Soulishly, Not Spiritually Loving God.

'Let us understand that the lordship of God over our affection is an indispensable requirement to spiritual growth. How undisciplined and wild is our affection! If it is not subject to God’s will it shall endanger our spiritual walk at all times. A mistaken thought may be corrected easily, but an errant affection is nearly unmanageable. We should love the Lord with all our heart, permitting Him to direct our love.

Loving the Lord Soulishly

Right here we should sound a note of warning. Never think we ourselves can love the Lord. Whatever comes from us is rejected by Him; even loving Him is unacceptable. On the one hand, the believer’s lack of deep affection towards the Lord grieves Him greatly; on the other hand, one’s loving Him with soul power is not welcomed by God either. Our affection, even when used to love the Lord, must be entirely under the spirit’s management. Too many love the Lord with a worldly love and too few, with God’s pure love.

Nowadays the Lord’s people primarily employ their soulical power to absorb the things of God. They speak about their Father God, call the Lord their most beloved Lord, and contemplate His suffering. By so doing their hearts are filled with joy and they feel they are now loving the Lord. They conclude this feeling is from God. Sometimes while meditating on the Lord’s cross they cannot withhold their tears because they seem to experience such an unspeakable burning affection for the Lord Jesus. These things nonetheless pass through their lives like ships sailing through the sea: no lasting trace is left behind. Such is the love of countless Christians. But what is this kind of love after all? Such love as this is the sort which only serves to make one’s self happy. This is not loving God, it is loving pleasure.

The visualization of the Lord’s suffering seems to have touched his heart, but its inner truth has not affected his life. How powerless is the suffering of the Lord in a believer’s heart when merely mentally or emotionally conceived!

In contemplating His suffering one becomes inflated and proud, viewing himself as loving the Lord far more than do others. He talks as though he is a heavenly man; actually, he has not moved one breath away from his pitiful self. He gives the impression of loving the Lord so much, and for this reason others admire him. Even so, his love is nothing but self-love. He thinks and talks and desires after the Lord only because in so doing he can feel happy. His motive is for deriving pleasure and not for the sake of the Lord. Such meditation secures to himself a comfortable and pleasant stirring, and so he continues to meditate.

All is soulish and earthly, neither of God nor of the spirit. What, therefore, is the distinction between spiritual love and soulish love towards God? These two are not readily distinguishable outwardly, but inwardly every Christian can detect the true source of his love. As the soul is our very self so all which belongs to it cannot draw away from self.

 A soulish affection is one in which self is working. To love God for the sake of personal pleasure is carnal love. If a love is spiritual it has no self mixed in with loving God. It means to love God for His Own sake.

 Any affection which is totally or partially for one’s own pleasure or for reasons other than for God Himself emanates from the soul.

Another way we can distinguish the source of love is through its results. If one’s love is soulical it does not empower him to be delivered permanently from the world. The believer must continue to worry and struggle to break away from the world’s attraction. Not so with spiritual love. Here the things of the world just naturally fade away before it. The one who participates in that kind of love despises the world, considering its things abhorrent and abominable. Henceforth he appears to be unable to see the world because the glory of God has blinded his physical eyes.'  Excerpt 'The Spiritual Man' By Watchman Nee

Joh_15:19  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

Joh_17:14  I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

Col_2:8  Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Col 2:20  Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances

Genuine Love - God's Love.

Mat 10:37  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 

Mat 19:29  And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. 

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'God wants us, for love’s sake, to accept His control.

 When He wishes us to love someone, we instantly are able to; should He also desire us to terminate our relationship with someone, we can do that too.

This is the pathway of the cross. Only as we allow it to cut deeply so that we have our soul life delivered to death can we be rid of self in our affections.

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

If we genuinely have undergone death we will not be attached to anyone but will be guided solely by the command of God.

(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.)

Our soul life, as it experiences death, loses its power and becomes as much as dead in the matter of affection.

(Gal_5:24  And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.)

God will then direct us how in Him to renew our love for men.

God wants us to create in Him a new relationship with those we formerly loved.

Every natural relationship has been terminated.

New relationships are established through death and resurrection.

How contrary such a course seems to Christians, and yet how blessed it is to those who so experience it!

In order to substantiate, for the believer’s own profit, his consecration to God, God often “strips” him of that which he holds dear.

(Php_3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ)

God endeavors either to secure our love towards Him or to strip us of our love. When He employs the second way He will either cause our loved ones to change their hearts towards us or make it impossible for us to love them by setting up environmental obstacles such as their moving or passing away. If our heart is sincere in consecration, God will deprive us of everything so that He shall be the only One left.

To possess spiritual life in reality we must be willing to forsake all we love.

Whatever conflicts with our love to God, God demands us to forsake.

Spiritual life forbids the dividing of our affection.

(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.)

Any error in our affection—be it an error of intention or purpose or excessiveness—is judged by God to be as wrong as an error in our hatred.

Love and hate, when from ourselves, are equally defiled in the sight of God.

Once the believer has passed through a purifying process he will observe how unalloyed his affection towards men now is: no longer is self mixed in with his love: all is for God and all is in God.

In his former affection he loved others but loved himself more, because he esteemed his own self more important than they. But now he is able to share the sorrow and joy of others, to bear their burdens, and to serve them with affection. No longer does he love what his own self loves, but loves those whom God loves; no more does he count himself above others, but regards them as his own self. He is today in God and loves himself as well as others for God’s sake: he can therefore love others as his very self.' Excerpt - The Spiritual Man- By Watchman Nee (Excerpt)

(Joh_15:17  These things I command you, that ye love one another.)

Loving with the love of God.

Mat 19:29  And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.

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.

Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

Mat 10:37  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

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WHY are we told to HATE? Isn't that contradictory to loving? I know we've study this before but it bears further studying.

Truly if we put ANYONE before God in our affection we've placed them in the wrong order for a truly spiritual life.

Our love for God must reign supreme.  God give us the only true ability to love so when we love with OUR love it's faulty. Loving with GOD'S love is a pure love we can never possess without Him.

When we say- I love you to someone we are telling them that with the love God gives us, we are loving them.  God needs to be FIRST. God allows us to love.

Contemplating all of this is a good thing, because it's so easy to get caught up in ourselves in so many ways- little and big- and we scarcely notice.
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'The failure of many is to seek from man what can be found only in God.

All human affection is empty; the love of God alone is able to fully satisfy one’s desire.

The moment a Christian seeks a love outside God his spiritual life immediately falls.

We can only live by the love of God. What then? Does this indicate we need not love man? The Bible repeatedly charges us to love the brethren and even to love our enemies. Accordingly we know it is not God’s will we should not love man, but He does desire to manage our affection towards all men.

God does not want us to love others for our sake but to love for His sake and in Him. Our natural likes and dislikes do not have any part here; natural affection must lose its power.'  Excerpt The Spiritual Man- by Watchman Nee

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More tomorrow by the grace and will of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST- may we strive to LOVE HIM first and foremost, knowing only then we can truly love others.

Do we REALLY love the Lord?

'The church at Ephesus, according to Revelation 2, works and toils for the Lord, yet He is displeased with them because they have abandoned their first love.

 If our service is rendered for love’s sake the Lord will certainly be pleased; but what value is it to Him if we undertake endeavors for Him without truly possessing a heart for Him?

We should be aware how possible it is to labor for the Lord and yet not love the Lord. '  (Excerpt - The Spiritual Man- by Watchman Nee

Labor for the Lord but NOT love Him?  This sounds almost impossible doesn't it? I mean, no one is required to love the Lord or work for Him, no one. People choose to love and work for the Lord.  How can a person be forced to work for the Lord? Perhaps a child being raised up in a family business of religion might go into that business without real love for the Lord. Maybe a person might go into religion for money. As I think on it more and more I can understand that there are probably a lot of people who would claim to love the Lord and work for the Lord without ever really loving Him at all. It's a very sad reality and something we have to look at ourselves for as well. Do we LOVE the Lord? Truly, do we LOVE the LORD?  DO…WE…LOVE…THE…LORD?

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 Lord will NOT know those who do not love Him, because those who do not love Him are not His. And a person who isn't the LORD's can do all they want in HIS name but it is meaningless to the Lord.

Do you remember this--

Act 19:13  Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. 

Act 19:14  And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. 

Act 19:15  And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? 

Act 19:16  And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 

These men who tried to exorcise evil spirits in Jesus' name were unable to do so, why? Because they weren't known by Jesus, they didn't love Jesus. Jesus did not live in them. They had NO power from our Savior, none from the Holy Spirit in order do any real work for the Lord.  Right there is a bit of proof that a person can try and work for Jesus but in truth not be working for Him at all.  What those men were doing was a good thing- wanting to rid someone of evil spirits- but they wanted to do it for their own glory, using their own power.

We need to LOVE the LORD, truly love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, with all that we are.

More on this tomorrow by the GRACE of our LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ! Please Lord, we would LOVE You! 

Does God want all of us?

How much of us does God want?

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. 

Deu 6:5  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with ALL THINE HEART, AND WITH ALL THY SOULD, AND WITH ALL THY MIGHT. 

Deu 10:12  And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God WITH ALL THY HEART AND WITH ALL THY SOUL.

Deu 30:6  And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with ALL THINE HEART AND WITH ALL THY SOUL that thou mayest live. 

Mar 12:30  And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with ALL THY HEART AND WITH ALL THY SOUL AND WITH ALL THY MIND AND WITH ALL THY STRENGTH this is the first commandment. 

Luk 10:27  And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with ALL THY HEART AND WITH ALL THY SOULD AND WITH ALL THY STRENGTH AND WITH ALL THY MIND and thy neighbour as thyself. 

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye PRESENT YOUR BODIES a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 

Excerpt-

'I Consecrate My All

     I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Rom. 12:1  

     God calls for whole-souled consecration to His ways. Our highest powers are to be carefully cultivated. Our talents are lent us by God for use, not to be perverted or abused. They are to be improved by use, that they may do the work of God.  

     We are to give ourselves to the service of God, and we should seek to make the offering as nearly perfect as possible. God will not be pleased with anything less than the best we can offer. Those who love Him with all the heart will desire to give Him the best service of the life, and they will be constantly seeking to bring every power of their being into harmony with the laws that will promote their ability to do His will.  

     Personal consecration is necessary, and we cannot have this unless heart holiness is cultivated and cherished.  

     Let your prayer be, "Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee." This is a daily matter.  

     The surrender of all our powers to God greatly simplifies the problem of life. It weakens and cuts short a thousand struggles with the passions of the natural heart.

Religion is as a golden cord that binds the souls of both youth and aged to Christ. Through it the willing and obedient are brought safely through dark and intricate paths to the city of God. . . .  

     How many times have the deep things of God been unfolded before us, and how highly should we prize these precious privileges. . . . The bright beams of Heaven's light are shining upon your pathway. . . . Receive and cherish every Heaven-sent ray, and your path will grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.'

EG WHITE

From My Life Today - Page 10

Love- Heaven Bound.

God doesn't mean when He says to love Him with ALL our heart that we have no heart left to love anyone else with. What He does mean is we must LOVE Him FIRST, and then we are capable of loving our neighbor.  If we love any other before Him we are not loving that person or persons with a true love, it's impossible. You can scoff at me if you wish, but it's truth, God's truth. The love we give to others from ourselves is a selfish love if it's not a love grounded first and foremost with concern for their salvation.  So many today think my saying this stuff is crazy. They know they love their family, their children, their husbands and wives, their friends and even if they don't believe in God they believe they love them, and I'm just plain nuts. It's called deception, not mine, but theirs. They DO love but not with a love that is eternal, their love is a version of emotion welling up in them that they've learned to associate with the idea of what love is.  How awful it is for a brand new mother to NOT experience that well-known 'mother's love' toward their newborn. Yet it happens more often that people like to believe. How awful it is to be a child (of any age) to not have a parent who loves them with that supposed love that should be there for all parents and children. How terrible for a parent to never receive the love they are expecting to get from their child-- again, it happens a lot.  We grow up with expectations of what love is and should be and when it goes awry we are left floundering. What happens all too often to the love of one spouse for another? It was there, wasn't it? It was real, right? So if this real, true love simply disappears how can it ever be true and real? Our ideas, our beliefs of love void of God is honestly a very tainted, corrupted sort of love we've been deceived into believing is real.

Love is the hope our SAVIOR came to earth to give to us- a future life with HIM. This is the hope we can give to all our children, to all our loved ones. We must love God first and He'll give us the love we need for all others, a true love void of all selfishness. 

God must be FIRST.

Our treasures- the things we love- must be in HEAVEN.

We are but strangers and pilgrims here upon earth. Our friends and family- our 'loved ones' must be heaven bound- we must place them with God to protect and lead to His kingdom and eternity- and all other love we give to them must come second to the hope of their salvation.

These are FACTS that are so incredibly easy to forget, we push them aside when they don't suit our desires.

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. 

Deu 6:5  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 

Deu 10:12  And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul

Deu 30:6  And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. 

Mar 12:30  And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 

Luk 10:27  And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 

True Love.

Can we truly LOVE anyone at all without God being our source of love?  Seriously? Can we? Think about it, most of our ideas of love is a self-serving love. Even when we sacrifice to love there can be self-serving because of the pride towards self for sacrificing.  You say you have no pride in sacrificing? Praise God! It's not for me to judge anyone, God will do that- He knows the heart.

I do know from personal experience that my comprehension of love is very limited. I say I love others, I tell others I love them. What am I really saying to them when I say I love them? They are a part of my life that I don't want to live without. I care for them, even though I might not be perfect at caring for them. My love is flawed at best.

When others tell me they love me, I know they care for me, I know they want me in some part of their life and I know they would miss me should I go away.  I know they are choosing to love me, because they are capable of choosing not to love me, yes, even family can choose not to love other family members- love is always a choice.

God chose to love us even at our worst as evidence in the sacrifice He made in allowing God with Him to become His declared Son and to be made flesh. He allowed His declared Son to become human and in becoming human He took on the suffering of humans, the temptations of humans, the death of humans.   

God created us out of His love for us, and His love for us has kept Him from destroying us. God's love for us has created what we long to give to those we love- a pain free, happy existence.  We can't give that to those we love, it's not in our power to do so. God can do this, and He has done this and it is a PROMISE for all who love Him, for all who choose HIM.  We are PROMISED a pain free, happy existence. The promise is future beyond this world, the promise is heaven, the promise is eternity in love. This is the hope, this is the good news that our SAVIOR came to give to us, and to show us the way through Him.

God does want something in return- something from us, God wants us to love Him, to choose to believe in Him in all things. We must believe that God is the source of all real love, not our made up, imagined, very flawed love. We must comprehend that we are NOT able to love any others- not our mothers, our fathers, our husbands, our wives, our children, we are not able to love ANY others as He can love them. When we choose to love HIM we choose to give over to Him all we are. We give Him all our loved ones knowing He can love them more than we ever could.  We give our 'all' to God and God takes care of our 'all' in HIS way, not our way. 

More on this later, all by the GRACE and MERCY of our LORD and SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST! Now and forever… AMEN.

'Affection

God’s Demand

Yielding one’s affection to the lord may be viewed by the Christian to be a most difficult task, yet the Lord is concerned with One’s affection more than with any Other matter.

 He demands him to present his affection wholly to Him and let Him lord over it. The Lord asks for first place in our affection. We Often hear people talk about consecration, but this act is simply the first step in one’s spiritual walk. Consecration is not the destination of spirituality, it is but its beginning. It leads a Christian to a sanctified position.

In a word, without consecration there can be no spiritual life.

Even so, nothing is more paramount in one’s consecration than is his affection. Whether or not this has been yielded determines the truth or falsity of consecration. Its acid test is affection. Relatively easy is it for us to hand over our time, money, power, and countless other items; but to offer our affection is exceedingly difficult. This is not to imply we do not love Christ; perhaps we love our Lord very much. Nevertheless, if we grant first place in our affection to another and relegate Christ to second place, or if we love someone else while loving the Lord, or if we ourselves direct our affection, then what we have offered is not considered consecration for we have not yielded our affection.

Every spiritual believer appreciates the necessity for affection to be offered first. For without that, nothing really is offered. God the Father demands absolute love from His children. He is unwilling to share Our heart with anyone or anything else: even a He should receive the bigger share, He is still not pleased. God demands all our love. Naturally this strikes a fatal blow to One’s soul life. The Lord bids us part with what we Ourselves cling to, for it divides Our heart. He asks us to love Him totally and to utterly follow Him in love: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with

438 The Spiritual Man

all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22.37). “All” denotes every ounce of it for the Lord. He enjoins us to reserve not one tiny particle of affection which we ourselves can direct. He calls for all. He is a jealous God (Ex. 20.5), therefore He does not allow anybody to steal the love of His children. Yet how many dearly beloved ones have their claim on the believer’s affections besides God!

Perhaps an Isaac, a Jonathan, or a Rachel. Wherefore God insists we lay our beloved ones on the altar.

He cannot tolerate any competition. Our all must be on the altar. This is the Christian’s way to spiritual power. And shortly after the sacrifice is laid on the altar—nay, after the last sacrifice is duly placed thereon—fire will come down from heaven. Without the altar, there can be no heavenly fire. How, then, will one ever have the power of the Holy Spirit if he does not take up his cross and offer everyone whom he loves to the Lord? This is not an empty altar, for fire consumes the sacrifice on it. What can the fire consume if there is no sacrifice?

 Brethren, neither our mental understanding of the cross nor our endless talk about it will give us the power of the Holy Spirit; only our laying everything on the altar will.

If we continue to harbor some secret rope uncut, if our heart secretly retains some oxen and sheep and an Agag, we will still not experience the manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives.

 How much the work of God has suffered because of our failure to let the Lord be the Lord of our affections. Many parents cling to their children for themselves and permit the kingdom of God to incur loss. Countless husbands or wives are unwilling to make sacrifice and thus the harvest is left ungathered. Numerous Christians are so attached to their friends that they sit back and let their brethren fight at the front alone. It is deplorable how many think they can love their dear ones and the Lord simultaneously, not comprehending that by loving these, they cannot love the Lord.

We persist in living in the soul if we cannot say with Asaph: “Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides thee” (Ps. 73.25).

We cannot but stress the significance of our loving the Lord with our whole heart. Nothing satisfies His heart as does our love. The Lord looks not for our laboring for Him but for our loving Him. '

Excerpt - The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee