Ⅳ
In order for the children of God to reach the spiritual age of twenty, they need to pass through the first three stages of the experience of life and enter into the fourth stage:
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The first stage of the experience of life is being in Christ, the second stage is abiding in Christ, and the third stage is Christ living in us, which is also the stage of the cross—Gal. 2:20; 3:1; 5:24; Matt. 16:24.
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In the third stage the seeking believers deal with the flesh, the self, and the natural constitution with the natural strength and ability:
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The flesh denotes the totality of the fallen old man, our entire fallen being—Gen. 6:3; Rom. 7:18a; Gal. 2:16:
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The flesh is the living out and the expression of the old man—Rom. 6:6.
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The flesh cannot be changed or improved; thus, we need to be mindful of the fact that the flesh is always with us—13:14; Gal. 5:16.
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The flesh is the camp of God's enemy and the largest base for his work—vv. 19-21:
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The flesh is the first among our enemies, taking the lead over sin, the world, and Satan to fight against us—Rom. 8:3.
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God hates the flesh in the same manner that He hates Satan, and He wants to destroy the flesh in the same manner that He wants to destroy Satan—Exo. 17:16; Deut. 25:17-19; 1 Sam. 15:2-3.
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The self is the soul-life with the emphasis on human thoughts and opinions—Matt. 16:23-25:
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In Matthew 16:23-25 three terms are related to one another: mind, himself, and soul-life:
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Our mind is the expression of our self, and our self is the embodiment of our soul-life—vv. 23-25.
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Our soul-life is embodied in and lived out by our self, and our self is expressed through our mind, idea, thought, concept, and opinion—vv. 22-23.
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The self is the embodiment of Satan; the self is the essence of Satan in the soul, making the soul independent from God to express its self-opinion and self-will—v. 23; Gen. 3:1-6; 2 Cor. 11:3.
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The self is the soul declaring its independence from God—Matt. 16:23; Luke 14:26; Job 42:5-6.
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The natural constitution is the aggregate of our physical and mental abilities—1 Cor. 2:14-15; Phil. 3:3, 10-11:
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The natural strength and ability do not have the divine element.
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The natural strength and ability act on their own, not according to God's will.
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When we work with our natural ability, we seek our own glory and satisfy our own desire.
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When our natural strength and ability are dealt with by the cross, they become useful in resurrection—v. 11.
Morning Nourishment
Phil. 3:3 For we are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
Anything natural does not have the divine element in it, especially the natural strength and natural ability. To use our natural strength and ability is altogether against the basic principle of the church as the Body of Christ, because the church as the Body of Christ is altogether a composition of humanity mingled with divinity. The church as the new man must be full of the divine element. The Lord condemns Christianity because it has become a religion carried out by man's natural strength and man's natural ability. There is no development of the divine element there. But the genuine church is a composition of the divine element mingled with humanity. We must learn this as a basic lesson, and we also must impress every saint who partakes of the church service with this point. (CWWL, 1979, vol. 2,”Basic Lessons on Service,” p. 140)
Today's Reading
In our service we must do everything in the principle of incarnation. The principle of incarnation is that the divine nature is wrought into humanity. When the Lord Jesus was on this earth, He did everything in His humanity full of the divine element. He did not do anything by the natural strength or the natural ability. He said that He could not do anything apart from the Father (John 5:19). The Father was within Him and one with Him in all His deeds, in all His words, and in all His works (14:10; 10:30). Whatever He did, whatever He said, and whatever He worked was altogether with the Father as the divine element. We need to consider whether the strength and ability we use for the Lord's service are natural or divine. We have to learn the lesson of rejecting our natural strength and ability, and we have to help all the saints to learn this lesson.Today it is possible that we may act and do some service for the Lord on our own according to our natural strength and ability but not according to God's will. Because we have the strength and the ability, we feel that we do not need to pray, to wait on the Lord, to seek the Lord's will, or to look for the Lord's leading. This was exactly what happened to Moses. When he slew an Egyptian to protect his fellow Hebrew, he did this on his own and not according to the Lord's will (Exo. 2:11-12). The sad situation in today's Christianity is that people work for the Lord mostly on their own by their natural strength and ability. They do not pray for the Lord's leading. They may pray only for the Lord to bestow His blessing upon what they do. They do not pray that much for the Lord's will, because they trust in their natural strength and ability.
When we work in our natural strength and ability, the goal is to seek our own glory, and the motive is to satisfy our own desire. If we see this vision, it will kill our self-seeking and impure motive. Actually, in the Lord's work we should not have our own desire, and we should not have our own goal for our glory, for our boast. We should do things simply because the Lord leads us to do them. We should not do them because we have something to achieve for our goal. That is wrong. The goal must be the Lord's.
To kill our desire and our goal means to kill our strength and ability. Our own desire and our own goal for our glory are one with our natural strength and natural ability. The people of the world and even many Christians do things by their strength and ability for their desire and glory, but we have to condemn and reject this.
The natural strength and ability are useful if they are dealt with by the cross. After being dealt with by the cross, they are in resurrection…. In resurrection something divine has been wrought into our strength and ability…. After being dealt with, our strength and ability become useful in resurrection for our service to the Lord. (CWWL, 1979, vol. 2,”Basic Lessons on Service,” pp. 140-143)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1979, vol. 2,”Basic Lessons on Service,” chs. 16-20; Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 133-135