The Experience

A very long excerpt from 'The Spiritual Man' by Watchman Nee.  Tomorrow we will start studying it bit by bit as the Spirit leads, all by the grace of God, through our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord.

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'We have just seen how the High Priest operates if we accept the cross. We shall consider next the practical side; that is, how we may arrive at the experience of having the Lord Jesus divide our soul and spirit.

(1) Know the necessity of having the spirit and soul divided. Without this knowledge no such request will be made. Christians ought to petition the Lord to show them the abhorrence of a mixed spirit-and-soul life and also the reality of that deeper walk in God which is wholly spirit and uninterrupted by the soul. They should understand that a mixed life is a frustrated life.

(2) Ask for the separation of soul and spirit. After knowing, there must be a genuinely earnest desire in the heart, a requesting that this mingled soul and spirit be cut apart. Just here the question rests with the human will. Should believers prefer to enjoy what they themselves consider the best life and not desire to have their soul and spirit divided, God will respect their personal rights and not force them into such experience.

(3) Yield specifically. If believers definitely desire the experience of having their soul and spirit separated, they must consign themselves to the altar of the cross in a specific manner. They must be willing to accept totally every consequence of the operation of the cross and be conformed to the death of the Lord. Before they encounter the cleaving of soul and spirit believers need to bend their will continuously and incessantly towards God and actively choose to have this cleavage. And as the High Priest accomplishes this division in them their heart attitude should be that He should not stay His hand.

(4) Stand on Romans 6.11. God’s children need to watch lest in seeking to experience the separation of soul and spirit they fall back into sin. Remember that this separating is built upon their having died to sin. Hence they should maintain daily the attitude of Romans 6.11, considering themselves verily dead to sin. Additionally, they should stand on Romans 6.12 and not permit sin to reign in their mortal bodies. This attitude will deprive their natural life any opportunity to sin through the body.

 (5) Pray and study the Bible. Christians ought to search the Bible with prayer and meditation. They should let God’s Word penetrate thoroughly into their souls so as to enable their natural life to be purified. If they actually do what God says, their soul life shall not be able to continue its free activity. This is the meaning of 1 Peter 1.22: “having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth.”

(6) Daily bear the cross. Because the Lord desires to sever our spirit and soul He arranges crosses in our everyday affairs for us to bear. To take up the cross daily, to deny self at all times, to make no provision for the flesh—not even for a moment, and to be shown constantly by the Holy Spirit what are the activities of the soul in our lives: this is spiritual life. Through faithful obedience we shall be led to encounter the dividing of soul and spirit so that we may experience a pure spiritual walk.

 (7) Live according to the spirit. This is a condition not only for our preservation but also for a distinct cleavage between spirit and soul. We must seek to walk by our spirit in all respects, distinguishing what is of the spirit and what is of the soul and resolving as well to follow the former while rejecting the latter. Learn to recognize the working of the spirit and follow it.

 These are the conditions which we on our side must fulfill. The Holy Spirit requires our cooperation. The Lord will not be able to do His part should we fail to do ours. But were we to discharge our responsibility, our High Priest would tear apart our spirit and soul with the sharp Sword of His Spirit in the power of His cross.

Everything which belongs to emotion, sensation, mind and natural energy would be separated one after another from the spirit so as to leave no trace of fusion.

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. Upon seeing we have fulfilled the requirements for His working He shall part our spirit and soul at the appropriate time thereafter. Those who have apprehended the danger of a mixture of these two organs cannot but seek deliverance. 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. They need to know the mystery and reality of the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. May they honor such holy presence; may they be careful not to grieve Him; may they know that, aside from sin, what grieves Him the most as well as what harms themselves the deepest is to walk and labor according to their own life. The first and original sin of man was to seek what is good, wise and intellectual according to his own idea. God’s children today often make the same mistake. They should realize that since they have believed in the Lord and have the Holy Spirit indwelling them, they ought to give the Spirit complete authority over their souls. Do we think because we have prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to reveal His mind and to work in us, that all shall accordingly be done? That assumption is not the truth; for unless we deliver to death specifically and daily our natural life, together with its power, wisdom, self, and sensation and unless we equally desire honestly in our mind and will to obey and rely upon the Holy Spirit, we shall not see Him actually performing the work. 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. '

'Commit our spirit to God'

'We should fulfill our part with all faithfulness, and commit the rest to our merciful and faithful High Priest. And at the appropriate time He shall lead us into a complete spiritual experience. We need to follow the footsteps of our Lord. As He was dying, Jesus poured out His soul to death (Is. 53.12) but committed His spirit to God (Luke 23.46). We must do now what He did before. If we truly pour out the soul life and commit our spirit to God we too shall know the power of resurrection and shall enjoy a perfect spiritual way in the glory of resurrection. '

The Spiritual Man- Watchman Nee

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Isa 53:12  Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Luk 23:46  And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. 

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Truly we must let Christ live in us and in living in us we accept what He did for us- dying for us so we may live eternally.  We must listen to HIS words, the words HE speaks to us. When HE tells us to deny ourselves do we IGNORE Him? When HE tells us to take up our cross, do we IGNORE Him? Do we pretend we don't have to listen to those words, that it doesn't really matter what we do as long as we believe in Him?  Remember this--

Jas_2:19  Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

And this--

Act_16:31  And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

1Jn_5:13  These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

What about this--

Jas_2:20  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Do you see? There is believing and there is believing.  I can believe a person is real, because I see them, know them, etc.  But I don't necessarily have to believe in that person. I don't have to believe in all that the person stands for, their morals, their ways.  We can believe in Jesus Christ, even believe He is the Savior, but if we don't believe in all His truths He gives us then we aren't truly believing in Him to the extent we need to.  We don't want to be like devils who believe, we want to really, truly believe.  When we believe in our Savior then we will listen to Him, not ignore His words because they don't fit in with the life style we wish to indulge in. 

Christ our Savior died for us, He emptied Himself of His divinity to become human and He allowed Himself to die, accepting the path He agreed to take in order to save all who would come to Him. He gave His spirit to God as all who did- do. The breath goes back to God who gave it. When Jesus was in the grave He was sleeping as all who die- sleep. The breath that gave Him life was gone, His spirit essence alive in Him in life was with God. The soul of who He was, was sleeping- the power to choose unable to choose in sleep.  When Jesus rose from the grave He was given back His breath- His life. He was given back His spirit. He was given back His soul. When He woke up from death's sleep He had it all back. He wouldn't have been given it all back without God giving it to Him.  We too need to give our life to God, to surrender, to allow Him to work in us. He gives us our breath and as long as we have our breath then we have our soul and spirit (unless medically incapacitated then the soul's ability to choose is gone).  We need to daily choose Christ, daily choose the cross, daily choose to deny ourselves, daily live as Christ lived - in love with the hope of being in eternity with Him. He came to preach eternity to us, we need to live with daily seeking eternity in Him, longing for that eternity, praying for that eternity, wanting all to possess eternity in Him.

Please Lord, help us give our lives over to You, and receive the Spirit that will give us all we need to be Yours, wholly Yours!

In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior now and forever!!!!!!!

AMEN!

Delivered from Temptation.

2Pe 2:9  The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished

The Lord KNOWS how to deliver us out of temptations.  As we've talked about in-depth, and will continue to talk about- we need to comprehend our day to day life in the service of our Lord and exactly what that means. We need to understand what it means to truly have a spiritual life and not a fleshy, carnal led life.  As Paul said what a wretched man he was- we look to Paul as an example of a Christ follower, a very prominent Christ follower and we can't help but comprehend he was fighting the same spiritual warfare we are. We can surely comprehend our wretchedness. We know all about WANTING to do good and doing it NOT! We know that is seems our flesh serves flesh but our minds serve God and this must NEVER cease- the minds serving God because if we give our minds over to the flesh to serve flesh, then we have no hope. And speaking of hope we know that our true hope for salvation from our sin-filled selves is Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior!  When we feel the weight of our sinfulness and our seeming inability to keep from failing, we MUST cling TIGHTER to our Savior and His righteousness!  We are not to give into temptation as if there is no hope to keep from sinning- we fight! We have armor, and a weapon and we FIGHT! There is absolutely no reason to have any armor or weapons at all if we aren't supposed to use them.  It would be POINTLESS to have our armor on if we didn't need protection. Also, it would be senseless to have a weapon if we aren't supposed to use that weapon.  We are NOT given the Sword of the Spirit of the Word of God just for show.  That sword is not a decorative part of our attire.  The Sword must be used!

The Lord knows HOW to deliver us from temptations, and He will!

Psa 34:15  The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. 

Psa 34:16  The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. 

Psa 34:17  The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. 

Psa 34:18  The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. 

Psa 34:19  Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. 

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 

Do you suffer affliction?

Heb 11:24  By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; 

Heb 11:25  Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 

Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. 

Pleasures of sin.

Moses had it all as an Egyptian. Any lust he had he could easily indulge. The life many envied, he possessed. Much like our longing to be rich- as great business tycoons, as Hollywood stars, as famous sport athletes, as those who manage to earn exorbitant wealth. Moses had that life, he was the famous star, athlete, professional. People wanted to have his life.

Moses made a choice to give it all up.

Can we even begin to imagine a famous star, a famous singer, any one famous - giving up all their wealth, all their fame?  We'd call them crazy, wouldn't we?

Now, let's take it down to our level- the level of the not famous, the not wealthy, do we have 'pleasures of sin' to forsake?

By FAITH do we choose to give up our sinful pleasures?

Or do we make excuses for keeping them?

1Pe 1:6  Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 

1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ

Are you in HEAVINESS through MANIFOLD TEMPTATIONS?  If not, you better ask yourself why you aren't.

Our faith will be tried.

We are engaged in a BATTLE.

If you aren't in a battle then again, you better ask yourself why you aren't.

We've spent a long time twisting sin so that we call it good, and we call good- evil.  If we are caught up in the snare of Satan and are among those who desire to call sin good, and good sin, then we better pray hard for release from that snare.

More tomorrow- by the grace of our LORD!

We are to deny ourselves- sin.

Mat_16:24  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself

When you've thought on this for a while ask yourself a question- What are you to deny?

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

Mar 8:34  And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 

Mar 10:21  Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

Luk 9:23  And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 

Luk 9:24  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. 

Luk 9:25  For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? 

Luk 9:26  For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels. 

Luk 9:27  But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God. 

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

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. 

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church

1Th 3:3  That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. 

2Ti 3:12  Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 

Heb 11:24  By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; 

Heb 11:25  Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 

Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. 

1Pe 4:1  Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; 

1Pe 4:2  That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. 

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We are to deny ourselves the lusts of the flesh.

Moses chose purposefully to suffer rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin.

Sin is filled with pleasure, and those pleasures are fleeting up against eternity.

Can we live with the cross- the cross which is the way to eternity?

Christ did not come and tell us to follow Him and no more. Christ came preaching the gospel of the kingdom-  eternity in Christ. Christ came to teach us that this life is temporary to eternity. Christ came to give us hope in a world what will offer us no hope. Christ's hope is our only hope. We can desire life here and now to be good to us, to be kind to us, but for the most part that will not happen. We can have moments and a lot of them that are good, but they will not last.

We are told time and again that to live to please ourselves with so many lusts- things perverted by sin,  is wrong.  We tell ourselves that God wants us to enjoy ourselves or we wouldn't have the ability to do so. We forget all about sin damaging us so that the ability to enjoy ourselves has become very warped.

More on this tomorrow….by the grace of God.

Forsaking ourselves

 'The cleaving of soul and spirit means not only their separation but also a cracking open of the soul itself. Since the spirit is enveloped in the soul, it cannot be reached by the Word of life save through a cracked shell. The Word of the cross plunges in and splits open a way into and through the soul so that God’s life can reach the spirit within and liberate it from the bondage of its soulish shell. Having received the mark of the cross, the soul now can assume its proper position of subjection to the spirit. But if the soul fails to become a “thoroughfare” to the spirit, then the former surely will become the latter’s chain. These two never agree on any matter. Before the spirit achieves its rightful place of pre-eminence it is challenged persistently by the soul. While the spirit is striving to gain freedom and mastery the strong soul power exerts its utmost strength to suppress the spirit. Only after the cross has done its work on the soulish life is the spirit liberated. If we remain ignorant of the damage this discord between the spirit and soul can bring or remain unwilling to forsake the pleasure of a sensuous walk, we shall make hardly any spiritual progress.'  The Spiritual Man- Watchman Nee (Excerpt)

Spiritual progress.

Are we unwilling to forsake the pleasure of a sensuous walk?

How much of our lives is spent appeasing our senses in one way or another?

There are and there have been many people who believe that they need to forsake a lot of the material world in order to walk with God. Could they be right? We don't want to believe they are. We don't want to believe we may have to give up any of our creature comforts. We reason all around and in many different ways convincing ourselves we do not need to stop pleasing our senses.

Think on the following verse for a while….

Mat_16:24  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself

When you've thought on this for a while ask yourself a question- What are you to deny?

More on this tomorrow by the grace and mercy of our Lord, Jesus Christ!!!

Our Weapon, Our Light

So why don't we?

Why don't we quote scripture during our fights against temptation?  Is it because we aren't truly invested in the spiritual war? Is it because we want the prize without running the race? We want heaven without denying ourselves or even really looking at the cross waiting to be picked up.  We are wretched, we are poor, we are miserable, we are blind, we are naked, we are truly of Laodicea- the last church mentioned in Revelation.

Rev 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 

Rev 3:15  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 

Rev 3:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked

We don't quote the Word of God when we need to (which is often and every day- several times a day) because we believe we DON'T need to.  We've come to a place in our lives where quoting the scripture against spiritual attacks is foreign to us. In the back of our minds we believe only those who have gone off the deep end mentally would truly do such a thing.

We are wretched, we are miserable, we are poor, we are blind and we are naked.

We need-

Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 

Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. 

Rev 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 

Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. 

Rev 3:22  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. 

We need Christ's righteousness, we need the faith of Christ, we need the Holy Spirit.  We need our Spiritual armor, we need to be protected, and we need our spiritual weapon.

Our need is great. The weapon of our warfare is lay down before us so easily.

A weapon that will light our way.

Psa_119:105  Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

With all our particular sins that so easily beset us- we can go to the Word and praying- seek to be shown the Words from the Word of God that we need in our spiritual fight.  We can find these words by the grace of God and wield them- praying constantly as we do. We must never forget that our Savior was in constant communication with God, the declared Father whom He was relying upon for all things.

Heb_12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us

Joh_5:19  Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

Joh_8:28  Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

Joh_10:30  I and my Father are one.

Joh 10:31  Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 

Joh 10:32  Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? 

Our Savior can be in us-

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

Christ is our hope. Through Christ we - wretched as we are- continue to Hope In our HOPE!

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