War for our life Chapter 2 Part 2
Our knowledge of the Bible has the same value as our knowledge of any other history book. Satan is very satisfied as long as we keep showing that though we know, preach and teach the Word of God, yet, it does not show in our lives, has no effect on us or any practical value in our lives. And if we do not live It, we do not really understand Its true meaning and purpose for which God gave It to us. Even scientists could tell us that theories may be very nice, even brilliant, but they have no real value if they are never put into practice and realized in our life.
I want to share with you at this point the Light of the Lord concerning SATAN’S FALSE “LIFE”, which is “DEATH” and which became our “life”, and the ETERNAL LIFE OF CHRIST, which came out of His death by His resurrection. How do we know the difference between the two and how can we interchangeably talk about death and life? How can life be equated with death, or vice versa, and how can life come out of death?
Let us see these facts in their physical interpretation, which should be easier to comprehend than their spiritual reality. The key is the definition of death as being a SEPARATION and not a cessation of existence. (see also page 2)
Satan exists forever, but his “life” is death because he is separated from the true Life, which is with God and in God! When Our Lord died on the Cross, He was separated from God, from His living Presence. (Mt. 27:46) In His death, He went to hell where He spent three days and three nights preaching to those disobedient spirits. (1Pet. 3:18-20) And then?…
THEN GOD CALLED CHRIST BACK TO HIMSELF BECAUSE HE OVERCAME (REV. 3:21) AND ACCOMPLISHED THE TASK OF SALVATION. CHRIST WAS RESURRECTED–REUNITED WITH GOD, WITH HIS PRESENCE. CHRIST THUS DESTROYED THE DEATH–SEPARATION FROM GOD IN HIMSELF AND IN ALL BELIEVERS WHO ALSO OVERCAME. (Rev. 21:7)
THE “LIFE” OF PAGANS AND CARNAL BELIEVERS IS THUS “DEATH” BECAUSE THEY LIVE IN THEIR FLESH, THAT IS, IN A CONTINUAL ABSENCE FROM GOD AND IN A CONTINUAL PRESENCE OF SIN AND SATAN. THUS, THEY “LIVE HIS DEATH” (THEY EXIST IN FLESH AND ITS SEPARATION FROM GOD) AND DO NOT LIVE THE “LIFE OF GOD”.
So, how do we know the difference between this false life of Satan and the true Life of Christ? One very good and clear example is that of Cain and Abel. Let us open our heart and consider the following.
Cain was a very religious man. He believed, respected and worshipped God just as Abel did. Now, Cain offered to God the best products that he produced himself through his own life, efforts, resources and intellectual potential, and Cain sincerely believed that God would appreciate and accept them. But God refused them! Why? Because in doing so,…
CAIN NEGLECTED ALL THAT CHRIST HAD DONE TO RECONCILE US TO GOD AND EFFECTIVELY NULLIFIED THE WORK OF THE LORD ON THE CROSS OF CALVARY!
CAIN WAS OF THAT WICKED ONE, HIS WORKS WERE EVIL. (1JN. 3:12) YET, HE BUILT AN ALTAR TO GOD, WORSHIPPED GOD SINCERELY AND SACRIFICED TO HIM HIS BEST PRODUCTS AND EFFORTS!
HELLO? IS OUR HEART OPEN? ARE WE REGISTERING THE ENORMOUS MEANING OF THE ABOVE SPIRITUAL FACT?
If our heart is open then we should come out of our spiritual comma and start seeing, understanding and also believing what we may have never seen, understood or believed before. What is it that we should start seeing, understanding and believing?…
That a WICKED PERSON, WHO IS DOING EVIL WORKS… CAN BUILD AN ALTAR TO GOD, CAN SACRIFICE TO GOD, CAN SINCERELY WORSHIP GOD AND CAN EFFECTIVELY DECEIVE MILLIONS OF BELIEVERS who are also in the same spiritual comma! We may need more exclamation marks here!
Let me just say very honestly and from my experience that our best product, which we also might desire to offer to God may be “our ministry to God”!But GOD WILL NOT ACCEPT THE MINISTRY, WHICH DOES NOT OFFER BLOOD = THE OLD LIFE OF BELIEVERS! (see more later) In other words, God will not accept the ministry conducted by uncrucified, unbroken ministers ministering in their natural life… which is spiritual death.
All the history of Israel from Exodus, chapter 12, until the death of the Messiah is based on the shedding of blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission! (Heb. 9:18-22) Let us understand that the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) belong to the Old Testament! It is only their portions after the Resurrection of Christ, which start the New Testament. What was done in the Old Testament physically is now done in the New Testament in spirit. But the Principles of God did not change in any way!
Let us conclude that the Lord may use an uncrucified believer or pagan or animal or thing or devil himself as a tool for His purposes, but His true servant must be crucified and (sufficiently) dead to his old natural life, to his self! This also means, that His true servant has (sufficiently) died to his former relationships, plans, hopes, expectations, “important” things, personal judgments, opinions, to his own logical, academic, philosophical or psychological understanding of spiritual facts and truths and to all such things of his old, natural life. He is then, and only then, fully open to the Lord’s supernatural revelations and Light, which do not come from his own soul but from the Spirit of God Alone. There is a world of difference between the two. Do you see and believe this spiritual fact? Really?
Abel offered God a lamb, which represented his own life and thus it was a sacrifice of blood. So he, in effect, LAID DOWN HIS OWN LIFE BEFORE GOD! That pleased God and He accepted Abel’s “blood” sacrifice with a true pleasure. (Gen. 4:4) When Christ said that He could do “NOTHING OF HIMSELF” but laid down His Own life before the Father, it pleased God and He fully accepted Christ’s sacrifice. I hope the Word in Jn. 5:19; 10:17; 13:37,38; 15:5, 13// 1Jn. 3:16// Gal. 6:3 will take a deeper meaning for us now.
Furthermore, by His Word in Jn. 5:19, the Lord gave us an example how to follow Him. So, why can we do nothing of ourselves? Why should we do nothing of ourselves?
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I am constrained by the Spirit of the Lord to present His Light enabling us to see the very core of this fact!
Any born-again believer who remains intellectual, or emotional REMAINS EXACTLY THE SAME SOUL, which he was before he believed, before he was redeemed. He only changed the field of his studies, interests and activities, which now became religious, but he did not change THEIR SOURCE! All that he needs he keeps drawing from his re-oriented but unregenerated, unrenewed soul (mind & heart) and NOT from the Holy Spirit of God! The Spirit dwells in his spirit and rules his spirit but NOT his soul. Hence, the Spirit of God does not direct his soul, his knowledge, deeds and activities!
When such a believer then studies the Bible, teaches or preaches the Word or otherwise ministers to others, it does not really matter what activities he is engaged in and how he is performing. WHAT MATTERS TO GOD IS WHAT SOURCE HIS FAITH, DEEDS, ACTIVITIES AND KNOWLEDGE COME FROM, WHO DIRECTS AND GOVERNS THOSE ACTIVITIES, BELIEFS AND DEEDS, GOD OR MAN.
One absolutely basic and deciding consequence of the above mentioned fact is that whatever we do drawing from our own religious but unrenewed soul comes to nothing. Its final fruit will be zero because we simply did it WITHOUT THE LORD … though we may have done it FOR the Lord!
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Therefore, the Lord is not seeking believers who know the Bible and can talk, teach or preach from It about Him. There may be many like that. He seeks such that will “pour out their old life unto death” and will LIVE HIS WORD, manifest HIS LIFE and thus His Victory over death and over him who had the power of death, that is the devil.
The Lord achieved His Victory through His Own death, laying down His Own life. (Jn.10:15// 1Jn. 3:16) How shall we achieve it? Just by believing in this fact? Or by getting baptized? Our baptism is necessary and it should show our willingness to die to our old nature. But it does not take away our old life, old character, old nature, it does not make us instant conquerors (Rom. 8:37) or new creatures or priests and kings unto Our Father. (Rev. 1:6) True? It takes many years, many prayers, much faith and suffering and the power of the Holy Spirit to change us and make us more than conquerors according to His Word.
How shall we then conclude or recapitulate this most important factor of our Christianity and the very essence of our Salvation prepared for us by Our Heavenly Father and executed by Our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ? I believe, we can express it as follows.
THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, OF OUR SALVATION IS THE WAR BETWEEN THE LIFE AND GOOD (OF CHRIST) AND THE DEATH AND EVIL (OF SATAN). (Deut. 30:15,19// Is. 7:15)
AT OUR REDEMPTION, THE LIFE AND GOOD OF CHRIST IS IN OUR SPIRIT AND THE DEATH AND EVIL OF SATAN IS IN OUR SOUL (Mt. 7:11; 12:34).
OUR WAR STARTS AFTER OUR REDEMPTION AND BAPTISM AND IT TAKES PLACE BETWEEN OUR SPIRIT AND OUR SOUL AND THUS WE ARE THE BATTLEGROUND! OUR SPIRIT REPRESENTS THE HEAVENLY HUMANITY AND OUR SOUL EARTHLY HUMANITY. IT IS THUS A WAR BETWEEN THESE TWO HUMANITIES – THE OLD ONE AND THE NEW ONE.
THOUGH WE ARE POSSESSED BY CHRIST IN OUR ENTIRE BEING, WE ARE OPPRESSED, HARRASED, DECEIVED, PULLED TO SIN AND AWAY FROM CHRIST BY SATAN AND HIS POWERS, WHICH ARE BOTH OUTSIDE AND INSIDE OF OUR SOUL. THE POWER OF CHRIST WITH OUR FAITH AND DECISIONS OF OUR HEART AND WILL DECIDE OUR WAR AND ALSO ITS PROGRESS.
Everything else, which is not the object of this war, is unimportant. We must overcome ourselves and achieve the same victory of Life over Death and Good over Evil in our own experience as Our Lord achieved it for us. (1Tim. 6:12// Rom. 8:13; 12:21// Rev. 21:7, etc.) If we are willing to “lay down our old natural life”, then we will also be resurrected by the same Spirit and obtain the same Life, which we have in Christ and which is Eternal. This is the cornerstone, “raison d’être”, the whole basic purpose of Salvation and of the high calling of God upon our lives. (Phil. 3:14// Heb. 3:1-6, etc.)
We were not saved just to be forgiven our sins, to be healed from our physical sicknesses, to live a prosperous life here on Earth and then somehow avoid hell and get to Heaven. The true purpose of Salvation has depth, height, width and breadth, which transcends any imagination or understanding of our poor minds (Eph. 3:17,18, we will discuss this topic later on). All our own efforts to build different religious forms to suit our own beliefs, desires, plans and understanding are of no value whatsoever before Our Lord.
We may be preaching or appealing to one another with the most sincere and intelligent efforts, also with all our understanding and wisdom, supported by a vast research of any biblical topic that we might choose. We may attend Sunday or Sabbath Schools, theological seminaries and study the Bible with all human sincerity. We may sing in the church choir or play in the church orchestra. We may also scream and sweat trying to show what we know and are persuaded about its truth and importance. We may pace across the stage banging our Bible or fist on the pulpit, emphasize our “profound statements” with organ or drums or perform any other athletic feats [R.Parsley and others]. In themselves, these and similar religious or non-religious acts will never produce any spiritual fruit or any spiritual progress. Why?
Because these and many other similar religious acts, though some of them may be desirable or even absolutely necessary, do not crucify our old nature. Of themselves, they do not create within us a new and clean heart, do not change the spirit within us! Of themselves, they may increase our intellectual knowledge, they may (even deeply) affect our feelings. True preaching may bring faith to us (Rom. 10:17), but if that faith is not performed in our life, it remains dead. (Jam. 2:20) Hence, no fruit and no change in spirit is produced within our soul.
IF THERE IS TO BE ANY SPIRITUAL FRUIT AND PROGRESS, THESE RELIGIOUS ACTS MUST BE FOLLOWED BY THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR OLD NATURE, OLD MAN, THROUGH REPENTANCE, DISCIPLINE, OBEDIENCE AND CHASTISEMENT. (Heb. 12:5-11)
THIS IS THE BATTLE with the powers of evil and darkness in our soul, which WE ALL genuinely hate, do not want to believe it and desperately try to avoid it. Most believers prefer to ignore those powers and serve them, be at peace with them rather than battle with them and destroy them. Do you see it? Or not?
OUR LORD HAS NO INTENTION OF EDUCATING OR BLESSING OUR “OLD MAN”, BUT TO DESTROY HIM WITH OUR OWN CONSENT AND COOPERATION ON OUR OWN CROSS. (Mt. 16:24-26)
Every true Christian is in this spiritual war whether he decides to battle, surrender or whether he never decides to start his war. Those who do not fight it now will fight it later and under much harder conditions.
Let me give you a “military” example from physical wars, which should well reflect how our spiritual battles are conducted in our souls and why most of the above religious activities may not bring any fruit or any victory.
First, you must believe that you have an enemy and that he has the power to destroy both your body and soul in hell! The Word of God is clear. (Mt. 10:28) Here, the Lord was not warning pagans! There are already too many believers who fear neither God, nor Satan. They are doomed unless they wake up from their spiritual coma and start fearing for their own life. Is it possible that the Lord only wanted to frighten us with His Word foreknowing that, in reality, we were quite safe? What do you really believe about His Word quoted above?
Second, once you believe and admit that your enemy is living within you (just as the Lord lives within you), you will be able to decide in your heart to face your enemy with the Power of the Lord’s Spirit.
Third, in any battle with any enemy, physical or spiritual, there are two stages to destroy the enemy. Every good general will tell you that unless you know where your enemy is, what his movements, intentions, strengths, fortifications and deceptions are, you can do nothing except sit and wait or, perhaps, “chase windmills”. That general must first search out and find the enemy, get all the necessary information about him in order to have any hope for a successful operation and victory. Is that true?
Fourth, when you invite the Lord into your heart and when you open your heart to Him (Rev. 3:20), He starts to shine His Light into your heart and soul and shows you your enemy, his strength, hiding tactics, his origins and intentions. You may be very happy at this stage and praise the Lord and also believe that you are delivered from your spiritual problem that was bringing very bad fruit in your life.
But this is NOT your deliverance, as yet. This is like when the general sends out his reconnaissance planes to take aerial photographs of the enemy positions. But the enemy is not destroyed just because you start to see him and recognize his field of operations, strength and his deceptive tactics and thus the source of the evil fruit. (Mt. 7:16-20)
Fifth, the general THEN sends out his bombers to bomb the enemy to dust! YOU YOURSELVES must first see those powers in you, hate them, desire to be delivered from them and then ask the Lord to destroy them! Only then the Lord can “bomb” those parts of your heart to destroy the powers, which He showed you through your previous fruit and thus to deliver you. This is the time when you feel the pain and suffering the most since it is your own soul, which is the battlefield. THIS is your deliverance, the Will of the Father for your earthly life and the reality of your true Salvation.
Is this “military” example useful? Are you beginning to see and believe that many of our religious activities and forms of our religious life may actually work AGAINST US? How? They may easily distract us from our deliverances and true Salvation and thus from the Will of Our Heavenly Father! As long as we keep building, living, performing and continuing our form of emotional or intellectual religion within the area of our mind, its reasoning, understanding, imagination and its “power” of New Year’s resolutions, we will keep failing and wasting our time. Until we begin to see this fact clearly, we will remain in our deep deception and spiritual misery. The Lord knows. Let us never forget another fact, namely, that…
THE WAR OF OUR SALVATION IS FOUGHT ENTIRELY IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD AND NEVER IN THE PHYSICAL OR MENTAL WORLD WHERE IT HAS ONLY ITS REFLECTIONS!
If any man desires to achieve anything valuable – HE MUST BE CRUCIFIED IN HIS FLESH, IN HIS NATURAL CHARACTER! I am not the only “extremist” who dares to declare this truth to the Church of Jesus Christ, Our Lord! This is the perfect place to quote a profound and for many of you, I am sure, shocking statement of brother Austin-Sparks who in his booklet “The Christ, the Antichrist, and the Church[5]” (page 23) boldly declares the following:
“ONE OF THE GREATEST TRAGEDIES IS THAT THE CHURCH HAS SERVED SATAN’S PURPOSE SO WELL, BECAUSE IT IS NOT A CRUCIFIED CHURCH.” …(!)
It is also my experience that many believers, mostly those in the leadership of the Church, like to get into many arguments, discussions, debates, questioning and doubting those things they do not like or understand. We know that what logic or an argument can construct or build up, the same logic and argument can destroy and pull down. This is like a big circle, which never ends and leads nowhere. Our Lord never engaged in such meaningless exercises.
I cannot but reach again for an excellent quote from “The Battle for Life[3]” (p. 82), where brother Austin-Sparks declares the following spiritual fact:
“If the enemy finds that he can hold the situation by keeping us in that circle, that awful going round of debate, argument, discussion, of analysing, of questioning, of doubting, he will keep us going round; he will whip us up like a circus horse to keep us running round all the time, while we never get beyond the point where we started. If you keep going back there all the time, not making one fragment, or fraction of real spiritual progress toward victory, you can go on so for fifty years.” …(!)
One important quote is, again, found in the book “The Messenger of the Cross[1]” (pages 38,39) where brother Watchman states the following:
“…if we are not willing to deliver our soul life and its power to death, we will never receive afresh the Word of God in our spirit. If we as His servants wish to be used by God to save sinners and to revive saints – that is, to proclaim the word of the cross – we must let the cross first work in us:”
“Satan hates the preaching of the word of the Cross. If we faithfully proclaim the Lord’s Cross, we will suffer opposition from him. He often assaults the messenger of the cross in the following ways. He may attack by weakening the latter’s health – causing him to lose his voice or to encounter many physical dangers – or by oppressing his spirit to near suffocation. He may work in the environment to create misunderstanding, opposition, and even persecution. He may disturb the weather, hindering people from attending meetings. He may cause disorder or confusion in the meeting. He may incite the dogs to bark or the babies to cry. Sometimes he may work in the atmosphere, making the meeting heavy, suffocating, oppressive or gloomy. All these are the works of the enemy which a messenger of the cross must recognize.”
During my ministry, I have myself experienced a good number of the enemy’s actions described above by brother Watchman Nee. This is thus my personal testimony to the truths quoted above.
To be continued next week in part 3
brother Hanola
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