We need to grow spiritually. In Ephesians 4:13-16 the matter of growth is mentioned three times. We must become a full-grown man, no longer children. Then we are to “grow up into him in all things.” Lastly, the whole Body must grow (“maketh growth of the body”-Gk.). Let us answer some questions before we consider how the Body can grow.
How can we deny ourselves?
When we read the Scripture which tells us to deny our self, our natural response is to determine to put our self aside. Such a response is not biblical but ethical. Confucius taught self-denial. When the learned Chinese believers read Matthew 16, their background of ethical teachings leads them to react, “Lord, from today I am no more for myself. I will deny myself.” This is the way of self-endeavor.
What is the biblical way? “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24). Do you see what follows “deny himself”? It says to take up the cross. To deny the self is to take up the cross. When Christ was crucified, He included you. Receive and abide in the fact that you were crucified with Him. “Lord, thank You I do not need to deny myself by my own effort. I just accept and stand on the fact that on the cross I was crucified with You. It is no longer I but Christ that lives in me.” The real denial of the self is to remain under His crucifixion.
I think we do need your sharing with us to be more legal about reading the Word, but there is a problem that crops up. We tend to pressure others instead of just taking the word for ourselves.
It is not helpful to pressure others. If you are faithful to practice contacting the Lord every day in the Word, there will be a change in you that will have an effect on those around you.
While my brother and I were studying in college, I got saved (at the age of nineteen) and began to love the Bible. I lost interest in the activities we had been doing together and spent most of that summer at home reading the Bible. My younger brother, who was fifteen at the time and quite naughty, observed the change taking place in me, and on his own he too began to read the Bible. As a result he was saved. His salvation came about not because of anyone’s exhorting him, but by the transmission of life from me to him.
If you will go to the Lord for ten minutes every morning and read the Word, you will be nourished and your life will become shining. This change in you will minister life to others and attract them. Don’t try to recruit them to study the Word!
Is it good to practice releasing our spirit in the meetings even if we may be in our emotions and full of self?
It is better not to be so analytical. The practice is simple. Your spirit is gradually purified by the working of the Word and the Spirit in you. As you are contacting the Lord by these means, the negative things within you-your natural emotion, tendencies, dislikes, and such-are being killed, and the resurrection life is being ministered into you. Little by little you are being unconsciously transformed by the life of Christ. When you come to the meetings, just release your spirit in a genuine and spontaneous way. At first your spirit is not so pure, but as the months go by, and the Word and the Spirit do their killing and resurrecting work, your spirit will be more and more purified.
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