4. About changing
What does God’s
discipline achieve?
Self-knowledge
Humility
Understanding others
Cessation of sin
Freedom from false
confidence and patience
Trials and the hand
of God
Power, gifts,
Spirit-filledness, and sanctification
1. Is the foundation in order?
This article
discusses the change that takes place in a Christian, sanctification and
liberation from sin. It is one of the most important subjects in the New
Testament, to which Paul and the other apostles often referred. Here are some
related verses. They show how sanctification is God's will:
- (Hebr 12:14)
Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord:
- (2 Cor 7:1) Having
therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of
God.
- (1 Thess 4:3,7) For
this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should
abstain from fornication:
7 For God has not
called us to uncleanness, but to holiness.
- (1 Tim 4:7.8) But
refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise yourself rather to
godliness.
8 For bodily exercise
profits little: but godliness is profitable to all things, having
promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
- (1 Peter 1:14,15) As
obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in
your ignorance:
15 But as he which
has called you is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversation;
- (Rom 12:1,2) I
beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable
service.
2 And be not
conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and
perfect, will of God.
Before discussing
changing, it is good to know that we ourselves are saved. We need to
experience regeneration, salvation and forgiveness of our sins because we
cannot talk about sanctification and spiritual growth until then. The
foundation (salvation) must first be in order before you can build on it.
Unfortunately,
there are thousands of people in the church who look like Christians and
believers but are not. They may have Christianity, its framework and forms,
and a relationship with the church - many of them have grown up in Christian
circles and are children of believing homes. Likewise, they may have spiritual
activity, even some prayer, but they still do not understand what true
salvation is. They do not understand rebirth and have not changed inwardly and
as a result their outward life remains the same.
If the idea that
a person involved in Christian activities is outside the gates of heaven seems
strange to you, you should pay attention to Jesus' words. According to him, at
the last judgment there will be many who acknowledge him as Lord, but still
are not saved. Jesus doesn't know them and they won't go to heaven. This
happens even though these people have not denied Jesus' lordship and have even
performed miracles in his name. Paul also urged us to test whether we are in
the faith:
- (Matt 7:21-23) Not every
one that
said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;
but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to
me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name?
and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful
works?
23 And then
will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work
iniquity.
- (2 Cor 13:5)
Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know
you not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be
reprobates?
Almost another
similar description is the story of ten virgins. It reveals the same thing as
the previous description of Jesus. Five of the ten virgins were stupid, even
though they too were waiting for Jesus to return and acknowledging him as
their Lord. Jesus did not know them:
- (Matt 25:1-12) Then
shall the kingdom of heaven be likened to ten virgins, which took their
lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
2 And five of them
were wise, and five were foolish.
3 They that were
foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
4 But the wise took
oil in their vessels with their lamps.
5 While the
bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
6 And at midnight
there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him.
7 Then all those
virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
8 And the foolish
said to the wise, Give us of your oil; for our
lamps are gone out.
9 But the wise
answered, saying, Not so; lest there
be not enough for us and you: but go you rather to them that sell, and buy for
yourselves.
10 And while they
went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to
the marriage: and the door was shut.
11 Afterward came
also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
12 But he answered
and said, Truly I say to you, I know you not.
To get a better
picture of the topic at hand, we are going to look at a vision from the late
preacher, Frank Mangs. He received it at the age of 91. It illustrates how a
person might consider themselves a Christian and saved, but at the same time
be without salvation and outside the gates of heaven. The reason behind the
state of these people must be that they have never repented their sins and
never wanted to change from within. They have not let God impact their life,
or maybe they became estranged from Him at some point. Mangs tells about his
vision:
FRANK MANGS:
I would have liked to see these people walk all the
way home, but this was not allowed. I was forced to look at the beginning of
the road and the narrow gate. I saw a large number of people standing there,
right in front of the gate. What was strange was that many of them seemed
happy. They were happy because they thought they were on the road even though
they had never turned to true conversion by moving through the narrow gate.
(...) We have
guaranteed people their eternity because they have been baptised once. We have
guaranteed that seeking souls have born of the Spirit even though they were
only born by the influence of man. We have told them that they are children of
God simply because they are “nice”. We have become pious quacks, and we have
assured spiritual seekers that they have born of God even though they have
just recently awakened. Sometimes, we have disrupted the spiritual process of
birth this way.
As a result of
this, there are plenty of people who think that they are headed for Heaven
even though they are not. Jesus said that this would be the case in the
evening of this era.
At that time the
kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out
to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish. The foolish ones took their
lamps but did not take any oil with them.
No oil! No Spirit!
No functional spiritual life. Name and recognition. And they thought this
would be enough.
I saw even more: I
saw people who had entered through the gate, experienced the miracle of
rebirth and started to walk the road but who had changed the road into
something else than was meant. They had stopped and made the road a resting
place instead of a travel route. They had not stopped because of old age.
Their growth and development had simply stopped. They had stopped and started
to live in their memories. Some of them had simply stopped and fallen asleep.
They had all forgotten Paul’s command: “Even though we have already made
progress on our journey, let us keep walking along the same road!” (...) Paul
was ruled by sacred poverty but these people are ruled by Laodicean
satisfaction: “We have enough.”
I saw something
else, too. I saw people who had drawn away from the supernatural light shining
on the road. They had retreated into the twilight on either side of the road.
Into the twilight, where the vision of both sin and bliss was shrouded in
darkness. Everything was murky and grey and unreal. And that grey unreality
made possible something that was not possible in the middle of the road:
playing with sin, speech and actions.
And I saw that the
darkness on either side of the road had become the object of their attention.
What had happened to them was the same that happened to Israel when the people
started to listen to the calling of Egypt's food. The listening grew into
lust. A hunger that trapped their thoughts and feelings. It overcame their
dreams and visions. And so they were walking on the side of the road even
though they seemed to be on it.
Then, something
horrible happened. Silently, like shadows, they slipped away from the road:
there was no ditch or fence around it. They slipped away from the road onto
which they had entered with tears and prayers. Away from the light, into the
darkness. Away from life, into death. Away from living hope and into
hopelessness. Into hopelessness that they did not feel. Because they were
dead. They had lost their ability to understand and react. They had lost their
ability to experience a crisis of spirit.
After seeing all
this, I quietly sank to my knees and burst into tears. I wished I was even
half a century younger than I was. And that I would have the opportunity,
better than I had done, to put all my efforts into giving God's Holy Spirit
the freedom to use me even more than had happened. (1)
We are going to bring up a few of the most essential points that attest to the
authenticity of conversion. If you do not see any of these signs in your life,
you ought to be concerned and maybe have another look at the foundation of
salvation. Do not settle for your current state, instead let God change you
and touch your life. Turn to Jesus Christ and confess how you have been far
away from Him, but that now you want Him to be your Lord and Savior. Through
Him you can be saved. (John 14:6: Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth,
and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.)
The desire to do
God's will
is the clearest sign of genuine conversion. A person may not always be able to
follow it and may have a struggle because of it, but if he has no interest in
it, he is not yet saved:
- (Rom 7:22) For
I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
The longing for a
holier life
is basically the same thing as the previous one. A person wants to be purer in
his life and overcome the shortcomings in his life.
These people are
different from people who have a false assurance and are satisfied with
themselves and their current state. They may live in their conversion of the
past, but they do not live for God in the present. They have faith in Christ
as their Savior from sins, but do not think they need deliverance from their
current sins.
- (Matt 5:3) Blessed
are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- (Matt 5:6) Blessed
are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they
shall be filled.
Constant change
and bearing the fruit of the spirit is one sign.
It does not mean that change would be easily detectable within a few days, but
after a longer time period there should be a clear difference. If after 5-10
years we are exactly the same as we were at the time of conversion, then we
are not saved:
- (2 Cor 4:16) For
which cause we faint not; but though our outward
man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
More accurate
detection of wrong attitudes and giving them up in one's life
is part of the process in which the Holy Spirit reveals to a person the wrong
attitudes and mental quality inside him and helps the person to give them up
as well. In this process, a person can feel very wretched and full of sin, as
Paul experienced:
- (Isaiah 6:5) Then
said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips,
and I dwell in the middle of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes
have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
- (Hebr 4:12,13)
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two
edged 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.
13 Neither is there
any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and
opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
- (Rom 7:24,25) O
wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of
God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Anguish about
other people’s salvation
is one of the major signs. When a person has become saved himself, he
immediately worries about the fate of other souls. If we are not concerned
about the fate of others, we are certainly not saved:
- (Rom 9:1-3) I say
the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the
Holy Ghost,
2 That I have
great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
3 For I could wish
that myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers, my
kinsmen according to the flesh:
- (Rom 10:1) Brothers,
my heart's desire and prayer to
God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
The desire to
pray, especially for the salvation of other people,
is due to the previous thing. When it becomes clear to man that others are
going to perdition, he immediately begins to pray for them that this will not
happen and that God's work will progress. Prayer and the desire to increase it
further is one of the signs of genuine conversion:
- (Rom 10:1) Brothers,
my heart's desire and prayer to
God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
The desire to read
the Bible and consider it the word of God
is part of a genuine conversion. We can, as it were, gain an inner
understanding of the matter, even if we used to think quite differently. We
may also be saddened if the authority of the Bible is eroded or God's will in
society is not fulfilled:
- (1 Thess 2:9,13)
For you remember, brothers, our labor and
travail: for laboring night
and day, because we would not be chargeable to any of you, we preached to you
the gospel of God.
13 For this cause
also thank we God without ceasing, because, when you received the word of God
which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of men,
but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually works also in
you that believe.
Why do people think
they have been saved, even when they are not?It might perhaps be due to the
declaration being overly concentrated on the love of God these days – “God
loves you as you are” – without any focus on His righteousness and holiness.
People are being told how He loves them (which is true, of course, because
Jesus came to the world), but people are not told how He hates sin and how sin
separates people from God. People are not told about His perfectness and
holiness, and that people will have to account for their actions if they stay
unrepentant. People are led to believe that they are saved and subject to
God’s love without ever having been under the light of God’s truth and never
having seen their true state. In Bible terms, the law has never shut their
mouth, and made them guilty and sinful before God, which is why everything is
left incomplete and superficial. For only when we understand our true
condition and that we can't find comfort in anything about ourselves, our
actions and our transformation, only then do we understand to look outside,
that is, to Christ, who has done everything for us, and can alone save us just
like a shipwrecked person. The order is always this, and it is because of its
absence that many have not understood the whole matter. Paul wrote on the
subject:
- (Rom 3:19,20) Now
we know that what things soever the law said, it said to them who are under
the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the
deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by
the law is the knowledge of sin.
Or perhaps we have
emphasized too much that when people confess Jesus as their Lord and say the
prayer of the sinner, it will be enough. A person may take these measures
because it is expected of him, but again the problem may be that God has not
been allowed to show a person his true condition and that everything has
remained superficial. Birth has been rushed before the person was ready for
it. Jesus may have partially come into their lives, but he must not be the
Lord of all life.
Charles H.
Spurgeon continues on the same subject. He shows that when the Holy Spirit
comes, he will truly show sin and righteousness. It means that a person sees
his sinfulness before God (all the time more and more closely) and that he
does not meet God's standard. He sees how wretched he is in himself and
therefore needs Christ's merit. If he has not first seen his true and lost
state, he is hardly saved. God always works in such a way that he first shows
this to man, and only then can the gospel come as a comfort. Those whom Jesus
does not know at the final judgement (Matthew 7:21-23) are those who have not
experienced this.
However, in these
times we hear of people who are healed before they are wounded, and who are
assured of their justification, although they have never wept over their lost
condition.
However, we doubt the value of such healings and justifications. For this
order of things does not agree with the truth. God never clothes a man until
he first undresses them. Nor does he refresh them with the gospel until he has
first beaten them with the law. So when you meet people in whom you can't see
any sign of the realization of sin, you can be absolutely sure that the Holy
Spirit has not influenced them, because "when he is come, he will reprove the
world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:".
…You cannot see
that you have won a soul to Jesus until he has ceased to trust in himself and
his own merits and has come to Jesus. It must be carefully observed that
through faith he owns Jesus for complete salvation and not just partially.
(2)
Understanding
righteousness and grace. When
one wants to move forward in spiritual life, it is essential to understand
what a person has experienced at the moment when he has turned to Jesus Christ
and accepted Him into his life. Unfortunately, many do not understand the
position they have received through Christ. They doubt their own salvation and
whether God really accepts them and loves them. It is difficult for them to
believe that through Christ they are righteous, innocent and forgiven before
God, and it is this false belief that prevents them from progressing in their
spiritual life. A.B. Simpson wrote about 100 years ago:
A few years ago,
Doctor Jones from Albany wrote a book called Grace from Grace, which was read
by nearly all serious-minded Christians throughout England. He was a
Presbyterian Priest and had gotten a little closer to God than his brothers.
During his later years he provided lessons about living a Christian life.
Shortly before leaving, he wrote the previously mentioned book, in which he
brought up some of his experiences with soul care. He had found that in almost
all cases where people had difficulty entering into a deeper spiritual life,
the reason was that they did not have a clear assurance of their own
justification. They were not justified entirely by faith, but partly by faith,
partly by works, and partly by feelings. But as soon as emotions fluctuated
and good decisions became a little diluted, their certainty was gone. So they
made no progress; they did not know Christ as being at every moment their
Saviour, in spite of their own varying feelings. (3)
Why do people doubt
their salvation and their own position through Christ? The main reason is that
they look at themselves and whether they have changed enough and not to what
Jesus Christ has done for them. They have tried to get assurance through
themselves and not through Christ, and that is a completely false foundation.
Certainty is found only when they stop staring at themselves in the matter of
salvation and put their hope outside in Christ, just as the anchor of a ship
is always thrown outside the ship, and not in the ship itself:
- (Gal 3:1) O foolish
Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before
whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
- (Hebr 12:2) Looking
to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that
was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God.
- (John 1:29) The
next day John sees Jesus coming to him, and said, Behold the Lamb of
God, which takes away the sin of the world.
- (Acts 16:30,31) And
brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
31 And they said, Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house.
The foundation of
salvation is in the blood of Christ. When he first lived a sinless life and
then shed his blood, it all happened so that we could have our sins forgiven.
The blood of Christ is sufficient for God just as the Israelites were saved
through the blood of the lamb during the old covenant. When they anointed it
on the doorposts, God then said:
- (Ex 12:13) And
the blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are: and when
I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be on you to
destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
So trust that
Christ's perfect life and the blood He shed is enough to forgive sins. That is
enough for God and you. Look not to yourself but to Christ and what He has
done. We can approach God and be forgiven through Christ and His atoning blood
and not through our own goodness or works:
- (Matt 26:28) For
this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for
the remission of sins.
- (Rom 3:25) Whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the
forbearance of God;
- (Eph 1:7) In whom
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of his grace;
- (Eph 2:13) But now
in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made near by the blood
of Christ.
- (Col 1:19,20) For
it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell;
20 And, having
made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to
himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in
heaven.
- (Hebr 10:19)
Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood
of Jesus,
- (1 Peter 1:18,19)
For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as
silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers;
19 But with the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
- (1 John 1:7) But
if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleans us from all sin.
- (Rev 1:5) And from
Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead,
and the prince of the kings of the earth. To him that loved us, and
washed us from our sins in his own blood,
2. What happened on the cross?
Your own will is
not enough.
When a person turns to God and follows Jesus, he usually has the goal of
getting rid of all binding sins. Because of that, he may make promises,
decisions to live according to God's will and strain on his willpower to
follow the Bible's instructions and rules of conduct. He may do his best to
live a holy life.
The problem with
decisions and promises of the will, however, is that they usually don't stick.
They in themselves do not give strength to do God's will. A person may do his
best, but he soon realizes that his good decisions last only a short time -
just as a stone thrown into the air stays in the air for a while, but soon
returns to the surface of the earth because of the influence of gravity.
Paul also
experienced the same problem. He found that although he wanted to do God's
will, he could not. It describes the situation in which many Christians live
today.
- (Rom 7:14-25) For
we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For that which I
do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
16 If then I do that
which I would not, I consent to the law that it is good.
17 Now then it is no
more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.
18 For I know
that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing: for to will is
present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19 For the good that
I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20 Now if I do that I
would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.
21 I find then
a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in
the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another
law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched
man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of
God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Paul also gives an
explanation as to why people are unable to live by the will of God. Firstly,
he mentioned that there is no good in the flesh, and later he continues that
the flesh is not subject to the law of God, , neither indeed can be. It is
impossible for anyone to do the will of God on their own:
- (Rom 7:18) For
I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing: for to
will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
- (Rom 8:6,7) For to
be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the
carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be.
The following quote
describes the struggle that many have in their lives. They want to live a holy
life, but will soon realize it is impossible. Good decisions alone are not
enough to change them:
Everything is
miserable. I feel like I'm not succeeding in becoming who I should be. I try
to live according to God's will. But it's not easy. In the eyes of others, it
seems to be going well, but the reality is different.
I have begun to
analyse my motives, and the result is overwhelming. There is so much sin in
me... if only people could see me from within! Would they smell how bad I
smell! I pray and cry out to God, but it doesn't help. Sin is a strangely
persistent mass that I cannot let go of. I may fall into utter despair and cry
out, "Can I never be clean? Can I never become holy? Is it the intention that
this should be the case?
It seems to me
that there is no use at all in praying. I have cried out to God and asked for
help, but he does not answer me. I am helplessly stuck in my misery. Here I am
talking to others about how wonderful it is to be a Christian and what kind of
power the Holy Spirit gives, and yet my own life is written: hopeless!
At first I
thought it would help if I gave myself completely to God and rededicated
myself to Him and sacrificed everything on His altar without keeping anything
for myself. I have tried this. I have said to God: “I give everything to you.
You get to be my only Lord and King. I don't want to know anything but You in
my whole life.
However, this has
not helped one bit. Sin is in me constantly, and I have not been freed from
it. I feel like I'm in a swamp that I sink deeper into the more I try to get
up. The swamp literally sucks me in. (4)
What happened on
the cross? When
a person turns to God, his problem is usually acts of sin. He seeks
forgiveness for the sins of the past, but also tries to live in such a way in
his new life that he would no longer engage in the same sins that he had
before.
At some point,
however, a person makes a new observation: his problem is not only acts of sin
but the sin that lives in him. He discovers that his inner sinful nature is
the root cause of man-made sins. The problem is in his nature, which does not
want to do God's will and to give up sin. This becomes very clear in the
following verses:
- (Jer 17:9)
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know
it?
- (Mark 7:21-23) For
from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,
fornications, murders,
22 Thefts,
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy,
pride, foolishness:
23 All these evil
things come from within, and defile the man.
- (John 2:24,25) But
Jesus did not commit himself to them, because he knew all men,
25 And needed not
that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.
What is God's
solution to sin in man? It is easy for many to grasp the fact that Jesus bore
the sins of all people in the world, and that by trusting and believing in
this fact, it is possible for everyone to have their sins forgiven. This is
not usually suspected because we have been well taught about it and it has
been constantly repeated in sermons.
However, the
Bible also talks about the solution to the sin in man. For at the same time
that Jesus carried the sins and diseases of the world, he also took sinful
humanity with him. Our old man, our sinful nature, was on the cross at the
same time as Him. This is hard for many to grasp, but just as Jesus bore all
our sins in advance - before we had committed them - he did the same for our
sinful nature. It is a fact of faith. It must be embraced by faith.
We look at Bible
verses related to the topic. They reveal how we were united to Christ in his
death but also in his resurrection and ascension. When Christ experienced
these facts, we were also in him, because God has put us in Christ (1 Cor
1:30: But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption). Noteworthy in all
verses is the past tense. They refer to what happened already 2000 years ago:
- (Rom 6:1-8) What
shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How
shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
3 Know you not, that
so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
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.
5 For if we
have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in
the likeness of his resurrection:
6 Knowing this, that
our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that from now on we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead
is freed from sin.
8 Now if we be
dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
- (Rom 6:10-13) For
in that he died, he died to sin once: but in that he lives, he
lives to God.
11 Likewise
reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12 Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts
thereof.
13 Neither yield you
your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin: but yield yourselves to
God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as
instruments of righteousness to God.
- (2 Cor 5:14,15) For
the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if one
died for all, then were all dead:
15 And that he died
for all, that they which live should not from now on live to themselves, but
to him which died for them, and rose again.
- (Gal 2:19,20) For
I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live to God.
20 I am
crucified with Christ:
nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I
now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and
gave himself for me.
- (Gal 5:24) And they
that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
- (Gal 6:14) But God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.
- (Col 2:12,13) Buried
with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of
the operation of God, who has raised him from the dead.
13 And you, being
dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
- (Col 2:20) Why
if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as
though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances,
- (Col 3:1-4) If
you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sits on the right hand of God.
2 Set your affection
on things above, not on things on the earth.
3 For you are
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is
our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory.
- (2 Tim 2:11) It is
a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also
live with him:
- (Rom 8:29,30) For
whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to
be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brothers.
30 Moreover whom he
did predestinate,
them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and
whom he justified, them he also glorified.
- (Eph 1:20
/ 2:6) Which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead,
and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
6 And has
raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus
Watchman Nee tells
how he realized the fact we have been united with the Christ in His death and
resurrection. He had tried for years to embrace this truth, but saw his old
self thrive. Eventually, it became clear to him what happened on the cross
nearly 2000 years ago:
After my conversion,
I had been taught for years that in order to be free from sin, I had to make
myself dead to sin and live for God (Rom 6:11). I believed this from the year
1920 to the year 1927, but my problem was that the more I believed this, the
more it felt like I lived for sin. I simply could not believe I was dead, and
I could not make my old self die. I suffered constant defeat at the hands of
sin, and I realized that something fundamentally was wrong. Thus, I asked God
to show me what the phrase “I am crucified with Christ” means.
…I remember one
morning – how could I ever forget it! I was sat upstairs reading Romans and I
arrived at the following words: ”Knowing this, that our old man is crucified
with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that from now on we should
not serve sin” (Rom 6:6) When we know it! How could I know it! I then prayed:
” Lord, open my eyes!” and suddenly I understood. I had previously read 1.
Cor. 1:30: “you in Christ Jesus.” I searched this sentence and had another
look at it. “But of him are you in Christ Jesus” It was astonishing! If Christ
died – which is a fact – and if God has placed me in Him, then I must have
died too. My death to sin was a thing of the past and not of the future. I had
realized a godly fact. I jumped excitedly from my chair and ran downstairs to
a man working in the kitchen: “Brother”, I said taking him by the arm, “do you
know that I am dead?” I admit, he seemed confused. He exclaimed: “What do you
mean?” and I continued: “Don’t you know that the Christ is dead? Don’t you
know that I died with Him? Don’t you know that my death is no less true than
His?” Oh, how real it all was to me! I wanted to scream about my discovery in
the streets of Shanghai. After that day I have never doubted the finality of
the following words: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not
I, but Christ lives in me” (5)
From Adam to
Christ. As
noted, our greatest problem is the sin that lives inside of us, the original
sin that was come in the Fall of Man. When Adam fell, he was not alone, as the
whole mankind was hidden inside him, because Adam is the ancestral father of
the whole mankind. We are sinful because we have been born to Adam’s family
and inherited his sinful nature:
- (Rom 5:12) Why, as
by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin; and so death passed on all men, for that all have sinned:
- (Acts 17:26) And
has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of
the earth, and has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of
their habitation;
The concept of how
descendants can be hidden in ancestors is evident from the following examples
from the Bible. The first of them tells how Levi, although not yet born, was
with Abraham giving tithes to Melchizedek. Levi was in his ancestor, because
without his ancestor he wouldn't even have been born.
In the same way,
all mankind can be considered to have been in Adam, because he is the
progenitor of mankind. If Adam hadn't existed, there wouldn't have been
humanity inherited from him either:
- (Hebr 7:9,10)
And as I may so say, Levi also, who receives tithes, paid tithes in
Abraham.
10 For he was
yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met
him.
- (Gen 4:20) And Adah
bore Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as
have cattle.
- (Gen 25:23) And the
LORD said to her, Two nations
are in your womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from your bowels;
and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder
shall serve the younger.
Despite having been
born to the family of Adam, and inherited sinful nature, the Bible tells us
how we can deliver ourselves from the force sin and Adam. It, of course,
happens through Christ, who was and is the other representative of all
mankind. When the whole mankind was hidden in Adam, we were also concealed in
Christ, our other representative. We were planted in Him through the
crucifixion and resurrection (Rom 6:5: For if we have been planted together in
the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection). Adam and Christ’s positions as the representatives of mankind
comes apparent, e.g., in the following verses of the Bible:
- (1 Cor 15:45-47)
And so it is written, The first
man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made
a quickening spirit.
46 However, that was
not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that
which is spiritual.
47 The first
man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.
- (1 Cor 15:21,22) For
since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of
the dead.
22 For as in
Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
- (Rom 5:14,15)
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not
sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure
of him that was to come.
15 But not as the
offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be
dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus
Christ, has abounded to many.
- (Rom 5:17-19) For if
by one man's offense death reigned by one; much more they which
receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in
life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by
the offense of one judgment came on all men to condemnation;
even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came on all men to
justification of life.
19 For as by
one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
The problem in the
lives of many Christians is that they see themselves on the wrong side of the
cross. They have not understood or internalized the fact that we do not depend
on our inheritance from Adam, but on Christ's work on the cross and his
resurrection. The cross separates us from all that inheritance that came
through Adam. E.g. the following things were taken to the cross:
The law with its
requirements
- (Col 2 :13,14) And
you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has he
quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
14 Blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
- (Gal 3:13) Christ
has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us: for it is written, Cursed is every
one that hangs on a tree:
- (Rom 7:4,6) Why, my
brothers, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ;
that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the
dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God.
6 But now we
are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that
we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
All sins and our sin
debt
- (Isaiah 53:6) All
we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every
one to
his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
- (Isaiah 53:11) He
shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their
iniquities.
- (Isaiah 53:12)
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the
spoil with the strong; because he has poured out his soul to death: and he was
numbered with the transgressors; and he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
- (1 Peter 2:24) Who
his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being
dead to sins, should live to righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.
All illnesses
- (Isaiah 53:4) Surely he
has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
- (Matt 8:16,17) When
the even was come, they brought to him many that were possessed with devils:
and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:
17 That it might
be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself
took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses.
Our old man with
his sinful nature and soul wounds. The cross separates from the past.
- (Rom 6:6-8) Knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of
sin might be destroyed, that from now on we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead
is freed from sin.
8 Now if we be dead
with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
- (Col 3:9,10) Lie
not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his
deeds;
10 And have put
on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him
that created him:
Satan was also
defeated on the cross
- (Col 2:15) And
having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly,
triumphing over them in it.
- (1 John 3:8) He
that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sins from the beginning. For
this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he
might destroy the works of the devil.
We are going to look
at a list that informs what we are through Adam, and what we are through
Christ. The above column tells what we are in Adam, and the lower column tells
what we are in the Christ. A shift from one column to the other happened
through the death and resurrection of Christ. We can experience the strength
of these things today if we turn to Jesus Christ. These things will come true
perfectly in eternity:
• In Adam under the
law
• In Christ under
grace
- (Rom 6:14) For sin
shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under
grace.
• In Adam, an old
creation
• In Christ, a new
creation
- (2 Cor 5:17) Therefore
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new.
• In Adam condemned
• In Christ free of
condemnation
- (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.
• In Adam sinful
• In Christ righteous
- (Rom 5:1)
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ:
• In Adam without an
eternal inheritance
• In Christ, a joint-heir
- (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.
• In Adam, in
darkness
• In Christ, moved
into the kingdom of God
- (Col 1:13) Who
has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the
kingdom of his dear Son:
• Sick in Adam
• Healthy through the
wounds of Christ
- (1 Peter 2:24) Who
his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to
sins, should live to righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.
• Unsaved in Adam
• Saved in Christ
- (1 Peter 1:18,19) For
as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things,
as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from
your fathers;
19 But with the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
• In Adam, the spirit
of fear
• In Christ received
the spirit of power, love and of a sound mind
- (2 Tim 1:7) For
God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a
sound mind.
• In Adam, a slave to
sin
• In Christ, freed
from sin
- (Rom 6:6,7,22) Knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be
destroyed, that from now on we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead
is freed from sin.
22 But now being
made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit to
holiness, and the end everlasting life.
• In Adam,
spiritually dead
• In Christ, received an eternal life
- (1 John 5:13) These
things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God;
that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on
the name of the Son of God.
Placed in Christ.
Many understand that the power to overcome sin and live spiritually is through
Christ. It is understood that it is impossible to get rid of sin in one's own
strength, but through Christ it is possible. This understanding usually comes
at some point after salvation.
How then can we
get to Christ, who becomes the power to overcome sin? How is the connection
with him realized?
The answer was
already discussed in the previous paragraphs. For we don't have to unite
ourselves with Christ, it already happened 2000 years ago. We were joined to
him in his death and resurrection because the Bible says so. Romans teaches
about this:
- (Rom 6:5) For if we
have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in
the likeness of his resurrection:
The first Corinthians
also addresses this. It shows that God has already placed us in Christ. It is
not our own doing but a fact:
- (1 Cor 1:30) But
of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
Jesus Himself also
talked how we are branches in Him. We do not need to pray to be a part of Him,
as we have already been placed in His life. Praying to be a part of Him would
be the same as a person in Helsinki wanting to go to Helsinki. It does not
make any sense, because he or she already is there.
Therefore, we must
embrace our part in Christ through faith, not through feelings. We have been
connected to Christ and His life 2000 years ago. That is why we are just as
righteous and pure before God as He is. We are even part of His body, even if
we would not feel like it. We are going to look at some related verses that
talk about our connection with Christ:
- (Rom 6:5) For if we
have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be
also in the likeness of his resurrection:
- (John 15:1-5) I am
the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.
2 Every branch
in me that bears not fruit he takes away: and every branch that bears
fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now you are clean
through the word which I have spoken to you.
4 Abide in me, and I
in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the
vine; no more can you, except you abide in me.
5 I am the
vine, you are the branches: He that stays in me, and I in him, the
same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.
- (Eph 1:22,23)
And has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all
things to the church,
23 Which is his
body, the fullness of him that fills all in all.
- (Eph 5:30-32) For
we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
31 For this cause
shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and
they two shall be one flesh.
32 This is a great
mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
- (Col 1:18,24) And
he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
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:
- (Rom 11:16-18) For
if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so
are the branches.
17 And if some of the
branches be broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in
among them, and with them partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
18 Boast not against
the branches. But if you boast, you bore not the root, but the root you.
- (1 Cor 12:27) Now
you are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
- (2 Cor 1:21) Now he
which establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God;
- (1 Cor 6:15) Know
you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then
take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
- (Col 2:6,7) As you
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in him:
7 Rooted and built
up in him, and established in the faith, as you have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving.
- (Col 2:9,10) For in
him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
10 And you are
complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
- (Col 2:19,20) And
not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having
nourishment ministered, and knit together, increases with the increase of God.
20 Why if you
be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though
living in the world, are you subject to ordinances,
- (2 Peter 1:4)
Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these
you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust.
Doctrine about us
being in Christ is one of the most important topics in the Bible. It is
present in the Bible in different forms ca. 160 times. We do not need to be
tied to our inheritance from Adam, instead we can have faith in our new
position through Christ:
- (John 14:20) At
that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me,
and I in you.
- (1 Cor 1:30) But
of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
- (2 Cor 5:17) Therefore
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed
away; behold, all things are become new.
- (1 John 5:20) And
we know that the Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding, that
we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in
his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
- (Eph 2:13)
But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made
near by the blood of Christ.
- (1 Cor 1:2) To the
church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ
Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call on the
name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their's and our's:
- (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.
Some examples from
biographies of well-known spiritual influencers illustrate this point. These
examples show how these people progressed in their spiritual life, once they
understood their position in Christ:
One day Bunyan
understood justification by grace, which is a central part of Luther’s
explanations of the Galatians. It was as if he had seen Jesus Christ on the
right side of God. “There… was my righteousness; … God could not say that he
demanded my righteousness, because it (my righteousness) was in front of Him.
At the same time I understood that the goodness in my heart did not make my
righteousness any better, and the badness in me did not make it any worse; my
righteousness is, you see, Jesus Christ Himself, who is ’the same yesterday,
and to day, and for ever’ (Hebr 13:8).”
…Bunyan also realized
the “sweet words” of Eph. 5:30: “For we are members of his body.” He tells:
“The Lord also led me to understand the secret of what it means to be
connected to the Son of God… He strengthened my belief in Him being my
righteousness; That is if Him and I are one, His righteousness is mine, His
merits are mine, and His victory is mine. Now I can see myself in heaven and
here on earth at the same time; in heaven through my Christ, my Head, my
righteousness, and my life, even when because of my body and my persona I am
here on earth.” (6)
Catherine Booth: A
few weeks ago, I was talking about sanctification in Bethesda, and we had a
wonderful time. William has preached about it twice, and people have gone
through Astonishing revival... I have a lot to thank about my dear spouse.
Lately, the Lord has blessed him greatly... He strives to be sanctified in
everything. You would be surprised at the change that happened in him. It
would take me the whole night to tell you about it…
Once we got up
from our knees, I lied down on the couch exhausted from the excitement and
effort of the day. William said: "Don't you put everything on the altar?" I
said: "Of course I do!" Then they said: "Isn't the altar holy?" I answered
with what the Holy Spirit gave me: "The Altar is holy, and anything that
touches it, will become holy." Then William said: "Doesn't that make you Holy
as well?" I answered with a heart full of emotion and faith: "Oh, I believe I
am." Immediately, as a guarantee of my faith, these words were given to me:
"Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you." And I grasped
this truth with trembling hands and did not let the bully disturb me, as I
held on to my budding trust, and it grew stronger. And from that moment on I
have had the courage to keep myself dead from sin, but living for God through
Jesus Christ, my Lord. I didn't experience a great exhilarating joy, but I
experienced perfect peace, the sweet rest that Jesus has promised to those who
are burdened. (7)
Returning to
Yangtshou to see his patient, missionary Taylor brought with him good news.
“When I went to
meet him,” said missionary Judd, “he was so full of joy that he could scarcely
speak. Once inside, he paced the room with his hands behind his back,
repeating:
'God has made me
a new person. God has made me a new person.'
The change in the
mission director and the conversation with a younger colleague until midnight
made a deep impression on this. He too had seen the truth in theory, but did
not feel its living power.
“I don't have to
make myself a branch,” Hudson Taylor said—and Missionary Judd could never
forget those words—“The Lord Jesus says I'm a branch, I'm a part of Him, and I
can act on it by faith. As a member of Christ, I can receive from His fullness
all that I need. For a long time I have seen this in the Bible, but now I
believe it as a living reality."
As simple as the
new perspective was, it brought about a revolutionary change in Taylor. (8)
Process
- (2 Cor 3:18) But we
all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are
changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the
LORD.
- (2 Cor 4:16) For
which cause we faint not; but though our outward
man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
- (Rev 22:10,11) And
he said to me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time
is at hand.
11 He that is unjust,
let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and
he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy,
let him be holy still.
When a person
understands his position through Christ and how he has been joined as a branch
to the Christ tree, it can elevate his spiritual life. He can reach a new
level just like the well-known spiritual influencers mentioned above. He can
free from the things that have bound him.
However, it is
important to understand that change is a lifelong process. We can understand
our position through Christ in one moment, but that is only the beginning of
something new, not the end point. We can still fall and be imperfect such as
Peter, who was afraid of the circumcised and fell into hypocrisy. This
happened, even though he had already been in the faith for years and received
the powerful fullness of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost:
- (Gal 2:11-13) But
when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to
be blamed.
12 For before that
certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were
come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the
circumcision.
13 And the other Jews
dissembled likewise with him; so that Barnabas also was carried away with
their dissimulation.
We get a good picture
of how sanctification is a continuous process from a few quotes from the lives
of spiritual influencers. First to teach is Watchman Nee. He told earlier how
he came to understand his position through Christ, that is, how he had been
associated with Christ's death and resurrection. But in the following, he
tells us that understanding the same thing is only the first step of a
victorious life. It gives a person the assurance that there are more wins to
come. However, man himself is still far from perfect:
After being bound by
sin for a long time, a child of God readily considers his deliverance from its
power to be the most wonderful life. This is precisely where the greatest
danger lies for the future of such a person. He now concludes that all the
malevolent influences in him have been eradicated. He does not know that even
though the old man has died to sin and the body of sin has been destroyed,
"sin" is not dead. It has become nothing more than a deposed autocrat who,
when the opportunity arises, tries his best to regain his throne. A believer
may even continue to experience freedom from sin, but he still has not become
perfect. However, he must tirelessly deal with "his own self".
It is unfortunate
if Christians consider themselves fully sanctified when, after seeking
sanctification, they have experienced liberation. They do not know the truth
that freedom from sin is only the first step. It is only the first Victory
given by God, and it is to give people certainty that there are many more
victories to come. Overcoming sin is like a door; after taking one step you
are inside. Overcoming one's self is like a path; you will walk along it for
the rest of your life. Once we have conquered sin, we are called to conquer
ourselves—even our best, most zealous, and most religious selves—daily. (9)
We find another
example from the life of the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth.
Previously, we had a look at how he had experienced God’s blessing and change
as described by his wife. However, a few years later he went through a
momentary dry season in his life, where he did not feel like he was moving
forward. This shows that although God gives blessings and changes people, He
can allow people to go through dryer periods, so that we would live through
faith and not through powerful experiences:
I wish I was in a
more fulfilling state spiritually. I feel almost dead, powerless. As a result,
my public preaching and prayer seem to have little effect on people. But just
wishing doesn't make it better. Oh, that God would come and give me new light
and new strength. Will you pray for me? I have never felt so numb and
powerless in my prayer before. And I don't know what to do...(10)
A third good example
is Charles G. Finney. It is remarkable that when he was saved, he instantly
received strong baptism of the Holy Spirit. Because of that he immediately
began to preach after his salvation, and apparently, tens of thousands of
people were saved as a result of his preaching. Most of them were saved a few
years after Finney’s conversion.
Despite
everything, Finney was going through the same process as other Christians. In
his book Ihmeellisiä herätyksiä, he tells how he experienced reform after
having been a believer for 20 years, and after thousands of people had already
been saved. He saw the different degrees of his Christian experience and
reached a higher level in his spiritual life. Before that, however, we look at
his conversion experience and how he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit
right after:
I experienced a
powerful conversion on the morning of October 10th. In the evening of the same
day, and in the morning of the next day, I received a tremendous baptism of
the Holy Spirit, which passed, as I felt, both through my soul and my body. I
immediately found myself endowed with such power from above that just by
uttering a few words here and there to some individuals, those words resulted
in immediate conversion. My words seemed to stick like barbed arrows into
people's souls. They cut like a sword. They broke the heart like a hammer.
Countless can attest to this. Sometimes a word I uttered, though I did not
even remember it myself, could cause a belief, and often the result was an
almost immediate conversion. (11)
When the great
turmoil of this period settled down and my heart calmed down, I saw more
clearly the different degrees of my Christian experiences and noticed the
inner connection between things, since they were all God's work from beginning
to end. But since then I haven't had those hard battles and long periods of
painful prayer that I used to have many times. According to my own experience,
it is now quite different to "persuade God" with my prayer. I can come before
God more calmly because my trust is more complete. He now causes me to rest in
Him and allow everything to fall into His perfect will with my mind far more
open than ever before my experiences this winter.
Since then, I
have felt such spiritual openness, bearing power and joy in God and His word,
such steadfastness of faith, Christian freedom and overflowing love that I had
experienced only temporarily before. I don't mean that it was rare for me
before, for I had experienced it often and renewingly, but not so deeply as
since. My shackles seemed to be broken and since then I have been free like a
child in the company of a loving parent. I feel that I meet God in my own
being in the sense that I can rest in Him and be at peace, place my heart in
His hands and find my rest in His perfect will, without making an effort.
I mentioned that
these experiences had been common in my life since that time. However, I
cannot say they have lasted the whole time without interruption, as I lived
through a great depression and a period of strange humiliation during my
illness in 1860. But the Lord brought me out of it, building again my peace
and rest on a firm foundation. (12)
3. The law of the spirit of life
Many people have the
idea that while justification is God's work through faith in Christ,
sanctification is something that depends on ourselves. In this view,
sanctification is seen as an act that we perform out of gratitude because we
have been saved. We think that our own will is enough to change us.
However, it is
the same with sanctification as with justification: in both we are dead to the
law and its requirements. In practice, it means that God no longer demands
anything from us, but he has done and will do everything himself through
Christ. As long as we think we can save ourselves, Christ cannot become our
righteousness. And as long as we think we can change ourselves internally,
Christ cannot become our sanctification. Therefore, the right way in
sanctification and inner change is not to try harder to become a better
person, but for Christ to live in us and change our attitude. It can only
happen when we realize that we are dead to the law and its demands and that we
cannot change ourselves. Sanctification must be received as a gift like
righteousness.
- (Rom 7:4,6) Why, my
brothers, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ;
that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the
dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God.
6 But now we
are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that
we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
- (Rom 6:14,15) For
sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law,
but under grace.
15 What then? shall
we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
- (Gal 2:19,20) For
I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live to God.
20 I am
crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live;
yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Law nailed to the
cross
- (Col 2:13,14) And
you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has he
quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
14 Blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
- (Eph 2:13-15)
But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made near by the
blood of Christ.
14 For he is our
peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition
between us;
15 Having
abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in
ordinances; for to make in himself of two one new man, so making
peace;
The following
practical example shows what freedom from the law means. When we cannot change
ourselves, we can look to Christ who can do it for us and in us. What is
impossible for humans is possible for Him:
An engineer living in
a large western city left his homeland for the Far East. He was away from home
for two or three years. Meanwhile, his wife was unfaithful and left with a man
who was one of her husband's best friends. After returning home, the engineer
found that he had lost his wife, two children and his best friend. I was a
speaker at a meeting, after which this grief-stricken man confided in me. "My
heart has been filled with anger day and night for two whole years," he said.
"I am a believer and I know that I should forgive my wife and my friend, but I
just can't do it no matter how hard I try. Every day I choose to love them and
every day I fail. What can I do?" "Don't do anything," I replied. "What do you
mean?" he asked in surprise. “Do I still have to hate them?” I explained to
him: "The solution to the problem is that when He died on the cross, the Lord
Jesus took your sins as His own, but in addition to that, He also took you
completely as His own." When He was crucified, your old self was crucified in
Him. So your unforgiving 'self', unable to love those who have wronged you,
has been taken away in His death. God has settled the whole situation on the
cross, and you have nothing more to settle. Just say to Him, 'Lord, I can't
love and I'll stop trying, but I trust in Your perfect love. I am not capable
of forgiving, but I trust that instead of me, You will forgive and carry it
out in me.'"
The man sat
completely amazed and said: “That's all so new; I feel like I have to do
something about it.” Then he continued, “But what can I do?” "God will wait so
long for you to stop," I replied. "When you stop doing, then God begins. Have
you ever tried to save a drowning person? The most difficult thing in saving a
life is that the drowning person is very afraid and does not dare to rely on
the rescuer. In such a situation, there are only two possibilities. Either he
must be knocked unconscious and then dragged ashore, or he must be allowed to
struggle and scream until his strength is exhausted, and only then go to his
aid. If you try to save a drowning man who still has a little strength left,
he will cling to his rescuer in terror and pull him under the water, and then
both will be lost. God waits until you have exhausted all your resources; only
then can He set you free. But when you have ceased to exert yourself, He is
ready to do all things. God is waiting for you to despair.”
My engineer
friend jumped to his feet. “Brother,” he said, now I understand. Thank God, I
have nothing to worry about anymore! I don't have to do anything. He has
already done everything!” The man left me with a radiant face and rejoicing.
(13)
In Christ all
attributes.
When a person turns to God and Jesus Christ, he soon realizes that his flesh
is corrupted. He learns to feel more and more clearly his own defects and
shortcomings, especially the sins of the mind, which he did not perceive
before. He begins to notice in his own speeches pride, irritability and other
wrong attitudes that were unknown to him before.
In this
situation, we usually start acting in a prescribed way. We begin to pray to
the Lord for deliverance: "Lord, deliver me from my anger, from my
irritability, from my pride, from my dirty thoughts, from my fears... Take
away from me these things that trouble me!"
However, the
teaching of the Bible is that Christ has already been given to us as
sanctification and life. He has all the qualities we are looking for. He has
humility, love, purity and all that we need. God does not give these good
qualities as separate things, but He has given Christ, who is able to meet all
needs. The more we notice our flaws and get to know ourselves, the more room
we have for Him.
- (1 Cor 1:30) But of
him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to us wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
- (Phil 1:21) For to
me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
- (Col 3:3,4) For you
are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
4 When Christ,
who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in
glory.
- (Eph 1:3)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
The following verses
speak of Christ's life in us. The question is not that we try to imitate His
example, but that He really lives inside of us and influences people. We have
already been put as branches in Him, and we can only trust that He Himself
will bring good qualities to us. The function of the branch is only to
receive. When it receives life from the trunk, it automatically produces those
fruits that are characteristic of the tree:
- (2 Cor 13:5)
Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know
you not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except
you be reprobates?
- (John 15:4,5) Abide
in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me.
5 I am the vine, you
are the branches: He that stays in me, and I in him, the same
brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.
- (John
14:18,20,23,28) I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
20 At that day you
shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
23 Jesus answered and
said to him, If a man love me, he will keep my
words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our
stay with him.
28 You have heard how
I said to you, I go away, and come again to you. If you loved me, you
would rejoice, because I said, I go to the Father: for my Father is greater
than I.
- (John 17:23,26) I
in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that
the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them, as you have
loved me.
26 And I have
declared to them your name, and will declare it: that the love with which you
have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
- (Eph 3:16,17)
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be
strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17 That Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded
in love,
- (Gal 2:19,20) For I
through the law am dead to the law, that I might live to God.
20 I am crucified
with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I,
but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I
live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
- (Gal 4:19) My
little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in
you,
- (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:
- (1 John 5:12) He
that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not
life.
- (1 John 4:4,13,15)
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater
is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
13 Hereby know
we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he has given us of his
Spirit.
15 Whoever shall
confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God.
- (Rom 8:10) And if Christ
be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness.
- (2 Cor 4:7) But
we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the
power may be of God, and not of us.
Watchman Nee tells
how he realized that Christ is the answer to all God’s demands. Once given a
chance, He will slowly impact our lives in a way that He gradually brings up
those qualities that we lack. This is a lifelong process.
When I was a young Christian, many people thought my life was Christ-like. A
few years later, I discovered to my dismay that I lost my temper quite often.
Even when I managed to control my emotions, so that there was no actual
outburst, I was boiling inside... I fumbled in this darkness for two whole
years and tried to acquire the good qualities that, in my opinion, the
Christian life should consist of (a little in the same way as I before my
conversion used to seek for the goodness of this world). My efforts went
nowhere. The difficulty was that I had accumulated stuff, spiritual stuff, and
God was now beginning to tear me away from it so that the life of His Son
could enter me.
And then one day in 1933, a light from heaven shone upon me. I was reading
1 Cor 1:30 again when suddenly I saw that God has given Christ to me in all
his fullness. What a huge difference! How empty the 'stuff' was. If we have
them detached from our relationship with Him, they are dead, for God does not
seek for our Christlikeness to be seen, but for His Christ to be revealed.
After seeing this, a new life began for me. Jesus Himself is the fulfillment
of all that is divine, thus He was the answer to all of God's demands for me,
not only in the future, but in that moment. After that, one word could
describe my daily life as a Christian: "receiving." (14)
The Son shall make us free
- (Matt 11:28-30)
Come to me, all you that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke on
you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find
rest to your souls.
30 For my yoke is
easy, and my burden is light.
When we read the
Bible, we can see how the Son, or Jesus, makes free. Only He can remove the
wrong attitudes, desires and habits that bind us. He is our intercessor in
overcoming sin, to whom we can turn. It's a bit like David defeating Goliath.
Back then, one man represented the entire nation. The Israelites put their
hope in David, who fought for them. All they themselves had to do was wait and
see what would happen. They got to enjoy the fruits of victory.
Therefore, the
most important thing is to understand that God's task is to change our inner
attitudes, from which we cannot get free ourselves. We should sort of step
aside and say, “This is Your job, I don't want to get involved. I trust that
You will do what is impossible for me.”
- (John 8: 36) If
the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.
- (Hebr 7:22,25) By
so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.
25 Why he is able
also to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he ever
lives to make intercession for them.
- (1 John 3:5) And
you know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in
him is no sin.
- (Matt 1:21) And she
shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name JESUS: for he shall
save his people from their sins.
- (Phil 1:11) Being
filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to
the glory and praise of God.
- (1 Cor 15:57) But
thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
- (1 Tim 4:10) For
therefore we both labor and
suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of
all men, specially of those that believe.
- (Rom 8:2) For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin
and death.
- (Eph 5:25,26)
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave
himself for it;
26 That he
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
- (Phil 2:13) For
it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
-(Lev 20:7,8)
Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be you holy: for I am the LORD your God.
8 And you shall keep
my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you.
- (Ezek 36:26,27)
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and
I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart
of flesh.
27 And I will
put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and
you shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Well-known spiritual
influencers have referred to this also, i.e., how it is the task of God and
Jesus to deliver people from sin. People must put their faith in God and
Christ, not in their own decisions, in order to experience deliverance.
John Wesley:
Many years ago I saw that without "holiness no one can see the Lord." I began
to pursue it, I urged everyone I came in contact with to do the same. Ten
years later, God gave me a clearer understanding of the way this blessing is
achieved, that it is through faith in the Son of God. And immediately after
this I declared to everyone: Through faith we are saved from sin and through
faith we become sanctified. This I presented privately and publicly, and God
confirmed it through thousands of testimonies. I have continually presented
this over the course of thirty years, and God has continually confirmed this
work of His grace. (15)
R.A. Torrey:
God offers
us Jesus as the Savior from sin. Jesus did not only die, but he also rose from
the dead. He is to this day a living Savior; He has all the power in the
heavens and on earth. He has the power to protect even the weakest sinner from
falling… This is the secret to everyday victory in battle against sin. If we
try in our own strength to beat sin, we will fall. If we simply look to our
resurrected Christ so that He will protect us every day, He will do so.
Crucified Christ will deliver us from the burden of sin, our sins have been
washed away, we are free of the law; but the resurrected Christ will also give
us victory over sin every day. Many receive Jesus as the taker of sins and
find peace – but do not come further, and they live in constant defeat. Others
receive Him also as the resurrected Savior, our redeemer, liberator from sin,
and protector against it. Thus, doing it right. In that way we can defeat sin
every single day. (16)
Hannah Whitall Smith: Then
we believed that Jesus was our Savior from the burden of sin, and what we
believed happened to us. Now we must believe that He is our Savior from sin,
and it will happen.
…Then He became our
Savior from the punishment of sin, now we must receive Him as our Savior from
the slavery of sin.
He was then our
Redeemer, now He wants to become our life. (17)
Oswald J. Smith:
When a person in defeat comes to me for help, my advice is the following
words: ”But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 15:57). You might notice that it does not say “through
our efforts and attempts”. Victory is given through Christ. It is a gift that
cannot be earned. God gifts it to His children through Jesus Christ.
…May I ask you a
question? A long time ago you received Jesus as your Savior. But has there
been a time in your life when you received Him in your life as your Victor? I
think that these two decisions are equally as important. You must receive Him
as your Savior, but you must also receive Him as your Victor. Have you done
so? Thousands upon thousands of people have gone to their soul nurse and knelt
together before Jesus, the Savior, and received Him as their Victor, also.
After which they have gone on to live as victorious Christians. Jesus Christ
is victorious over sin, and He will make us victorious also. (18)
Walking in the
Spirit.
The basic starting point in sanctification is that God sanctifies a person.
Only he is able to change the inner life and wrong attitudes that we cannot
get rid of ourselves. Everyone's part is to give themselves to God, but the
power to change comes from Him. He is like an artist who wants to shape us
according to his own image. On the other hand, if we ourselves think we can
change our wrong internal attitudes, that is interfering with the artist's
work. We should let him do his job in peace and trust that he will do a good
job.
- (Phil 1:6) Being
confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
When the Bible talks
about walking in the Spirit, it is the same thing. It is usually not a blink
of an eye event - of course it is possible that God can change a person
thoroughly in an instant - but a lifelong process. In it, man will discover
more and more his own faults and shortcomings, but at the same time God will
free him from them. Often, a person can notice afterwards that the situations
in which he previously lost his temper, got irritated or boasted, no longer
cause the same reactions. He may still fall into the same sins, but if the
Holy Spirit works in him, he will progress all the time. The law of the spirit
of life, which is stronger than the law of sin, makes it possible.
- (Rom 8:2-13) For
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from
the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law
could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the
righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit.
5 For they that are
after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after
the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally
minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal
mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be.
8 So then they that
are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is
none of his.
10 And if Christ be
in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of
righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit
of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up
Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that
dwells in you.
12 Therefore,
brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
13 For if you live
after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit do mortify
the deeds of the body, you shall live.
- (Gal 5:16-18) This
I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the
lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh
lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are
contrary the one to the other: so that you cannot do the things that you
would.
18 But if you be led
of the Spirit, you are not under the law.
- (Gal 5:22-25) But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith,
23 Meekness,
temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are
Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the
Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
- (2 Thess 2:13)
But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brothers beloved of the
Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
- (1 Peter 1:2) Elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus
Christ: Grace to you, and peace, be multiplied.
- (Ezek 36:26,27)
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you:
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart
of flesh.
27 And I will
put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall
keep my judgments, and do them.
- (Rom 15:30) Now I
beseech you, brothers, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of
the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me;
When falls happen.
Some people have the idea that they will not experience losses again in this
life. They can drift into this way of thinking especially when God pours out
His grace on them and they have strong emotions. In this state of abundance,
they find it hard to believe that they will fall.
However, the fact
is that we will not achieve the state of complete sinlessness in this
lifetime. It was not achieved by the apostles, nor by anyone else after them.
It is certainly possible that many live a high life of sanctification after
decades of being in the faith, but they too do not reach the state of
sinlessness. There are always things that can be fixed. The apostle John
wrote:
- (1 John 1:8) If we
say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
So what if a person
still has trouble with sin, even though he has embraced the Bible's truths
about being freed from sin? What should be done then? In this matter, it is
worth paying attention to the following points.
Temptations are
still present.
When talking about deliverance from sin, it is important to note that it is
not the same as deliverance from temptation. Because temptations can still
plague a person, even if he has been in the faith for decades. Their power is
at its greatest especially when a person is tired, lonely or depressed. That's
when he gives up the easiest.
The proof that
sin and temptation are different is the life of Jesus. He too was tempted to
sin and make wrong choices, but He did not fall. We may fall, but He always
did right:
- (Hebr 4:15)
For we have not an high priest which cannot be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points
tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Avoiding
temptations.
Some temptations are caused by the fact that a person does not properly deal
with them. If the source of temptations is e.g. a TV or a computer (internet),
and a person has the opportunity to influence their existence in his home, why
keep these devices? It is better to try to get rid of the source of
temptations and avoid them than to be constantly tempted. Fornication and
other wrong ways of thinking come easily through the media.
- (1 Cor 6:18-20) Flee fornication. Every
sin that a man does is without the body; but he that commits fornication sins
against his own body.
19 What? know
you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,
which you have of God, and you are not your own?
20 For you are
bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your
body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
- (Rev 2:21) And
I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
Where do the
temptations come from?
When a person experiences temptations, it is good for him to understand that
many of them come from outside, from the devil. According to the Bible, it is
a bully, an accuser and a liar. It can first tempt and entice a person to sin,
and then accuse a person of the same sin. It can say to a person: "You are not
saved, God does not care about you, you are not freed from sin..." Temptation,
accusations and lies are its most powerful weapon against people. These lies
are released when we resist them and replace them with the truth.
- (Matt 4:3) And
when the tempter came to him, he said, If you
be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
- (1 Thess 3:5)
For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith,
lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labor be
in vain.
- (John 8:44) You
are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will
do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stayed not in the truth, because
there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for
he is a liar, and the father of it.
- (Rev 12:10) And I
heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and
the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of
our brothers is cast down, which accused them before our God day
and night.
- (Luke 8:11,12) Now
the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
12 Those by the way
side are they that hear; then comes the devil, and takes away the word out
of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
A practical example
shows how important it is to recognize that many thoughts and accusations are
caused by the enemy of the soul. When they are recognized, resisted and
replaced with truth, a person experiences freedom:
We might be tempted a
thousand times during one day, without having committed any sin. But if we
start to consider the state of being tempted as a sin, our battle is
practically lost in that case; then it is likely that we cannot stand up to
temptation.
I know a lady who
wound up in great darkness, because she had not understood this. She had been
happy for some time in her faith, and she had hardly had any temptations. That
is why she thought she would never have to face them again. But suddenly the
tempter attacked her, and she got utterly frightened.
As soon as she
started to pray, all kinds of bad thoughts began to cross her mind. She had
lived a pure and virtuous life, and these thoughts seemed so vile to her that
she thought she was the worst sinner for having such thoughts. She started to
believe that she had never obtained peace in God, which gradually led to her
not believing in her rebirth. She fell into a terrible soul agony.
I tried
explaining to her that all these terrible thoughts were simply temptations,
and that she wasn't the one causing them. I encouraged her to think of them as
temptations and to pray for the Lord to deal with them. I showed her the
advantage the devil gained from getting her to believe that these thoughts
were created in her own heart, with the consequence of making her depressed
and down. I reassured her that she would quickly gain victory over them if she
only stopped caring about them. She only had to turn her back on them and look
to the Christ.
Now, she
understood how the matter was, and the next time those libelous thoughts came
to her, she said to the tempter: - No! Now I know how it is. You are the one
bringing these horrible thoughts, and I hate them; I don't want to have
anything to do with them. Jesus Christ is my helper. Go your way in His name,
in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
When the tempter
was exposed like this, he fled. And the woman became happy and delivered.
Saying the name of the Christ scared away the tempter.
One more thing.
The spirits of
darkness who torment us know that if a believer understands that an evil whim
comes from them, then he will fight more vigorously than if he were made to
believe that it was born in his own heart.
If the devil came
and presented himself like this: I am the devil, your sworn enemy, and now I
am here to make you to do sin, then you would hardly feel the desire to give
in to him. He must stay hidden so that his baits can destroy us. (19)
If falls do happen,
it is important not to let it depress you. A person easily listens to Satan's
accusations and thinks that he will never be freed. He blames himself and
considers his situation hopeless.
If you are in
this situation, get up immediately! Confess your fall, but immediately move
forward in the company of God! Thank Him that He has forgiven you and that He
is still doing His work in you! Don't let thoughts of defeat and depression
form in your mind! The truth is that the sin nature was already defeated 2000
years ago through Jesus on the cross and that God continues his work in you.
Hold on to this truth and it will gradually become an experience in everyday
life!
Thoughts.
When a person turns to God, he learns more and more to know his own carnal
mind and wrong attitudes. Before, he didn't notice, for example, the sins of
his language, but now he notices how difficult it is for him to control his
speech. When James wrote that “the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly
evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:8), it is true in his life.
A similar problem
is the world of thought. Evil always starts from thoughts and from the fact
that we harbor the wrong things. They can be thinking about people's faults,
proud thoughts or e.g. sexual images. We don't immediately reject these things
from our minds, and they find a place in us. We do not follow Paul's teaching
that we should capture our thoughts in obedience to Christ:
- (2 Cor 10:3-5) For
though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4 For the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of
strong holds;
5 Casting down
imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of
God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ;
An example from
practical life shows how everything starts with a small thought. The choices
we make now affect what we become later. The order in the development of human
nature and eternity is generally similar. It is:
- Thought – deed
– habit – character – and eternal destiny. Thought is like the beginning of a
road, eternal destiny its end. For example, Hitler and other evil dictators
didn't immediately become like that, but they started with a small thought
until they finally became like that.
I once knew a
preacher who let the devil tempt him to watch a television show that had a bit
of sex in it. Soon, watching that show wasn't enough. The man went to buy
certain types of weekly newspapers. When that didn't satisfy his growing lust,
he got a video device for his home and started bringing porn movies there.
When that wasn't enough, he decided to practically try what he had watched.
Now the man has
lost his congregation, his wife and his family. It all started with a small
thought, from which the man could not cleanse himself.
That is how all
sins begin, from small thoughts that we see no need to purify from. To grow in
sanctification, we must continually watch over ourselves to remain free from
the sin of the world. (20)
When thoughts are the
problem of most people, there is only one help to overcome them: God's touch.
We should turn to him again and again and say to him, for example, in the
following way: "I can't remove wrong thoughts from my mind, but you can. Thank
you for influencing my mind so that I don't harbor these thoughts. Everything
is possible for you and I put my trust in you that you will overcome this
problem.”
- (Ex 14:14) The
LORD shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.
- (Ps 141:3) Set a
watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.
A word of caution.
When it comes to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, guiding and sanctification,
it is important to understand God's ways of working. For God never wants a
person's mind and body to be passive, to turn inward, and for his
understanding to be inactive. Such things are typical of mediums when they go
into a trance and evil spirits work through them, but it is the complete
opposite of how God works. He never wants to destroy our personality and
displace it or that a person is like an automaton, but that we ourselves
think, decide, feel, speak and will. He does want us to act according to his
will, and he can give it power, but wrong inaction and passivity are from the
devil and evil spirits. These false forces can mislead a person so that a
person imagines e.g. that he is in a very special guidance, especially close
to God and on a higher spiritual level than others (the person in this
situation usually does not listen to others, because he thinks he is in
"direct" guidance). Another common delusion is that a person is driven by
voices to judgment and despair in relation to God.
Jessie Penn-Lewis
talks about the wrong ways of thinking that people can have about the
Christian life. It is good to recognize these misconceptions in order to
understand how to resist the enemy's frauds.
Many dangers lie in
some believer’s phrases and ways of saying things. Many of them are completely
unbiblical and misleading.
Varying
preconceptions about how God should work also offer an opportunity for evil
spirits to strengthen their grip. Such preconceptions include, e.g., an idea
that when a believer has been supernaturally forced to act, it is a special
sign that God is leading them, or that if God brings all things into our
“memory”, we do not need to use our memory at all.
Below, we will
list some of the misconceptions and wrong conclusions that lead a believer
into a passive state of mind:
(1) "Christ lives
in me", so I myself no longer live.
(2) "Christ lives
in me", meaning that I have lost my personality because Christ in person lives
in me (a wrong conclusion from Gal 2:20).
(3) "God acts in
me", so I do not need to do anything, only surrender and obey (Phil 2:13).
(4) "God wants for
me", meaning that I cannot use my own will at all.
(5) "God alone is
the judge", meaning I am not allowed to use my own discernment.
(6) "I have the
mind of Christ", meaning that I cannot have any opinions of my own (1 Cor
2:16).
(7) "God speaks to
me", and so I cannot "think" or "make conclusions", only "obey" what He says.
(8) "I am waiting
for God" and "I cannot go anywhere before He moves me”.
(9) "God reveals
His will in a revelation to me", and so I do not need to decide or use my
intelligence and conscience.
(10) "I have been
crucified with Christ", therefore "I am dead," and I have to "practice" death,
which I imagine to be the passiveness of my feelings and thoughts.
In order to put
into practice these different notions of truth, the believer suppresses all
actions of understanding, discernment, reasoning, and will to allow "divine
life to flow" through himself. He does not understand that God needs the
complete liberation of human abilities and the active and rational cooperation
of the human will to make all spiritual truths work in practice. (21)
4. About changing
When people turn to
God, they usually have many imperfections and impurities, many of which are
related to self-love. They may value their intelligence, consider their
opinions to be the best, think they are discerning in spiritual matters, or
they may compare their eloquence, gifts, and quickness to others, thinking
they are superior.
Impurity also
affects spiritual work. The less God has dealt with our pride, our wrong
attitudes, and our strengths, the more they mess up God's work. People can see
God's power, but also get a confused impression because our strengths have not
yet been dealt with by God. Watchman Nee teaches:
How rarely in modern
times do you meet a pure spirit. When our spirit sometimes manifests, the soul
is usually involved; they are mixed up. Therefore, the first requirement in
God's work is not so much the strength of the spirit as its purity. Those who
deny this, will see the work they’ve done with power crumbling down from the
lack of purity. Even though they do indeed have the power of God, they destroy
what they build because their spirits are mixed. How is this to be understood?
…If you really
want to be set free, God must deal with your strong point in a fundamental
way, not just superficially. Only after God has broken you in this point, your
spirit can appear without the impurities that burden your neighbors.
Impurity is the
biggest problem in the lives of God's servants. So often we touch both life
and death in our brothers. We find God but also self-life, a humble spirit but
also independence, the Holy Spirit but also flesh - all in the same person.
When he rises to speak, he affects others with a mingled unclean spirit... The
name of the Lord does not suffer because you lack life, but because of the
impurity that flows from you. The congregation also suffers. (22)
When God makes us
more useful, he mainly uses two means: the discipline of the Holy Spirit and
the revelation of the Spirit (Watchman Nee's book The Release of the Spirit
deals more deeply and excellently with this topic. It is worth reading.). We
will look at both methods used by God.
1. The discipline
of the Holy Spirit
means the things God
allows in our lives, so that he would defeat the pride, self-sufficiency and
hardness of the outer man. In this school, God allows people to experience
failures and difficulties so that they do not boast and trust in themselves
but in God. He takes away their false self-love, self-confidence and pride,
but at the same time the life of Christ comes out in them. The more they
experience discipline, the less they have those impure traits that hinder
spiritual work.
- (Hebr 12:5-11)
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to children, My son, despise
not you the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of him:
6 For whom the Lord
loves he chastens, and whips every son whom he receives.
7 If you endure
chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the
father chastens not?
8 But if you be
without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards, and
not sons.
9 Furthermore we have
had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall
we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they truly for
a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit,
that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11 Now no
chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward
it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are exercised
thereby.
- (2 Cor 4:8-11) We
are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in
despair;
9 Persecuted, but not
forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing
about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of
Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
11 For we which live are
always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
2. Revelation of
the Spirit
is another way God uses to free us from wrong attitudes. Many things are
hidden from us – like an iceberg beneath the surface – but when the Holy
Spirit reveals our inner state, we discover our own filthiness and inadequacy.
We see things as God has always seen them, but which we ourselves have not
observed.
When the Holy
Spirit reveals sin, it is like light revealing dust. In a dark room, the dust
is not visible, but when the sun shines into the room, the dust becomes
visible. The stronger the light enters the room, the more clearly the dust is
visible. This matter and the detection of one's sins comes up in several
passages of the Bible:
- (Isaiah 6:5) Then
said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips,
and I dwell in the middle of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen
the King, the LORD of hosts.
- (Hebr 4:12,13)
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two
edged 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.
13 Neither is there
any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and
opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
- (1 Cor 4:5)
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will
bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the
counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
This thing, where a
person perceives himself as sinful and impure, already happens in the early
stages of religious life to some extent, but it also happens throughout life.
A person who jokes about sin has not yet experienced it, but when the light
comes, even such a person's attitude towards the matter will change. Before,
he understood it only in theory, but now he really sees that he is internally
unclean and that he needs to change.
The advantage of
this process of God revealing our inner state to us is that we begin to free
ourselves from our wrong attitudes more and more. Where the light comes, the
action of the flesh ceases. The more we see our wrong internal attitudes, the
more we free ourselves from them. Another good thing is that when we see our
own sinfulness and wrong attitudes, it is difficult for us to judge and bite
our neighbors. There is enough work to be done in one's own mistakes.
WHERE DOES GOD’S
EDUCATION LEAD? When
a person is in God's school and God raises him, there are good consequences.
The most important of them are:
Knowing oneself
- (Deut 8:2)
And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God led you these forty
years in the wilderness, to humble you, and to prove you, to know what was
in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or no.
People learn to know
themselves in the school of God. They will learn through their difficult
relationships and through the light of God how their own self controls
everything: how they are mean, selfish, prideful, jealous, irritated, or has
other bad qualities. They didn't notice these things before, but now they
notice them more and more. Tapio Nousiainen tells how this happened in his
life:
Now we come to an
important stage, the turning point.
With all the
suffering, God has pursued one goal: that we would see ourselves as the Holy
Spirit sees us. Of course, we here in time and flesh can not bear to see our
true selves. It's so unclean and entirely wretched when you get a peek behind
the facade. But what we can carry, the Holy Spirit shows.
When this stage
was reached, I felt God's auger drilling deeper and deeper. Gradually, the man
began to see himself. How arrogant, ambitious, ungrateful, power-hungry,
filthy, thin-skinned, irritable, double-minded, bitter, scheming, lustful,
spiritual slacker, Pharisee, slanderer, sectarian, spy, liar, preacher and
jealous man he was.
Surely God's auger
from deeper would have revealed new things, but the man would not have been
able to bear it. The perpetrator threw himself before the holy God and cried
out in pain: "Oh, God, what am I like? How could you have saved me and put up
with me for decades? I am absolutely hopeless. I can't heal myself.”
Isaiah's cry in
the Bible (Isaiah. 6:5) suited the author well:
Then said I, Woe is
me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the
middle of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD
of hosts.
God has to bring
things to this point before schooling is of any real use. Everything in the
future is an increase from the zero point. (23)
Becoming humble
- (Dan 4:37) Now I
Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the
King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those
that walk in pride he is able to abase.
- (Dan 5:20) But
when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was
deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him
- (Job 33:14-17) For
God speaks once, yes twice, yet man perceives it not.
15 In a dream, in a
vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, in slumberings on
the bed;
16 Then he opens the
ears of men, and seals their instruction,
17 That he may
withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.
- (Ps 119:67) Before
I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept your word.
Becoming humble is
one consequence in God's school. When all the roads are blocked, and a person
experiences repeated dry periods, trials and failures, he gradually begins to
understand that he is no better than others. Instead, he begins to to think of
others as better and no longer values his own spirituality highly. He realizes
that everything good is based on grace and that he himself cannot accomplish
anything. In times of success and abundance, he did not think like this, but
was self-confident and took secret pride in his spirituality. He doesn't get
any satisfaction from it anymore.
- (Phil 2:3) Let
nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each
esteem other better than themselves.
Pride,
self-sufficiency and self-confidence are also dangerous in spiritual work. If
God gives His blessings, but we have the wrong attitude, we can spoil
everything and get lost. That's why blessings can create a dangerous situation
if we haven't learned humility and can't accomplish anything ourselves. Niilo
Yli-Vainio, who was an intermediary of the revival towards the end of his
life, has written:
You cannot train to
be a weapon of God or prepare for it in any university or Bible school. I am a
good example of that. God began to rope me like this, in Finland and in
different parts of the world, in a situation that was already impossible for
human reason. No church leader in his right mind could have planned this
revival or even in his dreams imagined that the sick, dead Niilo would take
the lead in it.
One reason is
that God does not share his glory.
If you want to
know who God chooses, this is one starting point.
A man would take
God like a horse, harness him to the front of his cart - and voilà! What a
ride! How wonderful it is, how the snow flies everywhere and the crowds are
watching in awe, their eyes wide open.
God pulls, man
drives! Man drives with God!
That's one thing.
And another related one is this:
God sees what the
man himself does not see, the wife does not see, neither the elder brothers,
nor the priest, nor the bishop. He can see a man's heart, and how he is doing,
whether he can last.
Oh, how many things a man can endure better than being in use by God.
Listen to me, he can handle money and success better. He can take a lottery
win and a minister's hat more easily than God making a tool out of him.
Because of this many persons become impossible, and because of this many men
fall, and there won’t be real revival.
…I believe that for
this moment God wanted such a pathetic man, because He saw that no one could
believe in him – he is so burnt out, burnt to a complete crisp so that no one
could bet their money on him. Which is perhaps why that kind of a man can
handle being used by God for the time needed. He can handle a bit of God’s
power to flow through him for a few short years.
Endures,
endures... That it has been mistaken so many times, and so beaten to pieces,
so many times the proboscis has been in the clay, that it already knows enough
not to get confused right away.
...In order to be
at God's disposal, the preacher needs the sure knowledge that he is not
capable of anything as a human being, not of anything that he does for God
with God's help. If that thorn is missing, that is - if life has not pushed it
so deep that it stays and stings all the time, there is no hope of lasting a
single day as God's tool. (24)
Understands others
- (2 Cor 1:3,4)
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
mercies, and the God of all comfort;
4 Who comforts us in
all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any
trouble, by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God.
When a person sees
his own sinfulness, he is freed from judging others. Before, he could judge
and resent the bad behavior of others (which usually keeps people still
bound and far from God. They reject spiritual things if we don't value them),
but when God's light comes, he feels his own wickedness. The more light comes,
the easier it is for him to appreciate others.
Understanding
others is also a benefit of God's school. In those areas where a person has
first seen his own faults and shortcomings, he can help others. The more he
has learned to know his faults and get rid of them, the more he has knowledge
of people and the ability to help people suffering from the same problems.
Instead, the areas that remain untouched in him remain intact in others as
well. If he has not first seen his own pride, irritability and other faults,
he cannot teach others in the same areas.
Another advantage
of God's school is that a person learns to understand suffering people - at
least in those areas where the person himself has experienced similar
difficulties. It is easy for him to put himself in someone else's position
because he has experienced the same things. On the other hand, if he has lived
only with a tailwind, his attitude towards those who suffer is often
deficient. He may give patently simplistic answers - why don't you pray more,
why don't you read more Bible, you need to straighten up - or even blame his
neighbor. He acts like Job's three friends who tried to find the reasons for
Job's suffering. Erik Ewalds talks about those patent responses that we are
easily guilty of when meeting our neighbors:
The consolation of
someone who has not suffered enough himself, is quite strange. First, he tries
to downplay the pain of the other. Then he tries to find some vile solution to
it, which he imposes on this person. The third possibility is that he simply
does not listen. (25)
Ceasing from sin
- (1 Peter 4:1,2) For
as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves
likewise with the same mind: for he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased
from sin;
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.
One positive aspect
of God's work of growth is ceasing from sin. It does not mean becoming sinless
and perfect, but still progressing from what man was in the early stages. He
will be freer from things and desires that used to bind him. They don't bother
him the way they used to. Madame Guyon, who lived in the 17th century, tells
how she experienced such a process:
In these
circumstances, I experienced your words come true, O my God, that you will
condemn our righteousness. Oh, how pure, how holy You are. Who can fathom it?
I was led to see one after another of those secret ties which bound me to the
world, and which God severed as he had brought them to my consciousness. All
the false interest I had felt in worldly things and objects was gradually
taken away. Thus the internal crucifixion continued without interruption,
which often felt like a heavy trial. (26)
Freedom from false
self-assurance and patience.
Many people are naturally very volatile in their emotions. When they are
depressed, they get no comfort, and when things are going well, they are
boisterous and self-confident. They slide from one extreme to the other
because their emotions have not been processed.
How does God
intervene in our fluctuating emotions? The most common way is for him to allow
repeated dry spells followed by refreshment. When a person is self-confident
and thinks that divine favor is shining brighter and brighter, he has to
experience dryness. Similarly, when he is depressed, God can refresh him. He
has to go through these periods again and again until he learns to be more
careful with his emotions. He is no longer boisterous and confident in
experiencing God's blessings and good times. And when he is depressed, he
realizes that it is possible to get out of the situation. In the language of
the Bible, man has learned patience. Negative emotions do not dominate and
play the main role in his life in the same way as before:
- (Rom 5:3-5) And not
only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation works
patience;
4 And patience,
experience; and experience, hope:
5 And hope makes not
ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given to us.
- (James 1:2-4) My
brothers, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations;
3 Knowing this,
that the trying of your faith works patience.
4 But let patience
have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Trials and the
hand of God. When
it comes to trials, there are two misunderstandings in that area. The second
is that there are no trials at all in the life of a person who has strong
faith and walks in communion with God. Another idea is that God allows us
difficult trials all the time. Both notions are wrong because God can give
both times of trials and times of blessings. Neither of them is an indication
of the strength or weakness of faith, but of the things that God allows to
happen to us.
So what if trials
happen? How should they be treated?
Surely the
biggest problem in this area is that we do not take them from God's hand and
thank Him in these situations, but we only see and look at the things around
us. We blame other people and complain about our circumstances, but we don't
understand that God is dealing with us through these things. We do not see his
hand behind the circumstances and people, and so we continue to walk in
blindness.
However, it is
important to understand that God is the Father who grows us through
circumstances (Hebrews 12:5-11). Daily events are things that he has allowed
into our lives so that we learn to deal with them correctly. As long as we're
grumbling and blaming other people, we haven't learned much, but when we
realize God is behind our circumstances, we've moved on. Madame Guyon teaches
about this important topic in which our imperfections are manifested:
How should you react
when the Lord does His work in your life through a cross? When something comes
into your life that your flesh, your own self, feels aversion to, immediately
surrender to God. Accept that thing. Give yourself in that moment as a
sacrifice to Him.
By doing this,
you will eventually make a huge discovery: when the cross comes into your
life, it will not be nearly as heavy as you first feared. Accept it from God's
hand, whatever it may be. The burden is much lighter this way. The burden is
lightened because you willingly accepted it.
Don't
misunderstand these words. I have not described to you how to get rid of
carrying the cross. Even if you leave yourself completely to God and love your
cross, it does not prevent you from feeling the pain it produces. Feeling pain
is one of the most essential aspects of suffering. Suffering is woven into the
essence of the cross. Remember that your Lord took to endure the ultimate
suffering of the cross. (27)
Power, gifts, fullness of the Spirit and sanctification.
When it comes to gifts of grace and power, it is good to understand that they
are different from sanctification. A person can still be a child spiritually,
even if he has powerful gifts. For example, in the church of Corinth, all
gifts were in use, but still Paul considered the parishioners to be little
children in Christ. Power and gifts were not connected with holiness and
fruit. The best ideal, of course, would be for gifts and fruit to always
appear together. Then together they would have a deeper and more lasting
effect on people. This happened e.g. In the life of Jesus, who was a perfect
example of balance. In Him both the fruit and the gifts appeared together.
- (1 Cor 1:4-7) I
thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by
Jesus Christ;
5 That in every
thing you
are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;
6 Even as the
testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
7 So that you come
behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
- (1 Cor 3:1-3) And
I, brothers, could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, even
as to babes in Christ.
2 I have fed you with
milk, and not with meat: for till now you were not able to bear it, neither
yet now are you able.
3 For you are yet
carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are
you not carnal, and walk as men?
What about baptism of the Holy Spirit and becoming filled with the Spirit?
In this area everything depends on the depth of the experience.
Unfortunately, in Western countries, specifically, people’s experiences tend
to be very superficial and short lived. They might receive baptism of the
Spirit and speak in tongues, but it does little to change their inner life, as
they tend to stay almost the same as before. Veikko Lähde noticed this
development and wrote about it:
In this context, I can't resist comparing the experiences of those who
participated in the outpouring of the Spirit in the apostolic era and those
who participated in the baptism of the Holy Spirit in our time. Although in
theory both share the same experience, we must admit that its intensity has
not reached the same fullness in our time as it did in the beginning. I
believe that the reason for the powerlessness of spirit baptisms lies
primarily in the powerlessness of revival. We live in the time of the church,
a church to which the Lord says: “you have a little strength, and have kept my
word, and have not denied my name.” (Rev 3:8). The strength of the baptism of
the Holy Spirit therefore depends a lot on the power with which God has been
able to fill the revival. Remembering the experiences of the baptism of the
Holy Spirit in the early days of our revival and comparing them to the current
experiences of the baptism of the Spirit, I cannot help but notice that the
current ones remain weaker. In my opinion, the powerlessness of both the
revival and the Baptism of the Spirit experienced by the individual is due to
the fact that they have not become Deeply emptied and broken vessels so that
they could have been filled more Deeply and entirely with the Holy Spirit.
When someone fills with the Holy Spirit these days, often times there is
hardly anything left of that blessing except for speaking in tongues. There
was no room for a Deeper fulfillment of the Spirit in those who were baptized.
It is no wonder that Baptism of the Spirit did not lead to such consecration
and joy, which used to be such a prominent part of the original experience.
(28)
The opposite cases
are the following two examples from the well-known spiritual influencers
Dwight L. Moody and the Pentecostal apostle T.B. About Barratt's life -
Barratt's story also reveals how he came to know his own wrong tendencies just
before the baptism of the Spirit. They really changed a lot internally as
well. They got a new love for people, which shows that they reached a new
level in sanctification, but they also got a new power for their ministry so
that people started to be saved to a greater extent than before. Love and
power for service appeared together as in the lives of Jesus and the apostles:
Moody:
The blessing came upon me like a flash of lightning. I remember walking the
streets of New York, and right there on the street the power of God seemed to
come upon me in such a wonderful way that I had to ask God to stay His hand. I
was filled with a sense of God's goodness, and I felt as if I could take the
whole world into my heart.
(29)
Barratt:
It took place yesterday, on Sunday, 7 October, between
5 a.m. and 6 a.m. in the afternoon, and now you will hear what has led to
this. My soul is burning! I feel like I'm the happiest man in the world.
Everything has become new. I am filled with joy and peace and love for God and
people! In all days, He has led me, and my innermost being has continually
cried out, "Go ahead! Onward! Ever since my severe illness, more than 20 years
ago, there have been forces, good forces, that have driven me forward. The
question of sanctification has been my dearest subject; and I have fought for
the idea of holiness, even though I have not experienced it myself. But how
bad I felt in my own eyes in the face of God's purity and holiness! I saw my
own ambition, selfishness, stubbornness, and carnality. Oh, my God, I saw so
much, so much that would grieve the Holy Spirit! I was broken and bent to the
ground time and time again. (30)
When Moody and
Barratt had their experience and changed, they had already been in the faith
for years and had been doing spiritual work. Many had already been saved
through them before that.
However, God can
give a similar blessing already in the early stages of a life of faith.
Earlier it was told about Charles G. Finney, who received a powerful baptism
of the Spirit the same day he was saved. He didn't even expect it and didn't
know it existed, but still he experienced it. God gave him this experience. As
a result, thousands of people were saved soon after his conversion.
But as stated,
Finney got to experience the reform approx. 20 years later. As a result, he
noticed the different stages of his Christian journey and realized that he had
progressed in his spiritual growth. The biggest revivals in which Finney was
involved were already behind us by then. As a result of his new experience,
Finney began to preach about the power of Christ to sanctify man. He preached
mainly to parishioners during that winter when he experienced the renewal:
This ended my hard
struggle which had so long held me in its power, and I began to preach
according to this new and enlarged experience. Many parishioners and listeners
of my sermons understood me, and they saw from my sermons what had happened
and was currently happening in my mind. I think people felt more sensitively
than I myself the great change that took place in my preaching. So my mind was
really too full to preach about anything other than full, present salvation in
the Lord Jesus Christ.
…All the rest of
the winter, before I had to return home, I spent teaching the people the
fullness that is in Christ. But I found that my sermon went "over the heads"
of most people. They didn't understand me. After all, there were quite a few
who understood, and they received a great blessing for their souls, and the
life of God advanced in them as never before, as I have every reason to
believe. (31)
References:
1. Frank Mangsin taivastestamentti, p. 143-145
2. Charles H. Spurgeon: Sielujenvoittaja (The Soul-Winner), p. 20,21
3. A.B. Simpson: Pyhityksen salaisuus, p. 57
4. Hans Erik Nissen: Christian, p. 35,36
5. Agnus I. Kinnear: Vastavirtaan (Against the Tide), p. 108,109
6. Uuras Saarnivaara: He elivät Jumalan voimassa, p. 275,276
7. John Larsson: Hengellinen läpimurto (Spiritual Breakthrough), p.
46,47
8. Howard Taylor: Hudson Taylor ja Kiinan sisämaalähetys eli mies joka
uskoi Jumalaan, p. 115,116
9. Watchman Nee: Hengellinen ihminen, osa 1 (The Spiritual Man), p.
158
10. John Larsson: Hengellinen läpimurto (Spiritual Breakthrough), p. 48
11. Charles G. Finney: Voima korkeudesta (Power from on High)
12. Charles G. Finney: Ihmeellisiä herätyksiä, p. 309,310
13. Watchman Nee: Istu, vaella, seiso (Sit, Walk, Stand), p. 20-22
14. Agnus I. Kinnear: Vastavirtaan (Against the Tide), p. 138,139
15. Theodor Arvidson: Metodistit, p. 12
16. R.A. Torrey: Kuinka kasvaisin kristillisyydessä?, p. 8,9
17. Hannah Whitall Smith: Kristityn onnellisen elämän salaisuus (The
Christian’s Secret of A Happy Life), p. 54
18. Oswald J. Smith: Tuska sieluista (The Passion for Souls), p. 79
19. Hannah Whitall Smith: Kristityn onnellisen elämän salaisuus (The
Christian’s Secret of A Happy Life), p. 131,132
20. Jerry Savelle: Jumalan rakkaus vetää pyhitykseen (Drawn By His
Love: The Life of Holiness), p. 125
21. Jessie Penn-Lewis: Pyhien sota (War on the saints), p. 43, 44
22. Watchman Nee: Hengen vapautus (The Release of the Spirit), p. 96,99
23. Tapio Nousiainen: Kristuksen kanssa kärsimyskoulussa, p. 99
24. Mauno Saari: Saarnaaja, p. 273-275
25. Erik Ewalds: Isän hoidossa, p. 48
26. Helmi Pekkola: Kilvoittelija ja todistaja, p. 57
27. Madame Guyon: Syvempään Jumalan tuntemiseen (Moyen court et
tres-facile de faire oraison), p. 63,64
28. Veikko Lähde: Kristuksen täydellinen siunaus ja sen rajoittaminen,
p. 32,33
29. Dwight L. Moody – elämäkerta
30. Martin Ski: T.B. Barratt - Helluntaiapostoli, p. 108-110
31. Charles G. Finney: Ihmeellisiä herätyksiä, p. 306,308
More on this topic:
There is a battle going on in the realm of the mind. What part
do lies and truth and the flesh and the devil play in this
battle?
The truth shall make you free. Understanding the truth is a key factor in a relationship with
God. When a person understands the truth about his position in
Christ, it brings freedom into his life
Be freed from your past! Heavy experiences and memories of the past guide people’s
lives and self-image. Read how you can get rid of the burdens
of the past
Deliverence from bondage. When a person is saved, he is not always released from all
bonds. Satan may still disturb him, and he may lack the peace
promised by Jesus
Find the assurance of
salvation! Assurance of salvation; why is it missing and how to get it?
If someone stares at himself and his own deeds, and not at
Jesus, he never gets assurance
Mental health and belief. Christian faith, when one understands God’s love and grace
for oneself, has a positive effect on mental health
Sin, temptation, and sanctification. What is their
relationship to each other? Everyone can fall, but the great
danger is hardness and acceptance of sin
