The church life is Christ Himself enjoyed by us, experienced by us, realized by us, and expressed through us corporately.
For us to have the proper church life to express Christ according to God’s eternal purpose, however, our soul must be subdued and saturated with Christ as the Spirit.
Most of the time we live in our soul, and in most things of our human living we decide with our own will, we think our own thoughts, and we love the things and people we prefer with our emotion.
In order for the Lord to grow in us and be experienced by us, He must break through and subdue our soul so that He may have a way to saturate our soul with Himself as the life-giving Spirit.
The more our soul is subdued, the more the divine life can grow and expand in our being.
But many times we are quite strong in a particular part of our being, be it our mind, our emotion, or our will, and we react to everything by exercising that part of our being. We may be very much in our emotions and decide things, do things, and react to things based on our emotions.
The Lord wants us not only to love Him with our first love by being attracted to His beauty, but He wants us to be subdued in every part of our soul so that He may have a way to saturate us with Himself.
The more we are subdued in our will, the more the Lord can come in and save us organically, making us one with Him in our will. Our will needs to return to God and be one with God’s will so that He may do in us and through us the things He wants to do.
The most beautiful thing to God in a man is a subdued will; through such a man and with such a man He can work, speak, and do everything He wants, since he cooperates with God to the uttermost.
May the Lord have mercy on us that we may no longer live in our soul being led by our feelings, our way of thinking, or our strong will, but be those who live by the spirit and have a subdued soul saturated with Christ as the Spirit.
Growing in Life by Having our Soul Subdued and Saturated with Christ as the Spirit
On the one hand, the growth in the divine life is the expanding of the ground of the Holy Spirit within us; on the other hand, the growth in the divine life means that every part of our soul is being subdued (1 Thes. 5:23).
Maturity in life is a matter of the subduing of the will. When God has no resistance in our soul and our will is subdued before Him, we have reached maturity in life and are most useful to the Lord.
In our nature we are rebellious against God and His will, and no matter what cultural refinement we have and what our background is, our will is rebellious against God. We need the Lord’s light to shine on us and expose our wild rebellious will and realize that the more our soul is subdued, the more the divine life grows in us.
The more our soul decreases, the more the divine life increases in us; this is a fact. It would be a great blessing to us if today would be a day of decrease: our soul decreases and God’s life increases.
Many people have a certain part of their soul that is particularly strong and outstanding; some are very smart and have studied extensively but whenever they encounter things or situations, they react based on their emotion.
There’s a particular part of our soul that is most prominent, and it comes out first when we encounter things. Many times the Lord enlightens us by our reactions; we get irritated a lot and we react to things based on how we feel.
But after we receive the dealings of the cross, our soul is subdued; our mind, emotion, and will are broken and subdued, not standing out as before (see 2 Tim. 1:7). When we then encounter something, we will react not based on our rational mind, strong will, or hot emotion but by exercising our spirit.
The Lord’s answer to our prayer for more growth in the divine life is bringing about situations and things that will help us be subdued in our soul.
God is good at being God; He does His job very well, and He will gain what He is after. From our side, however, it is not enough for us to understand the matter of the subduing of our soul or even mentally agree with this; we need to have an active positive response to the Lord’s light and pray this to the Lord,
Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to be subdued in our soul for the church. Oh Lord, we are not yet subdued in our soul, and this is damaging to the family life and to the church life. Give us the experiences we need that we may grow in life more so that You may be enjoyed by us, experienced by us, and expressed through us in the church life. Lord, You know what part of our soul needs to be subdued. Grow in us for the church. Subdue us for the church. Lord Jesus, have a way in us!
Learning the Unique Lesson of the Subduing of our Will
In the book of Song of Songs we see not only a loving relationship between God and man but also the subduing of the will; the lover was very strong in her will in the beginning, and at the end her will was submissive and one with the Lord.
We can reach maturity in life only by the subduing of the will. If we want to be filled with God for the growth in life, our will has to be subdued.
We need to love the Lord with our first love, pursue Him fervently, and seek every opportunity to waste ourselves on Him out of love for Him; also, we need to experience Him as our life and allow Him to subdue our will so that He may increase in us.
Loving the Lord Jesus has to be matched by our being subdued by the Lord in our will. When we love the Lord and are subdued by Him, we will be one with Him and we will have one personality.
In the Song of Songs the will is likened to the hair of the lover which is like a herd of goats on the mountainside (submissive and gathered together) and to the tower of David full of arms for battle (the will in resurrection is strong and one with Christ for warfare).
After being attracted by the Lord’s beauty to love Him, we must learn one unique lesson: the subduing of our will. Nothing is more pleasing to the Lord than a subdued and submissive will. This is beautiful in His sight.
The more our will is subdued, the more we will be transformed (see Song of Songs 1:9-11; 4:1, 4; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2).
The will represents our self, it is the deciding factor leading us to do or not do things, go or not go places, and say or not say things; our will is our true self, our person, because the will represents our person (see James 4:13-15; 1 Cor. 4:19; Acts 18:21).
This is why, in addition to God giving us the eternal life in Christ, the return of our will to God to be submissive to Him and one with Him is the greatest work of salvation (Phil. 2:12-13).
All the problems in this universe are due to the rebellion against God initiated by Satan, and this has to do with our will. If our will returns to God and is subdued by Him, our will is harmonious with God and strong to stand for His interest.
This is what God desires: to have man on earth stand one with Him in his will so that God’s will may be done on earth as in the heaven. The Lord desires to grow in us and spread from our spirit into our mind to invade our mind, saturate our emotions, and subdue our will; the union of the human will with the divine will is the deepest level of oneness.
The most important and most complete union with God rests in the union of our will with God’s will; this opens the way for God to saturate us with Himself, grow in us, and do what He desires in us and through us (see Matt. 7:21; 12:50; Rom. 12:2; Col. 1:9; 4:12).
Lord Jesus, save us from remaining rebellious toward You in our will. We want to cooperate with You to have our will returned to God. Transform us more by subduing our will and by saturating us with Your element. Oh Lord, invade our mind, saturate our emotions, and subdue our will that we may reach the deepest level of oneness with You: the oneness in the will! Have a free way in us to saturate us, fill us, grow in us, and do everything You want to do in us and through us for the church!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1972, vol. 1, “Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs“, (chs. 3, 6-7), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision, Practice, and Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, week 4 / msg 4, Crucial Experiences in the Practice of the Church Life (1) – Our Soul Being Subdued and Saturated with Christ as the Spirit and Christ Being Released from the Imprisonment of the Soul.
- Picture credit for 2 Tim. 1:7 and more spiritual quotes on this topic via, Christian Pictures blog.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Jesus Lord, I love You. / Nothing more do I want. / Nothing in this whole world / Satisfies as You do, Lord. / Though I wander away, / Still Your love seeks after me, / Reaching me; I’m subdued / And I turn back to You. (Song on Loving the Lord)
# Oh, conquer me dear Lord, / And never let me win. / May Thou defeat me all the time / Till I’m subdued within. (Song on Being Subdued by Him)
# In our emotions He must grow; / Raw, fragile feelings overthrow; / Our love, our hatred, must be His— / Lord, we agree with You for this. / Another part the Lord must fill— / Our hard, unbending, stubborn will; / Lord, our resistance quickly break, / Subdue us for Thy kingdom’s sake. (Hymns #1300)
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The growth of life subdues every part of our soul. The more our soul is subdued, the more life grows, and the more our soul decreases, the more life increases….When we meet a saint, there is no need to measure what has been increased in him; rather, we should observe what has been decreased in him and whether he has been poured out and broken. If there is a decrease of himself, then God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit have surely gained ground in him and have increased in him. Only this is the real growth of life. (Further Talks on the Knowledge of Life, p. 182, by Witness Lee)
Question (via pinterest, see http://www.pinterest.com/pin/127648970664428790/comments/ )
“I’ve always had this question, if He just wants to subdue us so that it’s just Him living, why go through all the trouble of humanity? Doesn’t He want a bride who is one with Him but it’s not crushed or faded to oblivion? What’s the point if the Bride is no longer the bride but just Him? I just refuse to believe that God just wants Himself, why go through all the trouble? It just seems illogical, but hey, I’m just a mortal human, what do I know? Lol!”
(answer 1 – via pinterest, as above)
I also wondered this, and I think I found the answer – at least partially. In our being – whether Christians or non-believers – we have a fallen human nature. Even as believers, we still live so much according to our fallen human nature, in our self, and even in the flesh. This part God wants to have it decreased, so that His divine life in us may increase. We were created not as tools but as vessels so that we may receive His divine life. After receiving His life in our spirit, we need to cooperate for His life to spread from our spirit into our thinking, our feelings, and especially in our will. But all these are still full of the Satanic element, and we don’t even see that. We can’t change ourselves, and we don’t even want to change. But God brings about certain situations first to expose what we are and then to break down the things in us that the enemy has built and put in….so that there would be ground and space for His life to spread. But God brings about certain situations first to expose what we are and then to break down the things in us that the enemy has built and put in….so that there would be ground and space for His life to spread. God wants to “subdue us” with OUR cooperation – with the cooperation of our regenerated being within, our inner man. As the outer man is decaying, the inner man is being renewed. So there are two sides: breaking and saturating. Sorry for the long reply….I hope you kind of get what I’m saying….