When the Lord shows us what is the greatest hindrance to the building up of His Body, we will truly see what the self is and how much it frustrates the Lord in building up His church. Under the divine light, as the Lord exposes our self in all its activities, manifestations, and utterances, we will see how terrible the self is, how active it is, and how damaging it is to the Body of Christ.
The Lord Jesus calls all His followers to deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Him (Luke 9:23). But how do we deny the self? How can you take up the cross and follow the Lord?
Many Christians, out of their good heart for the Lord, think that God wants them to “suffer under the cross”, and so they “bear the cross” and grit their teeth, refusing to complain too much about their “sufferings under the cross.” However, God’s desire is not that we would “suffer under the cross” but that our self would be terminated and killed by the cross.
So, how do we deny the self and take up our cross? First of all, we need to see the fact: our old man, our self, has been crucified with Christ on the cross (Rom. 6:6). This is a fact accomplished more than 2000 years ago: our old man has been crucified with Christ, and when Christ died on the cross we also died with Him (see Gal. 2:20).
After we see this fact, we need to take up our cross, that is, don’t leave the cross of Christ. The Lord Jesus bore the cross His whole life, denying Himself and living for God, and at the end of His life He was crucified. Now we in our Christian life start from the cross, being one with Christ, and we daily need to live a crucified life.
We need to stay under the shadow of the death of Christ, abide in His death, by being one with Christ in spirit. The death of Christ is in the life-giving Spirit mingled with our spirit. Whenever we exercise our spirit and touch the Lord, the Spirit applies the death of Christ to our being.
When we exercise our spirit and the cross is applied to our being, we don’t “grit our teeth” or “suffer as a martyr under the cross” but we our self is terminated, killed, and we are one with Christ in living Him out.
Every genuine bearing of the cross is with joy and not with gritting of teeth, speaking back, complaining, showing others how much we suffer, or pitying ourselves. Every genuine bearing of the cross is by the exercise of the spirit and leads to following the Lord as the Spirit with our spirit. Our denying the self and bearing the cross brings us to where Christ is today to be one with Him in spirit.
Not Loving the Self but Losing the Soul Life and Dealing with the Self by the Cross
Matt. 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his across and follow Me.
In the last days people will be lovers of self (2 Tim. 3:2), and this can be true even among the believers. Some believers may overly care for himself, making sure they have the right attitude toward others, trying their best to be humble and not proud, diligently keeping a Bible-reading schedule by their own effort, and doing their best not to offend anyone.
The way to deal with the self is NOT by introspection or by the self; the self cannot crucify the self. Our self is fully occupied, filled, and busy with the self, and even if we try to “deal with our self” by our self, it is still the self, the more “perfected and religious self.”
The seeker in the Song of Songs loved the Lord, pursued Him, and was lost in the enjoyment of Him until one day she found that the Lord’s presence was not as close as before, so she began to be introspective, looking into herself to see where He is and what has she done wrong.
Then, the Lord revealed to her that He is like a young hart skipping on the hills – He is beyond and above our introspective self, and He calls us out of our self to Him in resurrection and ascension!
On His side, the Lord is faithful to bring about many failures and situations that will bankrupt the self, and on our side, we need to see that our self, the living out of our soul life, is a great hindrance to the Lord in the building up of His Body.
Spiritual growth depends on the denial of the self, and the denial of the self means to simply forget about the self and focus on the Lord Jesus! To deny the self is to forget about our self and to forfeit our soul-life; losing the soul-life is the reality of denying the self (Matt. 16:26; Luke 9:24-25).
May the Lord have mercy on us and expose our self, and may He grant us the grace to cooperate with Him to reject our self, deny our self, and forfeit our soul-life by exercising our spirit to touch the Lord and by living in the spirit!
We Should Deny the Self, take up our Cross, and Follow the Lord
How do we practically deny the self? What is the way that the Bible shows for us to lose our soul-life and deny the self?
First, we need to SEE that our old man has been crucified on the cross. The Bible tells us clearly, Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves (Rom. 6:6). When Christ died, we died; we were crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20). This is a fact.
Secondly, after we see this revelation, we need to recognize and accept this fact. We need to praise the Lord for this! Simply tell the Lord, Amen, Lord, I am crucified with You. I accept this. I acknowledge this. You have already accomplished this. Hallelujah, I am crucified with Christ!
Thirdly, after we see the revelation and accept the fact, we need to apply to ourselves the death of Christ by exercising our spirit (see Rom. 8:13). The application of the death of Christ which He accomplished and we have recognized can be done only by the Spirit.
It is in the Spirit that we can bear the cross. When we exercise our spirit and live and walk in the Spirit, the Spirit applies the death of Christ to us. In everything we do and speak we need to check our self, our opinion, our will, our thought, and our concept by the Spirit.
It is only by the Spirit that we can put to death the practices of the body. It is only by the Spirit’s power that the self can be denied and put aside. When we live and walk by the Spirit, the Spirit applies the death of Christ to us (see Gal. 5:16, 24-25; Rom. 8:4, 13).
The death of Christ has been incorporated into the Spirit. We cannot and should not exercise our self-will and self-determination to deny the self, but exercise our spirit to touch the Lord and be one with Him, and the Spirit will apply the death of Christ to our self.
The Spirit knows how to kill the self and how to put our self to death, and all we need to do is be in Spirit. This is why we need to contact the Lord, fellowship with Him, and live and walk by the Spirit. By exercising our spirit and living in Spirit our self is crossed out, we bear the cross, and Christ lives in us.
We must remain under the killing of the death of Christ for the terminating of our self, our natural life, and our old man. When we deny our self in such a way, we can follow the Lord as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit (see 1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17; Gal. 5:25). When we deny the self by exercising our spirit, the church life is wonderful and there is no division in the church!
Praise the Lord, we have been crucified with Christ. Our old man has been crucified with Him on the cross, and now we no longer need to serve sin as slaves. Lord, we turn to You. We want to exercise our spirit to touch You and be in spirit. We don’t know how to deny our self and we cannot deny our self by ourselves. Lord, we need You. Apply the death of Christ to the manifestations of the self. Keep us under the death of Christ throughout the day. Lord, keep us in our spirit! We love You!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. James Lee’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Basic Lessons on Service (lsn. 19), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Heavenly Vision, week 4 / msg 4, The Vision of the Self.
- Hymns on this topic:
# My old man has been crucified with Him, / With all its foul corruption deep within; / And buried too its nature serpentine, / Completely finished—this great fact is mine, / I hold it fast. (Hymns #1179)
# By the cross discern the spirit, / Put the soul to death alway; / Bear the cross, deny the self-life, / Walk in spirit day by day. (Hymns #748)
# Exercise the spirit! / Soulish life deny; / Helping one another, / On the Lord rely. / Freed within the spirit / From self-righteousness, / From self-condemnation / And self-consciousness. (Hymns #866)
# Lord, teach us to discern the spirit, / The soul-life ever to deny, / And ever follow Thee in spirit, / Thyself, the Spirit, to apply. (Hymns #746)
