As we Grow in Christ, God Gradually Cuts off our Natural Life for us to Enjoy Christ More

As we grow in Christ, God gradually cuts off our natural life so that we may enjoy the all-inclusive Christ more for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

The various pagan tribes that occupied the land of Canaan signify the different aspects of our natural life; God will not drive out our natural life all at once, but gradually, according to our growth in life. Amen!

On the positive side, praise the Lord, the good land of Canaan signifies the all-inclusive Christ with His unsearchable riches being given to us as a portion for our enjoyment.

Praise the Lord for this wonderful, all-inclusive Christ who is not only our life but everything that we need!

Just as the land is everything we need for our existence and living, so the good land, Christ, is everything we need for us to exist as believers in Christ and serve God.

Praise the Lord, we as believers in Christ have been qualified by God to enjoy our allotted portion of Christ as the good land!

On the negative side, the land of Canaan full of pagan tribes that dwelt in it and usurped it, signifies the aerial part, the dark part of the kingdom of Satan.

On one hand, Christ is given to us to be our all-inclusive good land. On the other hand, between us and Christ there’s a layer of enemies that actively try to frustrate us from enjoying Christ.

If we want to do anything in the world, there seems to be no problem; but when we want to enjoy the Lord and pursue Him, many problems come up.

The evil forces in the heavenlies are veiling the all-inclusiveness of Christ from God’s people.

We know of the all-inclusive Christ, but the evil forces actively try to veil how all-inclusive Christ is from us so that we would not enjoy His unsearchable riches.

If we were to enjoy the unsearchable riches of Christ, we would grow in life, be formed as the army of God, build up the temple of God as His expression, and bring in the kingdom of God.

Everything comes out from our enjoyment and experience of the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land.

So we need to fight for our portion of Christ. We need to realize that there’s an intense spiritual warfare going on in the heavenlies, especially in what relates to our enjoyment of Christ, and we need to stand on the Lord’s side and fight one with the Lord and in the Body.

Caleb was such a person; even at eighty-five years old, he felt that he was quite strong and vigorous, for he wanted to take the good land and inherit his portion.

No matter how old or young we are, no matter how advanced we are in the Lord or how new we are in Him, we all need to fight the spiritual battle in the Lord, standing in the victory of Christ, to defeat the enemy and claim our allotted portion of the good land.

Behind our Natural Life are Spiritual Forces of Evil Frustrating us from Enjoying the Riches of Christ

The spiritual significance of the various tribes that occupied the land of Canaan before the coming of the people of Israel to take it is the different aspects of our natural life.

According to Exo. 23:23-24, 32-33 there are some frustraters that keep us from possessing the good land; these frustraters are the various pagan tribes occupying this land.

The various pagan tribes occupying the land signify the different aspects of our natural life.

We may think that we are OK in ourselves, for our natural life seems to be quite mild, not with evil passions, lusts, or vices; however, we need to realize that the different aspects of our natural life have evil spiritual forces behind them.

For example, the Canaanites as a tribe may signify our desire to make money, since Canaan means “merchant.”

In a sense, there’s no problem with making money, for we need money to sustain our existence; however, the desire to make more money has a spiritual force of evil behind it that frustrates us from enjoying the riches of Christ.

The Lord clearly commanded the children of Israel not to allow any of the pagan tribes to remain, nor to bow down to their gods or serve them (v. 24).

They were not even allowed to make a covenant with them or with their gods so that they would not become a snare to them.

We need to realize that behind the different aspects of our natural life, there is a demon, an evil force in the spiritual realm.

The idols with the demons behind them represent spiritual forces (Eph. 6:12).

For example, we may love our spouse, but sometimes we suddenly lose our temper with them; we may not even want to, but something happens that triggers us, and we lose our temper.

There seems to be something, some kind of force, which causes us to lose our temper involuntarily.

We love the Lord, we love our spouse, but the various aspects of our natural life our utilized, manipulated, and directed by spiritual forces behind the scenes. Oh, Lord Jesus!

At other times we may just drift into a particular activity that we naturally like, and the next thing we know we are completely engulfed and enveloped by it, almost swallowed up by it.

We may think that this is something we like, it’s not evil, and it is a good activity or hobby, but it slowly swallows us up and eats up all our time. Oh, Lord Jesus!

There are evil spiritual forces behind the aspects of our natural life that actively work to frustrate us from the enjoyment of the riches of the all-inclusive Christ.

Hence, we need to be involved in spiritual warfare to deal with the various aspects of our natural life.

We need to deal with our natural constitution.

As believers in Christ and lovers of God, we aspire to be part of the army of God, but the Lord knows that certain aspects of our natural life need to be touched.

May we open to the Lord and allow Him to deal with our natural life.

May we not resist Him nor stand against Him as He deals with all these aspects.

May we realize that the gods (idols) of the pagan tribes (Exo. 23:24), with the demons behind them (cf. 1 Cor. 10:20), represent the spiritual forces of evil (Eph. 6:12).

Satan is a deceiver, a lier, and a cheater; he does not come to us directly, openly, stating his intention to stop us from enjoying Christ.

Rather, he hides behind many things and he utilizes the various aspects of our natural life to frustrate us from taking possession of the all-inclusive Christ and enjoying His riches.

May we open to the Lord concerning this matter and really cooperate with Him in prayer and in our daily experience to drive out the enemy hiding behind the many aspects of our natural life.

Lord Jesus, for the sake of Your testimony on the earth, we open to You and we allow You to deal with the various aspects of our natural life. Amen, Lord, may we realize that the enemy with his evil forces utilize, manipulate, and direct the aspects of our natural life to frustrate us from enjoying Christ. We come to You, dear Lord, and we want to just enjoy You and partake of Your riches. We want to enter into the possession of the all-inclusive Christ as our portion. Lord, You know what aspects of our natural life need to be dealt with. We open to You. In Your name and for our eternal benefit and for Your glory, do what You need to do to touch and deal with our natural life and replace it with Your resurrection life. Oh Lord, we say Amen to Your working in us and dealing with us. We simply want to open to You and allow You to do what You need to do so that the various aspects of our natural life would be driven out and we would enter into the enjoyment of the unsearchable riches of Christ!

As we Grow in Christ, God Gradually Cuts off our Natural Life for us to Enjoy Christ More

Because the natural life frustrates us from possessing Christ and enjoying Him, we must hate it (Luke 14:26) and, as we grow in Christ, be willing to drive it out.

We should not simply decide that, since the natural life with its various aspects has spiritual forces of evil behind it, we will drive it out right now.

We should not even decide to hate our natural life.

Rather, we should come to the Lord again and again and allow Him to grow in us.

As the Lord grows in us, we will realize that there’s another life in parallel with the divine life – the natural life, which grows and develops and has many aspects.

As we grow in life, as we grow in Christ, God gradually cuts off our natural life and we will enjoy more of the all-inclusive Christ.

Exo. 23:29-30 says that the Lord will not drive out the pagan tribes from the land of Canaan suddenly, in one year, so that the land does not become desolate and the beasts would multiply against the people.

Rather, He will do it gradually.

Because the people of Israel were comparatively small in number, they had to increase and fight, and as their number increased and they fought for the good land, the land would become theirs, for the Lord would drive out the pagan tribes from it.

As Christians, we should not expect to become fully spiritual overnight.

God will not come in and deal a death blow to our natural life, our self, and our flesh, and we become fully spiritual.

That’s not the way He operates.

Rather, we need to be willing to cooperate with the Lord by putting to death our members which are on the earth – fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and greediness, which is idolatry (Col. 3:5).

We need to cooperate with the Lord, eat Him, enjoy Him, and grow in Christ, and we need to be willing to allow Him to gradually cut off our natural life.

As we grow in life, God gradually cuts off our natural life. In a sense, we still need our natural life, or at least aspects of it, until we grow in life and the Lord drives out the many aspects of our natural life from us.

We may want to cut off our natural life all at once, but if we do this, we become vacant and in danger of being taken off by demons (Matt. 12:43-45).

What we need is to grow in the Lord.

The Lord doesn’t want us to become a vacant, empty vessel, for He knows that the enemy will attack and fill us if we’re completely vacant.

May we learn to open and empty ourselves to the Lord little by little so that He may fill us.

May we remain in the process of enjoying the Lord and opening to Him until we grow in life, stage by stage and step by step.

We are all in this process of the removal of the natural life and the increase of the life of God in us.

God cuts off our natural life gradually, little by little, according to the degree of our growth in the divine life.

Since we all are in this process, we should not judge one another when we see others’ natural life being manifested.

We should not criticize others when we see that they live in their natural life.

We should rather pray for one another and minister life to one another so that the Lord may grow in us and the various aspects of our natural life would be cut off.

The more Christ increases in us, the more He will replace our natural life.

We are in the process of being replaced by Christ and with Christ in our natural life until it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20).

God promised to drive out the pagan tribes, but God’s people had to cooperate with Him by taking the initiative in destroying them (see. Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:24; Col. 3:5; Phil. 2:12-13).

If we are passive, the enemy will attack and defeat us.

If we’re not taking the initiative to turn our heart to the Lord, the enemy will slowly, subtly, and constantly come in to frustrate our enjoyment of Christ and cause us to live in sin, apart from the Lord.

But when we take the initiative to turn our heart to the Lord, open our vessel to His dispensing, and exercise our spirit, the Lord will slowly but surely grow in us, and He will drive out the natural life in us little by little.

We simply need to open to Him and give ourselves to the Lord, and the natural life will be gradually cut off as the Lord grows in us.

It is God who cuts off ou natural life gradually and continually, we simply need to grow in life and be willing before Him.

The more Christ increases in us, the more we will be able to cooperate with God in driving out the natural life.

May we seek to grow in life day by day.

May we give the Lord our best cooperation so that He may grow in us and we would be more willing to drive out and cut off the various aspects of our natural life.

Lord Jesus, we turn our heart to You. We want to actively seek You and enjoy You. We do not want to be passive, for our passivity opens the door for the enemy to come in and attack us. We exercise our spirit to contact You and we want to live in our spirit. We give ourselves to You, Lord Jesus. Grow in us. May Your life increase in us. We want to abide in You so that You can abide in us. Oh Lord, may Christ grow in us and may our natural life be cut off and driven out. Hallelujah, God gradually cuts off our natural life as we grow in life and are willing to cooperate with Him! How much we need You, dear Lord Jesus! We do not want to become spiritual overnight; we simply want to cooperate with You today, even right now, so that You may grow in us and our natural life would be cut off. Bring us on with You today. Grant us to enjoy more of the all-inclusive Christ with His unsearchable riches so that we may be part of Your corporate expression and Your army fighting for Your interests on the earth!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus (msgs. 12, 73), by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good land for the Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, for the Reality and the Manifestation of the Kingdom, and for the Bride to make Herself Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 Winter Training), week 1, entitled, Fighting for the Good Land.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Why Using Your Spirit is Crucial to God’s Eternal Purpose, article via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Spiritual warfare being against the evil spiritual forces, a portion from, Basic Principles for the Practice of the Church Life, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee.
  – Redemption from the Vain Manner of Life, article via, Living to Him
  – Possessing the Land of Canaan by Defeating the Satanic Forces, via, Church in San Jose.
  – Our Need to Labor on the All-inclusive Christ, a message by R.K. via, Heavenly Foods.
  – The day by day Christian life, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Fighting for the Good Land, via, Church in Chennai.
  – The Angel of Jehovah for His People to Take Possession of the Promised Land, via, Church in Regina.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – So now we have to set our mind on Him; / Each day, each hour, our mind on Him must be; / That by this Spirit we’d be saved within / By life and reign in life eternally… / This Spirit shall transform our natural life, / Save us from self, build us in one new man, / Till we’re conformed to be like Jesus Christ, / Thus finishing our God’s eternal plan. (Hymns #1195 stanzas 9 and 11)
  – Here, Lord, we give ourselves to Thee; / Receive us into Thy wise hands; / Bend, break, and build together in Thee / To be the house to meet Thy demands. / Break all the natural life for us, / Deal Thou with each peculiar way, / That we no more independent be / But with all saints are one for aye. (Hymns #837 stanzas 6-7)
  – 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. (Hymns #867 stanza 4)