Spiritual Misconceptions.

God please help us as we seek a deeper, richer spiritual walk with You. We want ONLY Your truth! Guide us in Your way, and keep us from the evil of deception.

Psa 139:23  Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 

Psa_139:24  And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

(Excerpt to consider, to study, to pray over)

'Among the various misconceptions relating to spiritual life can be found the following.

1. Speaking.

The text used is Matthew 10.20: it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”

(Mat 10:20  For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. )

Christians often assume that God will speak for them. Some imagine that while delivering a message in a meeting they must not employ their mind and will but simply offer their mouths passively to God,

letting Him speak through them. Needless to say, however, the words of Jesus recorded in this particular passage are to be applied only to the time of persecution and trial. It does not suggest that the Holy Spirit will speak instead of the believer. The experience of the Apostles Peter and John in the council fulfills this prediction.

2. Guidance.

Text: “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it’ “ (Is. 30.21).

Isa 30:21  And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. 

Saints do not perceive that this verse refers specifically to the experience of God’s earthly people, the Jews, during the millennial kingdom when there shall be no satanic counterfeit. Unaware of this fact they view supernatural guidance in a voice to be the highest form of guidance. They esteem themselves more spiritual than the rest and hence receive supernatural guidance of this type. They neither listen to their conscience nor follow their intuition; they merely wait in a passive manner for the supernatural voice. These believers hold that they do not need to think, ponder, choose or decide. They simply need to obey. They permit the voice to be substituted for their intuition and conscience. And the consequence is that “(a) he does not use his conscience; (b) God does not speak to him for automatic obedience; (c) evil spirits take the opportunity and supernatural voices are substituted for the action of the conscience.” (Penn-Lewis, WOTS,121) The outcome is that the enemy gains more ground in the

believer. And “from this time (forward) the man is not influenced by what he feels or sees, or by what others say, and he closes himself to all questions, and will not reason. This substitution of supernatural

guidance for the action of the conscience explains the deterioration of the moral standard in persons with supernatural experiences, because they have really substituted the direction of evil spirits for

their conscience. They are quite unconscious that their moral standard is lowered, but their conscience has become seared by deliberately ceasing to heed its voice; and by listening to the voices of the teaching spirits, in matters which should be decided by the conscience in respect to their being right or wrong, good or evil.” (Penn-Lewis, WOTS,121-22 )'  The Spiritual Man- by Watchman Nee

The Holy Spirit Does Not Control Our Actions, We Choose.

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 

Php 2:14  Do all things without murmurings and disputings: 

Php 2:15  That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; 

Php 2:16  Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. 

Php 2:17  Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. 

Php 2:18  For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me. 

We are told God will work in us to will and to do His good pleasure- and then immediately we are told - 'DO all things…' We are given an instruction on what to DO, and action we are to commit, WE have to act. God WILL work in us, but He will NEVER control us!  We can never ask God to work in us and then believe we are to do nothing. God wants us to 'Do all things…'  And when we do ALL the things we do, we are to do them WITHOUT murmuring or disputing.  Clearly murmuring and disputing is not something God wants us to choose to do and it's us who makes the choice to murmur or dispute. If we find ourselves murmuring or disputing then we have to ask ourselves if we are doing God's will, because it is Not his will that we murmur or dispute.

Eph_1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise

Eph_1:17  That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him

Gal_6:8  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

Gal 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 

Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 

Gal 5:18  But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 

Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 

Gal 5:20  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 

Gal 5:21  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 

Gal 5:23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 

Gal 5:24  And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 

Gal 5:25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 

Gal 5:26  Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. 

 

'2. The Rule of the Holy Spirit.

We will recall from our past discussion how God rules our spirit through the Holy Spirit and how our spirit rules our body or the entire person through the soul (or will). This may sound simple, yet the spiritual implication is enormous.

The Holy Spirit influences our intuition alone to make His will known. Only our spirit does he fill and nowhere else. Never does He control or fill our soul or body directly. This point should be carefully underscored. We should not therefore expect God’s Spirit to think through our mind, feel through our emotion, or decide through our volition. He makes His will known to our spirit’s intuition in order that we ourselves may think and feel and act according to His will. It is a grave blunder to think we must offer our mind to the Holy Spirit to let Him think through it. The truth is He never uses man’s mind directly instead of man. He never asks him to offer himself passively to Him. What God wishes is cooperation with him. He does not work for man, because even His movement in working for him could be quenched by the believer. He never forces anyone to do anything.

The divine Spirit does not directly control man’s body either. If man desires to speak he has to engage his own mouth—to walk, his own feet—to work, his own hands. The Spirit of God never interferes

with man’s freedom of will. Aside from working in man’s spirit (which is God’s new creation), He does not use any part of man’s body apart from the consent of the latter’s own volition; nay, even if man is willing, He does not exercise any of his bodily parts for him.

Man should be his own master. He must exercise his own body. This is God’s law which He will not violate.  We often say that “the Holy Spirit rules over man.” By this we mean He works in us to make us obedient to God. But if we should mean that He directly controls our total being we are in complete

error. We can distinguish right here between the work of the Holy Spirit and that of evil spirits. The Holy Spirit indwells us to witness that we belong to God whereas evil spirits manipulate people to reduce them to robots.

God’s Spirit asks for our cooperation; evil spirits seek direct control. Hence it is plain that our union with God is in the spirit and not in the body or soul. Should we misunderstand the truth and expect God to move our mind, emotion, volition, and body directly, we open wide the door to the counterfeit of evil spirits.

While a Christian should not follow his own thought, feeling or preference, nevertheless after he has received revelation in his spirit he ought to execute with his mind, emotion and will this charge

which has come to his spirit.'  Excerpt - 'The Spiritual Man' By Watchman Nee

Common Misunderstandings and the Work of the Holy Spirit

How truly easy it is to be deceived. Being led by sensations rather than truth is so easy. Allowing our senses to determine our walk with Christ is a huge mistake. We are allowed to experience horrific things- mentally, spiritually, physically and all our senses will scream out we don't deserve to be treated this way. It is our will with God's will that must overlook our senses and believe when we have NO reason by all outward appearances to believe that all things WILL work together for good, if we love God.

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.

'The Work of the Holy Spirit

Those believers are numberless who have plunged into passivity and enslavement because of not understanding the work of the Holy Spirit.

What follows are some of the most common misunderstandings.

1. Obey the Holy Spirit.

 Believers think Acts 5.32 suggests that they must obey the Holy Spirit—“the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

(Act 5:32  And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. )

But they fail, according to the command given in the Bible, to test all the spirits to see if they are of truth or of error (1 John 4.1,6 ).

(1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 

1Jn 4:6  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.)

They instead accept as being the Holy Spirit every spirit which comes to them. They think this obedience must be highly pleasing to God. What they do not know is that the Scripture here does not teach us to obey the Holy Spirit but to obey God the Father through the Spirit.

In verse 29 of Acts 5 the Apostles when under questioning by the council replied that they “must obey God.”

(Act 5:29  Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.)

Should anyone make God the Spirit his object of obedience and forget God the Father he tends to obey the spirit in him or around him instead of obeying through the Holy Spirit the Father Who is in heaven.

This will set him on the road to passivity and in addition provide the evil spirits the chance for counterfeit. Overstepping the bounds of the Word of God ushers in countless perils!'  Excerpt 'The Spiritual Man- Watchman Nee

More tomorrow continuing with common misunderstandings and the Work of the Holy Spirit.

All by the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Denying Self- Uniting With Christ.

Joh 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:4  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Joh 3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Joh 3:8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Joh 3:9  Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Joh 3:10  Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
Joh 3:11  Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
Joh 3:12  If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
Joh 3:13  And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
Joh 3:14  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
Joh 3:15  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Joh 3:18  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Joh 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Joh 3:20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Joh 3:21  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.


Mat_16:24  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

'A Submissive Will

What is salvation? It is none other than God saving man out of himself into Himself.

Salvation has two facets: a cutting off and a uniting with.

(Mat_16:24  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.)

What is cut off is self; the uniting is with God.

Whatever does not aim at deliverance from self and union with Him is not genuine salvation.

Anything which cannot save man from self and join him to God is vanity. A true spiritual beginning involves release from animal life and entry into divine life. Everything belonging to the created one must be relinquished so that the created one will enjoy all things solely in the Creator. The created one must vanish in order that true salvation may be manifested. Real greatness rests not on how much we have but on how much we have lost.

Authentic life can be seen only in the abandonment of self.

If the nature, life and activities of the created one are not denied, the life of God has no way to express itself. Our “self” is often the enemy of God’s life. Our spiritual growth shall be stunted severely if we have no intention nor experience of losing ourselves.

What is self?

That is extremely difficult to answer, nor can our answer be fully correct. But were we to say “self” is “self-will,” we would not be too far from the mark. Man’s essence is in his volition because it expresses what man fundamentally is, desires, and is willing for. Before God’s grace has done its work in man all which a man has, whether he be sinner or saint, is generally contrary to God. It is because man belongs to the natural, which is exceedingly antithetical to God’s life.

Salvation, then, is to deliver man from his created, natural, animal, fleshly, and self-emanating will.

Let us make a special note of this: that aside from God giving us a new life, the turning of our will to Him is the greatest work in salvation. We may even say that God imparts new life in order for us to abandon our will to Him. The gospel is to facilitate the union of our will with God. Anything shortof this is failure of the mission. God aims his arrow of salvation not so much at our emotion or our mind but at our will, for once the latter is saved, the rest are included. Man may be united with God in mind to a certain degree; he may agree with Him in his feeling towards numerous things; but the most consequential and most perfect union is that of his will with the divine will. This accord embraces all other unions between God and man. Anything short of the union of wills is inadequate. Since our total being moves according to our will, it is obvious that it constitutes the most influential part of man. Even so noble an organ as the spirit must yield to the rule of the will. ' Excerpt - The Spiritual Man- Watchman Nee

A Humble State.

Excerpt-

'The mind is not to be ruled by the emotions. It should rest calmly in God and work by faith. This is the meaning of “a sound mind” which Paul entreats us to cultivate (2 Tim. 1.7 AV). A believer should follow the intuition of the spirit.

He must let God’s rule of right and wrong judge in all cases.

The head needs to be kept in a humble state. A proud thought easily leads one astray. Any self-righteous, self-important or self-sufficient notion can bring in error.

Some have a background of extensive knowledge and yet they fall into self-deceit because they think too much and too highly of themselves.

Any who genuinely desire to serve the Lord must do so “with all lowliness of mind” (Acts 20.19 ASV). He must cast off every self-deceptive consideration and ascertain his place in the body of Christ as appointed by God.'

2Ti 1:7  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 

Act 20:19  Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations

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God or Self?

Ask yourself this question every single day.  If you can't answer God, then you are serving self, and you are NOT serving God.

If you answer, God, then you must deny self.  You CANNOT have it both ways. We think we can and there is where we fail.

God, not self. Humble before God we seek to serve Him, to allow Him to work His will in us for His glory.

We may shed many tears, and face many temptations, and through it all we must seek humility, clinging to God, living through the Spirit, saved by Jesus Christ our LORD. All by HIS mercy, HIS love, His grace!

Think on these things...

'A Christian should keep his mind in the peace of God at all times. “Thou dost keep him in perfect peace,” noted Isaiah, “whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusts in thee” (26.3). A restless brain is a disturbed brain that is harmful both to spiritual life and to spiritual service. It has led many into numerous errors. An unpeaceful mind cannot operate normally. Hence the Apostle teaches us to “have no anxiety about anything” (Phil. 4.6). Deliver all anxious thoughts to God as soon as they arise. Let the peace of God maintain your heart and mind (v.7). But Paul also exhorts us to put our heads to work and not just let them lie fallow: “brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (v.8).'  The Spiritual Man - by Watchman Nee

Isa 26:3  Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. 

Php 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 

Php 4:7  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 

Php 4:8  Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. 

Walk in the World or in Heaven- We Choose.

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 

Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 

Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 

Heb 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people

1Pe 1:13  Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ

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. 

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If we walk according to the world -  according to how the MAJORITY of the world walks, if we LIVE like the world - fitting in just perfectly, we are not living for God.  Our living as the world lives has to be a part of our past, not our present, not our future. We can't be afraid to live for Christ when all around us want us to just fit into the mold of currently acceptable behavior.  Why are we so afraid of not fitting in, of being rejected for Christ?  Why don't we stop walking as we did in our past?  Fulfilling the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our mind and flesh these are NOT supposed to be a part of our mindset in Christ. 

Did Christ seek to fulfil fleshy desires? No, they didn't play any part in His ministry. His mind was HEAVEN focused, seeking to bring the knowledge of salvation through HIM to all. Jesus wants our minds to place our TREASURES in heaven, not in this world!  We truly can't fulfil the lusts of our flesh and be heaven focused, it's not possible. As soon as we turn our eyes and our minds to the lusts the flesh we pull them off Christ, they can't be divided in truth.  We can't serve TWO masters. There is no sharing of our focus, our heart, our love, not when we read that we must love God with ALL our mind, ALL our heart, with ALL our soul, with ALL our strength…

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.

More on this tomorrow by the GRACE and WILL, the LOVE of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!