In order for us to grow in the divine life and to serve God according to His heart’s desire, we need to deal with our natural constitution. How much we grow in life and how much we can minister life to others depends on our dealing with our natural constitution. We need to ask the Lord,
Lord, You know I love You, but what is my current actual situation? Do I care more for life than for work? Do I see the impotence and the insufficiency of my natural being in the things of God? Lord, do I live by and in my natural man? Do I serve You according to my natural constitution? Does my growth in the divine life match the number of years I have been a believer and I’ve been in the church life? To what degree is my being and my serving in resurrection?
Brothers and sisters, we need to make an advance in our experience of life for the sake of the Body of Christ. Paul testified in 2 Cor. 1:9, Indeed we ourselves have the response of death in ourselves, that we should not base our confidence on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
Our confidence in ourselves, in our natural man, needs to be decisively and definitively broken so that we would base our confidence only in the God of resurrection!
The Impotence of our Natural Man in the Things of God
We need the Lord to open our eyes to see the impotence and the insufficiency of our natural man in the things of God.
Through birth and development in our human life, we have a certain natural constitution, certain capabilities and capacities, that not only help us survive and grow in our human life but we also bring into the church life.
Even in serving God in the church life, we have so much confidence in ourselves. But our flesh is not subject to God and cannot please Him. As long as we are not living in our spirit, we are in the flesh, and we are not useful to God.
We will trust ourselves until something decisive happens in us, and then we just can’t trust ourselves anymore – something has been shattered in us, and we base our confidence on the God of resurrection. We agree that the response to our enquiry about our situation is death – it is termination. Only that will touch our confidence.
In the preaching of the gospel, in caring for the saints, in serving practically in the church, our natural being is not useful to the Lord and cannot please God.
If we would realize the impotence of the natural being and the insufficiency in caring for the things of the church, we will repent before the Lord for still doing things in our natural man. We will pray, Lord, cause me to realize the impotence of my natural being in the things of God.
We don’t have ANY sufficiency, competence, or power in the things of God. How dare we think that we know how to lead a church or lead the saints in a certain direction. How do we dare to trust the power of our natural being? How can we still trust in our intelligence, our capability, our management skills, our natural care and goodness, etc. when we serve God in the church life?
Brothers and sisters, we need to be brought to the point that every vestige of the natural life has been dealt with and resurrected.
The Church Rejects Anything Natural
The immune system in the Body of Christ spontaneously rejects anything that is of the natural man. Sometimes we felt as if “the saints reject our function or portion” – but actually what happens is that the Body of Christ rejects our natural man being expressed or trying to function.
The Body of Christ is an entity completely in resurrection, and nothing natural does the Body life allow. There is no place in the church life for our natural being; only what is born of God in us can build up the Body of Christ. Only when we exercise our spirit and live in spirit can we build up the Body of Christ.
There is no place for our natural being in the church, but there’s a place for our regenerated being who is in the process of renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification! The immune system in the Body rejects anything that is natural and has not yet passed through death and resurrection.
When we cooperate with the Lord to deal with our natural being, the whole church will be happy because our function and service will be in resurrection!
Only Those Broken in their Natural Man can be Built up
How can natural people be built up together? If we are whole, if the cross has not broken through our natural being, we cannot be built up with other saints. For the church to be built up we need to be broken in our natural man so that we may be able to be joined with others.
In our natural man we don’t fit with the other saints and we cannot be built up together. But when our natural ability, zeal, discernment, and everything natural in us is broken, we can be joined to others to be built up together in the Body.
We may be very burdened by the Lord to do something for Him, we may have the capacity to do it, we may be able to do it, but if we carry it out in our natural life, the Lord cannot build up His Body.
No matter what the outward result is, no matter how many we bring to the Lord and how many church we help establish, if the Lord doesn’t break through in our natural man, we rather damage the Body than build it.
We can be built up together and we can be useful to the Lord for His building only after we have been broken in our natural man.
Lord, break through in us. Save us from living in our natural man. Lord, we want to cooperate with You as You expose our natural capacity and ability. Cause us to realize that our natural being cannot please God or serve Him! Save us from serving in the church by and in our natural man. Lord, bring our natural being through death and into resurrection that it may be useful to You. Lord, bring us fully in resurrection that we may no longer live and serve in our natural man but in and by the spirit.
References and Further Reading
- This sharing is inspired from brother Ron Kangas’ sharing and portions in, Basic Lessons on Service (lessons 16, 20), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, ITERO spring 2013 “The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body“, week 2 entitled, Dealing with the Natural Constitution in Order to Be in Resurrection.
- Further reading: The Building Work of God (pp. 62-63), and, The Experience of Life, p. 253.
- Hymns on this topic:
# When I am in the natural man, / How very strong I feel I am. / I do not know, I cannot scan / How weak I am.
# Built up in love together, / Not one would criticize; / To perfect one another, / We all would exercise. / Each one from self delivered, / The natural life forsakes; / In grace each trained in spirit / The Body-life partakes.
# Remove my covering, Lord, / That I may see Thy light, / And be deceived no more, / But all things see aright. / Oh, may Thy living light, Lord, / Scatter all my night, Lord, / And everything make bright, Lord, / For this I pray to Thee.
If we would realize the impotence of the natural being and the insufficiency in caring for the things of the church.
Lord, let us make t effort to cooperate wit U. Our faith isn't vain & we know U work wit our cooperation. We r not too holy to b any earthly good!
Amen!!!
🙂
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God's economy is altogether a matter of the new creation, nothing of our old being (whether good or bad) should remain. The churches in the Lord's recovery, as parts of the living Body of Christ, will spontaneously reject anything that is natural.
We have to learn to reject our natural being and EXERCISE OUR SPIRIT in EVERYTHING!
Dealing with self and dealing with the natural constitution are of extreme importance in spiritual experience. They are not only related to life but also to service. If we wish to have the kind of service according to God's heart desire, dealing with the self and the natural constitution is a must. In order for the church to be built up, we all have to be broken. If there is no breaking, there is no building. Everything natural in us, whether it is our ability, our discernment, or our zeal, is unsuitable to be used for the building. Every natural thing in us needs to be broken before we can be built and joined with others.