Self-serving must be nailed to the cross.

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 

1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 

Gal 6:8  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 

Gal 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 

Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 

-- From yesterday -

'Our Lengthy Discussion as to the difference between spirit and soul and their respective operations has been to lead us to this present point. For a believer who strives after God the element to be apprehensive about is the inordinate activity of the soul beyond the measure set by God.

The soul has been in ascendancy for such long duration that in the matter of consecration it even presumes to take upon itself the task of realizing that act to God’s satisfaction. Many Christians are unaware how drastically the cross must work so that ultimately their natural power for living may be denied.

((('My thoughts on the above-  'Many Christians are unaware how drastically the cross must work' The cross, we've talked recently about the cross and how it is an instrument of death. Christ died on the cross He didn't rise up off the cross, He was killed on the cross, murdered on the cross, tortured on the cross the symbolism of the cross is the DEATH of our Savior, He died for us. When we are told to take up our own cross daily it's a cross for a reason. Our cross with Christ's cross works in us to rid us of all that is contrary to Christ.  Our daily cross MUST work drastically in us. And it is a DAILY cross because it must be borne daily, and a part of us that is contrary to God must die on that cross daily. Can you imagine for a moment opening your eyes in the morning and instantly praying asking God to nail your soul self superiority to the cross? To nail to the cross- your daily cross all the carnal things, all the flesh things, everything that would keep you from letting the spirit rule in you, through the Holy Spirit. The cross must work drastically in us. DRASTICALLY. The cross will look at our lives and reveal to us all that must die in our lives, all the self serving aspects we possess.  ))))

'They do not know the reality of the indwelling Holy Spirit nor that His authority must extend to gathering under His control the thoughts, desires and feelings of the entire being. '

(((My thoughts on the above -  The HOLY SPIRIT must have under HIS CONTROL our THOUGHTS, our DESIRES, our FEELINGS, ALL OF US.  Truthfully if we do ANYTHING that we can't imagine our Savior being with us as we do it, then we should NOT be doing that thing. We NEED to be under the HOLY SPIRIT'S CONTROL, under HIS AUTHORITY.))))

'Without their having an inner appreciation of this, the Holy Spirit is unable to accomplish everything He wishes to do. The greatest temptation for an earnest and zealous saint is to engage his own strength in God’s service rather than to wait humbly for the Holy Spirit to will and to perform. '

(((My thoughts on the above- We need to PRAY, and submit. When we come face to face with a temptation- we need to PRAY. When we are shown a temptation and nudged by the Holy Spirit as to its vileness, we have to PRAY before we do anything else. In that prayer we need to give ourselves to Christ to work in us, do to that which we cannot do. IF we give into the temptation we need to pray more earnestly and KNOW that the Holy Spirit WILL do His work in us, in HIS TIME, not ours. We cannot take credit for the victories that are NOT OURS, yet we try to. We try to be the ones to save ourselves and time and time again we are shown we cannot!))))

'The call of the cross of the Lord Jesus is to beckon us to hate our natural life, to seek opportunity to lose, not to keep, it. Our Lord wants us to sacrifice self and be yielded wholly to the working of His Spirit. If we are to experience afresh His true life in the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit, we must be willing to present to death every opinion, labor and thought of the soul life.'

(((My thoughts on the above- Do you hate your natural life? Do you seek an opportunity to lose your natural life?  We HAVE to sacrifice self and yield to the HOLY SPIRIT. EVERY OPINION, EVERY LABOR, EVERY THOUGHT of our lives must be given to the HOLY SPIRIT.))))

'The Lord additionally touches upon the issue of our hating or loving our self life. The soul is invariably “self-loving.” Unless from the very depth of our heart we abhor our natural life, we shall not be able to walk genuinely by the Holy Spirit. Do we not realize that the basic condition for a spiritual walk is to fear our self and its wisdom and to rely absolutely upon the Spirit? '

The Spiritual Man -  Watchman Nee

(((The Holy Spirit must live and work in us all by the grace and mercy of our SAVIOR. Please Lord, please teach us to yield to the cross and wait for the Holy Spirit. Please. Teach us when to act and when not to act, as we seek to be yours. As we recognize the things in our lives that must be nailed to the cross help us through the HOLY SPIRIT to do so. Please, Lord, we would be YOURS.))))