Nee on Knowing

2 Corinthians 5:17, "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold they are become new."

Nee states in Chapter 4 of The Normal Christian life, in reference to Romans 6, 7, & 8 that, "the conditions of living the normal Christian life are forefold: (a) Knowing, (b) Reckoning, (c) Presenting ourselves to God, and (d) Walking by the Spririt." Each so important that he didicates a chapter to each.

With regards to knowing Nee emphasizes that we must understand that our old man died on the cross with Christ. He says, "In His death we all died. None of us can progress spiritually without seeing this... The self you loath is on the cross in Christ. And 'he that is dead is freed from sin' (Rom. 6:7) This is the gospel for Christians."

It is important here to remember that "sin" is the nature within us that percipiates "sins" (the actions). "Sin" seems to continue to influence our lives beyond salvation. Nee is going somewhere with this - knowing we died with Christ thought.

He says, "If we are preoccupied with the power of sin and with our inability to meet it, the we naturally conclude that to gain the victory over sin we must have more power. 'If only I were stronger,' we say. 'I could overcome my violent outbursts of temper,' so we plead with the Lord to strengthen us that we may exercise more self-control...

But this is altogether a fallacy; it is not Christianity. God's means of delivering us from sin is not by making us stronger and stronger, but by making us weaker... God sets us free from the dominion of sin, not by strengthening our old man, but by crucifying him; not by helping him to do anything, but by removing him from the scene of the action."

So as Christians we receive forgiveness but invariably have a continuing struggle with our dead nature, the nature of sin. In ourselves we think we need to build spiritual muscles to resists, but what really needs to occur is we need to; one, recognize that old nature was crucified with Christ, and two, walk in the weakness of this death. The end result is this knowledge will fuel and lead us to the experience of this. An individual, custom tailored by God, experience. Walk with God long enough and you will enter into this experience. But it is your experience, not someone else's. Nee says, "many Christians are using their special experience and their special scriptures to FIGHT other Christians. The fact of the matter is that while Christians may enter into the deeper life by different ways, we need not regard the experience or doctrines they stress as mutually exclusive, but rather complementary."

So God, when working on this place of surrender in our life will take us there on our very own unique path. This place is often preceded by, or found in, crisis. But God's response is not to help us out, but to help us understand we are removed from the action... we are already dead. And He does so not for us to be the next thing in Christianity, to be the carrier of some doctrinal banner, but rather in concert with those around us who are entering in, already in, or coming out of the same experience.

We have a human tendency to want to "do something," to live right. This is the problem, this is the strength we must avoid to find the weakness. Some think "to live 'in Christ,' (means) how to draw the sap out of the Vine into himself." No... we are in the vine. There is no need to "draw" -- just be.

Nee concludes the chapter with dialog from one individual in the midst of this experience. It is powerful and I will conclude with it as well.

"Here, I feel, is the secret: not asking how I am to get sap our of the Vine into myself, but remembering that Jesus is the Vine - the root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit, all indeed. I have not got to make myself a branch. The Lord Jesus tells me I am a branch. I am part of Him and I have just to believe it and act upon it. I have seen it long enough in the Bible, but I believe it now as a living reality...

I do not know how far I may be able to make myself intelligible about it, for there is nothing new or strange or wonderful - and yet, all is new! In a word, 'whereas once I was blind, now I see'... I am dead and buried with Christ - aye, and risen too and ascended... God reckons me so, and tells me to reckon myself so. He knows bests... Oh, the joy of seeing the truth - I do pray that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened, that you may know and enjoy the riches freely given in Christ."

Then from Nee himself, "If we recognize the fact that we are in, we make no effort to enter. If we had more revelation, we should have fewer prayers and more praises. We spend so much time praying for ourselves just because we are blind to what God has done."

Death... a beautiful thing!

Philippians 3:10-12, "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death... not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on that I may lay hold of (it)..."

I cannot get this scripture out of my mind, and the completeness it represents. It is perhaps a great summary of this entire blog to this point. At the same time it so richly speaks of the Christian experience, or if you prefer, the Christian experiment. Life as a Christian, with its trials and tribulation is the daily crucifixion of our egos, of everything that is not God or Christ like. Likewise, in the absence of tribulation, the very act of love requires the same self denial, the same crucifixion if you will, of our ego. After all, ego will always stand in the way of loving an enemy or any other unlovable. Therefore it must die.

This passage is encouraging. Here the apostle Paul writes the Philippians in shameless surrender to confess he has not arrived. "Not that I have already obtained" tells us that there is an infinitely long path after salvation in the direction of perfection. Knowing full well perfection will not be achieved in this lifetime. This is comforting to me. Beyond comfort, the concept is inspiring. It inspires me to lay aside judgments because the only thing important is the path, not the place on the path.

Though this passage is not explicit in the role death of self plays in entering the kingdom of God in this life, it is a confirmation none the less. Allowing self, ego, to die opens us up to experiencing the kingdom of God from the inside and on our inside. At the end of ourselves is where we begin to see with God's perspective.

One of the other great reminders this scripture provides is that if you are in Christ, then you must also share in His death. This is not a physical death, but a spiritual one. As a result when we see someone going through this process, we know it is not our responsibility to rescue. But rather our responsibility to jump in the mire with them. To help them see the end, to find the door to the other side. To walk with them through the eye of the needle into the kingdom of God. All the while listening to God and obeying His commands.

Having said all of that I must make the point that we know for certain that all tribulation is not part of dying. It could very well be a trap, or a test from Satan. One would not want to jump into Satan's trap with someone else, thus we must hear from God to know when to rescue, when to co-exists with, and when to run.

Because of the joy set before Him, Christ endured the cross. There is a beauty on the other side of the death of self. It is a step closer to God. It is a greater experience of His love. It is an opening of heaven and increased communication with the Father. Because of this, and every other thing contained in "joy" death is a beautiful thing.

That I May Know Him

Phillipians 3:10, "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;"

Perhaps I got my mission wrong. The shameless surrender that some might know Christ more should probably say... that I might know Christ more. Yes, I did indeed get it wrong. The mission is shameless surrender that we might know Christ more.

I almost did not post anything today. Not that there is nothing to say, or that I don't have things worth reading. Just that there was nothing that I was supposed to say. And then the Holy Spirit led me once again to T Austin-Sparks. I was not looking for something to speak to me, I simply picked up the first thing I saw, and said ok God... speak to me whatever you have to say. And this jumped off the page. "The Dominating Objective Of The Divine Dealings With Us is that we may know the Lord. This explains all our experiences, trials, sufferings, perplexities, weakness, predicaments, tight corners, bafflings, pressures. While the refining of spirit, the development of the graces, the removing of the dross, are all purposes of the fires, yet above and through all is the one object - that we may know the Lord. There is only one way of really getting to know the Lord, and that is experimentally."

The past couple of days have been phenomenal blessings from God. Everyone around me seems to be  getting a blessing from heaven, and for what feels like the first time, I am truly able to rejoice with and for them. There is no jealousy, or "where's mine?" attitude. Except that there was a major disappointment when my younger daughter did not get an expected blessing. So I found myself in a funk. Why? God is moving, He is blessing, and clearly working in lives. And yet once again I am reminded that I took my eyes of the face of Jesus and started looking at His hand again... at what He can do, and not what He is. I violated my very own mission... to know Him more. Instead in my weakness I tried to see Him "do" more, and "do" it based on my definition and desires.

I'm not beating myself up, God is too forgiving for that. But I am certainly working on keeping focus. Focus on the fact that to know Christ more is perhaps the pinnacle of life. I am working on rejecting disappointment for the question of, what does this lesson teach me about the personage of Jesus Christ? For that matter, I am working on rejecting the excitement of blessings for the question of, what does this lesson teach me about the personage of Jesus Christ?

If all we look for in Christ is; what He can do, disappointment is likely to follow. But that disappointment, the accompanying trial, the host of negative emotions, are there to remind us we took our eyes off His face. The relationship inverted and in our hearts He works for us. Right the relationship by looking at Him and who He is.