Who are you at your best?

Who are you at your best? Is being kind-hearted important to you? Is being forgiving necessary when considering yourself at your best? Do you need to be happy to be at your best? Can you be in tears and be the person you imagine you want to be? What defines you at your best?  If you could stop time for a moment and become that person you are at your considered best- would you? Do you despise yourself when you are not you at your best? When you let the worst parts of you rise up and rear their ugly heads does regret quickly follow? Does regret happen sometimes instantly as you are consumed by those ugly monsters- who are nothing like the you that you long to be? If you truly could define yourself, make yourself the person you'd like to be minus all your worst traits what would that person be like?

Seriously, I want you to think about what you would be like without your soulical-self in control of you over your spirit-self.

What are you like when you do NOT put yourself first, when your self-serving tendencies do not dictate your actions?

We are NOT going to change completely, so if you're waiting to suddenly wake up and be another person altogether that's not what being led by the Spirit means.  We will forever be ourselves in a spirit-self, SPIRIT led way. The UNSELFISH parts of ourselves we've been allowed to glimpse while still being us, this is us.

Truly we will still laugh, we will still cry, we will still have all the emotions we have in various circumstances and telling ourselves that they will disappear and we'll never be angry again if we are being led in and by the Spirit is a lie.  The lie Satan will goad us into believing is that we cannot be happy, sad, or all the emotions in between if we are being led by the Spirit. 

Read what God's word and what Watchman Nee has to say about this… 

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'Even though the body of sin has been destroyed, we still yield our “members to God as instruments of righteousness” (Rom. 6.13); just so, when natural life is sacrificed to death, we shall find renewal, revival and restraint of the Holy Spirit in all the faculties of our soul.

It cannot therefore imply that henceforth we become wood and stone without feeling, thought or will because we must not or cannot use any of the parts of the soul.

Every part of the body as well as every organ of the soul still exists and is meant to be fully engaged; only now they are being renewed, revived and restrained by the Holy Spirit.

The point at issue is whether the soul’s faculties are to be regulated by our natural life or by the supernatural life which indwells our spirit.

These faculties remain as usual.

What is unusual now is that the power which formerly activated them has been put to death; the Holy Spirit has made God’s supernatural power their life.

Let us amplify this subject a bit more. The various organs of our soul continue after the natural life has been relinquished in death. To nail the soul life to the cross does not at all imply that thereafter we shall be completely lacking in our thought, emotion and will.

We distinctly read in the Bible of God’s thought, intent, desire, satisfaction, love and joy. Moreover, the Scriptures often record that our Lord Jesus “loved,” “rejoiced,” “was sorrowful”; it is even recorded that “Jesus wept,” that He “offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears” in Gethsemane’s Garden. Were His soul faculties annihilated? And do we become cold and dead persons? Man’s soul is man’s own self. It is where one’s personality resides and whence it is expressed. If the soul does not accept power from the spirit life, then it will draw its power for living from its natural soulical life. The soul as a composite of organs continues, but the soul as a life principle must be denied. That power must be consigned to death so that the power of the Holy Spirit alone may operate all the parts of the soul, without interference from the natural life. '

The Spiritual Man- Watchman Nee

Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 

Joh 12:23  And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. 

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. 

Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. 

Jesus crying-

Joh_11:35  Jesus wept.

Jesus in agony-

Luk 22:39  And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him. 

Luk 22:40  And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. 

Luk 22:41  And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, 

Luk 22:42  Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. 

Luk 22:43  And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. 

Luk 22:44  And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 

Jesus rejoiced-

Luk 10:21  In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. 

Jesus loved-

Joh 13:23  Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. 

Joh_19:26  When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!

Joy-

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith

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We truly need to be Spirit led- our spirit  being led first and foremost, and our soul-self next and our body.

You can tell if you are being Spirit-led or Soul-self led by whether or not your carnal nature, your flesh nature is in control. If self is being served first, you are not being led by the Spirit.  There is so much more we need to learn, and God will teach us through the Holy Spirit, through faith, through HIS love.

More tomorrow all by the grace of our loving God!

In Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior now and forever!