Demon Possession-Oppression in Christians

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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on January 20, 2009 at 4:31pm

Greetings,

Your post here in the forums appears to be better suited for posting as a blog. Forums are for asking questions and for sharing a response to a question someone has posted..” Blogs are for posting an opinion, view or specific message regarding a subject. Please consider moving your post over to the blogs,

Thanks,
LT
Volunteer Forums Moderator

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Permalink Reply by R. Evan-Gombach on January 20, 2009 at 7:12pm

This was somewhat in response to what I have seen here regarding a problem someone on here is having. I wrote it on a forum to give those in need a better chance to see and receive the message that is so vital to walking in the Spirit. I would not have started a forum at all except for seeing a need amongst God's people and from what I have seen written in various places on this site I felt the Lord compel me to respond to a need He wanted met for the blessing of His children. There was definitely someone or one's on here in deep need, crying out and hurting and this was something I have been through and the Lord gave me deliverance. I just felt the Lord hearing their cry for help. Nevertheless, I will always seek to have the Lord apply the cross to any human wisdom, reasonings of the intellect, or natural strength I may have so that death works in me and life in others. I fully understand that the Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain. And am surrendered to the cross of Christ to put all that to death in me. That's the way of the Kingdom of the heavens and vital to the testimony of Jesus Christ in His people. So if "I" do it then I'm dead wrong. But if He does it, there is Life and Spirit. So I know it will bear fruit that abides for the sake of the Kingdom.
May the grace of our dear Lord Jesus, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest and remain upon you!

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Permalink Reply by R. Evan-Gombach on January 22, 2009 at 12:14pm

The Bible teaches of the tripartite being of man. The indwelling Spirit of God quickens our human spirit to life and dwells there. His dwelling place is not our soul or our body. The soul and the body are susceptible to evil spirits. Either through deception or sin.(1 Cor. 5:5) Sin is always ground for evil spirits. For example, if the tongue lends itself to slander or foul language, it lends itself to sin; and becomes liable to possession.
There are several accounts in the New Testament and many in church history that show believers being possessed by evil spirits. But also delivered. It is a matter of facing up to and getting through it. For example, the Bible says that whosoever believes in the only begotten Son of God is saved. Therefore, they are born of the Spirit and indwelt by Him in their spirit. A believer who actually followed the Apostle Paul was even susceptible and the Apostle cast it out and she became a very strong follower walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. So important of a case that the Holy Spirit Himself included it in the Holy Scriptures. Another account was when God revealed through Peter's spirit that Jesus was the Christ, so soon after did Satan come in with his attack trying to stop the Lord from going to the Cross. Our Lord Himself looked Peter straight in eyes and said, "Get behind me Satan!" and said that his thoughts were toward man and not God. Jesus was not just calling Peter names. He doesn't do that. He was casting out Satan. And those are just a couple cases, but the Bible expressly supports the idea and even shows the way of deliverance of evil spirit possession in Christians. It is a matter of having light from God and having our eyes opened from blindness.
Today there is a special onslaught of deceiving spirits upon the Church of Christ, the fulfillment of the prophecy which the Holy Spirit expressly made known to the Church through the Apostle Paul, that a great deceptive onslaught would take place in the 'later times'. Since the utterance of the prophecy, almost 2000 years have passed by, but the special manifestation of evil spirits today, points unmistakably to the fact that we are at the close of the age.
The peril of the church at the close of this dispensation is foreshown to be especially from the supernatural realm, whence Satan would send forth an army of teaching spirits, to deceive all who would be open to teachings by spiritual revelation, and thus draw them away unwittingly from full allegiance to God.
Through lack of knowledge, the majority of even the most spiritual believers, do not carry out a full and perpetual war upon this army of wicked spirits; and many are shrinking from the subject, and the call to war against them, saying that if Christ is preached it is not necessary to give prominence to the existence of the devil, nor to enter into direct conflict with him, and his hosts. Yet large numbers of the children of God are becoming a prey to the enemy for lack of this knowledge, and through the silence of teachers on this vital truth, the Church of Christ is passing on through the peril of the closing days of the age, unprepared to meet the onslaught of the foe.
On account of this, and in view of the plainly given prophetic warnings in the Scriptures; the already manifest influx of the evil hosts of Satan among the children of God; and many signs that we are actually in the 'later times' referred to by the Apostle; all believers should welcome such knowledge about the powers of darkness, as will enable them to pass through the fiery trial of these days, without being ensnared by the foe.
Apart from such knowledge, when thinking he is 'fighting for truth', it is possible for a believer to fight for, defend, and protect evil spirits, and their works, believing he is thereby 'defending' God, and His works, for if he thinks a thing Divine, he will protect and stand for it. It is possible for a man through ignorance to stand against God and to attack the very truth of God, and also defend the devil, and oppose God, unless he has knowledge.
I had a radical new birth experience, and one of the first deceptions from Satan I suffered thereafter was that I couldn't be deceived. After having known and experienced the Lord Jesus in living and vibrant experience I still got deceived. The Lord shown in light and I went through a 'fighting back' period and actually experienced evil spirits leaving my body. They were not in my spirit. That is where the Holy Spirit dwells and the One who empowered me to cast them out and fight back. Jesus Christ still delivers His people from evil spirits! Praise His Name! I love Him from the uttermost depths of my heart not only for that but for who He is.
I see manifestations of evil spirits all over the place in God's children. The Lord has put it upon me to see and help His people to be delivered. Satan has many counterfeits out there who are even preaching the gospel and are wolves in sheep's clothing. The Lord Himself said in His very own words, "My sheep know my voice, and an imposter they will not follow." I see God's children all over the place following false teachers, false prophets, and even false apostles. I have witnessed it. I have seen true manifestations of the Holy Spirit and I have seen counterfeit manifestations that look real good and sound real good but are not of God but in fact of Satan himself. Satan does have the pwer to counterfeit the Holy Spirit. God gave us an anointing within that will show us and teach us what is of Him and what is not. It is biblical. Read 1 John. It is all throughout the entire Bible and there for us to lay hold of by faith and use. But if someone chooses to deny the truth of the Scripture and refuse the grace of God that He has given us for these things it is not on God but themselves. He has provided all we need to fight back and He expects the Church of Christ to fight back.
Praise God for His abundant grace and mercy!

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Permalink Reply by Rita Cullimore on January 27, 2009 at 5:28am

ML
Very well said.
Rita

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Permalink Reply by Rita Cullimore on January 27, 2009 at 6:20am

I had to go out and find the scripture I wanted to share with you. 2 Corinthians 6:14-16a
The Temple of the Living God
14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial?2 Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (2 Co 6:14-16). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
By the very meanings of the words "oppressed" and "possessed", we cannot as born again Christians, be possessed. We can however be oppressed. Oppression, by it's meaning is a force from without. Possession is from within. The above verses tell me that Holy Spirit will not share the same space with a demon or Satan and he is at home indwelling us. In the reference to Peter, we need to remember that Christ was still walking on the earth at the time this occurred, and also, Peter was probably more oppressed than possessed.
Thanks for listening.
A sister in Christ,
Rita

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Permalink Reply by R. Evan-Gombach on January 27, 2009 at 4:44pm

I happen to be a believer who had a radical new birth experience. Afterwards I got deceived by an "Angel of Light" which was a counterfeit. I thought it was the presence of the Lord and acted accordingly through my ignorance. There is a lot more to this but in short, Jesus Christ shined in and brought me to deliverance. I had actually felt the demons in my muscles, nerves twitching, and pressure in my head while being delivered. They were not in where the Holy Spirit dwells which is our spirit. God said, "this oil shall not be poured on man's flesh". The Holy Spirit is that oil. The Holy Spirit will not dwell in "the flesh". Our mind, will, and emotions are what makes up our soul. When one is born again, the Holy Spirit indwells his human spirit. Not the soul or body. The human spirit is the innermost sanctuary of the temple. The same as the tabernacle in the Bible. The very presence of God was in the Holy of Holies which was the innermost sanctuary. The Holy Spirit from within our spirit will start to co-work in agreement with our spirit in reigning over our soul and our body. This is why we have to die to our own understanding, human wisdom, and human reasoning. That is all flesh. And even our human strength. We not only have to die to all our fleshly bad but also all of our fleshly good. True deliverance from sin, Satan, the flesh, and worldly pleasures can only happen by allow the power of the dieing of our dear Lord Jesus to put them to death in our actual experience. Anything that belongs to the "old creation" that we have not allowed to be put to death is ground for evil spirits. Whether we give ground through sin, the flesh, or erroneous thoughts. Anything of the "old creation" that the believer retains is not safe. God makes provision for all that to be dealt with and either through lack of knowledge or pride a believer can be deceived. Sometimes even the most surrendered believers as I was. But through my ignorance and deception from Satan I believed that I couldn't be deceived. That was the first deception. Then having known the manifestations of the Holy Spirit the enemy came in to counterfeit those as well in which I accepted them as being from God in which they were not. By accepting those as being from God I also gave ground to evil spirits. Not discerning whether someone is preaching according to human wisdom or in the power of the Holy Spirit is also ground for deception. No evil spirit ever indwelt my spirit where the Holy Spirit of God dwells. They could not, for the Holy Spirit will not dwell with them there. He will only dwell in a pure and undefiled place. That is within our new spirit that we receive at regeneration. Nevertheless, I testify that the Lord Jesus Christ still delivers his people from evil spirits today! I love and praise Him for that. Holiness, power, wisdom and might be unto the Lord of Glory!
The Bible clearly gives the way to take back all ground from the enemy. That is the way of the Cross. The way of the cross is not a one time thing. It is just as the Lord said, "He who does not take up his cross daily and follow me, cannot be my disciple." He also said, "He who does not lose his soul-life for my sake cannot be my disciple." That means all of our fleshly wisdom, human reasoning, human intellect, all that is of the flesh we lose. Those are the grounds in which the Lord will work to protect us from evil spirits and give us victory over sin, self, the flesh, and worldly pleasures. We have to stay in the bounds of which the Lord works. He will not violate our own free will and if we do not use our volition to seek victory over these things then we are not protected. It does not mean that we are not saved. The Holy Spirit shall abide with our spirit forever. But we will suffer great loss if we do not actively seek to be rid of all that is not of Him.
I have seen and the Lord bearing witness in my spirit a lot of manifestations in believers that were supernatural but not of God. Those are manifestations of evil spirits in their soul or body. They are not manifestations coming from within their spirit where the Holy Spirit dwells. The Holy Spirit in our spirit bears witness with our spirit when that happens. And what the Spirit teaches is the truth. And I have also seen manifestations of the Holy Spirit that are real and true and of God.
I know your concern. I have been through it. It is first a fearful thing to think that we can have an evil spirit and Satan's first tactic is to make us deny it and think that we can't. You have the Holy Spirit of God in your spirit if you are born again and the enemy will do whatever he can to keep that power from being released because he knows how much damage a truly crucified Christian who is functioning in the power of Christ's resurrection can do against the powers of darkness. This is the ascended life where it is our experience that we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies. That is where the real warfare is. Satan does not want God's children to experience that and will go to all lengths to prevent it. Including working through other Christians or whatever to come up against the Christian who is on the path to the "Overcoming Life" where the true power of God is released. This is the reason we see so much lack in power, feebleness, and failure in Christianity today. And so many speaking out in the plausible words of man's wisdom which only hurts the testimony of God's Son who entered into this world and took on human flesh to redeem His creation. If we are to preach Christ and Him crucified then why do we hear so much of this? The Bible speaks of them as enemies of the cross who give people a false sense of security and preach peace, peace...where there is no peace. They preach and say that Jesus died for your sins and lead you around the cross a thousand times but never lead you to the cross for your co-crucifixion with Him to be made yours in living and vibrant experince so you can know Christ and the power of His resurrection. It is because of that onslaught of evil spirits who have Christians deceived. Rather than pick up the cross that gives us victory over sin, the self-life, Satan and worldly pleasures that Christ desires to give us victory over in living and vibrant experience and to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, we would rather say that those things are not a problem so we can live for our own pleasures. Not in the fulness of Christ. God has so much more for His children than what we see going on in our day.
So the message is good news! God has much more for His children that He wants to give them than what we see in the church of our day. It is a matter of whether one wants to stretch themselves out before God and ask Him. And if it is true, what would He do about it. I personally think that Jesus Christ is much more than what I hear these people preaching. I hear a lot of people preaching themselves and not Christ and Him crucified and all that His finished work should mean to us in our living experience. God is much more. He is higher. He is holier. He is more mighty. He is bigger. He wants us to have victory. He wants us to come unto the fulness of Christ.

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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on January 27, 2009 at 8:35pm

Greetings,

I have a comment and a couple of questions. I have no doubt that you feel strongly about what you believe and trust in the experience you have gone through and are drawing from what you have witnessed happening in others. I have been around some and seen many odd things, some of which are difficult to explain. I always go back to the Word.

Q1: What New Testament Scripture supports your belief that a "believer" can be indwelt by a demon at any level of the tripartite being of man?
Q2: What do you mean by co-crucifixion?

Thanks,
LT

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Permalink Reply by R. Evan-Gombach on January 28, 2009 at 12:37am

Hi LT!
Great questions! I'll answer them one at a time for the sake of time and space. The crucified life is that in which we allow the Holy Spirit to make the objective truth our subjective experience. All victory was attained by Christ on the Cross at Calvary, as you know, the fact that we were put in Christ 2000 years ago and were crucified with Him needs to be made our subjective experience. That is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, He makes real to us today what Christ did 2000 years ago and closes the gap of time. Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live but Christ liveth in me." He said that because that was his experience. He didn't get it by self-effort but by knowing and reckoning and laying hold of something by faith. Christ won the victory over sin, the self-life, Satan, and worldly pleasures. Paul explained how he no longer walked according to his human reasoning and intellect but how Christ was made unto him wisdom and righteousness and sanctification. I'm not talking about sinless perfection because there are many things that we do not know are sin that the Holy Spirit will point out as we walk in the way of the Cross. The Apostle also told the believers in Rome, "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be anulled, that we might not serve sin." Here we see a threefold action of how sin works. We have three distinct elements which are: Sin, the old man, and the body of sin. So those three elments go in this order when we sin. Sin tells the old man that he wants to and the old man tranfers that temptation to the body of sin and the body of sin carries it out. I have seen different schools of thought in the church. Some that try to eradicate the body of sin, which is really asceticism, such as, I'll deny my body this or I'll stay out of that situation or whatever. The whole do not touch, do not taste theory. That does nothing against the flesh. And the other that tries to eradicate the root of sin, which is the compelling principal of our sin nature. We see here that God deals with sin and gives us victory in neither of those ways. He doesn't eradicate sin or the body of sin. He takes away the middle man. The old man was crucified with Him. Sin has no middle man to work through to get to the body of sin. The self-life works in the same way. When we are first born again we are very zealous and eager to learn and serve God. But in reality we haven't really learned how to not use our own reasoning and human strength to do it so we end up serving Him according to the flesh. We try to perfect ourselves with the flesh. God has to do a deeper work in us and show us how much of that is done by ourselves without Him. Three things that He must deal with us on are fleshly wisdom, human effort, and self-glory. Eventually we will give ourselves over to death and the Holy Spirit applies the power of the dieing of our dear Lord Jesus to our self-life, or our natural life. In the original is psuche or soul-life. That is why the Lord Jesus said, "He who loves his life(psuche) will lose it, and he who hates his life will save it unto life(zoe) eternal." Which means Divine life. So by delivering our natural or soul-life over to death, we can then experience the power of the resurrection of our dear Lord Jesus. That is where the power of the Holy Spirit comes in for service. We see the counterfeit of Holy Spirit power all over the place in false signs and wonders which the Lord Himself warned us about in the last days that would deceive even the elect. But all that was not obtained in true resurrection power is Satan's way of causing a believer to think he has Holy Spirit power before he actually knows the resurrection power of Christ. As one who was involved in the Charismatic movement and experienced the gifts. I had learned that all those are not of God and caused me to test the spirits. The Lord taught me what was going on and that all that is received supernatural on the wrong side of the cross is not of Him. I know that movement started out as a true work of God and I don't think for a minute that our dear brothers and sisters in the Charismatic movement are not true Christians. But by not crucifying the self-life we open ourselves up to things that are not of God.
I'll write another letter after this on the wiles of the enemy who seeks to prevent the Christian from coming into this experience. But this is just a little summary of what I mean by co-crucifixion. You could put it like this, an objective truth made our subjective experience by the Holy Spirit. Everything that we hold as true can and should be made ours in living and vibrant experience.
Here is a little excerpt by our dear brother Andrew Murray from a book called "Absolute Surrender" that gives a pretty good account of what we mean by co-crucifixion:

"And Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Ben-hadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine and all that I have" (1 Ki. 20:1-4).

What Ben Hadad asked was absolute surrender; and what Ahab gave was what was asked of him - absolute surrender. I want to use these words: "My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have," as the words of absolute surrender with which every child of God ought to yield himself to his Father. We have heard it before, but we need to hear it very definitely - the condition of God's blessing is absolute surrender of all into His hands. Praise God! If our hearts are willing for that, there is no end to what God will do for us, and to the blessing God will bestow.Absolute surrender - let me tell you where I got those words. I used them myself often, and you have heard them numberless times. But in Scotland once I was in a company where we were talking about the condition of Christ's Church, and what the great need of the Church and of believers is; and there was in our company a godly worker who has much to do in training workers, and I asked him what he would say was the great need of the Church, and the message that ought to be preached. He answered very quietly and simply and determinedly:"Absolute surrender to God is the one thing."The words struck me as never before. And that man began to tell how, in the workers with whom he had to deal, he finds that if they are sound on that point, even though they be backward, they are willing to be taught and helped, and they always improve; whereas others who are not sound there very often go back and leave the work. The condition for obtaining God's full blessing is absolute surrender to Him.And now, I desire by God's grace to give to you this message - that your God in Heaven answers the prayers which you have offered for blessing on yourselves and for blessing on those around you by this one demand: Are you willing to surrender yourselves absolutely into His hands? What is our answer to be? God knows there are hundreds of hearts who have said it, and there are hundreds more who long to say it but hardly dare to do so. And there are hearts who have said it, but who have yet miserably failed, and who feel themselves condemned because they did not find the secret of the power to live that life. May God have a word for all!Let me say, first of all, that God claims it from us.God Expects Your SurrenderYes, it has its foundation in the very nature of God. God cannot do otherwise. Who is God? He is the Fountain of life, the only Source of existence and power and goodness, and throughout the universe there is nothing good but what God works. God has created the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the flowers, and the trees, and the grass; and are they not all absolutely surrendered to God? Do they not allow God to work in them just what He pleases? When God clothes the lily with its beauty, is it not yielded up, surrendered, given over to God as He works in it its beauty? And God's redeemed children, oh, can you think that God can work His work if there is only half or a part of them surrendered? God cannot do it. God is life, and love, and blessing, and power, and infinite beauty, and God delights to communicate Himself to every child who is prepared to receive Him; but ah! this one lack of absolute surrender is just the thing that hinders God. And now He comes, and as God, He claims it.You know in daily life what absolute surrender is. You know that everything has to be given up to its special, definite object and service. I have a pen in my pocket, and that pen is absolutely surrendered to the one work of writing, and that pen must be absolutely surrendered to my hand if I am to write properly with it. If another holds it partly, I cannot write properly. This coat is absolutely given up to me to, cover my body. This building is entirely given up to religious services. And now, do you expect that in your immortal being, in the divine nature that you have received by regeneration, God can work His work, every day and every hour, unless you are entirely given up to Him? God cannot. The Temple of Solomon was absolutely surrendered to God when it was dedicated to Him. And every one of us is a temple of God, in which God will dwell and work mightily on one condition - absolute surrender to Him. God claims it, God is worthy of it, and without it God cannot work His blessed work in us.God not only claims it, but God will work it Himself.God Accomplishes Your SurrenderI am sure there is many a heart that says: "Ah, but that absolute surrender implies so much!" Someone says: "Oh, I have passed through so much trial and suffering, and there is so much of the self-life still remaining, and I dare not face the entire giving of it up, because I know it will cause so much trouble and agony."Alas! alas! that God's children have such thoughts of Him, such cruel thoughts. Oh, I come to you with a message, fearful and anxious one. God does not ask you to give the perfect surrender in your strength, or by the power of your will; God is willing to work it in you. Do we not read: "It is God that worketh in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13)? And that is what we should seek for - to go on our faces before God, until our hearts learn to believe that the everlasting God Himself will come in to turn out what is wrong, to conquer what is evil, and to work what is well-pleasing in His blessed sight. God Himself will work it in you.Look at the men in the Old Testament, like Abraham. Do you think it was by accident that God found that man, the father of the faithful and the Friend of God, and that it was Abraham himself, apart from God, who had such faith and such obedience and such devotion? You know it is not so. God raised him up and prepared him as an instrument for His glory.Did not God say to Pharaoh: "For this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power" (Ex. 9:16)?And if God said that of him, will not God say it far more of every child of His?Oh, I want to encourage you, and I want you to cast away every fear. Come with that feeble desire; and if there is the fear which says: "Oh, my desire is not strong enough, I am not willing for everything that may come, I do not feel bold enough to say I can conquer everything" - I pray you, learn to know and trust your God now. Say: "My God, I am willing that Thou shouldst make me willing." If there is anything holding you back, or any sacrifice you are afraid of making, come to God now, and prove how gracious your God is, and be not afraid that He will command from you what He will not bestow.God comes and offers to work this absolute surrender in you. All these searchings and hungerings and longings that are in your heart, I tell you they are the drawings of the divine magnet, Christ Jesus. He lived a life of absolute surrender, He has possession of you; He is living in your heart by His Holy Spirit. You have hindered and hindered Him terribly, but He desires to help you to get hold of Him entirely. And He comes and draws you now by His message and words. Will you not come and trust God to work in you that absolute surrender to Himself? Yes, blessed be God, He can do it, and He will do it.God not only claims it and works it, but God accepts it when we bring it to Him.God Accepts Your SurrenderGod works it in the secret of our heart, God urges us by the hidden power of His Holy Spirit to come and speak it out, and we have to bring and to yield to Him that absolute surrender. But remember, when you come and bring God that absolute surrender, it may, as far as your feelings or your consciousness go, be a thing of great imperfection, and you may doubt and hesitate and say:"Is it absolute?"But, oh, remember there was once a man to whom Christ had said:"If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23).And his heart was afraid, and he cried out:"Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24).That was a faith that triumphed over the Devil, and the evil spirit was cast out. And if you come and say: "Lord, I yield myself in absolute surrender to my God," even though it be with a trembling heart and with the consciousness: "I do not feel the power, I do not feel the determination, I do not feel the assurance," it will succeed. Be not afraid, but come just as you are, and even in the midst of your trembling the power of the Holy Spirit will work.Have you never yet learned the lesson that the Holy Spirit works with mighty power, while on the human side everything appears feeble? Look at the Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemane. We read that He, "through the eternal Spirit" (Heb. 9:14), offered Himself a sacrifice unto God. The Almighty Spirit of God was enabling Him to do it. And yet what agony and fear and exceeding sorrow came over Him, and how He prayed! Externally, you can see no sign of the mighty power of the Spirit, but the Spirit of God was there. And even so, while you are feeble and fighting and trembling, in faith in the hidden work of God's Spirit do not fear, but yield yourself.And when you do yield yourself in absolute surrender, let it be in the faith that God does now accept of it. That is the great point, and that is what we so often miss - that believers should be thus occupied with God in this matter of surrender. I pray you, be occupied with God. We want to get help, every one of us, so that in our daily life God shall be clearer to us, God shall have the right place, and be "all in all." And if we are to have that through life, let us begin now and look away from ourselves, and look up to God. Let each believe - while I, a poor worm on earth and a trembling child of God, full of failure and sin and fear, bow here, and no one knows what passes through my heart, and while I in simplicity say, O God, I accept Thy terms; I have pleaded for blessing on myself and others, I have accepted Thy terms of absolute surrender - while your heart says that in deep silence, remember there is a God present that takes note of it, and writes it down in His book, and there is a God present who at that very moment takes possession of you. You may not feel it, you may not realize it, but God takes possession if you will trust Him.God not only claims it, and works it, and accepts it when I bring it, but God maintains it.God Maintains Your SurrenderThat is the great difficulty with many. People say: "I have often been stirred at a meeting, or at a convention, and I have consecrated myself to God, but it has passed away. I know it may last for a week or for a month, but away it fades, and after a time it is all gone."But listen! It is because you do not believe what I am now going to tell you and remind you of. When God has begun the work of absolute surrender in you, and when God has accepted your surrender, then God holds Himself bound to care for it and to keep it. Will you believe that?In this matter of surrender there are two: God and I - I a worm, God the everlasting and omnipotent Jehovah. Worm, will you be afraid to trust yourself to this mighty God now? God is willing. Do you not believe that He can keep you continually, day by day, and moment by moment?Moment by moment I'm kept in His love;Moment by moment I've life from above.If God allows the sun to shine upon you moment by moment, without intermission, will not God let His life shine upon you every moment? And why have you not experienced it? Because you have not trusted God for it, and you do not surrender yourself absolutely to God in that trust.A life of absolute surrender has its difficulties. I do not deny that. Yes, it has something far more than difficulties: it is a life that with men is absolutely impossible. But by the grace of God, by the power of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, it is a life to which we are destined, and a life that is possible for us, praise God! Let us believe that God will maintain it.Some of you have read the words of that aged saint who, on his ninetieth birthday, told of all God's goodness to him - I mean George Muller. What did he say he believed to be the secret of his happiness, and of all the blessing which God had given him? He said he believed there were two reasons. The one was that he had been enabled by grace to maintain a good conscience before God day by day; the other was, that he was a lover of God's Word. Ah, yes, a good conscience is complete obedience to God day by day, and fellowship with God every day in His Word, and prayer - that is a life of absolute surrender.Such a life has two sides - on the one side, absolute surrender to work what God wants you to do; on the other side, to let God work what He wants to do.First, to do what God wants you to do.Give up yourselves absolutely to the will of God. You know something of that will; not enough, far from all. But say absolutely to the Lord God: "By Thy grace I desire to do Thy will in everything, every moment of every day." Say: "Lord God, not a word upon my tongue but for Thy glory, not a movement of my temper but for Thy glory, not an affection of love or hate in my heart but for Thy glory, and according to Thy blessed will."Someone says: "Do you think that possible?"I ask, What has God promised you, and what can God do to fill a vessel absolutely surrendered to Him? Oh, God wants to bless you in a way beyond what you expect. From the beginning, ear hath not heard, neither hath the eye seen, what God hath prepared for them that wait for Him (1 Cor. 2:9). God has prepared unheard-of things, blessings much more wonderful than you can imagine, more mighty than you can conceive. They are divine blessings. Oh, say now:"I give myself absolutely to God, to His will, to do only what God wants."It is God who will enable you to carry out the surrender.And, on the other side, come and say: "I give myself absolutely to God, to let Him work in me to will and to do of His good pleasure, as He has promised to do."Yes, the living God wants to work in His children in a way that we cannot understand, but that God's Word has revealed, and He wants to work in us every moment of the day. God is willing to maintain our life. Only let our absolute surrender be one of simple, childlike, and unbounded trust.God Blesses When You SurrenderThis absolute surrender to God will wonderfully bless.What Ahab said to his enemy, King Ben-hadad - "My lord, O king, according to thy word I am thine, and all that I have" - shall we not say to our God and loving Father? If we do say it, God's blessing will come upon us. God wants us to be separate from the world; we are called to come out from the world that hates God. Come out for God, and say: "Lord, anything for Thee." If you say that with prayer, and speak that into God's ear, He will accept it, and He will teach you what it means.I say again, God will bless you. You have been praying for blessing. But do remember, there must be absolute surrender. At every tea-table you see it. Why is tea poured into that cup? Because it is empty, and given up for the tea. But put ink, or vinegar, or wine into it, and will they pour the tea into the vessel? And can God fill you, can God bless you if you are not absolutely surrendered to Him? He cannot. Let us believe God has wonderful blessings for us, if we will but stand up for God, and say, be it with a trembling will, yet with a believing heart:"O God, I accept Thy demands. I am thine and all that I have. Absolute surrender is what my soul yields to Thee by divine grace."You may not have such strong and clear feelings of deliverances as you would desire to have, but humble yourselves in His sight, and acknowledge that you have grieved the Holy Spirit by your self-will, self-confidence, and self-effort. Bow humbly before him in the confession of that, and ask him to break the heart and to bring you into the dust before Him. Then, as you bow before Him, just accept God's teaching that in your flesh "there dwelleth no good thing" (Rom. 7:18), and that nothing will help you except another life which must come in. You must deny self once for all. Denying self must every moment be the power of your life, and then Christ will come in and take possession of you.When was Peter delivered? When was the change accomplished? The change began with Peter weeping, and the Holy Spirit came down and filled his heart.God the Father loves to give us the power of the Spirit. We have the Spirit of God dwelling within us. We come to God confessing that, and praising God for it, and yet confessing how we have grieved the Spirit. And then we bow our knees to the Father to ask that He would strengthen us with all might by the Spirit in the inner man, and that He would fill us with His mighty power. And as the Spirit reveals Christ to us, Christ comes to live in our hearts forever, and the self-life is cast out.Let us bow before God in humility, and in that humility confess before Him the state of the whole Church. No words can tell the sad state of the Church of Christ on earth. I wish I had words to speak what I sometimes feel about it. Just think of the Christians around you. I do not speak of nominal Christians, or of professing Christians, but I speak of hundreds and thousands of honest, earnest Christians who are not living a life in the power of God or to His glory. So little power, so little devotion or consecration to God, so little perception of the truth that a Christian is a man utterly surrendered to God's will! Oh, we want to confess the sins of God's people around us, and to humble ourselves. We are members of that sickly body, and the sickliness of the body will hinder us, and break us down, unless we come to God, and in confession separate ourselves from partnership with worldliness, with coldness toward each other, unless we give up ourselves to be entirely and wholly for God.How much Christian work is being done in the spirit of the flesh and in the power of self! How much work, day by day, in which human energy - our will and our thoughts about the work - is continually manifested, and in which there is but little of waiting upon God, and upon the power of the Holy Spirit! Let us make confession. But as we confess the state of the Church and the feebleness and sinfulness of work for God among us, let us come back to ourselves. Who is there who truly longs to be delivered from the power of the self-life, who truly acknowledges that it is the power of self and the flesh, and who is willing to cast all at the feet of Christ? There is deliverance.I heard of one who had been an earnest Christian, and who spoke about the "cruel" thought of separation and death. But you do not think that, do you? What are we to think of separation and death? This: death was the path to glory for Christ. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross. The cross was the birthplace of His everlasting glory. Do you love Christ? Do you long to be in Christ, and not like Him? Let death be to you the most desirable thing on earth - death to self, and fellowship with Christ. Separation - do you think it a hard thing to be called to be entirely free from the world, and by that separation to be united to God and His love, by separation to become prepared for living and walking with God every day? Surely one ought to say:"Anything to bring me to separation, to death, for a life of full fellowship with God and Christ."Come and cast this self-life and flesh-life at the feet of Jesus. Then trust Him. Do not worry yourselves with trying to understand all about it, but come in the living faith that Christ will come into you with the power of His death and the power of His life; and then the Holy Spirit will bring the whole Christ - Christ crucified and risen and living in glory - into your heart.

Sorry that's so long LT! I will also put some time into your other question as well.

May the grace of our dear Lord Jesus, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest and remain upon you!

Rich

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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on January 28, 2009 at 6:22am

Hey Rich,

Wow, I wish I was a little more explicit in my question, but thanks for the thorough response. I was not asking about the crucified life, simply making sure that by co-crucifxion that there was no implication of a work required on our part to fulfill Christ's work on the cross. I did not think you believed that way, as I have read most of your postings, but wanted clarity, especially for a newer believer if they had read it.

Andrew Murray is my favorite author and "The Believer's Absolute Surrender" is one of my favorite books. I have read it several times and recommended it many time. Two of my other favorite authors are A.B. Simpson and A.W. Tozer.

Just so you will know where I am coming from:

I believe that one of the main keys to this life is "Surrender." In that surrender our goal is a deepening relationship with God (Father, Son and Spirit) and the power to live the Christ-like life that pleases Him. This empowerment is available to the believer through sanctification, which includes being "filled" with the Holy Spirit. The greatest battlefield that we engage in as a believer is the war within over the mind. I teach and preach absolute surrender, not as a means of salvation, but as the response to our salvation. This surrender is ever expanding as we are ever being enlightened. Somethng new is revealed every day that God wants to work on in us or remove from us. A life long process.

From what I have read through you excellent post, we are in agreement and walking the same path on this issue following the same Lord.

Lord Bless,
LT

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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on January 28, 2009 at 6:23am

BTW, man ... that was long. Your taxing a man's brain at 7 AM :-)

Lord Bless,
LT

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Permalink Reply by R. Evan-Gombach on January 28, 2009 at 2:24pm

Hey LT,
Yes, I believe we are. By the authors that we read I would have to say we're on the same page. I have several A.W. Tozer books and also A.B. Simpson books. I also listen to a lot of A.W. Tozer sermons on sermonindex.net. And there are many others that I read as well such as T. Austin-Sparks, who I feel you would really love, and also Watchman Nee. My friend, Stephen Kaung, in Richmond, Va. just translated a book from Chinese into English that is coming out soon called "Serving in Spirit". They just sent me an email today telling me about it so I'm really excited about it. Actually, Brother Kaung has a lot of good sermons on sermonindex as well. He was a leader in the church of China along side of Watchman Nee. When Brother Nee got arrested he sent Brother Kaung out of the country to carry the testimony of what the Lord had illumined to them to other places.
Anyways, I'll get together some material tonight on Spiritual Warfare. A lot of it is hard to determine just by the letter of Scripture without the witness of the Spirit but you being another "deeper life" Christian I suspect you'll see.
It's rare and nice to meet someone who knows the old "deeper life" teachers. I'm a firm believer in "redigging the wells" and tracing the "footsteps of the flock". Our great American romanticist, Mark Twain once said, "We learn from history that we do not learn from history." I think he had a point that the Lord would have us look at.
Grace and peace to you,
Rich

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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on January 28, 2009 at 2:57pm

Rich,

I look forward to reading your post. I am not really familar with T. Austn-Sparks, but have looked his stuff up on line and will be reading through it.

Lord Bless,
LT

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