Reaching Maturity by Having a Subdued and Resurrected Will for the Spiritual Warfare

In Song of Songs 3 and 4 we see that the loving seeker has reached maturity, and the secret of her maturity is that her will was subdued and resurrected, so now it is useful to the Lord in resurrection; this is related to spiritual warfare.

In the Lord’s eyes, on one hand we are males in the army, those who need to grow in life unto maturity to reach the spiritual age of twenty to be formed into His army; on the other hand, we are His loving seeker, the bride, and our will needs to be subdued and resurrected.

Our desperate need today is that we grow in life unto maturity for the Lord to gain the bridal army fighting for His interest on the earth. When the Lord has fully worked His image into us and when He is fully expressed through us, we will be mature in life.

One of the way of realising one’s growth in life is whether or not there’s an increase of the expression of Christ in that one.

When we all with unveiled face are beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed from having no glory to having a little glory, then more glory, lots of glory, mostly glory, and all glory – from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18).

On the other hand, there has to be the growing, the continual growing in life unto maturity.

The leading ones who watch over the souls of the saints should truly care for them and be watchful, being full of prayer and seeking before the Lord so that the saints would grow in life.

We may be afraid of knowing our real situation and may hold back, but if we let the Lord shine on us and show us, then there will be the growth in life, and the expression of Christ will increase in us.

As we shepherd one another in love, we desperately pray both for ourselves and for all the saints that God would give us the experiences we need to be transformed and grow in life unto maturity.

We shouldn’t judge or criticize others but rather pray for them, bear them, love them, and bring them before the Lord, so that we all may arrive at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

We are before the Lord both for ourselves and for all the saints in the Body, praying both to deal with the enemy who frustrates the growth in life, and to cooperate with the Lord to release the daily growth in life unto maturity for all His saints. Amen!

Reaching Maturity in Life by the Subduing of our Will and having it brought in Resurrection

In chapter 3 of Song of Songs we see the maturity of the seeking one, and then in the next chapter we are told that this maturity is reached by the subduing of the will and by having it brought into resurrection. Our will needs to be subdued and resurrected.

The last part of our soul to be transformed is our will; we are first renewed in the spirit of our mind, then the mind is renewed and transformed, and the spirit has a way to flow into our emotion.

The goal is for the Lord to gain our will; our will – whether it is strong or weak – needs to be subdued, so that it would be strong to stand for the Lord and against the enemy, yet it is flexible in the Lord’s hands.

The seeking one becomes a palanquin, a miniature of the city; the city contains the Lord in a full way, while the palanquin contains Him on a smaller scale. Her neck is like the tower of David; the hair signifies our will, and our neck also signifies our will.

When the people of Israel were rebellious against God and thus their will didn’t cooperate with His will, the Lord called them stiff-necked people (Exo. 32:9; Acts 7:51).

But in Song of Songs 4:1 we see that there’s a flock of goats on the mountain, which shows that the will of the seeking one has been subdued; later it says that there’s the tower of David, which points to the will being strong in resurrection.

First, our will must be subdued, and then, it must be strong in resurrection.

The problem with us, however, is that our will is strong in ourselves but stubborn before the Lord and weak before the enemy; we may be strong in deciding things according to what we want, but when the enemy comes, we surrender unconditionally, and he always defeats us.

Our natural will needs to be dealt with, and then it has to be brought into resurrection to be resurrected; a subdued and resurrected will is what the Lord needs for His purpose and for the spiritual warfare.

When we cooperate with the Lord to allow Him to subdue our will and bring it in resurrection, we will reach maturity in life. But if our will is unsubdued, it is weak before the enemy and stubborn before the Lord; when the enemy comes, no matter how strong we are in our will, we will surrender to his attacks.

But if we have a submissive will, a will that has been subdued like a flock of goats on a mountainside, our will is strong toward the enemy, fighting for God’s interest, and our will is also subdued before the Lord to be one with Him.

This is the secret of the maturity for the spiritual warfare as seen in Song of Songs 3 and 4: we reach maturity by the subduing of our will and having it brought into resurrection.

Lord Jesus, we want to reach maturity by having our will subdued and resurrected so that it may be useful to You in resurrection. Save us from having an unsubdued will and thus remaining the same, stagnating in our growth and maturity in life. Dear Lord, bring us on with You; we open to You so that You may saturate and invade our mind, fill our emotion and feelings, and subdue our will and bring it into resurrection. We open to Your leading, and our will is not only defeated but also submissive; Lord, lead us, form us into Your army, and have a way in us according to Your will!

Reaching Maturity by Having a Subdued and Resurrected Will for the Spiritual Warfare

Song of Songs portrays in a poetic way that we as loving seekers of the Lord need to first have our will subdued and then resurrected so that it can be useful for the spiritual warfare.

When our will is subdued, it will enter into resurrection to be like the tower of David, having an armory for the spiritual warfare.

In Song of Songs 4:4 it says that the neck of the loving seeker is like the tower of David, built for an armory, and a thousand bucklers hang on it, all the shields of the mighty men.

This shows us that, when our will is subdued and resurrected, it becomes a strong armory to keep all the weapons of the spiritual warfare; these weapons, however, are mostly defensive, not offensive.

In spiritual warfare we don’t fight for victory but from victory, for the victory has already been won by the Lord. Bucklers and shields are all for protection in order to stand.

In fighting the spiritual warfare, we are not so much on the offensive as we are on the defensive; we stand against all the devilish, subtle attacks of the enemy.

If we read Eph. 6 we will see that most items of the armor of the corporate spiritual warrior are not offensive but defensive; there’s no need for us to fight – the Lord has already won the battle, and we simply need to proclaim His victory and stand in His victory.

When we reach maturity by having a subdued and resurrected will, we will simply stand in the Lord and resist all of the enemy’s attacks; we are protected from the arrows of the enemy by the “bucklers and shields” in the strong tower of our subdued and resurrected will.

But if we don’t cooperate with the Lord and we don’t allow Him to subdue our will and bring it into resurrection, our unsubdued will always makes an unconditional surrender; such a will cannot stand for God, neither can it be used by Him in the spiritual warfare.

We may have an outward form of submission to God and to others, but if our will is not submissive to God and it is not subdued by Him, we will surrender to the enemy’s attacks. Oh Lord Jesus!

How key our will is in the spiritual warfare, and how much we need to cooperate with the Lord by having a subdued and resurrected will as we reach maturity!

When we start on our Christian path, we are like the loving seeker in the beginning of Song of Songs, like a mare, full of will and zeal and natural power; but as we go on with the Lord and allow Him to deal with all the parts of our being, we become one that has no will of its own but is one with the Lord’s will.

May the Lord give us the experiences we need so that we may come out of our natural will and stand in our resurrected will against the enemy, fighting the spiritual warfare by being one spirit with the Lord and standing in the Body with our fellow members.

Hallelujah, if we have a submissive will, our will becomes like the tower of David that holds all kinds of weapons for warfare (2 Cor. 10:3-5), and we will fight the spiritual warfare one with the Lord.

Lord Jesus, give us the experiences we need for us to have a subdued and resurrected will, a will that can be one with You for the defeat of the enemy. Amen, Lord, may we cooperate with You to subdue our will and have it brought into resurrection to be like the tower of David, holding all kinds of weapons for warfare. Make us Your bridal army who will return with You to deal with the enemy at Armageddon! Amen, Lord Jesus, may we reach spiritual maturity to such an extent that our will is subdued and resurrected!

This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Să atingem maturitatea având o voință supusă și înviată pentru războiul spiritual.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1972, vol. 1, ”Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs,” ch. 6, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 2, The Growth and Maturity Required for the Formation of the Army to Protect God’s Testimony and Fight for His Move on Earth.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # I open now, / With all my heart. / Lord, more and more possess each part. / Oh Lord, I pray / Subdue my soul. / Until You have the full control. (Song on, Oh Lord, break through)
  # Oh, save me, Lord! Subdue this stubborn will; / Oh, save me, Lord! / In spite of all, Thy purposes fulfil / In me, Oh, Lord; / I yield my self, and all I have and am, / To follow Thee, Thou all redeeming Lamb! (Hymns #385)
  # By the cross discern the spirit, / With the mind by light renewed, / All emotion consecrated, / And the will in love subdued. (Hymns #748)