A misconception of "surrender"

I have come back to find my old friends Jessie Penn-Lewis,Andrew Murray and of course, Watchman Nee...
In her book "life out of death " in which she shares experiences with Madame GUYON, Jessie says in chapter 6 page 83 "It is a misconception of the truth of "death with Christ " to interpret it as meaning a will-less passivity,lack of feeling or an absence of volition (will) in the practical life of the believer...
This passive state is necessary for the practise of Spiritism and many other evil supernatural cults,but the Holy Spirit energizes the human spirit into ACTIVE personality..."
I went into this quite deeply in my search for understanding of Spiritism and  read books so I could learn about where all this "channeling " and "power points " could be found in a human  being
and where these people could operate on a person  claiming to be able to use this power force.I also found that if  we act in passivity,without the help of the Holy Spirit- indeed a false self effacement,a loss of our personality,loss of their words  or actions,without feeling or sensibility will find that satan will certainly give them "unconsciousness"- a lack of proper concern for themselves or others.
She says " Believers  who cease to think,reason,will,remember,love,act,listen,speak -believing that God is to perform all these things for them - really become "non existant" on these points , and open the door for the spurious workings of demons e.g. if a believer expects "love to flow through  him with
NO ACTION on his own part,a "spurious love" will be given by evil spirits which will eventually pass away,leaving the person hard and incapabale of feeling...
An inflexible hardness,  and the inability to feel for the suffering of others,is an outcome of satan's counterfeit of " crucified with Christ " Or there may be an apathetic inability to come to decisions or to act,and such souls become a dead weight upon the rest of the church of God.
How often suffering is caused to others,and the one who causes it is quite unconscious of having done so.This is a danger point.
For when  Christ dwells in you by the Holy Spirit,He releases your sensibilities and quickens them so that you know in a moment  if you have said a word of offense to another, and you run to put it right.
If a man walks in the light he stumbles not.He becomes spiritually intelligent in all his relationships with man and with God.That is the victorious life.A  life produced by Christ which will bring us down alongside of every human being in need.
This misconception of "self effacement " is the enemy's counterfeit of true self surrender, which yields up to God every faculty of the being, and which the Spirit of God needs for whole hearted co-operation with Him in His purposes for the life of the believer .The fruit of the Spirit....is self control..." There should be at the back of every action a deliberate volition, and full knowledge of what you are saying or doing,as well as the  faith that that is what God bids you to do or say.."
Praise our dear Lord that we have the discipline of the Holy Spirit to take some of these things out of us
and to lead us in the "Way everlasting "!

A Home for your spirit

For Lianne O Connor
Who left us on the morning of 30th June 2012

Jesus went to  prepare a place for you
Of many mansions
Where you are now "not found naked"
where you are clothed
In your new spiritual body
Have no more pain
Where you await
The great Resurrection Day
Of the Lord Jesus

John 14 v's 1-3
v3"And if I go and prepare a place for you
I will come again
And receive you unto Myself
That where I am
There you may be also ..."
2Corinthians ch 5 verses 3,4
"For we know that ,if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved
we have a building  of God
A house not made with hands,eternal in the heavens...
v3"if so be that being clothed
we shall not be found naked..."

our children

The  abundance of life  is not a matter of doctrine,but is a matter of how much we have gone through before  God
And therefore how much we can supply the church.
There is no gold which has not  passed through fire
no precious stones that have not  gone through darkness
no pearl that has not encountered suffering...

Teaching our children
How to face the Cross
Is the most treasured
Lesson for them
To learn in life

MARKED MEN

Through many trials we become
Chosen  vessels for God
He will seek us out,set us aside
and keep us
Through the circumstances of our lives
Keep us from wandering
Into the broad road of the flesh
So to turn our backs
On H'ai,the rubbish dump of our souls
To forever face the light of Bethel
The House of God
And say with Paul
"I bear in my body
The marks of the Lord Jesus "

Lights in the world

From Watchman Nee's "Love not the world-
"There is no need for us to give up our secular employments.Far from it,for they are our
mission field.In this matter there are no secular considerations,only spiritual ones.We do not live our lives in separate compartments,as Christians in the Church and as secular beings the rest of the time.
There is not one thing in our profession or in our employment that God intends  should be dissociated from our life as His children.Everything we do,be it in field or highway,in shop,factory,kitchen,hospital or school,has spiritual value in terms of the kingdom of Christ.
Everything is to be claimed for Him.Satan would prefer to have no Christians in any of these places,for they are decidedly his way there.He tries therefore to frighten us out of the world,and if he cannot do that, to get us involved in his world system,thinking in terms,regulating our behaviour by his standards,Either would be a triumph to him.But for us to be in the world,yet with all our hopes,all our interests and all our prospects out of the world,that is satan's defeat and God's glory.
Of Jesus'presence in the world it is written that "the darkness overcame it not "(John 1v5)Nowhere in Scripture does it tell us that we are to overcome it, but it distinctly says we are to overcome the world-it is in relation to the world that it speaks of victory.We are not delivered out of the world,but,being born from above, we have victory over it.And we have that victory in the same sense,and with the same unfailing certainty,that light overcomes darkness.
"Be of good cheer"He said " I have overcome the world (John 14v30)"
Only Jesus could make such a claim,and He could do so because He  could earlier affirm "the prince of this world...hath nothing in Me "(John 14,30) It was the first time that anyone on earth had said such a thing. He said it and He overcame.And through His overcoming the prince of the world was cast out  and Jesus began to draw all men unto Himself.
And because He said it,we dare now to say it too. Because of my new birth,because "whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world" I can be in the same world that my Lord was in,and in the same sense as He was  I can be utterly apart from it,a lamp set on a lampstand ,giving light to all who enter the house..As He is,so are we in the world "(1john 4.17) The church glorifies God,not by getting out of the world,but by radiating  His light in it.Heaven is not the place to glorify God; it will be the place to praise Him.The place to glorify Him is here..."

Spiritual Reality

From Watchman Nee's book on "Spiritual reality or obsession?"
He writes :"One thing which God's people should take note of is that every spiritual matter has its reality before God.If what we have touched  is mere appearance and not reality we shall find that it is of no spiritual value whatsoever.What then is spiritual reality ?
The reality of a spiritual thing is something spiritual,not material.Although spiritual reality is often expressed in words,those words,however many,are not reality.Although spiritual reality needs to be disclosed in our lives, the set formalities of our lives are not reality.Although spiritual reality must be manifested in conduct,human-manufactured pretension is not reality.
What is spiritual reality ? "God is Spirit"(not "a" Spirit or a ghost or He would be one of these floating around !)"and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth " The word "truth" means "trueness" or "reality".
The same applies to the following words"Howbeit,when He,the Spirit of truth is come,He shall guide you into all truth " and " it is the Spirit that beareth witness,because the Spirit is the truth "These all reveal that God is Spirit,therefore all related to God is in the Spirit.The Spirit of truth is the Spirit of reality.For this reason,spiritual reality must be in the Spirit.It is that which transcends man and matter.Only what is in the Holy Spirit is spiritually real,because all spiritual things are nurtured in the Holy Spirit.
Once anything is outside the Holy Spirit, it turns into letters and forms which are dead.Spiritual things are real,living and full of life only when they are in the Holy Spirit.It is the Holy Spirit who guides us into all reality<Whatever may be entered into without the guidance of the Holy Spirit is definitely not spiritual reality.All which one can obtain merely by listening or thinking or being emotionally involved is not spiritually real.We must remember that the Holy Spirit is the executor of all spiritual matters.What God does to day is done in the Holy Spirit.Only what the Holy Spirit does is truly real.
Whatever is in the Holy Spirit is real.If anyone touches this reality he obtains life,for life and reality are joined together.Whoever desires to attend to spiritual life must stress spiritual reality.The one who has touched spiritual reality in the Holy Spirit will immediately respond with an amen in his heart whensoever he meets another who has also touched spiritual reality - and vice versa.This what is meant by the words in Ps 42 v 7 "Deep calleth unto deep " It can be said that reality touches reality..."

God's work

Watchman Nee in his book "God's work " writes:
"What is the reason for such appalling shallowness and poverty in ministry these days ?
Because the ministers have experienced very little themselves.
They have managed to dodge the cross whenever God offered it to them.
There is often a way out ,another way that is less costly , a lower path and not the way of the cross.
How few and rare are those who are rich spiritually. And why ? Because their sufferings have not abounded.
God arranges things most perfectly.He knows what kind of sufferings each one needs- whether it be physical,material,mental or spiritual.When God in His wisdom brings it to us because He sees that we need it,let us try to rejoice and see that the Lord is in it.Let us accept it with joy,acknowledging that we are absolutely weak and unequal to it,but that He is gloriously equal to it.He indeed is, and in the circumstances we do find Him in His fullness and sufficiency.We come to really know God because we find Him doing in us and for us what we cannot do.
Thus we are able to minister Him in life to others,to build up the body, to scatter life- His life - wherever we go.Whenever death is really working  in us,just then, and only then can life really flow out to others.