Whether we are a believer in Christ or not, we are NOT OK. There are so many things in us, in our natural being, that are just wrong. There are so many reactions, explosions, sharp words, strange loves, and all kinds of manifestations of the natural man in our being.
After becoming a Christian, many people want to “be faithful to the Lord” and thus they “deal with their natural being” through all kinds of ways. God doesn’t want us to be ascetics nor monks, those who live outside of the “sinful world” and “dedicate themselves to meditation.”
What God desires is that we would willingly and consciously cooperate with Him as He in us is first exposing and then dealing with our natural constitution through the cross. There’s no method with step 1, step 2, etc that can help us deal with our natural man, and we ourselves cannot “deal with ourselves” – we can’t “crucify ourselves” nor should we even try this.
What we need is to understand, in the light of the Bible and the ministry who properly interprets the Word of God, what is the process of the experience of dealing with the natural constitution.
Brother Witness Lee has some marvellous speaking recorded in chapters 9 and 10 of, The Experience of Life, which I greatly recommend. My sharing here falls short, but in the book you will find many more details and a richer speaking.
Realizing the Need to Deal with our Natural Man
Before we were saved we lived as we wished, we did what we wanted, and we behaved according to how we felt. But after we believe into the Lord (John 3:16), we have a lot of feeling concerning how we live, what we do, and how we behave. We are more and more exposed of our natural man, our old man – the totality of our fallen human being which is still with us until the Lord returns and fully saves us.
Our old man is expressed through the flesh (the more ugly and unpleasant part, very out-there-and-natural), the self (the personality, our being declaring independence from God), and the natural constitution (the good part in us, the outstanding characteristic of our soulish man).
The Lord is faithful to shine on us and expose us, and the brothers and sisters around us also lovingly remind us and show us, and we are daily under the divine light seeing how natural we are, how fleshly we are, and how full of the self we are.
We see the need to deal with the old man in its ugly expression (the flesh), its outstanding characteristics (the natural constitution), and its personality (the self). How can we deal with our selves?
How can we deal with our natural man? The Bible shows us a way, and there’s a daily process which involves living in the divine fellowship, allowing the Lord to expose us by shining on us, agreeing with the light, and allowing the Spirit to apply the death of Christ to our natural man through simply calling on the Lord’s name!
The Process of the Experience of Dealing with the Natural Constitution
There’s a process of the experience of dealing with the natural constitution.
First of all, we need to see that our old man has been crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6). The Lord Jesus accomplished this through the eternal Spirit (Heb. 9:14), and now Christ’s death with its power and effectiveness are in the compound all-inclusive Spirit (Phil. 1:19).
Then, we need to recognize that our natural constitution is a very strong expression of the old man. The Lord shines on us through His word and through the Body, and we need to recognize this: the way we express ourselves, the way we speak to our spouse, the way we talk to the saints, etc – it is all natural, and it comes out as a strong expression of the old man. We can see this only spiritually by being open to the Lord.
After we see that our old man has been crucified with Christ and we recognize our natural constitution, we need to simply receive the application of the cross by calling on the Lord and allowing the Spirit to flow through us and spontaneously apply the death of Christ to that natural expression.
Sometimes the Lord exposes our natural constitution through a member of the Body in love, and when we see it, we need to recognize it. Don’t agree with the natural man and don’t justify him – just agree with the light. The natural man has been crucified with Christ! So, just take your medicine! Call on the Lord’s name and the natural man is crucified on the spot!
We can actively receive the crucifixion of Christ and we can apply the cross by contacting the crucified Christ in resurrection. This REALLY WORKS! Try it! As you feel jealousy for a function of a member in the Body or pride welling up, you can pray,
Lord, apply the effectiveness of Your death to my jealousy, my pride, and to my natural man. I turn to You, Lord, and I apply Your death to the expression of my natural constitution!
The Need for a Spiritual Crisis
When we see that our old man has been crucified with Christ, realize that the natural constitution is a very strong expression of our old man, and spontaneously receive Christ’s crucifixion through the power of the Holy Spirit upon our natural constitution, we receive “the mark of death” (Matt 16:24; 2 Cor. 1:9; Gal. 6:17).
When we receive and apply Christ’s crucifixion to our natural constitution in this way, all our natural ability will be “stamped” with the mark of death and will gradually become withered. This receiving of the death of Christ, again and again, is a great spiritual crisis in our Christian life – it may become “our Penuel” where our natural ability and capability are touched by God (see Gen. 32:22-32).
This is not necessarily a human crisis but a spiritual crisis. Every real disciple of Jesus needs to have a great spiritual crisis, a time and a place where our natural ability is touched by God so that He may resurrect us. Just like Jacob, we will wrestle with God and He will touch our natural being – we all need this!
In the church life, the brothers and sisters who are more mature may even pray for the younger ones,
Lord, give this young brother / sister the experiences he/she needs to place the mark of death on this ability, so that it may be useful to You for the Body in resurrection!
Not everything is gradual, slow, and imperceptible in the Christian life; sometimes we have a spiritual crisis, in which our natural ability and capability is touched by God! This all happens in the fellowship of life – it is the Spirit Himself who leads us into a period of prolonged dealings with our natural being…
The Body will support and encourage us, but this is a very personal matter – we personally need to experience death and resurrection so that we may become Beings in Resurrection!
When this happens, may we not shrink back, may we not give up, and may we not pull back! Rather, we should just go on loving the Lord, allowing the Spirit to execute the crucifixion of Christ upon every area of our natural life as it is being discovered. As the Lord shines on more aspects and areas of our natural man, we need to join the Spirit to tell Him,
Lord, apply Your death to this aspect. Lord, I agree: this is my natural thinking, my natural strength, my own endurance, my natural speaking, my natural attitude, and even the operation of my mind when I interact with the truth is natural. Lord, thank You for showing me this. I agree with You – apply Your death to this part of my natural being! Bring me fully through death and into resurrection that I may be useful to You for the building up of Your Body!
References and Further Reading
- This sharing is inspired from brother Ron Kangas’ sharing and portions in, The Experience of Life (by Witness Lee, chapters 9-10), 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.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Through the Cross, O Lord, I pray, / Put my soul-life all away; / Make me any price to pay, / Full anointing to receive.
# 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.
# If the path I travel / Lead me to the cross, / If the way Thou choosest / Lead to pain and loss, / Let the compensation / Daily, hourly, be / Shadowless communion, / Blessed Lord, with Thee. - Pictures credit: the first my instagr.am and the second via, Matt. 16:24.
sometimes we have a spiritual crisis, in which our natural ability and capability is touched by God! We should just go on loving the Lord, allowing the Spirit to execute the crucifixion of Christ upon every area of our natural life as it is being discovered.