Category Archives: Uncategorized

A Great Revival of Obedience

Posted on by

In your faithful love, O Lord, hear my cry;  let me be revived by following your regulations.

(Ps. 119:149 NLT)

Sweeter also than honey are His living words—sweet words dripping from the honeycomb! For they warn us, Your servants, and keep us from following the wicked way, giving a lifetime guarantee: great success to every obedient soul! (Psalm 19:10-11 TPT)

We’ve missed something when we pull away from Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 1:1-3-level prescriptions for the victorious life in the Lord. 

Joshua 1:8 directs: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall read [and meditate on] it day and night, so that you may be careful to do [everything] in accordance with all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will be successful.” (AMP)

And Psalm 1:1-3 augments this same call to be in the Word night and day: “Blessed [fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God] is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked [following their advice and example], nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit [down to rest] in the seat of scoffers (ridiculers). But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law [His precepts and teachings] he [habitually] meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted [and fed] by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season;
Its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers [and comes to maturity].” (AMP)

We haven’t perceived rightly the whole aim of God in bestowing His gift of salvation when we stall out at His requirement that we respond with wholehearted submission to Him and “tremble at His Word.” The Lord states upfront: “I have made everything; that’s how it all came to be. I, the Lord, have spoken. The people I treasure most are the humble— they depend only on me and tremble when I speak.” (Isaiah 66:2 CEV) The Father’s entire buying back of us from the slavery to sin and bondage entails His giving us the choice to be fully yielded bondslaves to God so He can bring us to glory. This glory is what we long for and are designed for but often seek by way of selfish ambition, self-exhaltation and/or the independent exertion of ego or self apart from the Holy Spirit. But self at the center doesn’t taste of the risen Lord’s delicious glory and freedom.

Let’s first face the cost to have the pure walk and not just mere talk. Then let’s examine the deep and rich fulfillment of gaining Christ. And finally, let’s look into the eternal rewards of complete obedience to the Almighty and the losses we will incur if we say “no” and hold back on our Maker. When we do obey the Father, we come to find that He very much does know what He is doing with every one of us. [See Romans 8:28-29 TPT.]

Continue reading →

The Yielded Will: 

Posted on by

How Walking before the Father as Surrendered as Jesus 

Results in God’s Design of Glory for Man

David speaking: “I hear the Lord saying, ‘I will stay close to you, instructing you 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’ve not been before. Don’t make Me tug you and pull you along. Just come with Me!’” 

(Psalms 32:8-9 TPT)

…God raised up David to be king, for God said of him, ‘I have found in David, son of Jesse, a man who always pursues my heart and will accomplish all that I have destined him to do.’ 

(Acts 13:22 TPT)

As we recognize that God desires to direct every aspect of the course of our lives, let’s first consider to what end this is that we may wholeheartedly follow Him. We note that Paul, James, and the others positioned themselves as bondslaves of the Lord. Did they perceive something about Jesus Christ that we need to recover as they willingly gave the Lord the full ownership of their lives that He requested? Paul firmly stated to the early followers of Christ: “You should [L Don’t you…?] know that your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit who is in you and was given to you by God. So you do not belong to yourselves, because you were ·bought by God [bought] for a price.” (1 Cor. 6:19-20 EXB) What these bondslaves of Jesus knew was that Jesus had made the way to know delicious freedom from sin and its fruit, death. These followers also came into the ultimate fulfillment of being welcomed into the embrace of the Father, the Creator, who had revealed His nature as perfect love. No longer were they prodigals. They were reinstated sons of God. [Luke 15:17-22 TPT recounts the story of the prodigal who really didn’t know the Father until Abba “raced out to meet him, swept him up in his arms, hugged him dearly, and kissed him over and over with tender love.” The son admitted his waywardness—his sins against the Father. Further, the wayward son started to declare his unworthiness. Right then, the Father stopped the son from speaking of himself as unworthy by putting the best robe on his newfound son’s shoulders, a ring as a seal of sonship, and the very best shoes. Finally, the Father inaugurated a great celebration of the son’s redemption.]  The early church knew Jesus had inaugurated “the restoration and fulfillment of all things” by His work on the cross. (Eph. 4:10 TPT) Nothing the world had to offer could compare to the new life—indeed, a new creation that the Savior had delivered to humankind, and it still doesn’t. Once born again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, these men and women of the early church were flowing in rivers of the supernatural zoe life of God. They were literally experiencing resurrection life from inside their bodies.

Continue reading →

Union of Wills

Posted on by

Overcoming Hidden Pockets of Pride and Rebellion so as to Gain Christ;

Experience a Passionate Love Relationship with God;

Know Fruitfulness and Prayer that Prevails;

And Find Favor, Protection, and Soul Prosperity

Part One

The Father reveals the great dream in His heart for our inner life on earth in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. He desires us to walk in an Edenic reality on the inside even as we exist in “the midst of a brutal and perverse culture.” (Phil. 2:15 TPT) Paul writes of this Eden within in his heavenly Epistle using these words: “that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!” (Eph. 3:19 AMPC) We look back to the Psalms to capture how pleasureful this fullness is. King David, who gave himself to hours and hours in the Old Testament version of a house of prayer, talked of drinking from “a river of thy delights,” “a wonderful river,” and “a refreshing stream.” (Psalm 36:8 KJV, ERV, HCSB). One more translation says of knowing God and imbibing His zoe life: “You give them water from your river, that makes them happy when they drink it.” (Psalm 36:8 EASY) 

Continue reading →

“A Body Wholly Filled and Flooded”—All This by way of Receiving

Posted on by

For months now, Pastor Bryan Wright at Boomerang Church in the humble, little city of Albemarle, NC has labored to impart the absolute necessity of receiving God’s love first and foremost before ever stepping out in any effort to obey God. This emphasis is because it is only as the God who is love becomes our source that we are at all able to love Him back by keeping His commandments. And all of His injunctions are summed up in John 13:34-35, “ I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another. By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples, if you love one another [if you keep on showing love among yourselves]. The Lord, the Vine, must be our source as obeying God is all by grace, God’s power and ability, and impossible by self-effort. We are lifeless corpses, fleshy souls, apart from Him. John 15:5 puts our state bluntly:  “I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.“

But oh, what we, the very Body of Christ, can know, for the price of positioning ourselves to receive and letting Him pour His love into us. We are meant to experience the fire within of His unconditional love. We are meant to receive and receive and receive and only after that respond to Him. “We love Him, because He first loved us,” 1 John 4:19 explicitly says. And how we show we love Him is by obedience. John 14:15 is the acid test: “If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands.” John 15:10 adds the word that to obey Him is to remain in His love: “If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commandments and live on in His love.”

Continue reading →

Hierarchy has No Place

Posted on by

One of the most precious pictures of the meek and lowly Lamb of God, Jesus the Christ, the One with all power and authority in the universe, is found in John 13:1-17. Here, Jesus, who was willingly continuing on the Father’s path for Him of giving His very lifeblood to purchase eternal life for those who would surrender to Him and follow Him, demonstrates the radical, sacrificial love that marks His reign over the hearts of men. He was not reluctant as He took a towel and put it around His waist to position Himself for the most humble and servile of tasks—that of washing His disciples’ feet the night before His death on the cross. In fact, in this task He, “longed to show them the full measure of His love,” The Passion Translation records.[1] He knew He was breaking through the sense of hierarchy that in the world’s  social, political and religious thinking determined greatness. The culture was marked by a pecking order—the enemy’s hierarchy on earth, a hierarchy that came into being as the curse fell in the Garden of Eden and man was subject to satan’s order. This demonic hierarchy is in the way of the rule of God’s kingdom of love. 

Continue reading →

Formula for Love

Posted on by

The Bible talks about a couple of bonds between brothers and sisters in the church: the bond of peace and the bond of perfectness. What are these bonds? And how does one walk in them such that the high and beautiful fruit of love results?

First, to have bonds in place is to have no divisions. And the cross we are called to subject ourselves to—the dying to the life of self—is the answer to all the divisions in the Body. We will all say we are of Christ our Head when we are following Him according to Luke 9:23. The verse reads: “And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself (deny letting his soul have dominance over the Indwelling Lord), and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”Embracing the cross comes before experiencing intimate union with the Lord or flowing together with Him in the life of the spirit. We are one spirit with the Lord 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, but there is a veil of flesh which must be rent for more in terms of interior experience to open up. [See http://artkatzministries.org/articles/the-veil-of-self/.]

It’s in Ephesians 4:1-6 that Paul writes about the bond of peace:

“I beseech you therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord, to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing one another in love, being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace: one Body and one Spirit, even as you were also called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and one Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

The prescription for keeping the bond of peace in place involves love. The call to walk in lowliness and meekness involves walking in such a way that we put others before ourselves. We must keep the fleshy self-life under the cross. Thus, we are to practice the moment-by-moment crucifixion of the flesh. The prescription does call for suffering and endurance at times. Our reaction patterns must be governed by the Indwelling Christ and the Word stored in our hearts such that we don’t sin. So we’re to let Psalm 119 realities prevail.

“Peace is the issue of the working of the cross,” Witness Lee says in his Recovery Bible notes. When we stay in the flow of the spirit, we stay in oneness. We are for others’ well-being. Our lives together are marked by harmony, concord, and blessedness. The parts of the Body function rightly.

Colossians 3:12-15 discusses the peace of the spirit as umpire and arbitrator among us. This passage tells how peacekeeping keeps love, which is the bond of perfectness, in place.

“Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, inward parts of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, long-suffering; bearing one another and forgiving one another, if anyone should have a complaint against anyone; even as the Lord forgave you, so also you should forgive. And over all these things put on love, which is the uniting bond of perfectness. And let the peace of Christ arbitrate in your hearts, to which also you were called in one Body; and be thankful.”

There is a certain mature saint I know who so lets peace rule in her heart that she walks at a very high level of selfless love. In fact, she has reached such levels of loving your neighbor as you love yourself that she is qualified to teach. Her name is Dottie Bell.

Dottie grew up in an era and a part of the country where Christian principles in general informed the society around her. Love existed among family and friends. She encourages learning the social graces because they so help in seeing how to be kind and considerate. As we are the true royalty in the earth, why not learn the good manners that go along with the royal law of love?

Dottie, who happens to be my mom, didn’t find peace and love to be so easy in a marriage to an unsaved husband and around the true church. She recalls, “Growing bonds with others took a long time. The people in spirit-filled circles often came from lives of trouble and pain. The backgrounds were so different, and I had to work to overcome the differences. And many people faced real warfare. At first, I knew not how to defeat the devil.”

[Note: Dottie’s husband, Ed, turned to the Lord and received Jesus as Savior in the last days before his passing. His decision for Christ followed upon decades of concerted intercession for him.]

Dottie learned to get her love needs met at the deepest levels from Christ. She learned to look to the Lord as her great source of fulfillment and found that the Lord was her nourishment—her “All in All” as 1 Corinthians 15:28 terms God. She invested in her life in the Word. Dottie studied what it meant to be one spirit with the Lord. In time, as she found the way of the cross, her experience was one of union with the Lord. And it was from Christ Jesus she was able to draw as she encountered all kinds of human need. Today she still lives Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”“You have to be prepared for people who do not know how to love and can’t love you back,” Dottie states.

“God is perfect at everything. He knows what He is doing when He puts you in situations where you need more patience or grace or love. Right in the test, ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with His good fruit. He will do so and enable you to walk through any interaction. You have to be quick to forgive to stay free of offense. Forgive right at the threshold of thought,” my mom explains.

“I wanted to stay in peace inside. I did not like the way negative thoughts disturbed peace. So I began to pro-actively send love to others by way of thought prayers. I also wanted to see God work. I desired others to know the Lord as the great God He is—the Answer for everything. So instead of letting negative, fiery darts in, I began to pray for those before me. I released love and good will from the wells of salvation within. I asked God to bless them and teach them how to be victorious. And, I asked God to show me ever better ways to relate to others. I grew in all this. The flow of love increased as I maintained peace and turned my thoughts first Godward (necessitating they be turned away from self), then to others,” Dottie relays. These disciplines of grace are ongoing.

Mom continues, “If we’ll keep practicing pouring out God’s love, He’ll continue to flow through us. We’ll be conduits. Go about doing good like Jesus. Do a kindness whenever and wherever. The Lord loves to answer prayer and bless through us. Also, bind and loose to get people free. Study Matthew 16:19 and books on these keys. I like Liberty Savard’s books. Know that all through these actions God will grow you in many things. Die to any resentment as you stay under or subject to the cross.”

“You must exercise yourself in love. Ephesians 4:31 says, ‘. . . dislikeof others should have no place in your lives.’ Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with a sincere liking for this one or that one. Ask for ideas for good words and good deeds. Beseech God for a right heart. Over time you will grow to truly like all types of people,” Dottie adds. “The command is to like as well as love.”

“Stay in peace within. Know God accepts you when He corrects you. He is love,” she finishes.

[Note: Praying for other souls is a way of loving them. You can love people (care for them) through prayer even when you do not feel the emotion of love. And the act of praying will enlarge your capacity for love. Through Spirit-led intercession, you enter into God’s heart for others.]

The Recovery New Testament, available free through www.biblesforamerica.org, has excellent notes for those who desire to walk according to the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The notes so help in the way of the cross and the release of the spirit from within. A key tool for overcomers.

1 Corinthians 6:17Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)

17But the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.

Luke 9:23Living Bible (TLB)

23 Then he said to all, “Anyone who wants to follow me must put aside his own desires and conveniences and carry his cross with him every day and keep close to me!

Luke 9:23New American Standard Bible (NASB)

23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

Matthew 22:36-40Living Bible (TLB)

36 “Sir, which is the most important command in the laws of Moses?”  37 Jesus replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.’ 38-39 This is the first and greatest commandment. The second most important is similar: ‘Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.’ 40All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets stem from these two laws and are fulfilled if you obey them. Keep only these and you will find that you are obeying all the others.”

James 2:8 AMPC If, however, you are [really] fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself [that is, if you have an unselfish concern for others and do things for their benefit]” you are doing well.

Acts 10:38 says, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”

Ephesians 6:16Living Bible (TLB)

16In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows (darts) aimed at you by Satan.

Isaiah 12:3King James Version (KJV)

3Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

Matthew 16:19Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)

19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind (declare to be improper and unlawful) on earth must be what is already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose (declare lawful) on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven.

Breaking The Power-Revised and Updated: Of Unmet Needs, Unhealed Hurts And Unresolved Issues In Your Life by Liberty Savard 2012

Binding & Loosing: Exercising Authority Over the Dark Powers (1999) by K. Neill Foster and H. Robert Cowles

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

Blessings in return—

Patience Makes Perfect

Posted on by

(Re-posted from my former blog The Narrow Road September 20, 2010.)

Reading the first few verses in James 1 we see that patience is more  than just a basic fruit of the Spirit. In fact, patience is key to our perfection and completion as men and women indwelt by Jesus Christ Himself.

Why is it that our Lord so highlights the virtue of patience as a significant key to our perfection? And can we actually walk in this supernatural patience in a culture that aids and abets being driven by continual time pressures? How can we walk in sync with the Godhead and heaven above and experience the higher or mystical plane noted in Romans 6? [J.B. Phillips’ translation speaks of “rising to life on a new plane altogether.”]

First, let’s define patience. Merriam-Webster puts it this way: to be patient is to bear pains or trials calmly or without complaint. It is to manifest forbearance under provocation or strain. A patient man is not hasty or impetuous. He is steadfast despite opposition, difficulty, or adversity. And he is very willing to bear things.

James 1:2-4 elucidates just where operating in the fullness of patience will take us. From the King James: “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” J.B. Phillips rightly notes that the trials and temptations are God’s tests designed to school us in patience: “When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will become men of mature character with the right sort of independence.” By independence I believe Phillips means freedom in the inner man. Finally, let’s include the conversational Living Bible with its helpful imagery: “Dear brothers, is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy, for when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow. So let it grow, and don’t try to squirm out of your problems. For when your patience is finally in full bloom, then you will be ready for anything, strong in character, full and complete.”

Second, let’s take a look at our need for patience. I quote Deanna Deering’s prophetic piece from Masterpiece of the Wilderness published in 2003. The Lord is speaking:

“You must not allow yourself to be in a rush. There is no way to be led by the Spirit when you are in a hurry. Walk, don’t run, in the Spirit. You say, ‘There is much that needs to be done, and these are real responsibilities.’ But there is only one thing that matters. By doing this ‘one thing,’ you will accomplish more than you ever could have done by doing the ‘many things’ first. But not to the visible eye, of course; the results are first received in the spiritual realm, then revealed in the natural.”

“Without Me and My Spirit, you cannot possibly carry out my commands. I have many plans for you, but you can only walk in them through your spirit. Taking time to seek Me brings your flesh into obedience, for it inherently desires quick results. Your outer man has taken many years to be formed. When you set out to seek Me, your outer man will be pressed into submission to My Spirit. Such a process takes time, and it can be very excruciating.”

“That is why many will opt for busyness and allow the visible results to deceive them. My loved one, do not allow yourself to be deceived! Wide is the door through which many will travel. I’m coaxing you. Allow Me to have all of you, so I can take you through the narrow door.”

God ultimately wants us to trust Him. Thus, He purposefully sets up situations in our lives to force us to wait and to train us when the timing of things is not going the way we think it should according to our natural understanding and soulish perceptions. The Lord is always working to establish what is in fact the case–that He is Sovereign over our histories. And that He is an All-wise Father of love.

In His love He is beckoning us to come into His rest–something we can experience when we let Him have full control. In such abandonment, we will experience Him as the Shepherd of Psalm 23 Who leads us beside waters of rest. In other words, by staying within His leading we will be drinking of the Spirit. How delicious this is! The Recovery Bible notes say regarding 1 Corinthians 12:13, “we were all given to drink one Spirit,” that to drink the Spirit is to take the Spirit in and allow Him to saturate our very beings.

In Hebrews, the theology of God’s great gift of rest is developed. When we are positioned in His rest–and functioning in patience is necessary for this–we co-labor with Him, but we do not work in the sense of sweaty, independent self-effort. We enter in to what He Who is outside of time has already accomplished through the cross.

Another picture of a restful walk with Jesus that again necessitates the relinquishing of control is found in Matthew 11:28-30. God created us to function yoked with the Lord. When we let Him steer our lives, we find the peace promised in Him. (See John 14:27.) The passage voices His words, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. For my yoke is wholesome (useful, good–not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant) and My burden is light and easy to be borne.” In other words, “stay in My timing, die to impatience, and you will experience Me charting the course, you flowing in My Spirit, Me sharing My thoughts with you.”

Patience is crucial to experiencing John 15 realities, too. John 15 is about abiding in or maintaining connection with Jesus, the True Vine. Verse 4 and verse 5 sum up the chapter well: “Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.” The flesh nature, wanting its own way, tends to pull apart from dependence on the Lord. In the giving up of hastiness and impatience, we can lean on (into) our Savior, acknowledging our need for Him and the coursing life of the Holy Spirit. In fact, to abide actually means to wait for, to await, to bear patiently, to remain stable or fixed in a particular state, to continue, and to stay.

Supernatural patience enables us, by virtue of keeping us in God’s timing, to learn to walk as Jesus walked. The Lord said of Himself in John 5, “The Son can do nothing by Himself. He does only what He sees the Father doing, and in the same way. For the Father loves the Son, and tells Him everything He is doing.” Jesus walked by waiting on the Father. In so doing, He remained in the life-flow of the Father’s love. And He walked in what we call the revelatory realm experiencing the Father’s continual communications. In such relating, He was comforted as He walked among men. Succored. Jesus was never alone. The Lord Jesus is the Pattern Son, the first born of those of us He calls brothers. In staying in His timing, we will experience the same rich state of encounter with the Godhead.

Now that we see the promise inherent in becoming men and women of great patience, how do we practically overcome natures given to just the opposite? I invite you to post any helpful comments re: overcoming carnal impatience. What I have learned follows.

2 Peter 1:4 tells us that it is through His precious and exceedingly great promises that we escape moral decay which comes from covetousness (lust and greed) and actually become sharers (partakers) of the Divine Nature. And James 1:21 instructs us to “lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls.” I knew that to conquer impatience, being very prone that way, I would have to graft into my being the promises and continually eat of them. I wrote out the verses on patience; and whenever, in my early years as a follower of Jesus, I found myself failing the Creator’s tests on patience, I fed on these life-giving passages. I developed an arsenal in my inner man to deal with my flesh, the worldlings around me, and the buffetings of enemy spirits. By having promises stored in my heart such as Hebrews 12:1, “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” and Luke 21:19, “In your patience, possess ye your souls,” and others; I was able to tap the nature of God consistently though not altogether perfectly when situations called for the fruit of patience. Right at the threshold of thought, I found that I could choose to think and act according to these stored promises. [As I have grown in walking out union with the Lord, a more and ever more perfect or mature walk of patience has unfolded.]

Also, I have cooperated with His circumcision of my heart–the cutting away of my flesh nature. [See Romans 2:29.] When impatience surfaces from time to time, I beseech the Lord to uproot this bad fruit including its roots. I literally ask Him to cut out these outgrowths from my flesh nature. Over time, I have found this method effectual in eradicating the traits that are foreign to His likeness.

As I have grown up, the concept of union with the Lord and being centered in the Christ Who indwells me has become a powerful spiritual reality enabling me to drink more continually of the living water within. Thus, I have learned to tap patience from the Spirit within as well as the Word engrafted into my heart. Studying those saints who pursued the inward way has helped me navigate my steps as I “dwell with the Lord as I walk among men.” I allow myself to be directed by the Lord from within rather than be unduly moved by the circumstances without. Thus, I find the higher realm–the walk in the Spirit. [See Romans 8.]

In Galatians 5:25, Paul writes, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step withthe Spirit.” This admonishment we find in the very chapter comparing the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. It is patience that positions us to live by the Spirit and also to pace ourselves or keep in step with Him. And thereby we experience both His life and His leading. It is patience that keeps us in sync with the Godhead. In sync with our Maker, we realize Divine appointments, kairos occurrences, even destiny itself.

Yielding in patience to His control and His timing brings us out of a natural or carnal existence into the spiritual–the mystical plane we are meant to know.

Postscript: If you would like a copy of my doc, “Ammo in the War Against Drivenness,” email me at katherinefbell@me.com.

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

Blessings in return—

Overcoming Pride Blindedness

Posted on by

At the end of my month at the Great Commission Intensive at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, the Holy Spirit gave me a word of wisdom [see 1 Corinthians 12:8] for a brother called to high-level spiritual warfare who admitted he suffered from pride. I repeat this word for all of us: “War against pride as if your very life depended on it.” Today I read Zephaniah 2:3, and it says the same thing. “Seek the Lord [inquire for Him, inquire of Him, and require Him as the foremost necessity of your life], all you humble of the land who have acted in compliance with His revealed will and have kept His commandments; seek righteousness, seek humility [inquire for them, require them as vital]. It may be you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.”

Pride is a primal sin. It dates back to Eden. It’s very deep within us. And we who live to know and operate in the Truth – the Person Jesus Christ Who also comes in written form as the Word or Bible – must wage a real warfare against pride because pride so blinds. Let’s take a look at some verses and phrases from the Holy Bible that diagnose the condition of pride blindedness. 1 John 2:16 describes the society we came from this way: “For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one’s own resources or in the stability of earthly things] – these do not come from the Father but are from the world [itself].” In two places Old Testament prophets write: “the pride of your heart has deceived you.” [See Jeremiah 49:16 and Obadiah 1:3.] A phrase from Job 11:12 in the Amplified describes a proud man very blind to his true state: “…as when he thinks himself free because he is lifted up in pride.” Then Proverbs 11:2 teaches the spiritual yield of pride: “When swelling and pride come, then emptiness and shame come also, but with the humble (those who are lowly, who have been pruned or chiseled by trial, and renounce self) are skillful and godly Wisdom and soundness.”  Finally, Habakkuk 2:4 reveals there is a perversion or twistedness in the proud soul: “Look at the proud; his soul is not straight or right within him.”  Pride actually is “the sin of an uplifted heart against God and man” according to Mark 7:22 in the Amplified Bible.

Now that we see our desperate need, how can we get free from pride? How can we attain places of abject humility? First, we must have inside us a great desire to see God and to see the way forward in God. And also a great desire to walk as a kindred spirit to our Elder Brother and Pattern Son, Jesus. Matthew 5:8 tells us the truth, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  John writes in Revelation that it’s the salve or anointing of the Spirit that overcomes the Laodicean thinking of, “I am rich, I have prospered and grown wealthy, and I am in need of nothing.” The Living Bible proposes, “get medicine from Me to heal your eyes and give you back your sight.” Then, recognize with amazement that Jesus, the Lord of the whole universe, is humble and even lowly. And the more we become like Him, the more we will experience kinship with Him.

There is one more motivation before we get to warfare strategies for the assault against pride. Note these few straightforward verses revealing God’s posture when He sees pride in man. Amos records in 6:8, “The Lord, the God of hosts, says: I abhor, reject, and despise the pride and false, futile glory of Jacob (Israel).”  Proverbs 6:16-17 AMP declares that the Lord hates “a proud look [the spirit that makes one overestimate himself and underestimate others]” – it is an “abomination to Him.”  Proverbs 16:5 goes further: “Everyone proud and arrogant in heart is disgusting, hateful, and exceedingly offensive to the Lord.”  Then sense His favor on those who comport themselves in humility. 1 Peter 5:5 records, “For God sets Himself against the proud (the insolent, the overbearing, the disdainful, the presumptuous, the boastful) – [and He opposes, frustrates, and defeats them], but gives grace (favor, blessing) to the humble.”  The Psalmist agrees in 138:6 AMP, “For though the Lord is high, yet has He respect to the lowly [bringing them into fellowship with Him]; but the proud and haughty He knows and recognizes [only] at a distance.” And Mary, Jesus’ mother, confirms this same God in Luke 1:51, “He has scattered the proud and haughty in and by the imagination and purpose and designs of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree…the rich He has sent away empty-handed – without a gift.” Isaiah 66:2 is the attitude of heart He wants: “This is the Lord’s declaration. 
I will look favorably on this kind of person:
  one who is humble, submissive in spirit, 
and trembles at My word.” David’s Psalm 25 tells us, “The humble He teaches His way.” 

Dating from my first steps with Jesus after I surrendered to and encountered Him around May 1995, I entered into the fight to stay in humility before the Lord. I had thick walls of pride to hack through as well as serious internal insecurities.  But I truly wanted to see; I desired in wholeheartedness to gain Christ. So whenever pride surfaced, I entered into the war of Spirit vs. flesh. I sought answers from the Lord and His Book, the Bible. Again and again I would go over the promises concerning humility and the precepts addressing pride. Victory sometimes took significant hours per week. The warfare involved hard labor. And in truth, growth in sustained humility took a number of years of perseverance. Today, often after a success, I find there are deeper cuts to go in attaining full freedom from my pride. However, praise the Lord God: because I have cooperated with Him, I now experience longer and longer stretches of clear, cool, good-tasting humility. Today, I only experience shorter or longer skirmishes against pride.

A key thing in overcoming pride is obedience to Psalm 119:11. Storing the Word in your heart does hold you back from sin. James 1:21 adds, “…in a humble (gentle, modest) spirit receive and welcome the Word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save your souls.” The more verses you take in that warn against pride and promise humility the better. It’s essential to engraft the truth in your heart. The Holy Spirit then has Truth to work with. He brings up the Word just when you need it, and right at the threshold of thought, you can choose to think and declare words of humility over your soul. The idea is to literally become the Word in one area at a time. From John’s Gospel, Jesus is the Word made flesh. We, too, are to become a walking, talking, functioning Word of God. For example, when swelling rises up, say aloud Psalm 36:11, “Let not the foot of pride overtake me.” Or state the truth of Matthew 23:12 over your soul, “Whoever exalts himself with haughtiness and empty pride shall be humbled (brought low; and whoever humbles himself – who has a modest opinion of himself and behaves accordingly – shall be raised to honor.” You might have to do this a lot. I did.

Another key is commanding your soul to bow low. As much as you need to, speak with authority, “Soul, humble yourself before the Lord.” I have done this, at times, all through a morning or the better part of a day.  And over extended seasons. Once you have won some battles over pride and the Lord’s dominion over your soul within is more established, less work is required. As with other weapons, if you are vigilant and watchful and utilize this command at the very first sign of pride, a win will happen more quickly. Both James 4:10 and 1 Peter 5:6 direct us to humble ourselves. Along this line, take thoughts of pride and grandiose self-centered thoughts and projections captive to the obedience of Christ. Refuse such thoughts. In this, it helps to keep your inward gaze on Jesus. Dethrone feelings of pride by staying open to the heart of God.  Militantly cast down imaginations and high things that rise up against the Truth – the true knowledge of God found in Holy Writ. [See 2 Corinthians 10:5.]

Along with the Word, we need the Spirit. Welcome the Holy Spirit in full measure. Pray in the Spirit i.e. in tongues for extended hours.  Ask stronger saints to pray for you. James 4:5-6 reveals, “The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over us – and He yearns for the Spirit [to be welcome] with a jealous love. But He gives us more and more grace [power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully].” After all, the Holy Spirit is the producer of humility, lowliness, and meekness or the grace to wear the Lord’s yoke – these are of His fruit. Too, God is our source of love. And the pursuit of agape love will deny envy, jealousy, vainglory, conceit, and pride a place in us. So 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 prescribes. “Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,” the King James says. At the point of testing, draw upon the Spirit inside. Pray: “Lord, Your love for brother John Doe or sister Jane Doe.” Pray: “Lord, You be humility in me.”

Another primary tactic is found in Galatians 2:20. Declare it this way: “Pride is crucified with Christ; pride no longer lives and reigns in me, but Christ reigns in me.” Use 2:20 as well for selfish ambition, self-exaltation, self-glorification, self-will or any traits of self-centered life. At the cross, we entered into the circumcision of the flesh – “the circumcision not made with hands” of Colossians 2:11. This “a spiritual circumcision [performed by] Christ by stripping off the body of the flesh (the whole corrupt carnal nature with its passions and lusts).” Now we can pray as needed, “Lord, cut away all pride, vainglory, and conceit.” “Uproot pride. Go to the very taproot.” Pray repeatedly until pride is subdued – until it is nailed down in the crucified position. Your aim is to once more experience an unblocked, free-flowing stream of the life of God from within, and taste His humility.

Insecurity turns out to be a root of pride. Because insecurity drives a soul to hunger for attention and recognition, the swelling of pride often results. In my own life, asking the Lord to heal my insecurities greatly lessened pride’s hold. What such a soul really needs is the unconditional love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – the intimacy (into-me-you-see) and expert nurture the Godhead so freely gives.  I have prayed with powerful results, “Lord I receive Your perfect love. I receive Your perfect nurture. I receive the acceptance I need from You.” Confidence has come. The humility of Christ has become my default mode. When the flesh-dominated self again seeks center stage,  state, “My drive for attention, recognition, adoration, and worship from others is crucified with Christ. Christ and His Christ-nature reign in me.” According to Galatians 2:20 PHILLIPS, “I died on the cross with Christ. And my present life is not that of the old “I”, but the living Christ within me.” The Amplified Version reads, “I have been crucified with Christ [that is, in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith [by adhering to, relying on, and completely trusting] in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Psalm 100:3 reveals the truth that slays seeking the place of God; “Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves.” All glory to my Maker—my Designer. The Author and Perfector of my story. We must keep our gaze upon Him to overcome in general and definitely to overcome pride. Hebrews 12:2 AMP encourages, “focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith [the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity] . . . ”

In and around people, especially around the Body of Christ, 1 Peter 5:5 is mandatory: “Clothe (apron) yourselves, all of you, with humility [as the garb of a servant, so that its covering cannot possibly be stripped from you, with freedom from pride and arrogance] toward one another.” Wear a servant’s garb by praying for the needs of others, and watch any inflated emotion, caused by an inordinate focus on yourself, subside. Continuously confess aloud Philippians 2:3, “I consider others (name them) more excellent – more highly than myself.” I encourage:  keep at this confession until it marks your heart and is grafted into your soul. Verse 4 explains how to obey verse 3:  Regard the virtues of others. Look to their interests above your own.

Also in Body and family and civic life, bear in mind Jesus’ teaching from Luke 14:7-10 – a lesson in humility. “Then he gave a little word of advice to the guests when he noticed how they were choosing the best seats. When you are invited to a wedding reception, don’t sit down in the best seat. It might happen that a more distinguished man than you has also been invited. Then your host might say, ‘I am afraid you must give up your seat for this man.’ And then, with considerable embarrassment, you will have to sit in the humblest place. No, when you are invited, go and take your seat in an inconspicuous place, so that when your host comes in he may say to you, ‘Come on, my dear fellow, we have a much better seat than this for you.’ That is the way to be important in the eyes of all your fellow-guests! For everyone who makes himself important will become insignificant, while the man who makes himself insignificant will find himself important.” Direct yourself at all times to go low.  The Apostle Paul considered himself last in the triumphal procession. [See 1 Corinthians 4:9.]

And most helpful in successful spiritual life is the practice of removing yourself to a place alone with the Lord and His Word after times of social life with fellow humans. Some duration given to prayer and the Word keeps you walking in just what the Word promises and keeps you dependent on the very Source of humility – Christ. You stay centered in Him. You stay anti-pride in your stance. Such a discipline reminds you that you are a container of Another. As you grow in grace upon grace, this right discernment protects you from spiritual pride or pride in your spiritual gifts and exploits. As John 15:5 reveals, “I am the Vine, you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me – cut off from vital union with Me – you can do nothing.” Always know He is the Treasure; we are just the vessels.  2 Corinthians 4:7 puts it beautifully, “However, we possess this precious treasure [the divine Light of the Gospel] in [frail, human] vessels of earth, that the grandeur and exceeding greatness of the power may be shown to be from God and not from ourselves.” Emblazon this on your heart: to God belongs the glory and the thanksgiving for what He is making of you.

We have talked about using the Word to overcome the flesh. Know that you have to make your flesh submit to the Truth. At times, you must hammer your flesh down with powerful and pointed verses. At other junctures, you have to use the “sword” of the Word to cut through or hack through the flesh, specifically pride. When pride is hard to conquer, demons are likely involved as they feed on pride. In such cases, the all-powerful weapon of the blood works when you are not strong enough with other weapons. Remembering Jesus drenched in blood at the cross humbles us. But the cry aloud of “the blood, the blood, the blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ stands against you satanic forces” in the face of aggressive demonic spirits does prevail. [See Revelation 12:11.] Couple this with repentance for allowing pride in your heart. Ask the Lord to forgive you, and also forgive yourself. Follow with the prayer: “I loose myself from a spirit of pride.” Then command pride to go. All in Jesus’ name.

Finally, the call to humility is a call to know your true condition apart from Jesus, Savior and full Zoe Life Source. Jeremiah 17:9 instructs us well: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]?” Proverbs 3:5 adds, “Don’t ever trust yourself.” Thankfully we have the Lord.  We have the Healer of pride blindedness. And we can pray day after day Psalm 139, “O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me…. When far away you know my every thought…. You know what I am going to say before I even say it…. I can never be lost to Your Spirit! I can never get away from God!… Search me, O God, and know my heart; test my thoughts. Point out anything You find in me that makes You sad (any hurtful way), and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”

A sequel to this post on hidden pride is in the works. SHAME is the major root of pride. This, the Lord has caused me to understand.

Key books on shame and overcoming shame are: Released from Shame: Moving Beyond the Pain of the Past by Sandra Wilson and Into Abba’s Arms: Finding the Acceptance You Have Always Wanted, also by Sandra.

A keyword search on blueletterbible.org re: the phrase “accepted in the Beloved” from Eph. 1:6. How glorious Abba’s acceptance of us truly is in the full study of this word! Thank You, Lord, for Your blood shed on the cross to gain humans the embrace of Abba again.

Readings I highly recommend in your pursuit of humility:

Humility by Andrew Murray

How to Get Rid of Self by Betty Green

Available from www.bettygreenministries.com

The Veil of Self by Art Katz

Online article at www.artkatzministries.org/articles/the-veil-of-self/

The Context of Humility in the Cosmic Purposes of God by Art Katz online at http://artkatzministries.org/articles/the-context-of-humility-in-the-cosmic-purposes-of-god/

Walking in the Spirit by Katherine Bell

YouTube videos on humility by Pastor Bryan Wright of Boomerang Church, Albemarle, NC.

Request by email katherinefbell@me.com

In the end:

Daniel 4:17 “This sentence is by the decree of the [heavenly] watchers and the decision is by the word of the holy ones, to the intent that the living may know that the Most High [God] rules the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whomever He will and sets over it the humblest and lowliest of men.” 

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@icloud.com.

Blessings in return—

Go back

Your message has been sent

 

How pure?

Posted on by

Just how pure a walk does the Lord call us, His followers, to? Several passages raise our sights in this matter. 1 Thessalonians 3:13 tells us the Lord wants to remake our hearts “faultlessly pure and unblamable in holiness.” And 1 Corinthians 3:3 declares that we are not to “behave after a human standard and like mere (unchanged) men.” “For this is the will of God,” 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 states, “that you should be consecrated (separated and set apart for pure and holy living): that you should abstain and shrink from all sexual vice, that each one of you should know how to possess (control, manage) his own body in consecration (purity, separated from things profane) and honor.”

Admittedly holiness is an acquired taste. It’s delicious, though. The seductions of the world, the demonic, religious practices, and the appetitive flesh feel so strong. However, once it’s discovered that increase in holiness results in a precious and so valuable kindred spirit relationship with Jesus Himself, all defiling lures pale. John 14:21 makes it expressly clear that obedience to Holy Writ leads to the experience of His presence and His love: “The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me, and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father. And I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him – I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him.” Jesus said on the Mount, “the pure in heart…they shall see God.” And Proverbs 22:11 instructs, “He who loves pureness of heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king (a type of the King of Kings) as his friend.”

The rewards of purity are great. The first chapter in the Song of Songs reveals that it is the chaste believer who can sing, “Your anointing oils have a pleasant fragrance; Your name is like ointment poured forth; therefore the virgins love You.” In Revelation 4, the first overcomers are also described as virgins: “For they are spiritually undefiled, pure as virgins, following the Lamb wherever He goes.” The pure among us are able to love the Lord with the whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. Plus those who “live and walk in the Light” have “true, unbroken fellowship with one another” according to 1 John 1:7. The pure experience pure pleasure in God.

So how does a carnal or flesh-dominated believer get pure? At the cross, Jesus’ triumph broke the power of sin in our human natures. Now we, in Him, must die to our flesh nature; we must crucify it. [See Watchman Nee’s The Normal Christian Life for a clear teaching on the believers’ co-crucifixion with Jesus.] Jesus’ spilled blood has the power to instantly and continuously cleanse us from sin in all forms. And the Lord cleanses us, too, “by the washing of the [spiritual] water in the Word.” [See Ephesians 5:26.] Upon turning to Him, the Lord’s very presence brings recovery. Peter preached in Acts 3:19, “So repent – change your mind and purpose; turn around and return [to God], that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that times of refreshing – of recovering from the effects of heat, of reviving with fresh air – may come from the presence of the Lord.”

Is it possible to be so washed or cleansed that one’s memories – even body memories no longer defile? Yes, it is! King David’s plea in Psalm 51 after his grave transgression with Bathsheba attests that God can do miracles in the way of the restoration of a soul. A few verses give us the truths we need. David cried, “According to Your steadfast love, …mercies, and lovingkindnesses, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly [and repeatedly] from my iniquity and guilt, and cleanse me and make me wholly pure from my sin! For I am conscious of my transgressions and I acknowledge them; my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only have I sinned…. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean…wash me, and I shall [in reality] be whiter than snow.” Then King David adds, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me…. Take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation….” The mention of hyssop, a medicinal plant used to paint doorposts with the blood of the Passover lamb in order to mark the Hebrew families saved from God’s destruction the night of their Exodus, signifies that David looked ahead to the cleansing blood of Jesus – the real Lamb of God. Jesus’ blood cleansing can be so profound that a heart response of pronounced love happens. In Luke 7:47, Jesus stated that because the woman cornered in adultery truly had experienced great forgiveness, “she loved much.”

Practically speaking, where are we as the Body of Christ corroded? A few areas come to mind. I am sure others will occur to you. [Feel free to post your thoughts.] First a note from 1 Corinthians 3:17 re: how valuable our very bodies are to the Lord: “For the temple of God is holy (sacred to Him) and that (temple) you [the believing church and its individual believers] are.” Because we are His “sacred space” we must discern whether we are indoctrinating ourselves in carnality with the internet, video, music, and print matter we ingest. The truth is: Jesus in Living Word and Book form offers “the true refreshing.” He is “the true rest [the way to true comfort and happiness given to the weary.” Most of the words and sounds out there come from people whose souls are not governed by the Word and the Holy Spirit. This is even true of the likes of Walt Disney movie characters and family-type TV reruns. The characters do not “walk in the spirit” or operate in “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 5:16 and Romans 8:2.) So consider that we really do tend to copy the media personalities we watch.

Re: food. Ezekiel 16:49 speaks to us today: “Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, overabundance of food, prosperous ease, and idleness were hers and her daughters’; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.” Proverbs 13:25 seconds the call to temperance: “The good man eats to live, while the evil man lives to eat.” There are such things as demons of gluttony, and there is deliverance in Christ.

Re: relationships. Are we trying to find life through emotional feeding off of one another when Jesus said in John 6:48, “I am the Bread of Life [that gives life—the Living Bread].” Is there an excess of social activity at the expense of solitude and bonding with Jesus? And, too, the warning from the Bible re: going even further astray speaks for itself. I quote 1 Corinthians 6 from the Amplified first and then The Message. It’s a heavy duty Bible truth that spiritual adultery vis a vis our Bridegroom God precedes actual sexual adultery. We first turn from the union with God we are made for before we fall.

“But the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him. Shun immorality and all sexual looseness – flee from impurity [in thought, word or deed]. Any other sin which a man commits is one outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is the temple – the very sanctuary – of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own, you were bought for a price – purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your Body.”

“There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, “The two become one.” Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever – the kind of sex that can never “become one.” There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for “becoming one” with another. Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.”

Finally, I commend three writings to further you in your response to the Lord’s heart cry to come and experience kinship with the Lover of your soul. A cry that is bound to His directive in 1 Peter 1:16 to “Be holy, for I am holy.”

Biblical Foundations of Freedom by Art Mathias [Go to www.akwellspring.com to order.]

How to Get Rid of Self by Betty Green [Go to www.bettygreenministries.com to order.]

The Veil of Self by Art Katz [Go to www.artkatzministries.org/articles/the-veil-of-self/ to read online.]

And I leave you with three quotes to ponder re: the path of purity. They hail from a deep and beautiful study of the Song of Songs by Father Juan G. Arintero. (1860-1928).

“Inner beauty is nothing else but purity.” P. 275.

“As soon as she surrenders herself completely into the hands of the Lord that He might work in her whatever He wishes, she resolves to sacrifice for love of Him the things that cause imperfection in her or prevent her from being united with Him. She then begins to experience Him as her sweet Lord and most loving Spouse, Who is so pleased to take recreation in souls that are pure.” p. 282.

“Happy the soul…who has been made God’s garden, adorned and beautified with a variety of virtues! There He finds entertainment and recreation…” p. 288.

1 Corinthians 4:20 “For the kingdom of God consists of and is based on not talk but power (moral power and excellence of soul).”

Thanks to Janie McManus for editorial suggestions.

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

Blessings in return—

Go back

Your message has been sent

Recommended Reading Related to “bondslave freedom”

Posted on by

Four books, in particular, stand out as starters in the study of how to walk in “bondslave freedom.” They are all by the twentieth century great, Chinaman Watchman Nee. Do read The Normal Christian Life, The Spiritual Man, The Overcoming Life, and The Release of the Spirit. I recommend reading these works in this order as they build upon each other. A fifth work that defines what a bondslave is:  Slave The Hidden Truth About Your Identity in Christ by John MacArthur of The Master’s Seminary and Grace Community Church in CA.