The breaking of soul strength so we can flow in the fullness of heart union with the Lord, 

thus, coming into the closest places with our Lover-Leader Yeshua in charge 

Lots of times, I have experienced being “guided by His eye” from Psalm 32:8-9:

“I hear the Lord saying, ‘I will stay close to you, instructing and guiding you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you along the way and lead you forth with My eyes as your guide. So don’t make it difficult; don’t be stubborn when I take you where you have not been before. Don’t make me tug you and pull you along. Just come with Me!’” (TPT)

And yesterday, His eye guided me to something He is trying to get at in us, inclusive certainly of me! I picked up the book Jacob I Have Loved by the late Lance Lambert and began to read right where I had left off a couple of months ago: 

Jacob and This Promised Land

“The Lord had confirmed with Jacob the covenant He had made with His grandfather and father in which He had promised the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession to them and to their seed. The problem was not Jacob’s hearing. Jacob had heard the Lord and believed Him. The problem was Jacob!”

“He was a man with such strength of natural character, such fleshly zeal, and such untiring energy that he could not leave anything to the Lord. He had to supervise the Lord’s work and make sure it was fulfilled. Men and women who have this kind of powerful soul energy are unable to wait for the Lord. If the Lord does not work, they will work for Him, with disastrous consequences. We see this clearly in Jacob. In the work that God wanted to do, Jacob was a trial to Him. Spontaneously and unconsciously, he was an obstacle to the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Indeed, it was the abounding grace of God that brought Jacob to that fulfillment, in spite of his own efforts to work in it. We must always remember that working with God is vastly different to working for God. When you work with the Lord, you are under His supervision and empowered by His strength. When you work for the Lord, you ‘do your own thing’ and seek His support.”

There it was: soul strength. Though with three-plus decades now of walking with the Lord as my Lord, resulting in significant understanding and experience of the believer’s cross, albeit the very hard way in certain lessons, I heard Him clearly: “More gentle breakings are needed to get you fully in synch with ME + the Godhead. You are, yet, getting ahead of Me sometimes with your own good ideas. I am the Captain.” 

[I reference a few key books for anyone learning the way of the cross: The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee; The Breaking of the Outer Man and the Release of the Spirit also by Nee; Dying to Live by Jessie Penn-Lewis; The Cross of Calvary How to understand the work of the cross also by Penn-Lewis; The Cross, and The Unity of Vision and Ministry in The Church, Which Is His Body by T. Austin Sparks; The Glorious Liberty of the Children of God by Stephen Kaung] 

This morning, the Lord focused on Romans 7:4-6, with Witness Lee’s keen notes in The Recovery Version of The New Testament. Our Bridegroom-King’s aim in all this: the full love union with His people by way of the successful marriage within in every bridal soul. Romans 7, as we know, addresses failure in the walking out of new creation life. The sin nature is in the ascendancy because self-effort still reigns. [See Romans 7:14-8:2.] As it’s been experienced, whenever a believer is in performance mode in any way, it’s self that is in the driver’s seat, and intimate union as beloved to Beloved, both son to Abba and wife to Yeshua Hamaschiach, is blocked.

Romans 7:4-6 reads: 

4 So then, my brothers, you also have been made dead to the law through the body of Christ so that you might be joined to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit to God. 

5 For when we were in the flesh, the passions for sins, which acted through the law, operated in our members to bear fruit to death.

6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter.

These verses point us to our freedom from the law as our husband and any performance or striving in self-strength independent of God to reach the goal of bringing forth the very good things of God. These Scriptures direct us to the marriage with Yeshua Hamaschiach, indeed this the subject of the Song of ALL Songs, that yields NEWNESS of life by way of a Husbandman who is our source of empowerment. He, the Vine; we, the branches. (See John 15.) Grace, His gift to us. We gain the creative flow of supernatural zoe life from this union with the Godhead, [and let’s just imagine what these John 7:38 rivers of living water in full flood stage in the earth might mean]. Then, too, in the greater surrender is the freedom from dead works and the good of our own ideas that might not be God or in God’s timing. Our conquest over sin, the not hitting the target of walking out the union with God we are born again into, comes by way of full yieldedness to Another or becoming a bondslave to the Lord. Romans 6:22 realities are the requirement: “But now you are free from sin and have become [willing] slaves of God. This brings you [reaps the benefit/fruit of] a life that is only for God [holiness; sanctification that we experience], and this gives you life forever [the end/result is eternal life].” (EXB) (Italics my addition.] This is the paradox: It’s wife to the Lamb submission that enables us to reign as kings and be champions for Christ. It’s Abba’s heart of love that draws us to It’s Abba’s heart of love that draws us to receiving the Savior, His Son, as our life. [See John 3:16-17 AMPC.] 

Witness Lee expounds on verse 4 in note 4-1: “Since our old man, who was the old husband, has been crucified with Christ (Do study Romans 6:6 in depth.), we are freed from his law and are joined to the new Husband, Christ, the ever-living One. As believers, we have two statuses. The first you in this verse refers to us in our old status as the fallen old man, who left the original position of a wife dependent on God and took the self-assuming position of husband and head, independent of God. The second you in this verse refers to us in our new status as the regenerated new man, restored to our original and proper position as the genuine wife to God, dependent on Him and taking Him as our Head.” The original sin in Eden was the exhaltation of self as lord i.e. independence from the Godhead; in a way, the tree of LIFE.

[For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall He be called. (Isaiah 54:5 KJV)] 

[But it is important that you understand this about headship; the Anointed One is the head of every man, the husband is the head of his wife, and God is the head of the Anointed. (1 Cor. 11:3 VOICE) [Note: head means leadership and source in the Greek kephale as we see Jesus as our Husbandman and SOURCE of grace.] [An earthly husband IS the head of his wife in that he stays subject to his head and source, Jesus Christ, the Vine. In this, there is the grace or power to lay down his life to bring his helpmeet into full flowering. [See Eph. 5:21-33 for a very beautiful picture of the joint submission that is YHVH’s design for marriage, and His picture of the church yielded to the Lord as well.]

Lee continues the footnote 4-1: “We no longer have the old status of the husband, for we have been crucified. We now have only the new status of the proper wife, in which we take Christ as our Husband, and should no longer live according to the old man, i.e., no longer take the old man as husband.” 

Footnote 4-2: “This joining indicates that in our new status as a wife, we have an organic union in person, name, life, and existence with Christ in his resurrection.”

Footnote 4-3: “As the regenerated new man and the wife to Christ, everything we are and do is now related to God, and God is brought forth by us as the fruit, the overflow, of our life. This is in contrast to the fruit born to death (v. 5), which was previously brought forth by us as the old man, the old husband.”

The conclusion re: the realization of the new creation life is explained by Lee in his notes to 7:6.

In footnote 6-1, we see: “Since the old man has been crucified, the regenerated new man is now free from the law of the old man (Romans 7:2-3; Gal. 2:19). Since the law was given to the old husband, the old man, not to the wife, and since the old husband, the old man, died on the cross, the new man, the wife, has been discharged from the law.”

Footnote 6-2: “Literally, serve as slaves.” So, yes, it is bondslave freedom.

Footnote 6-4, “Newness of life issues from our being identified with Christ’s resurrection and is for our walk in our daily life. Here, newness of spirit issues from our being discharged from the law and being joined to the resurrected Christ, and is for our service to God. Thus, both newness of spirit and newness of life are results of the crucifixion of the old man.”

Finally, in note 6-4, Lee directs us to the pleasure center i.e. the union we can ever dwell in and draw from within: “Referring to our regenerated human spirit, in which the Lord as the Spirit dwells (2 Timothy 4:22 TPT The Lord is within your spirit and His grace overflows to you!) Everything that is related to our regenerated spirit is new, and everything that comes out of our spirit is new. Our regenerated spirit is a source of newness because the Lord, the life of God, and the Holy Spirit are there.” And entwined spirit to Spirit, as per 1 Cor. 6:17, bridal souls THRIVE on the pleasures of intimacy with the Lord. 

Witnesses Lee cross-references one more note about Paul, our God-chosen model after Christ. From Romans 1:9 and the phrase from Paul, “I serve God in my spirit,” —

From Romans 1:9 and note 9-2:“Not the Spirit of God but Paul’s regenerated spirit. The spirit is different from the heart, soul, mind, emotion, will, or natural life. Christ and the Spirit are with the believers in their regenerated human spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Romans 8:16). In this book, Paul stressed that whatever we are (Romans 2:29; 8:5-6, 9), whatever we do toward God (Romans 1:9; 7:6; 8:4, 13; 12:11), must be in this spirit. Paul served God in his regenerated spirit by the indwelling Christ, the life-giving Spirit, the last Adam, not in his soul by the power and ability of the soul or self. This is the important item in his preaching of the Gospel.”

Prayer

“So, Lord, this day and from hence forward, I say yes to Your directive:

‘Get still and get fully in synch with the Godhead.’

“I say ‘yes’ to waiting on You and this further adjusting of me and Your true church to Your full headship and Husbandman position. I submit my soul to my spirit in union with Your Spirit to be Your yielded vessel—this, the marriage within. Thank You for teaching me the Romans 12 Passion Translation truths that we are all a part of one another under You, the Head of the church. Ephesians, and I love The Message version of this whole letter, IS going to happen! You are even today working out the full summing up of all things in Yourself.” 

“May I fulfill what You have scheduled for me today and my part as a bondslave to You and to Your Body in Your Ephesians 1:10 program. I recognize I must be in synch with, not only You, but with the Body, as the whole new creation church needs to function together.” AMEN!

You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book! (Psalm 139:16 TLB)

Making known to us the mystery (secret) of His will (of His plan, of His purpose). [And it is this:] In accordance with His good pleasure (His merciful intention) which He had previously purposed and set forth in [a]Him,[He planned] for the maturity of the times and the climax of the ages to unify all things and head them up and consummate them in Christ, [both] things in heaven and things on the earth. (a) Some commentators interpret “in Him” to mean “in Himself,” while others see it as “in Christ.”

(Eph. 1:9-10 AMPC)

“There’s going to be a wedding,” as the familiar worship song goes. Thus, I finish this post with the great incentive to go all the way with every change the One bringing us to glory asks for and give my psuche (soul) life with abandon to the Lord of lords:

The Marriage Supper of the Lamb

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, The Marriage Supper of the Lamb

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, 

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our Godthe Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give  Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come,and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herselfwith fine linen, bright and pure”—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” (Rev. 19:6-9 ESV)

May we consider this passage a now and a future word as we enter in and dine in enjoyment via the Kingdom within today, our souls all the more given to the Lord and His salvation program with no resistance to Christ. [See Rev. 3:20 The Passion.] We accept that His ways are NOT our ways. (Is. 55:8) And we cooperate and coordinate with the Godhead in the crucifixion of all that is of the last Adam, the old man, in us. In this “yes” to co-crucifixion leading to co-kingship in restored intimacy in the reign of grace with the Godhead, let freedom ring. We, the new creation royalty in Christ.

If this blog blessed you, and you’d like to support my writing labors, please consider donating via PayPal or Venmo (@Katherine-Bell-micro.)

Zelle katherinefbell@me.com

Blessings in return—

Suggested Reading

My blog: bondslavefreedom.com and especially the posts: “Overcomers are Ultra-Spirit Led;” “Patience Makes Perfect;” “The Yielded Will.” And the others as the Holy Spirit directs. The post “Functionality doc” on humansneedyhvh.wordpress.com may well prove a help.

Overcoming Life on a Small Planet Heaven-style living for earthlings by Ron McGatlin of openheaven.com. (This book is a free pdf online.) [In this book is a key chapter and very great diagrams re: the heart tree.]

Masterpiece of the Wilderness by Deanna Deering

Union with God by Madame Jeanne Guyon

Union with Christ by T. Austin Sparks

Loved a 90-day journey into the heart of God by Liz Wright and Gretchen Rodriguez

Tom Finley’s blog, seekersofchrist.org, with its excellent writings on sanctification and the believer’s cross and more. 

The Godhead Loves Me doc compiled by Katherine Bell. (Email me at katherinefbell@icloud.com for a copy.) 

And my ebook, The Kingdom Within: Living from the Inside Out as a Bridal Soul Abandoned to Christ with two, very helpful, accompanying diagrams on the interior life, I am glad to send by email also: katherinefbell@icloud.com.