The second step in the pathway of knowing the will of God is to deny the self.
The two most important passages relative to knowing God’s will are Romans 12 and Matthew 16. The former speaks of the relationship between being a sacrifice and understanding God’s will; the latter speaks of the relationship between God’s will and the denying of self. To be a sacrifice is to solve the problem of living for ourselves. To deny the self is to solve the problem of living according to ourselves. If we are merely a sacrifice and have not denied ourselves, even though we are living for God, we are still living according to our own opinion and ideas. As such, we cannot understand His will. Therefore, the denying of self is also a basic requirement for knowing the will of God.
Matthew 16:21-24 discloses three sections relating to the denial of self. The first consists of verses 21 and 22, where the Lord showed the disciples that He had to go to the cross and die. Peter rebuked the Lord, saying, “Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall never be unto thee.” “Be it far from thee” in another translation is “Pity yourself.” Peter meant that the Lord should pity Himself and not accept the cross. The Lord mentioned the cross, but Peter mentioned the self. These two are contrary to each other. The acceptance of the cross means the annihilation of the self. Whenever we pity ourselves, we lay aside the cross.
Therefore, in the second section the Lord rebuked Peter and said, “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men” (v. 23). The “things of God” means the will of God. This rebuke contains at least two explanations: First, if we pity ourselves, laying aside the cross, it is doubtless the work of Satan within us. Satan causes man to pity himself and to refuse the cross. Second, the Lord exposed two contradicting things-the will of God and the thought of man. Since the Lord’s rebuke followed the preceding verses, the will of God means the cross, and the thought of man means the self. When man accepts the suggestion of Satan, pities himself and rejects the cross, the result is that he minds not the things of God but the things of man.
Hence, the Lord concludes in the third section: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (v. 24). Here again the Lord emphasizes the opposition between self and the cross. If we desire to follow the Lord and obey His will, we must on one hand deny ourselves and mind not the things of man, and on the other hand bear the cross and mind the things of God.
In Matthew 16, “self” indicates the things of man. The things of man include all the varied kinds of ideas, viewpoints, perceptions, and opinions. When man touches our ideas, viewpoints, perceptions, and opinions, he touches our “self.”
Our natural being is full of self with its ideas and opinions. Even though we zealously love the Lord and consecrate our all for the Lord in order to serve Him, yet we are full of our own ideas and opinions. We always want to do this and that for the Lord; we never pause to inquire what He desires us to do and how to do it. The human concept is that it is a good thing to be zealously serving the Lord, but according to Matthew 16 this kind of zeal can originate from Satan. When Peter laid hold of the Lord and said, “Lord, pity Yourself,” he was not opposing, but loving the Lord. However, the Lord’s rebuke exposed this to be Satan’s injection. When man serves God by his own zeal, it is horrible and abominable in God’s sight. Because Satan is hiding within man, man’s will is ever the enemy of God’s will. When he lives in himself and does something for God according to his own idea and opinion, it is absolutely impossible for him to understand the will of God.
Again, the Word of the Lord shows us that God’s will and man’s will ever contradict each other. Man’s will is his self, and God’s will is the cross. Whenever God’s will is revealed to man, it is like the cross which puts man to death. The will of God kills primarily the self in man. It kills man’s ideas, viewpoints, perceptions, and opinions. Therefore, the will of God and the self of man are ever contrary to each other. If we are in the self, we are out of God’s will. It is impossible to have His will and keep the self. Each time we accept God’s will, it kills the self. If we stand on the ground of death, accepting the cross, we will understand God’s will. All who do not accept, or are not willing to accept, the killing of the cross cannot understand or receive God’s will.
Miss M. E. Barber, who served the Lord in China, said that if one is willing to deny and reject his self, he has already ninety-nine percent passed through the path of knowing God’s will, and the one percent left is just to know it. This has proven to be true in our experience. Beside denying self, there is no other way for us to understand the will of God.
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