The More our Natural Constitution is Dealt with, the More We will be in Resurrection!

For us as Christians and loving seekers of Christ to be useful to God, we need to cooperate with the Lord to deal with our natural constitution so that we may be fully brought in resurrection (see Phil. 3:3-11).

God limits Himself and His activities on earth to man’s cooperation, and on our side, we can cooperate with God by agreeing with His light shining and exposing our natural constitution and by allowing the cross to operate in our natural being, so that we may go through death and be fully brought into resurrection.

Paul desired this, and we also aspire to this: to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and to attain to the out-resurrection from the dead! We now press on, going through all kinds of things, sufferings, problems, situations, etc, sot hat we may have our whole being gradually brought into resurrection.

God cannot use a natural man – He needs us to cooperate with Him by opening to Him and allowing Him to apply the cross to our natural being and to bring us into resurrection. In resurrection we are acceptable to God and there’s a fragrance of resurrection emanating from us.

May the Lord be merciful to us and show us that the more our natural constitution is dealt with, the more we will be in resurrection!

Being in Resurrection is the Opposite of Being Natural

What does it mean “to be in resurrection” and “being a person in resurrection”? Being in resurrection is simply the opposite of being natural. All the aspects of our natural constitution are derived from the natural life and do not spring from the resurrection life of Christ.

The world and Christianity, in general, encourages people to “be natural” and “be what you are for the glory of God”.

Even in the Lord’s recovery, there have been many capable brothers that came in, saw that there was no ground for them to “employ their natural capacity and ability”, did not go through the cross to have their ability resurrected by God, and left to start their “own little work” (many times resulting in more division in the Body).

But God Himself is not “natural”, and He doesn’t operate according to our own natural thought. Rather, He rejects what is natural (see Cain’s desire to bring the result of his natural labor on the ground yet not according to God’s desire – it was rejected by God) and He accepts not the FIRST (which is natural) but the SECOND, which is by the Spirit, in resurrection.

He rejects the firstborn and chooses the second – He rejected Esau and chose Jacob; He destroyed the firstborn of all in Egypt; He desires all the firstborn to be redeemed before Him (Exo. 12:29). The first heaven and the first earth are the old creation, and what God desires is the new heaven and the new earth (Rev. 21:1). We now have a new covenant (Heb. 9:18), which is different and better than the first covenant.

What is natural is rejected by God, and what is in resurrection is accepted by Him.

God can Use only Persons in Resurrection

We need to have an inward realization of the fact that God can work only with resurrected human beings, those who have passed through death and are no longer natural but are filled with the divine life and express the divine life in resurrection.

The reason we need to deal with our natural ability, capacity, cleverness, wisdom, and natural skills is that all these would pass through the death of the cross, become resurrected, and thereby become acceptable and useful to God.

Moses was a good example of this: when he was 40 years old he was ready to “serve God” in his natural man, and in his zeal for God, he killed a man and had to run away from Egypt! When he was 80 years old, tending the sheep of his father-in-law in the wilderness, when everything outwardly was seemingly over and he was just “waiting to retire and die”, God came to call him.

It is when our natural strength and zeal and ability come to an end that God can come in to use them in resurrection for His glory.

As believers in Christ and as those who desire to be useful to God for His purpose, we need to deal with our natural constitution so that our inherent ability, capability, and wisdom may pass through the death of the cross, become resurrected, and be useful to God (John 12:24-26).

When something is acceptable to God, when we pass through death and enter into resurrection, there’s a fragrance about it. Death is not the end – death is a means to bring us into resurrection, where God accepts us and uses us for His purpose.

We don’t become useful to God by improving ourselves but through death and resurrection. And when we are in resurrection we may not be conscious of it – we are rather exercising to contact the Lord and reject our natural man…

The Best is Yet Ahead of Us – Resurrection!

We are all at different stages in the growth in the divine life, and we are on our way to resurrection.

The Lord continues to shine on us and expose our natural man, and as we cooperate with Him by agreeing with the light and allowing the light to shine on us and kill the natural man, He can bring our being into resurrection. Aspect after aspect of our being is in the process of being brought into resurrection through the application of the death of Christ.

We may want it all to be done today, or overnight, but God’s timing is different than ours. He waited for 40 more years for Moses to be completely dealt with before He could use him in resurrection.

But we need to be encouraged: the best is yet ahead of us! Resurrection is our destiny, and we are daily being brought through death into resurrection!

Maybe the Lord takes you through things and situations today until you realize that, “It’s all over – there’s no way a natural person like me would be useful to the Lord!” But it is then that the Lord may appear to you in the burning bush and call you, send you, and use you.

The best is not behind us – don’t remain or linger in past experiences of Christ, no matter how good and sweet they were. The best is ahead of us, in resurrection!

Lord Jesus, give us an inward realization of the need to go through death and resurrection that we may be useful to You. Lord, we don’t want to “save our soul life” in this age. We don’t want to spare ourselves or remain whole in our natural man. Save us from trying to do a work for You in our natural man. Lord, we want to cooperate with You to deal with our natural constitution so that we may be in resurrection! Oh, Lord, we want to attain to the out-resurrection from the dead! Bring us into resurrection in all the aspects of our being!

References and Further Reading

• This sharing is inspired from brother Ron Kangas’ sharing and portions in, Life-study of Nehemiah (msgs. 1-2), 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: Messages in Preparation for the Spread of the Gospel (by Witness Lee, ch. 4).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # A lover of Christ should be one / Who is called by Him / To be delivered / From the self through His oneness / With the cross, with the cross of Christ.
  # “Within the Veil,” thy spirit deeply anchored, / Thou walkest calm above a world of strife; / “Within the Veil,” thy soul with Him united, / Shall live on earth His resurrection life.
  # Oh! it is so sweet to die with Christ, / To the world, and self, and sin; / Oh! it is so sweet to live with Christ, / As He lives and reigns within.
• Pictures credit: taken and instagram.ed by me here and here.