They must not only rid themselves of whatever they know to be harmful but also yield to the cross whatever is humanly legitimate—such as affection—in order that they may be entirely under the authority of the Holy Spirit.

Our Lord’s demand is most meaningful, for is it not true that human affection is tremendously uncontrollable? Without consigning it to the cross and losing it, affection can become a formidable obstacle to spiritual life.

Human feelings change as the world changes. Their easy excitement can occasion a saint to lose his spiritual balance. Their constant disturbance can affect a believer’s peace in his spirit. Do not sorrows, moanings, sighs and tears usually result from hurt feelings? If the Lord is not pre-eminent in our affections He can hardly be Lord in other respects.

This is a test of spirituality and a measure of its degree. We must accordingly hate our soul life and refuse its affections to have free rein. The Lord’s demand differs completely from our natural desire.

What was previously loved shall now be hated; and even the organ which generates love, our soul life, must be abhorred as well. Such is the spiritual way. If we verily bear the cross we shall be neither controlled nor influenced by soulical affection but shall be fit to love in the power of the Holy Spirit. Even so did the Lord Jesus love His family while on earth. '



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