In the next few lessons we want to see the things that hinder our growth in life. If by the Spirit, we deal with these things, we will experience more life and growth. On the one hand, the sense of life in us tells us about these things. On the other hand, we need the word and the messages to help us get clear. Whether we become aware of them by the inward sense or the outward word, our dealing with them is the experience of life. The result will be a feeling of life and peace and growth in the divine life. We should have this experience day by day. The first thing we should do is to clear up our past with our old way of living.
[There is no clear teaching in the Scripture concerning the clearance of the past, but there are two very good examples: one is found in Luke 19:1-10-the story of Zacchaeus’s dealing with the past after his salvation; the other is in Acts 19:18-19-the account of the Ephesians’ clearance of the past after their being saved.
In Luke 19 we are told that as soon as Zacchaeus was saved, he immediately felt that he had extorted others in the past and was thus unrighteous; he also felt that he was a money lover with a stingy manner of living. He said therefore to the Lord that if he had taken anything from any man by false accusation, he would willingly restore him fourfold. Furthermore, he was willing to give half his goods to the poor. This was his clearance of the past. In Acts 19 we are told that many of the Ephesian saints, having been saved through Paul’s leading, came to confess their deeds, many of them willingly bringing their books of charms and burning them before the people.
The price of the books burned was fifty thousand pieces of silver. Since each piece of silver approximated a day’s wage, we can see that these books were worth a great deal of money.] This was their clearance of the past.
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