The fourth point in dealing with the flesh is that we must know the dealing itself. The dealing consists of two aspects: the objective fact and the subjective experience. Both aspects are equally needed; neither one should be neglected. The aspect of the objective fact is what God has accomplished for us in Christ, while the subjective experience requires our cooperation with God in the Holy Spirit.

After we realize these four basic points in dealing with the flesh, we will have the experience of dealing with the flesh. The procedure of our experience in dealing with the flesh begins with a deeper longing and seeking for spiritual things. Once we love the Lord and pursue after Him, we naturally long that we may have a deeper life in the Lord and that the Lord would live in us in a deeper way. But in practice, our desire often is frustrated and we fail. What we desire, we cannot do, but what we do not desire, we do. The result of our repeated failures is that we are brought to the place of total misery and despair. Although we often seek the Lord’s deliverance, we cannot find the way of deliverance. At this time, the Holy Spirit gradually reveals that the reason for failure is that we live in the flesh. The thing which hinders us most from a deeper mingling with the Lord and hinders the Lord from living more deeply in us is our flesh. At the same time, the Holy Spirit shows us how filthy, corrupt, evil, and wicked our flesh is. Not to mention the evil aspect of our flesh, even what we ordinarily consider as good is also full of the element of man and the self. Our flesh, the good as well as the evil, is condemned by God and unacceptable to Him. When we have seen this, we will naturally, in the light of the Holy Spirit, hate our flesh. At this time the Holy Spirit will impress us with the fact of our being crucified with Christ. This impression, as vivid as picture taking, causes us to see that our flesh, our old I, or our old man, has already been nullified on the cross of our Lord Jesus. The entrance of this light immediately produces a killing effect which causes our old man or our old I to become gradually paralyzed and withered, eventually losing its position and power. Then all the fleshly elements in our practical living will automatically be exterminated. The more we allow the light of the Holy Spirit to shine within us, the more the old I or old man loses its position, and all the fleshly elements in our living gradually diminish and disappear. At this time we will have a little subjective experience in the matter of dealing with the flesh through the death of the cross.

However, our dealing with the flesh must not stop here. In our fellowship with the Lord and through the Holy Spirit who dwells within us and causes us to partake of the death of the Lord, we must apply the putting to death of our flesh and its expressions time after time and step after step. This is our application of the death of the cross through the Holy Spirit. This is also what Galatians 5:24-25 speaks about: the subjective experience of crucifying the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof through the Holy Spirit. Because we give Him the opportunity, the ground, and our cooperation, the Holy Spirit within us will enable us to put our flesh to death so that we may live the life God wants us to live and do what God wants us to do. At this time, not only will we live by the Spirit, but also walk by the Spirit; then we will no longer be fleshly, but spiritual.

We should always examine ourselves regarding the process of dealing with the flesh. Do we really see the objective fact? Do we ever let the Holy Spirit impress this fact into us? How much subjective experience do we have? How often do we apply the death of the cross in our practical living? After we strictly examine ourselves, we can be clear regarding the degree to which we have attained in our experience and look to the Lord for His further leading.

The process of dealing with the flesh which we have mentioned cannot be thoroughly experienced in a short period of time. We need to go deeper, step by step. Many items of the flesh are not recognized in the beginning; therefore, we have no way to deal with them. It is not until our spiritual experience grows deeper that we gradually recognize our flesh and have further dealings. Therefore, in our dealing with the flesh, we deal firstly with the corrupted aspect, and then with the good aspect of the flesh. Finally, we put our whole being under the death of Christ and deal completely with the flesh.
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