Ask yourself right this moment, do you want Christ living in you?

We need to LIVE for Jesus but you know what? We are too busy living for ourselves! We are! We are so busy living just for ourselves that to truly live for Jesus is something we can't quite fathom as a reality. Is it a reality to you?  Do you UNGRUDINGLY obey the Holy Spirit? Seriously, do you?!  Does the Holy Spirit even speak to you? Do you even comprehend the Holy Spirit's leading? If we DO NOT we have to get down on our knees and pray that our God help our UNBELIEF! 

You say you believe, that believing isn't your particular spiritual problem? I say you're wrong. It is TRULY believing that allows us to have the Holy Spirit's leading in our lives. It is by FAITH.

*******

1Co_3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

'God today would have His own enjoy such a temple experience in their spirit and soul: if only the cross is allowed to perfect its work in them. As they ungrudgingly obey the Holy Spirit the communion between the Holy and the Holiest grows deeper day by day until they experience a great change. It is the cross which effects the rending of the curtain; that is, the cross so functions in the life of the believer that he has a rent-curtain experience between his spirit and soul. His natural life renounces its independence and waits upon the spirit life for direction and supply. The curtain was torn in two, “from top to bottom” (Mark 15.38). This has to be God’s doing, not man’s. '   --The Spiritual Man-  Watchman Nee

*******

By faith we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, to lead us. By faith we OBEY the Holy Spirit. Truly we need our temple experience. We need to RENOUNCE our independence. To comprehend the truth of God's word.

Our RIGHTEOUSNESS - that part of us we deem God fearing, that bit of us we try to tell ourselves is doing what it should do as God instructs- is nothing but filth.

I mean it, our righteousness is filthy. Every good act we commit is nothing but filth the moment we are deeming it self-goodness, self-induced obedience, our righteousness. IF by the GRACE of God we commit a single act of right behaving it is due to God's power not our own.  We want to have power of our own and we want to call that power a good power, but we have none! We want to be Christian super heroes but they don't exist. Every single Biblical person who belonged to God and committed Godly actions in a Godly life did so through God's POWER not their own. They stepped aside and allowed God to work through them. We need to know that God uses us, that God works in us and through us. We need to accept our very breath is from God. We need to truly live by the grace of God, recognizing it's God's grace and not us being 'good', not us attaining  a special Christian status.

Remember this--

Isa_64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags

We need the temple experience in us- we need the Holy Spirit flooding into our soul-self allowing us to be led by the Holy Spirit towards the life Jesus would have us lead.

We can't hope for this experience to give us self-righteousness, if that's what we are waiting for it will be a wait in vain. We have to hope for this experience to give us Jesus' righteousness! We need the constant realization that Christ must live in us-- not an improved us, a fixed up us, a repaired us, but a Christ filled us - filthy sinners that we are.    Christ in us will alone give us the life we need.  Ask yourself right this moment, do you want Christ living in you?

Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 

Col 1:28  Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus

Christ in you the hope of glory.

Is Christ in us- remember we can't wait to become clean and pure to have Christ in us-Christ needs to be in us now, doing His special work in us!  All by His grace and mercy, His love, always by His forgiveness, His sacrifice.  

The Temple Experience.

We need a TEMPLE EXPERIENCE.

What is a temple experience? Glad you asked. The temple of old, before our Savior came to earth and gave us His unique message of salvation, was used to point towards the ultimate sacrifice that would be made by our Savior. When our Savior died upon the cross of cavalry inside that temple the extremely large curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place inside that temple was torn in two starting at the top. Nothing in the temple was out of place, there wasn't anybody who climbed way up to the ceiling and took a knife to slice the curtain from the top to the bottom. No human being tore that curtain, no freak of nature, no animal, nothing but the supernatural force of God being used to signify the way into the Most Holy Place was now open to all. No longer would man stand in doing the work of God as His priests. No longer would man go to that building before those men and make sacrifices for their sins. There was now only ONE man who fulfilled the High Priest office in the heavenly temple. There was now only ONE man who could give to all the sacrifice He made for them, the perfect sacrifice.

We who are in need of a temple experience are in need of God's work in us. We need the CROSS working in us so that our spirit and our soul-self are completely divided just as that temple curtain . That temple curtain could not have been torn without Jesus' death on the cross. That cross experience of our Savior made the temple experience possible. We need anything that would stand between us and our Savior- gone from us!

We need to LIVE for Jesus but you know what? We are too busy living for ourselves! We are! We are so busy living just for ourselves that to truly live for Jesus is something we can't quite fathom as a reality. Is it a reality to you? Do you UNGRUDINGLY obey the Holy Spirit? Seriously, do you?! Does the Holy Spirit even speak to you? Do you even comprehend the Holy Spirit's leading? If we DO NOT we have to get down on our knees and pray that our God help our UNBELIEF!

You say you believe, that believing isn't your particular spiritual problem? I say you're wrong. It is TRULY believing that allows us to have the Holy Spirit's leading in our lives. It is by FAITH.

More on this tomorrow by the GRACE, by the WILL, by the LOVE of our Savior. We need the temple experience, we need the Holy Spirit leading us. Please, Lord, get us out of our own way!
*******

1Co_3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co_3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

'God today would have His own enjoy such a temple experience in their spirit and soul: if only the cross is allowed to perfect its work in them. As they ungrudgingly obey the Holy Spirit the communion between the Holy and the Holiest grows deeper day by day until they experience a great change. It is the cross which effects the rending of the curtain; that is, the cross so functions in the life of the believer that he has a rent-curtain experience between his spirit and soul. His natural life renounces its independence and waits upon the spirit life for direction and supply. The curtain was torn in two, “from top to bottom” (Mark 15.38). This has to be God’s doing, not man’s. ' --The Spiritual Man- Watchman Nee

Is your daily cross merely a play toy?

1Co_3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co_3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

'The Soul under the Spirit’s Control

Very early in this volume we likened our whole being—spirit, soul, and body—to the ancient Jewish temple of God’s habitation. God dwells in the Holy of Holies. A curtain separates it from the Holy Place. This curtain seems to enclose God’s glory and presence within the Holy of Holies, barring His glory from the Holy Place. Men of that time therefore can only know the things outside the curtain in the Holy Place. Apart from faith they in their outward life cannot sense the presence of God. This curtain, however, only exists temporarily. At the appointed hour, when the flesh of our Lord Jesus (which is the reality of the curtain, Heb. 10.20) was crucified on the cross, the curtain was rent from top to bottom. What separated the Holiest and the Holy Place was removed. God’s aim was not to dwell permanently just in the Holy of Holies. Quite the contrary. He desired to extend His presence to the Holy Place too. He was merely waiting for the cross to complete its work, for it is the cross alone which can rend the curtain and permit God’s glory to shine out from the Holiest Place.

God today would have His own enjoy such a temple experience in their spirit and soul: if only the cross is allowed to perfect its work in them. As they ungrudgingly obey the Holy Spirit the communion between the Holy and the Holiest grows deeper day by day until they experience a great change. It is the cross which effects the rending of the curtain; that is, the cross so functions in the life of the believer that he has a rent-curtain experience between his spirit and soul. His natural life renounces its independence and waits upon the spirit life for direction and supply. The curtain was torn in two, “from top to bottom” (Mark 15.38). This has to be God’s doing, not man’s. '   --The Spiritual Man-  Watchman Nee

*******


The cross truly needs to perfect the work in us.

The cross, the daily cross connected to Christ's own cross.  If we do not accept what Christ did on His cross, any cross we may perceive is ours to bear will be merely a play toy we are pretending is a cross He calls us to bear daily.  A play toy that we pick up and lay upon our shoulders telling ourselves all the while it's the real thing. We are deceiving ourselves, something we do all the time. Pretend Christians, wolves in sheep clothing and we are totally clueless because Satan uses deception to hide the truth from us and we lap up that deception because it is easy to do, it takes little effort, deception makes us feel good.  Of course when we find out we've been deceived it sickens us, or rather, when we are FORCED to see the deception, forced out of our comfortably numb state we can't believe how stupid we were falling for the deception. We tell ourselves we should have known better. We start blaming the deceiver as if it is all their fault and none is ours.

MANY are going to be deceived--

Mat 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 7:22  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?
Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

The daily cross we bear NEEDS to be connected to Christ's cross and it needs to be REAL, not a play toy.

Please, help us LORD, help us to comprehend the TRUTH you would have us know! Help us to live in Your truth, in Your love, in Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior, now and forever!

More tomorrow on this by the grace and mercy of our LORD.

The Sword. Are We Willing to Submit to the Sword?

The Sword.

'The Lord’s people should understand that it is the Word of God which parts their soul and spirit. The Lord Jesus is Himself the living Word of God, so He Himself effects the division.

Are we disposed to let His life and accomplished work stand between our soul and spirit?

Are we ready to have His life so fill our spirit that the soul life is immobilized?

The Bible is God’s written Word. The Lord Jesus uses the teaching of the Bible to separate our soul and spirit. Are we willing to follow the truth?

Are we ready to do what the Scriptures teach?

Can we obey the Lord in accordance with the teaching of Scripture without putting in our opinion as well?

Do we consider the authority of the Bible as sufficient without seeking human help in our obedience?

We must obey the Lord and everything He teaches us in His Word if we would desire to enter upon a true spiritual path.

This is the Sword which is operative to the cleaving of our soul and spirit. '  The Spiritual Man - Watchman Nee.

*******

This is truth, isn't it? Can any of us deny that this is truth? What part about the above isn't true?

Re-read this and let's answer the questions asked.

Question:  'Are we disposed to let His life and accomplished work stand between our soul and spirit?'  

Answer:  I want to answer - 'Yes.'  Jesus' life and ACCOMPLISHED work DOES stand between our soul and spirit, it's the only thing that can.  Am I disposed to LET Jesus and His work be a part of my life in truth, in reality, in action?

Question: 'Are we ready to have His life so fill our spirit that the soul life is immobilized?'

Answer: Please, Lord, this is what I desire.

Question: 'The Bible is God’s written Word. The Lord Jesus uses the teaching of the Bible to separate our soul and spirit. Are we willing to follow the truth?'

Answer: I want to be willing! Help me be willing!

Question: 'Are we ready to do what the Scriptures teach?'

Answer:  I want to be ready. Please, help me to be ready!

Question: 'Can we obey the Lord in accordance with the teaching of Scripture without putting in our opinion as well?'

Answer:  Again, I want to! I want to be able to obey the Lord in ALL things! I don't want my own opinion to be in it at all!

Question: 'Do we consider the authority of the Bible as sufficient without seeking human help in our obedience?'

Answer: YES!

How do You answer these questions? These truths?

God please help us!  Save us from ourselves!

My Understanding, My Hope

I look at my life as it is right this moment and it seems all but impossible that I could ever have my soul-self and spirit divided. And it is IMPOSSIBLE for ME to accomplish this dividing. It ISN'T impossible for Jesus my High Priest to divide my soul-self and spirit. Do I understand WHY my soul-self needs to be divided from my spirit? Yes, I think I do, I'm learning about it all. If someone were to ask me why I'd tell them that our selfishness is not compatible with the spirit which communicates with God, through the Holy Spirit. When we put ourselves first we are not putting God first and God NEEDS to be first. We cannot be loving to others to God without God. I'd tell them that the Bible says this--

Heb_4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

And this --

Joh_4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

And this--

Rom_8:5  For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

Rom_8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

These are the reasons our soul-self must be separated from our spirit.

So, do I understand why we need to have the soul-self and spirit divided? I hope I do.

Next- have I ASKED to have my soul-self and spirit divided? I have, but I believe it is n ask that must occur over and over and over again.

Do I accept whatever it takes to have our soul-self and spirit divided?  I want to! I'm learning that it takes a lot, it takes SELF-DENIAL, it takes the CROSS DAILY, it takes SACRIFICE. I want this and there is a WAR inside me as my soul-self fights for its right to reign in me.

Am I dead to sin and alive to Christ?  I WANT TO BE!  I don't want SIN reigning in me!  I need to understand, I need to comprehend.

Do I pray to God and study the Bible- ONLY by His grace!

Do I bear my cross daily- there are many crosses, so many of them, and by the mercy and will of God I will take up the cross Jesus, my Savior said I needed to take up daily!

Can I distinguish between the soul-self and spirit in my life and follow the spirit? Again… I WANT TO!

By the grace of our LORD I will be His, through HIS miracle of salvation, HIS miracle of faith, Lord, help me live for YOU. Teach me daily, hourly, minutely!  Create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me!

Psa_51:10  Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

'7 Musts-

1- Understand why we have to have the soul and spirit divided.

2-Ask to have our soul and spirit divided.

3-Accept whatever it takes to have our soul and spirit divided.

4-We must be dead to sin, and alive to Christ. We must not let sin reign in us.

5-We have to pray to God and study the Bible.

6-We must bear DAILY crosses.

7-We must distinguish between the soul and spirit in our life- once distinguished we must follow the spirit.

Truly the Holy Spirit does require our cooperation.

Truly the Lord cannot do His part if we don't do ours.

The High Priest- Jesus Christ our Lord- will divide our spirit and soul.'      Taken from - The Spiritual Man.

We must worship Him in spirit- do you?

' Open though the road is to deliverance, it nevertheless is not without its difficulties. Believers must persevere in prayer that they may see clearly their own pitiful state and understand the indwelling, working, and demands of the Holy Spirit. '  Excerpt from- The Spiritual Man- by Watchman Nee.

Do we clearly see our pitiful state?
Do we understand the indwelling work and demands of the Holy Spirit?

A lot of us have sung the song- 'Jesus Loves Me.' We've sung that song and the verse- 'We are weak but He is strong.'  We know we are weak, we know we cannot save ourselves. We don't have a problem with this comprehension do we?  Maybe we do without even realizing it fully because we love to be able to stand on our own, to do for ourselves, to pull our own weight, to be independent. We are elated when we do a good job with something, when we are promoted, when we are recognized for our merits. We become pleased with ourselves so easily. We do something we believe is worth recognition and we have little trouble pointing that out to others, right? The truth is we don't like to realize our pitiful state, we don't want to see it because we've been raised in a world that gives good things to those who succeed.  We see the successful people all around us on the television, in the movies, in the magazines, news, everywhere and we are pushed to be like those people or as close to them as we can be. Barring being extremely successful, we are taught that if we do good enough, and have a good job, a nice, decent house, etc then we are moderately successful.  Being successful is drilled into our heads and in that drilling we are being told that WE need to be something in and our ourselves, that we are far from pitiful beings. So many Christians strive for success of a material sort, even of a personal sort, thinking that is what they are supposed to do.  Is it? Maybe, it is for them. We all have own personal walk with God and I can’t dare to presume to know what another person's walk is all about.  I do know that I am a very pitiful person.  I can cry out with Paul all about how wretched I am, how I do so much that I don't want to do, that my flesh is so very weak and yet with my mind I LONG to serve God!

To have a spiritual walk with God we can't presume that it will automatically happen. We can literally spend our entire lives waiting for it to happen and it never happens. How can we read the word of God and not realize that we have a work to perform as well? Do the words just wash over us, are we blind to the truth in them?

How many people do you know who are seeking a deep spiritual walk with Christ?

We stall out so easily. We stick to what we know and like. We are afraid of the true meat of the Word of God because we are so comfortable with the milk.

There are demands placed upon us and they aren't just figurative. There are real demands we are called to meet.  We HAVE A PART TO PERFORM!  God's Word tells us all about those demands. We need to keep studying it, over and over and over until it is REAL to us through the blessing of our God, the mercy of our Savior, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

We've been talking about our part and we are going to keep talking about it.

Remember this from a previous study--

'7 Musts-

1- Understand why we have to have the soul and spirit divided.
2-Ask to have our soul and spirit divided.
3-Accept whatever it takes to have our soul and spirit divided.
4-We must be dead to sin, and alive to Christ. We must not let sin reign in us.
5-We have to pray to God and study the Bible.
6-We must bear DAILY crosses.
7-We must distinguish between the soul and spirit in our life- once distinguished we must follow the spirit.

Truly the Holy Spirit does require our cooperation.
Truly the Lord cannot do His part if we don't do ours.
The High Priest- Jesus Christ our Lord- will divide our spirit and soul.'      Taken from - The Spiritual Man.

We need to UNDERSTAND.

The self-soul and the spirit in us must be divided. The flesh and the spirit must be divided. This division is necessary because --- THIS IS TRUTH --

Joh_4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

All through the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

'To lie on the altar...' Sacrificing self.

'To lie on the altar is what we must do, but to divide the soul from the spirit with the well-honed knife is what our High Priest undertakes. If we truly commit ourselves to the cross our High Priest shall not fail to execute His ministry in separating our spirit and soul. We need not worry about His part. '   The Spiritual Man - by Watchman Nee

We have to lie upon the altar.  Think about that for a few moments. What does it mean to lie upon the altar?

Act_8:32  The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth

A sheep does not know it's being led to the slaughter. The sacrificial lambs were not terrified of death, they didn't know death was coming for them. A sheep that has been sheared knows that the touch of a human upon it will not cause it harm. Being shorn wasn't harmful to them. The shearers did not want to hurt the sheep they were shearing to do so would be hurting future profit. The shearers sheared off the thick wool of the sheep and then the sheep was set free no longer encumbered by its heavy, hot wool. Imagine the weight lifted from the sheep. We've all had haircuts and can comprehend that our head can feel lighter when a great amount of hair is removed from our heads. A weight is lifted from us. These sheep used to being sheared were led to the slaughter and they didn't panic at the hands of those preparing them for the slaughter.  I'm not saying there wasn't any thrashing about at all, or any noises made, I'm sure there was but for the most part the sheep led to the slaughter was very docile.

Isaac, Abraham's only promised son was placed upon an altar, bound to it by his father after asking his father where the lamb was for the sacrifice.  He had to comprehend he was being offered in the lamb's place. No record was made of Isaac fighting his father. If he did fight, Abraham conquered him because he was bound and placed there on the hard stone of the altar.

Our Savior was led to be slaughter- like a lamb- and He responded like a sheep before its shearer- NOT opening his mouth.

Our spirit and soul will be cleaved in two- separated one from the other by our great High Priest, Jesus Christ. Yet we have to lie upon the altar for this to be so. We are NOT forced to lay down on the altar, it is our choice. We have to place ourselves into a position to be sacrificed.  Do you imagine the sacrifice that Christ was led to was painless? Far from being painless, the sacrifice can be very painful.

The minutes leading up to the death of the offered sacrifice - lamb, sheep, cattle, birds, had to be a bit painful, yes? They didn't put numbing salve over the throats of the animals they cut. The pain was short live as they bled out fast, but the pain was there. Pain in sacrifice is often the case. When people make sacrifices there is usually some sort of pain to deal with even if it is miniscule- emotional, physical, mental there is pain otherwise how could it be a true sacrifice?  I sacrifice my time to help someone, there is a loss of that time. No, I might not be broken up in tears over it, but the loss exists.  Called to sacrifice we are being called to give up something for something or someone else.

We truly do need to lay upon the altar to have our soul and spirit cleaved in two.

Heb_4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Heb 4:13  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.


We are sacrificing our SELF, we are sacrificing ALL that would keep us from God. We are willingly allowing ourselves to be sacrificed to God- a spiritual sacrifice of non-spiritual self.

Remember these from our study a couple days ago--

'7 Musts-

1- Understand why we have to have the soul and spirit divided.
2-Ask to have our soul and spirit divided.
3-Accept whatever it takes to have our soul and spirit divided.
4-We must be dead to sin, and alive to Christ. We must not let sin reign in us.
5-We have to pray to God and study the Bible.
6-We must bear DAILY crosses.
7-We must distinguish between the soul and spirit in our life- once distinguished we must follow the spirit.'

We aren't doing this alone on our own power- we are not saving ourselves. What we are doing is making a choice to follow God in our everyday life not just once a week, once a year, once a lifetime. We are deciding we want a life with God.

It makes sense doesn't it? Seriously, it does make sense. We long to have eternal life with our Savior and if we aren't interested at all in striving for this choice making right now in our lives, what makes us truly believe we would want to be in eternity with God?

Php_2:12 …work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.


Do you really long for God?

LORD, WE BELIEVE, HELP OUR UNBELIEF!!!  This is PRAYER!

More tomorrow by the grace and mercy, the overwhelming love of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ our LORD now and forever!

And please, Lord, there are people very close to me in great need of Your upholding them with Your strength. Trials and tribulations are surrounding other friends as well and they are in such intense need of Your sustaining power. You promise to hold us, to keep us through the storms, You never promised to keep out of the storms. Satan is doing all he can to lead us to despair, to give up but by YOUR grace, YOUR power this will never happen! You are stronger than he will ever be! Please, Lord, the sick in body, in mind, in heart are calling out to You, we need You LORD, please, hear our prayer!  In the name of Your beloved, only begotten Son, Jesus Christ! Amen!