Dull Sword, or Insufficient Practice?

Our weapon. 

Do people take care of their weapons? Most do if they want them in good working order. What good is a dull sword in battle? The word of God is never dull. But we who need the weapon- we who so desperately need the Sword of the Spirit, the word of God, need to USE the sword.  By the grace of GOD may we use the Sword!

' (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.” '   The Spiritual Man- Watchman Nee

Joh_5:39  Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

Joh 15:3  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 

Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 

Joh 17:19  And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 

Psa 119:11  Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. 

1Pe 1:22  Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently

1Pe 1:23  Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 

1Pe 1:25  But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. 

Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. 

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 

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. 

2Co 2:17  For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ. 

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 

When We Choose to Be A Christian.

When we choose to be Christians we are choosing to serve a living, loving, eternal life giving- God. When we choose to serve God we are placing Him before ourselves. We are placing His desires, His needs before our own. We are recognizing that our God is our creator and as our creator we owe Him our very life. We are acknowledging that our Creator truly has our best interests in mind. As Christians we believe that we are in need of salvation, that we cannot find salvation on our own. We are saying that there is something terribly wrong with this world and because something is wrong, it needs to be made right. We are admitting that we are very flawed in many ways when we say we are Christians. We are proclaiming that humanity is under a curse and the only way to break that curse is through our Savior. We believe that our Creator allows the curse to manifest itself fully in His creations and does so because He does not want to be a dictator, a puppet master. When He created us with freedom to choose the risk of choosing to live under the curse was one of the possibilities of choice. Instead of blotting us out of existence as an entire race, as a failed experiment, another opportunity to choose was enacted. Only this time, we would live under the curse - suffering all the horrors of the curse, of living a life without our Creator, if that's what we choose. We would live in a world filled with cursed individuals who would daily choose to exalt the curse rather than choose God. Every single horror in this world is a result of the curse. Those who choose God and are suffering under the influence of a cursed world comprehend that the cursed world is only temporary and will pass. As Christians we will make the daily choice to follow God, we will make many thousands, hundreds of thousands, seemingly countless decisions during our life and each one is the choice between following God or the cursed life. We are cursed, we are flawed and when we recognize a choice we've made is contrary to God's will, we are allowed to seek forgiveness for that choice.  When we make ourselves our god- serving ourselves first, we sin. When we focus on ourselves we set ourselves in place of God.  To be dead to sinning is to be dead to self in all ways.  The curse would have us believe that everything is about us and how we are feeling at any given moment in time. God would have us believe that everything is about Him, and all those around us at any given moment in time.

If we choose to serve God and others and NOT self- sin can't reign in us, sin can't have the control it desires to have.

Please, Lord, we would choose YOU! All by YOUR grace and mercy, through YOU - we choose YOU.

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

Rom 6:12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 

'(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.' The Spiritual Man - Watchman Nee

Dead to sin, dead to self-serving.

'(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.' The Spiritual Man - Watchman Nee

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

Rom 6:12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 

*******

Dead to sin.

Alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

LET NOT (meaning we have a certain amount of say so) SIN THEREFORE REIGN IN YOUR MORTAL BODY. Sin can reign in us, sin can rule over us, sin can guide us and we are to NOT LET sin do this. We sin when we are tempted and lusts are conceived in us.

Jas 1:14  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 

Jas_1:15  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Sin reigns in us when those temptations we face become conceived lust within us. Remember the TEMPTATION IS NOT THE SIN. The sin comes when we ALLOW ourselves to be drawn away by our lusts and those lust are conceived. We let the lust grow, we nurture the lust, we accept the lust, we indulge the lust until it is no longer a temptation but a real, living, deadly force in our lives. What is sin?

1Jn_3:4  Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

The law-

Mat 22:36  Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 

Mat 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 

Mat 22:38  This is the first and great commandment. 

Mat 22:39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 

Mat 22:40  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. 

There is NO commandment to serve self, to love self in any way. There is a commandment to love our neighbor as if they were us, as we would desire to be loved by others. There simply isn't a commandment anywhere to love ourselves before others or before God, it isn't there! The law is made up of ten commandments all geared towards loving God and loving others.  So we sin when allow the temptations we face to turn into self-indulgence, self-seeking, self-serving the lusts birthed in us and nurtured by us right into sin- right into NOT loving God or others before loving ourselves.

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

Being dead to sin is being dead to serving self, being dead to the soul-self in the ruling position.

Dead to self, alive to God, alive to others.

More on this tomorrow by the GRACE and MERCY, the WILL of GOD all through JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD now and forever, amen!

By the Grace of God May We Yield.

'(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. '  The Spiritual Man- Watchman Nee

2Co 4:5  For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. 

Mat 20:22  …Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. 

Mat 20:23  And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with…

Rom 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 

Rom 8:17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. 

2Co 1:5  For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. 

2Co 1:6  And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. 

2Co 1:7  And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation. 

2Co 1:8  For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: 

2Co 1:9  But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead

2Co 1:10  Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us; 

2Co 1:11  Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf. 

Partakers of suffering.

Too often we only talk of the joy, not the suffering. Truly we need to be willing to suffer for Christ. We need to be willing to accept the baptism of Christ. His baptism herald the beginning of His ministry and that ministry led Him to the cross. The ministry of Christ will lead us to the cross. We have to be willing to accept the cross not solely seek ways to avoid the crosses of our life.

We do that, we want to avoid the crosses. We want to ignore self-examination that leads us to realize our true state of need. It's just easier to ignore it all.  We are told so much, but we refuse to listen to things that cause us distress.  The soul-self strives for mastery and it is so much easier to allow it to reign than to desire to be rid of its control. Do we want to yield?

Do we want to give up control?  Do we want the cross? Truly? Or do we just want the reward without the cross?

It is necessary for us to question ourselves isn't it? We need to seek salvation in Christ and to walk His walk, to be baptized with His baptism. 

The disciples walked the walk and were baptized with Christ's baptism. They suffered greatly. They yielded. 

If we think that because we live in modern times that we don't have a disciples walk to undertake then we are so wrong, so very wrong.  We have to live for Christ. We have to live for Him, not for ourselves.

By His grace, may we yield!

Sincere Asking.

'(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.   (The Spiritual Man- Watchman Nee)'

ASKING-

Mat_7:7  Ask, and it shall be given you

Mat_7:11  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Mat_21:22  And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

Joh_14:13  And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Joh_14:14  If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

Joh_15:7  If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Joh_15:16  Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Joh_16:23  And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.

Joh_16:24  Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full

Joh_16:26  At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:

Jas_1:5  If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

Jas_1:6  But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

Jas_4:3  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

pleasing in his sight.

1Jn_5:14  And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us

1Jn_5:15  And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him

1Jn_5:16  If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

*******

Clearly we are to ASK God for what we need- and NOT ask amiss.  Recognizing the need to separate the soul-self and spirit-self to the point that the spirit-self rules over the soul-self is definitely needed. We MUST ask for this separation. When we ask it must be in sincerity.  How many people pray prayers making their requests known to God, but do so in such an automaton fashion that while they are asking God for various things, they are in truth asking for nothing because their hearts are not in it, their earnest desire is no longer present. They repeat prayers they've heard for years, or they repeat set prayers- words given to them by others and in truth they leave their prayers feeling as if they've fulfilled an obligation to pray- but nothing more. As soon as the prayer is over the one praying returns to their life as usual, their duty to God done.  Is this true asking, is this true prayer and supplication?

We KNOW we need the spirit to reign in us guiding all the decisions we make, not the soul-self making the decision all on its own. You do know what I mean, don't you? How often are our decisions made as we think of our self- our own best interest- without ever consulting God in prayer? Too often. We need God first in a REAL way, not in pretend.

The question then becomes, as mentioned above, do we truly WANT the separation? Or do we want life to remain the same without any boat rocking?

We need this, but do we want this and if we don't- why don't we?

I CRY out as the father in the Bible did as He requested healing for his son- 'Lord, I believe! Help thou mine unbelief!' 

One Master, or Two?

Yes, I've studied the following before and not too long ago. I need to study it again, and maybe again and again. If you really don't need to study this, please feel free to ignore it completely. I just…need this.

(Excerpt from The Spiritual Man- Watchman Nee)

'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. '

*******

Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 

Mat 6:22  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 

Mat 6:23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 

Mat 6:24  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

*

'The eye be single'

'No man can serve two masters'

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. 

'Walk not after the flesh' but after the Spirit'.

These are Jesus' words to us, God's words to us, words we are to use as weapons to protect ourselves. Watchman Nee wasn't making things up and twisting them to suit his own particular desires.  The word of God is plain truly. 

When we are told to NOT walk after the flesh we are told this for a reason. When our soul-self chooses to indulge in our flesh rather than allowing our spirit self to reign, we are not following God's word. We are not using God's word as our weapon. We are laying down the weapon and allowing Satan free reign in us when we choose to purposefully ignore God's word, God's truth. Is it any wonder Satan has such powerful control over us? We are not allowing ourselves to truly comprehend our need of having our soul-self and spirit-self divided. We need to ask to be shown the abhorrence of a life not led by the spirit.

We are in a fight, a spiritual fight and this fight is against the flesh and all that want us to live after the flesh, all the spiritual wickedness that would induce us to live to the flesh.  That spiritual wickedness will never disappear. The fight is ongoing until we die or our Savior returns for us. The real fight is something we need to recognize and by the GRACE of God we will.  Please, Lord, please, help us to know your truth.

Please, keep us from our own destruction! Help us to believe and let our faith have the works You desire from us!

Please, Lord, Your will be done!

And please… bless my new great nephew, Silas Alexander Lopez, born tonight. Bless him, help him to learn of You as he grows. Bless his whole family!  Thank you, Lord, thank you!

Amen.

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.

*******

'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. '