Friday, January 18, 2008

Restoring The Soul

An old friend wrote the following...

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?Matthew 16:24 -26

For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?Luke 9:25

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.Luke 14:26


Before we were saved we were only capable of manifesting our own life, which was dominated by the sin and death of the old man and demon spirits. We (our mind, emotions and will) must now learn how to yield completely to and manifest the life of the new man. Again, this is easier said than done. Just as "I" and the "old man" are united but not identical, so our soul and our soul life are united but not identical. We must learn how to stop living by the life (strength, wisdom , abilities) of the soul and learn how to live by the life (strength and wisdom) of the Spirit.

Jesus said any person wishing to follow Him had to "hate" his own life, "deny" it, and eventually "lose" it altogether. What exactly was He saying. What "life" are we to hate, deny and lose? It is the life of the soul. Again, we are not referring to the soul’s functions. If the Lord were asking us to lose our soul’s functions and expressions, He would be demanding that we turn into mindless, emotionless robots. Jesus is referring to our independence, which manifests itself when we live according to our own wisdom and talents, and when we try to utilize them to carry out His will.

We must deny ourselves. But deny ourselves what? Did Jesus have a list of do’s and don’ts He handed out to people? No. The point is not that we must deny ourselves this or that specific thing. The point is that we must deny our self—our self life. We must lose our ability to follow Him in our own strength. Our independence must be put to death. However, our individuality (that which makes us different from each other) must be preserved.

Remember that Jesus was talking to His disciples, not to the unsaved. He was not saying if the unsaved lose their lives they will go to heaven, but if not they will go to hell. He was saying that if believers want to attain the fulness of God we must make a trade. We are going to have to exchange the life of the soul for the life of the Spirit.

To deny our "self" is to deny our soul-life. To deny our soul-life is to lose our soul-life. To not deny our self is to not deny our soul-life. To not deny our soul-life is to try to save it. Jesus said if we try to save our soul-life we will end up losing it anyway. Then He asked this question: "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" In Luke’s Gospel the parallel passage reads, "if he gain the whole world and lose himself?" The person who saves his life—and even gains the whole world in the process—will lose his own life, his own soul and himself.

Self, soul and life are all synonymous in these passages. So what was Jesus saying? He was saying that we have to lose the soul’s life if we want to find the soul’s restoration. He was telling the disciples that they must forever stop drawing on their own life (resources and wisdom). The life of the soul must die if we ever hope to have it’s functions and expressions come forth in the Messiah’s image or in resurrection life. Only when we stop drawing on our own life can we begin to draw upon (and manifest) the life of God.

Those who truly love God readily turn away from those aspects of our life that are ugly, unpleasant or sinful. But we have a hard time rejecting those aspects of our life that we esteem to be good or noble or worthwhile. After all, we have many talents and much wisdom and posses commendable character traits. Some of us were naturally gracious before conversion. Others were endowed with great patience or are naturally charitable. We possess abilities and skills, many of which were given to us by God Himself. When we come to the Lord we are full of zeal and we want to please Him. We try to employ our talents and wisdom as we serve Him. But that is not what He wants. He wants us to die so He can live through us.

Unfortunately it takes a long time for us to realize this is what God wants. Many will never realize it because the Religious System teaches us to do exactly the opposite. It says we should utilize all our soulish wisdom and talent in the cause of evangelism and ministry. We learn very slowly that, although we possess many valuable resources, we must not utilize them according to our own wisdom. Every talent, every ability and skill, every religious goal and desire, and our entire personality must be brought under the government of God.

All our wisdom and admirable attributes, our talents and strengths, are produced by soul-life. The problem with soul-life is that no matter how religious it becomes it’s main concern centers on itself. Soul-life is continually pre-occupied with it’s own safety, security and desires. While soul-life is not necessarily evil in the sense that the old man is evil, it nevertheless remains self-centered. We are to be God-centered—something soul-life will never be able to produce.

The things of the world and the sins of the flesh are fairly easy to recognize. However, soul-life is much harder to recognize and put to death. Many blood-washed believers who gladly shun the things of this world and (at least) try to overcome the sins of the flesh find it difficult to embrace death to self. What are some of the manifestations of self? The biggest one is self-will, which seeks it’s own way or course of action in every circumstance. Another big one is self-seeking, which seeks it’s own good, often at the expense of others or the will of God. Below is list of manifestations which, while not all-inclusive, can shed some light on the subject.

*Self-importance: causes us to hold ourselves in high esteem. A disregard, even contempt, for the needs and feelings of others.

*Self-vindication: causes us to demand our own rights. It makes us announce when we've been wronged and causes us to defend ourselves.

*Self-seeing: causes us to only be able to see situations from our own perspective or point of view, rather than from God’s perspective.

*Self-affection: causes us to love most those who love us.

*Self-consciousness: causes us to always be worried about what others think of us. It is an inordinate preoccupation with image.

*Self-confidence: having confidence in our own abilities and wisdom instead of deferring to God’s wisdom and abilities.

*Self-complacency: an unholy contentment with our present spiritual state or level of maturity.

*Self-glorying: causes us to seek the praise of men instead of or in addition to the praise of God.

*Self-righteousness: deceives us into believing that we are good, and in fact, better than others.

*Selfish cares and fears: keeps us continually concerned about how situations or events will affect us. Will it cause me pain and suffering? Will it deflate my ego? Etc.

*Selfish giving: doing things for others, or giving things to others (or to God) in order to get something in return from them (or Him).

*Selfish possessions: makes us clutch our possessions; makes us unwilling to give of our money or material goods freely.

*Selfish pleasures: partaking of (morally acceptable) pleasures or past times that please us but not God. Wasting God’s time on spiritually unprofitable enterprises.

*Sensitiveness: causes us to be easily offended; makes us unable to receive constructive criticism, godly rebuke or discipline and correction (spiritual or natural).

*Selfish sorrows: having wounded pride or ambitions; causes us to be greatly pained if we do not get what we desired and leads to depression.

*Selfish-sacrifices: denying some aspect of self in order to satisfy or glorify another aspect of self, rather than to satisfy and glorify God.

*Selfish spirituality: remaining spiritually in the same place because of a blessed experience or the spiritual blessing we enjoy there.


*Selfish charities and gifts: this is when we give in order to receive the praise of men; giving to satisfy self.

*Selfish Christian works: ministering to get power, glory, money, or any other motive than to simply please God. This leads to a worshiping of our ministry and if we are not careful, we end up destroying the very work God called us to.

Self can flourish in any atmosphere or surrounding, no matter how religious. It can adapt and conform to any religious group. It can assimilate and teach great prophetic truths and spiritual principles. It can assume a most pious position among the brethren. But the one thing self cannot do and will never voluntarily do is die and let another life live through it.

This is why the death to self message is so crucial in this hour. Only this kind of death will produce the full image of Jesus Christ in us. Religious knowledge will never produce the image of Christ. Religious works and ministry will never produce the image of Christ. The only thing that can bring forth the image of Christ in a person is as he denies his own life.

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