Our Isaac Experience.

Concerning loving family --  Excerpt from Spiritual Man- by Watchman Nee -

'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?'

Passage under discussion-

Luk 14:25  And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, 

Luk 14:26  If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 

Luk 14:27  And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 

Excerpt continued- '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.'

Isaac- 

Gen 15:1  After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. 

Gen 15:2  And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? 

Gen 15:3  And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. 

Gen 15:4  And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. 

Gen 15:5  And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. 

Gen 15:6  And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness. 

Gen 16:1  Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. 

Gen 16:2  And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. 

Gen 16:15  And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael. 

Gen 16:16  And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram. 

Gen 17:1  And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. 

Gen 17:2  And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. 

Gen 18:1  And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; 

Gen 18:2  And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, 

Gen 18:9  And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. 

Gen 18:10  And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. 

Gen 18:11  Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 

Gen 18:12  Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? 

Gen 18:13  And the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? 

Gen 18:14  Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. 

Gen 18:15  Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but thou didst laugh. 

Gen 21:1  And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken. 

Gen 21:2  For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 

Gen 21:3  And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. 

Gen 21:4  And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him. 

Gen 21:5  And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him. 

Gen 21:6  And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. 

Gen 21:8  And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. 

Gen 21:34  And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines' land many days. 

Gen 22:1  And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. 

Gen 22:2  And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. 

Gen 22:3  And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. 

Gen 22:4  Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. 

Gen 22:5  And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. 

Gen 22:6  And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. 

Gen 22:7  And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 

Gen 22:8  And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. 

Gen 22:9  And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. 

Gen 22:10  And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 

Gen 22:11  And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. 

Gen 22:12  And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. 

Gen 22:13  And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 

Gen 22:14  And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen. 

Gen 22:15  And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, 

Gen 22:16  And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: 

Gen 22:17  That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; 

Gen 22:18  And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. 

Excerpt continued- '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.'

Abraham longed for God to fulfil His promise to him and give him an heir.  He wanted this promise to be fulfilled so much that he and his wife tried to work it out by using his wife's handmaid. The handmaid did NOT fulfil the promise that God made though. Abraham continued to grow older and older and both he and Sarah were passed the time of being able to bear children.

Heb 11:11  Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. 

Heb 11:12  Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. 

Sarah was past the age and Abraham as good as dead- yet God performed the miracle He'd promised and brought to life the dead womb and seed- allowing it to bring new life- Isaac- the promised son.

We can imagine just how attached Abraham was to Isaac can't we?  None of us have ever been promised children. Those who are barren and desiring children aren't promised them. The barren go to great lengths today to conceive children and they are overwhelmed with joy when they finally have the longed for child. Abraham and Sarah both went PAST the age of being able to conceive and father children and we have to realize by that point both of them were convinced that it was never going to happen- or if not convinced at least super hesitant to believe.  By faith it did happen so there was some belief, but even so the length of time involved that Abraham and Sarah were desiring a child was extremely long. Their attachment to Isaac once he was born had to be beyond normal. The miracle of Isaac was something they probably never forgot for a moment. They had to cherish his existence. The promise was that this son would go on and be used of God to father an uncountable number of offspring throughout time- generation after generation so many would spring from Abraham's seed- furthered by Isaac, then by Jacob and on down the long, long line. The hope for this to occur was heartfelt and assured as Isaac grew older and older. Then, out of nowhere, God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac simply because it was something God desired.

IMAGINE the thoughts that had to go on in Abraham's mind.

So connected to God was Abraham that he didn't hesitate to obey, but we KNOW it couldn't have been easy at all.

To read this excerpt-- '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.'

-- is to realize that we are ALL called to this experience in our own individual ways.

God wants us to love Him more than our Isaac, our legitimate love towards fathers, mothers, sons, daughters and so on.  Why does God want this?  Because truly if we are loving others MORE than God, we are NOT loving with God's love, and God's love is the only true love that exists. We tend to forget that so easily. We marvel at our own idea of love and we say things like- love doesn't make you choose, love doesn't condemn, love doesn't hate anything.  We've conceptualized our own brand of love and hold fast to it so that when we are confronted with true love we deny it is really love.  I have often heard it said that if God really existed He would never allow suffering in any form, that suffering alone proves God doesn't exist. Or if He does exist and allows suffering than He is cruel and unloving and not someone to follow.  These people can say and believe those things because they've formed their own brand of love and anything outside of that idea of love they have is not love at all in their minds. God's love goes beyond our full comprehension.  We often limit our life to here and now, God has NEVER limited out lives to here and now but has weighed all of them in the light of eternity! God has taken eternity into consideration - not the very, very, incredibly short amount of time we live here on earth right now, or sleep in the grave until the last trump sounds. God's love is so overwhelming in its scope we can only catch glimpses of it through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Still, people will insist upon focusing their belief on love in the here and now. They are right that God would be a very cruel, unloving God if this life was all there was to take into consideration.

The love of God is all love, it is pure and undefiled by any sort of selfishness. The love of God looks beyond now, way beyond the here and now, far into eternity where it will live in a sinless existence.  The love of God could sacrifice the sinless, sacrifice the innocent, sacrifice a God that existed from everlasting to everlasting, putting Him into a death of non-existence, and BROUGHT back that God from death!  We were given an example of pure love in that unfathomable act. God will bring all who choose to have faith in Him and His love back from a sure, inescapable death except for HIM and HIS intervention.

Rom_8:32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all…

The love we believe we have towards our parents, our children, our husbands and wives, our friends and relatives, a love we staunchly defend as being all important- without God- is worthless.

A love the serves ourselves and our own interests, not God's-  is worthless.

We may believe our love is everything and more, but it's not. 

If we love with God's LOVE towards our parents, our children, our husbands, wives, friends and relatives we are loving them with a love that is PRICELESS.  If that love of God's calls us to a FIGURATIVE Isaac experience, calling on us to give up that parent, child, husband, wife, friend, or relative then whatever reason God has for us to endure the pain and heartache it may cause us, is justified.  We, by HIS grace, need to have FAITH, we need to BELIEVE all is in His hands and it will all work out.

Rom_8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

And we cry out with the loudest voice we can, shedding many tears along with the father who was desperate for his son to be healed-

Mar_9:24  And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

LORD, I BELIEVE, HELP THOU MINE UNBELIEF! 

We've Forgotten Our Place

Excerpt- The Spiritual Man - by Watchman Nee

'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. '

*My thoughts- Ceding ground to the Holy Spirit. The idea of ceding any of ourselves isn't a very acceptable one, especially in this day and age. We don't even like to have wedding vows with the words 'obey' in them, it's too demeaning any longer to have to 'obey' anyone.  We desire to be masters of ourselves and have no master over us. Yet, truly God wills us to 'cede ground' to the Holy Spirit. We need to allow self to be diminished in the hope that the Holy Spirit will fill us. As we've already studied some, the soul-self part of us will never be replaced- it is a part of us we need.  Soul-self will not be done away with. What needs to happen is the soul-self needs to LEARN its place in us. 

Truly we've all heard of 'people' needing to learn their place. And as soon as I say these words something inside us has been taught to rebel against them saying we are all equals, we should have no place to learn of. The servant is as great at the master, the ditch diggers as wonderful as the surgeons, the drunk as worthy as the policeman, the billionaire as amazing as the homeless man. Equally they are all the same this is what we wish to believe and you know what? It's true in God's eyes, we are all sinners with none of us righteous. However we need to KNOW our place in connection to God, and we are NOT and NEVER will be equal to God. God is our master, God is our Creator. We will NEVER be like the Most High. We will NEVER take the place of God. We can be children of God. We can be the sons and daughters of God.

We need to cede the ground in us that has been overtaken by our soul-self and return it to God so the Holy Spirit can not only live in us, but work in us, through us.

We need to learn our place in relation to God!

We've forgotten our place.

Excerpt- The Spiritual Man - by Watchman Nee

'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. '

2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 

2Co 6:18  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. 

2Co 7:1  Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 

Gal 3:26  For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 

Rom 6:2  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 

Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 

Rom 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 

Rom 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 

Rom 6:7  For he that is dead is freed from sin. 

Rom 6:8  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 

Rom 6:9  Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 

Rom 6:10  For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 

Rom 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

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. '

Our cross- loving with Christ's love not ours.

Luk 14:26  If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 

Luk 14:27  And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 

Excerpt-

'He wishes to rid us of our natural love towards others so that we will not love with our own love. Of course He wills that we should love others, but not with our natural soulical affection. If we love, let it be for the sake of the Lord and not for their sake. A new relationship comes to us in the Lord. We should receive from Him His love so that we may love others. In a word, our love must be governed by the Lord. Should He desire us to, we must love even our enemies: if He does not ask us to, we cannot love even the dearest of our household. He does not want our heart to be attached anywhere because He wants us to serve Him freely.

This new love relationship being the case, the soul life must be denied. That is a cross. In so obeying Christ as to disregard his natural affection, a believer’s natural love suffers intensely. Such sorrow and pain becomes a practical cross to him. Deep are the heart wounds and many are the tears when one has to forfeit the one he loves. These inflict intense sufferings upon our lives. How very loathe the soul is to yield up its beloved for the Lord’s sake! But through this very action is the soul delivered to death; yea, it even becomes willing to die; and thus the believer is liberated from the power of the soul.'

The Spiritual Man  - Watchman Nee

*******

Do you believe those we hold dear are more important than our love for God? How do we feel about God taking our loved ones from us- through death, divorce, and any other way? Do we comprehend that we are truly being refined by Christ?  That we do have a cross to bear. We've been talking about the cross, our own individual cross that is connected to the cross of Christ. We have to bear our cross as He bore His cross. We need to comprehend that we may even feel as if God has forsaken us when we are bearing that cross. We may be in agony- spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically as we take up our cross.  If we are expecting a life without the cross bearing we are NOT in Christ!  We cannot be Christ's without our cross - it's impossible. 

Loving God first- we then receive God's love which will enable us to love others with HIS love, not our own screwed up idea of what love is or should be.

Is love getting along with someone?  Is love never fighting?  Is love an understanding? What IS this thing WE call love?  If we LOVE with Christ's love we are putting others first- even our enemies.  Those who love their enemies are NOT loving them with their own love, but loving them with CHRIST'S love.  Christ would have all people know HIS love and it goes beyond all things.

We want to teach our children to know Christ, to know Christ's love and to do this, we need to live Christ's love. 

The cross we bear is RECOGNIZING that even in all our frustration over life and all its squabbles, even when we are being UNJUSTLY used, NOT thought about lovingly, emotionally stripped of affection, demeaned daily-  even in all that and more we know that it's all a part of our CROSS!  

We have to bear our cross, but all too often we don't even know what that cross bearing is.  When we are shown that our cross is all those things that would keep us dwelling on ourselves in any way at all, we need to understand that Christ would have us kneel at HIS Cross and seek HIS love in which to love in His way, NOT ours!

More tomorrow on this by the GRACE and WILL of God!

In Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior's name always!!!!!!!!

We lose our carnal life when we take up our cross.

'Mat 10:38  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 

Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. '

We lose our life when we take up our cross.  Not literally our body's life- we keep on breathing, our heart keeps pumping, the life we lose is a different part of us.

Rom 7:14  For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 

Rom 7:15  For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 

Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 

Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 

Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 

Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 

Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 

Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. 

Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, but after the Spirit. 

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 

Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 

Rom 8:4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, but after the Spirit. 

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 8:6  For to be CARNALLY MINDED is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 

Rom 8:7  Because the CARNAL MIND is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 

Rom 8:8  So then they that are IN THE FLESH cannot please God. 

Rom 8:9  But ye are not IN THE FLESH, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 

Rom 8:10  And IF CHRIST BE IN YOU, THE BODY IS DEAD BECAUSE OF SIN because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 

Rom 8:11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

*******

Plain as day we can see that the CARNAL MIND, our WALKING AFTER the FLESH, these things are what are contrary to the cross, contrary to our Savior.

When we take up our cross we are taking up the instrument that is to put our flesh, our carnal mind to death.  Our flesh/carnal nature is that of the soul-self in us.  We know that our BODY by itself can't sin, it is the part in our mind that chooses to sin.  The carnal part of our mind and that is the soul-self part of us choosing.  Only by living in Christ, only by having Christ in us, only by living after the spirit can we have hope- the hope Christ brings.

The Spirit raised Christ from the dead and this same Spirit will bring life to us because the Spirit will dwell in us!

Christ died upon a cross.  He could have been killed in any number of ways, but the cross was chosen and He suffered terribly.  We each have a cross to bear, and we need to put to death our carnal flesh, soul-self, and we need to live after the Spirit.  Christ has to be in us, we cannot please God if we live in our flesh.   Did you read those words up there- 'If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.' 

We are told this--

'Mat 10:38  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 

Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. '

We have to lose our life and find Christ's.

Christ in us, living for Christ NOT FOR OURSELES, JUST LIKE CHRIST, THROUGH CHRIST!

We all have our own cross.

'Mat 10:38  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 

Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. '

There IS a cross for each of us.

We have to take that cross and follow our Savior.  We can no longer follow Jesus in a literal sense because He is in heaven. When He walked the earth people could and did follow Him. Read this--

Joh 6:2  And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. 

Joh 6:10  And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 

Five thousand people!

Did they take up literal crosses and follow Him, no. No one did. We take up our cross and that cross is connected to us losing our lives because a cross represents a death. Did Jesus advocate suicide for Him like 'death by cop'?  No. NO. NO! We put to death our soul-self, we put to death our carnal tendencies that lead us into sin. We put away all that would keep the Holy Spirit from uniting with our spirit and letting the spirit live and rule in our lives- which lets Christ live in us!

More on this tomorrow by the grace and mercy of our LORD, JESUS CHRIST!

Are you resisting the devil?

 'Unless Christians are keenly alert in resisting the devil, they shall encounter great defeat through their self life. That the Christian’s soul life could be deceived and could be used by the devil is indeed beyond common expectation.'   The Spiritual Man- Watchman Nee.

Jas_4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Tell me something, why would we be told to RESIST the devil if we weren't really supposed to resist the devil?

Seriously.  Can we resist something if we don't even believe it's real? Can we resist something that we don't believe has anything to do with us? Is the devil real to you?  I'm not asking you to MAKE him real to you, he'll oblige anyone who desires to really want to be his. Then again, my asking you to make him real to you is something you can't do if you simply do not believe he exists in a REAL and active way, other than on tv shows meant to entertain you. Very few have any trouble believing the devil exists in a fictional, very abstract way.

We are told to RESIST the devil.

Watchman Nee talks about us being 'keenly ALERT in resisting the devil'. He says that we can be deceived and used by the devil.   Our soul-self which loves to be in control will often give way to the devil, because the devil will tempt us with so much that our soul-self loathes to give up.  We enjoy our self-righteousness. We enjoy our self-indignation. We pat ourselves on the back every opportunity we get. Or, we enjoy our self-depreciation in a very selfish way.  It's not enough to loathe ourselves if we've made it something we inwardly enjoy. Do you see how many traps there are that the devil uses at every opportunity he gets. We have to fall to our knees in front of the cross of our Savior. We have to give our lives over to Him. We have to yield to Jesus Christ, all of ourselves and this must be a constant submission.

Resisting the devil means examining our actions, the heart of them.  It is amazing what can be revealed to us if we yield to the Holy Spirit's leading. We will be allowed to recognize the devil working in our lives in so many ways. We will be shown his temptings and we NEED to remember the tempting is NOT the sin! It's the giving in to that temptation, letting that sin be conceived in us. There is a difference between indulging our thoughts with the temptations we face and having the thought there that can be given immediately to Christ as we RESIST.

May the LORD please bless us with all we need whatever it may be for us to resist the devil so he will flee from us! May we recognize the soul-self and it's constant temptation to give in to all that has its roots in selfishness whether it's seems good or is outright evil. Help us NOT to be deceived, Lord, please, help us!

All in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord now and forever!