How to Be An Overcomer of Self

All of self and none of Thee

1. Introduction.

        My sermon today will be based on this hymn by T. Monod, a French Protestant:

        Oh, the bitter shame and sorrow,

      That a time could ever be,

        When I let the Saviour's pity

        Plead in vain, and proudly answered,

      All of self, and none of Thee.

        Yet He found me: I beheld Him

      Bleeding on the cursed tree;

        Heard Him pray, Forgive them, Father,

        And my wistful heart said faintly,

      Some of self, and some of Thee.

        Day by day His tender mercy,

      Healing, helping, full and free

        Sweet and strong, and ah! so patient,

        Brought me lower while I whispered,

      Less of self, and more of Thee.

        Higher than the highest heavens,

      Deeper than the deepest sea,

        Lord, Thy love at last hath conquered;

        Grant me now my soul's petition,

      None of self, and all of Thee.

        My father introduced this song to us young teenagers, around 1953. The hymn tells me there are 4 stages of spiritual growth: (1) loving my Self totally; (2) loving my Self, though loving the Lord somewhat; (3) loving my Self less, and the Lord more; and (4) loving none of my Self, and all of the Lord. It is oversimplistic to say that every believer has to grow through all 4 stages. Some people have a short cut right into stage 2 or 3 the day they are saved. In fact, people who are saved and still live in stage 1 are unhealthily born, spiritually.

        The application is this: nobody knows which stage you are, but just ask yourself,"Which stage am I at?" Sometimes we think we are at stage 3 or 4, but in a moment of surrender to Self, we turn a deaf ear to the Spirit's still small voice, and we relapse back to stage 1. My goal is to help you advance to a higher stage and stay there, for you will find more joy, more peace, and less conflicts and turmoil there.

        Notice I did not use the word "myself", which is OK, but "my Self". Self is our idol for many years. It rules over you like a slave, against all warnings and pleadings from the other voice, your conscience. The earlier we recognize it as our chief enemy, the earlier you will have victorious Christian life. I was surprised by the famous Norwegian author, J.O. Hallesby, in his book on Prayer, that the main purpose of prayer is to overcome our Self. I was surprised that he did not say the main function of prayer is "to unlatch the storehouse of God's grace and blessings", or "to wrestle with our chief Enemy, Satan".

        2. The tyranny of Self.         We have so many excuses when we sin. When we are selfish, and say unkind words to our family members, we make excuse to our conscience, that "I feel insecure, due to unfair treatment by my parents in my childhood." That is self psycoanalysis all right, it gives my Self a cause to show its fangs and nastiness, but does it absolve us from the fact that I sinned against God and men? Sin is any behavior that come short of the glory of God. In other words, sin is coming short of what Jesus would have done.

        I drove too fast one day. The policeman chased me from behind. I stopped the car, he came to my window, and asked, "I saw you drive over the speed limit. I checked it with radar." The next moment I hear my own mouth blurt out a lie, a denial, then an excuse. I may say that I did not sleep well last night, due to a family problem (i.e., I quarreled with my wife), and now I am on hurry to work. My speedometer is always 5 mph too high. I just had a traffic citation 2 weeks ago. This additional citation today may force my insurance up 100%, and I would be forced to drive without car insurance, thus being forced to break the law, etc. etc. These are good reasons, but do they make me "justified" in the sense of Romans 3? Not at all. The law has been violated. It may perhaps be forgiven by a judge, but it cannot be excused or glossed over. Later on that day I had to wrestle with my guilt for blurting out a lie so readily, even when I have been a Christian for almost 40 years.

        Does my experience sound like some of your experiences too? Paul finally realized in Romans 7 that "through the Law Sin show forth its very hideous wickedness... The Law is good, but I am of the Flesh, which is sold out to Sin... O pitiful wretched soul I am!" Another name for Self is "the Flesh", who is a driver for its master, Sin. One character of Self is its exceeding cunningness to make excuses, quoting Scriptures, until our conscience begins to shut up. If you are asked to drink an alcoholic drink, or take a puff of pot, or look at a sexy scene in a magazine or TV, or to cheat a little, you will find Self doing what it does best in furnishing you 10 Bible principles that justify you doing it. "What is wrong with just taking one drink at a social occasion?" For any objection not to do it, Self would counter with 2 reasons to do it. Human rationalism is so often pitifully shaped by our self will, heralded as "independent thinking". That is why with human reasoning alone, we can make any religion or cult sound logical and self consistent against all criticism. Suppose God says, "What about Eve? She just wanted only one bite from that apple. What is wrong with only 1 bite? She will not become an addict?" We know that bite did get her addicted, not to the apple, but to disobedience to God's voice. When we begin to see that the word of God makes sense, Self would then become tyrannical. He demands you to do it, do it regardless, do it right now. At that point we often succomb. Why? We know not how to pull out our Spiritual resources, our mind is filled with Self's voice, and cannot recall Ephesians' account of the full armour of God. So we fall into sin.

        3. Step 1 to victory -- stand up to Self.

        I had an awful temper when I was young. My parents would discipline me, e.g., shut me up in a room. I would do destructive things in the room, just to antagonize them. Or I would vow to remember the incident for ever, "I will never, never forgive them. I will hate, hate, hate them." Did I really mean it? Rationally, no, but emotionally, yes. Did I try to justify myself? I did not even bother. I just want Self to express all its feelings either through my mouth, my fists, or my mind. I was reinforcing my will to henceforth be more stubborn than ever before. The psychologist today would classify me as a strong-willed child, which is OK, because 75 percent of all children are such. Psychology is all right, but it does not excuse me from guilt. I sinned in my attitude. I sinned in my hate. I sinned in my determination to do worse next time, to be more stubborn, etc. You can find me guilty on 10 other counts.

        Even so, I knew I sinned before God. That knowledge gnawed at my heart. Until one day I understood that Jesus came just to save such a wretch like me, a sinner. I sincerely asked Him to take over my life. I confessed to my mother. I began to diligently read the Word of God every day, and I began to overcome my temper. Sometimes I have to stand up to the face of Self, and say, "Self, I know you will hurt me, but I want to obey God at all cost, come what may." Strangely enough, that stopped him from yelling at my ears. I began to taste victory. Another classmate became Christian for just a year, and at a summer conference he was weeping in prayers for the souls of his parents. I was impressed with his humility in his new Christian life. I confessed my struggle with my pride. He said to me, "Peter, I have had much trouble facing with my pride, to overcome it finally." He was a straight A student.

        Suppose you are, or have become an alcoholic. You may hate yourself, vowed to cut off a piece of your flesh if you ever touch the bottle again. But tomorrow you will turn a deaf ear to your promise today, and fall for the bottle like a dying man. Why? because you listen to Self:

        Self says, "You have too little will power to get out of it. Your father was an alcoholic, you have inherited his genes. It is not your fault."

        Self says, "If you don't drink from now on, your constant physical urge and thirst for the bottle will be a living Hell, yes, a living Hell, slowly strangling you to death, with no end in sight. It is just too painful to imagine it."

        Do you see that these words are Self's intimidations, but Jesus Christ already cut off his power? If you see through it, then tell him on his face, "Yes, I am willing to be foolish to let my body suffer your so called unbearable torture, but I will walk away from the bottle right now." You pray to the Lord Jesus to give you strength right now. Then, surprise! Self stopped his threatening words. You found Peter was telling the truth when he said "Resist the Devil, and he will run away." You will find yourself a victor, if you are willing to pay the high price of sacrificing even your life, and rather have Jesus. So often we are losers because we are not willing to pay the price of sacrifice and pain. In other words, you do not truly want to get off alcoholism.

        4. What happened at Calvary.

        When Paul says in Romans 7, "Thank be to God, I can overcome through Jesus Christ our Lord", what does he mean? He explains to us from Romans 5 through 8, especially Rom. 8, that organically, there has been a change in us when we accept Jesus truly as the new Master of your life, namely, our Old Self is already crucified with Christ. It still has its threats, but it has lost its ultimate strength. That is liberty. Not the individual "liberty" to do whatever you please, with no respect for the word of God, plus every right not to be censured or critiqued by other citizens or institutions such as the Church, which many today think that is what the American constitution means. The Bible talks of liberty from sin, so that we can live a holy life with love and joy, and serving God. So many things happened at Calvary, for your sake, that it takes another sermon, or a whole series of lectures, to expound it.

        5. Step 2 to victory -- consecration.

        Paul continued at Romans 8 and 12, "Just as you did offered your bodily members to wickedness, which yielded acts of wickedness, now offer them as living sacrifices to righteousness, which will bring holiness." This conscious act is called "consecration", which should be done again and again, perhaps everyday. Then Romans 12:2 will be feasible: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by a renewal of the mind, that you may discern what is the good, perfect, and pleasing will of God." You have to be willing to have your mind be transformed and renewed by the Holy Spirit.

        "But", Self objects, "this will change my personality, my uniqueness, and I don't want to lose my unique personality." He means to keep all the obnoxious quirks and evil habits he harbored in your personality over all the years. F.B. Meyer, a young pastor, was impressed by the fiery zeal of two Cambridge grads dedicating themselves to go to China, under the leadership of Hudson Taylor. Their names were Stanley Smith and C.T. Studd. F.B. Meyer was humble enough to come to speak to these young men at the hotel, to find out their secrets. The candle burned to its last inch in the wee hours of the night. F.B. Meyer forget most of what they said, except that they urged him to surrender himself totally to Christ. F.B. felt he had reservations on that. It is too unknown, too risky. Then he saw it was his Self that was not willing. C.T. Studd then said, "Would you be willing to ask God to make you willing?" Reluctantly, F.B. Meyer did, and later on become a preacher and writer most wonderfully blessed by God. What a story! Are you willing for God to change your strong will, and become pliable like clay at the hands of the potter? Did F.B. Meyer lose his personality and become an amorphous, generic, nameless Christian? .....

        6. What about all the past wounds and hurts?

        "By His wounds we are healed." "There is a balm at Gilead." Jesus shed His blood exactly for that. You have to ask Him to give you a new outlook on life and its events from God's standpoint. Remember you are now a beloved child of His. Give Him a chance to nurture your spiritual growth. New flesh and tissues will grow back to cover the wounds, (see Ezekiel 37 on the dry bones).

        Suppose the old temptation comes, and you are triggered to remember all the wrongs that person had done to your life in your childhood, and you are once more tempted to express your temper, anger, hate, bitterness, insecurities, etc., and Self would give you plenty of ammunition for that. You say to Self, "Self, I know Jesus has started the healing process. I shall ask him for more grace this very minute." So you pray for "timely grace", guaranteed to you by the Credit Card which God gave you, (i.e., The Holy Spirit.) Would it work? It certainly will. Hebrews 4:16 guaranteed that. It says "mercy and grace for oportune help", or timely aid. F.B. Meyer found out that it worked. He was speaking to some 800 Sunday School kids one day. They were fidgeting, squirming, many were not listening, started talking, and Mr Meyer felt his anger building up, ready to belch. "But", he thought, "if I get my anger out, it will nullify my sermon, and dishonor God". So he had a problem of dealing with his anger while he was preaching. He immediately dialed up to Jesus, and said, "Lord, I now appropriate from your riches the grace of 'patience'. Please grant it to me now." The prayer was answered instantly, and he found his anger went away. This is not suppression of your anger. I would call it "divine dissipation". How splendid is the grace of God! God's solution is better than the psychoanalyst's solutions.

        Another way to get healed: get involve with people that have need that you can help. For example, help some poor family on welfare, spend 3 hours a week with their kids' homework, take one to the park. Get to listen to the stories of pains and struggle from some immigrant refugee family. Help them get work and education. Once you see that you can meet somebody's need, there is unspeakable joy and satisfaction, seeing that you can bring smiles to some faces. Their hurts and scars are worse than yours, and yet they can live with joy and laughter. So your past hurts become miniscule in comparison.

        Another story I read in Christianity Today. A lady went through tremendous grief, losing a child or a husband, I forgot which. At first she would only ask why? why? why? to God, or get angry. She tried her best to rationalize, studied Romans 8:28 many times, but there was never a completely satisfying answer. By and by the Lord reconfirmed His love and presence to her, just like stanza 3 above. Then she felt Jesus speak to her: "Suppose I don't give you all the answers to you why's, just ask you to put your hands in mine, and we'll walk through life together, is that OK?" Spiritual lessons like that make you grow deep and mellow. This is another way to get healed from a deep wound.

        7. How do I keep from falling back to stage 1?

        Apostle Paul in I Cor. 9:27 says "I keep under (buffet) my body, and bring it to subjection; lest... that I should be a castaway (outcast, disqualified)." Get close to the Lord, through His word, and watch for ways Self creep back at you. Watch you love for the Lord: is it as intense as that day in summer camp when you yielded yourself wholly to Him? If not, what went wrong? Think where it was that you fell. Then get up from there, for God has given you His strength and resources. Watch your pride: are you still tender hearted enough to confess your mistakes, to God, and to men? Watch your daily quiet time. If the Bible turns tasteless, there is sign of trouble.

        You know why the TV preachers fell into sin? Most have tasted so much success in terms of numbers of conversions, that they began to think that their preaching must be better than others, or they must be so favored by God that they can show off a little more confidence. Self was creeping in, and that confidence in the Lord soon became self-confidence, then arrogance, then spiritual negligence, then presumptuousness in dealing with money, then an unrepentent spirit, and finally the open fall. I have seen so many preachers reeking with the stench of arrogance, yet they thought it is "confidence -- the key to success". Success is measured in numbers and dollar signs in America, but not in the Lamb's Book of Life.

        Even a non-Christian like Dzeng-Dzi, a disciple of Confucious, would examine himself 3 times a day with questions such as "Did I practice what I preach? Did I do what I promised others I would do?" If a Christian do not examine ourselves (not psychanalyze) before the Word of God with equal earnestness, how can we expect to see the activities of Self?

How to Identify the Self.

Peter Y. Woo, 7/20/93

        My last sermon hopefully opened your eyes to see your Self: an ugly, nauseating, mean, despotic tyrant. The sooner you recognize this enemy the closer you are towards victorious Christian living. The Bible calls him the Old Man, the flesh.

        1. The character of Self.

        Here is a sumary of some of his characteristics:

        a. He is touchy and raspy, extremely sensitive to feeling hurt. He thinks it is a duty and right to get angry within 2 seconds of being hurt. Jesus felt hurts many times when He was on earth, yet He did not get angry. Think of how it would feel when people were thrusting the big nails through His hands.

        b. He is self-centered. He cares 10 times more for his own feelings, his impression upon others, how others would think of him, etc., than for what is right to do at the moment or what is his duty before God and men.

        c. He is crafty. He employs arguments from any respected source, the Bible, modern psychology, Chinese traditions, etc., to justify his behavior and demands. E.g., "I am bitter because everybody is prejudiced against me." "I am angry because even Jesus got angry." "I am justified to express my emotions, rather than suppressing it." I heard that one secular feminist today is urging women not to behave like nice ladies any more, but "let the bitch out of you". In other words, "let the Self bare out its ugly nature for the world to see." Well, Jesus gives us many recipe's to dissipage, not suppress, our anger, e.g., think of how much of our sins have been forgiven, think of his warnings "hate equals murder", think of the good Samaritan, think of Him being nailed on the cross. Yet Mr. Self will have none of it. He enjoys being angry, and to impress people that he really is angry. He likes to live out the bitch inside him. St. Paul says, "Sin slays me via the Law, showing it really is Sin that does it, and that it is immensely wicked." The "bitch" is really Sin.

        d. He is the source of pride. Even when a person says "I hate myself", Self is still asserting himself. "I hate myself, I am not as pretty or smart as others." Does Self really hate himself? No. He is loving himself. He hates your external appearance, he is frustrated with defeats in life. But of all things, Self is not hating himself. When he says, "my childhood experiences gave me a low self esteem," he is actually voicing an excuse to be unrepentent, presumptuous, and petulant.

        e. He is self-righteous. When you are told you need to humble yourself and confess your sins before God and before men, Self protests with claws and nails. "It is against my consistency during all your past years." "It is against every fiber of my nature." "I am better than most people, except a few faults that everyone has anyway." "I got angry with good reason, every time." Anger usually is prelude to sin. Look at Cain, King Saul, Jonah.

        f. He wants to impress others with your specialties, otherwise he would be jealous of what others have and you haven't. If you have good looks, he would want you to practice your smile to make it more charming, or spend more money on perfumes, clothes, etc. If you don't have good looks Self would tell you that all those who have, are "dumb blondes". He would masquerade self-insistence or manipulation of people around you as "your leadership". Your cockiness he would beautify as "self-assertiveness". Your being bossy, he would qualify as "assertiveness". It may be American to be competitive, and want to be Number One, but in God's sight it is all of the flesh.

        g. Self stinks. Look at the life of Esau, King Saul, Samson. They lived their lives projecting their self-importance on all, but God detests such attitudes. It is the author of many terms such as self-pity, self-pride, self-made man, self-consciousness, self-will, egotism, self-centeredness, self-reward, self-confidence, which makes you feel good if you have it, but repells you if the other guy has it.

        2. What does the Bible say about your Self?

        a. "If any one want to follow Me", says Jesus Christ, "let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me." The Chinese Bible says, "let him give himself away". The very price of discipleship, is to deny, refuse to give in to Self's demands. You cannot annihilate Self. You cannot say he has been nailed to the cross with Christ, and hence exists no more. The Bible does not teach we can exterminate him once for all. Yet it is possible for us to weaken Self, so that his appetite has less and less power on us. John the Baptist was confident enough to say, "He (Christ) must increase, and I (the Self) must decrease." Paul prays in Ephesians 3:16, "May He grant you out of the riches of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in your inner man by the Spirit." This "inner man" is not the old Self, but the new life of Christ. Let it grow, and increase, then the old Self will weaken and decrease. Does the Bible teach that the Flesh can be reformed, and become better and better? No. It is already nailed with Jesus on the Cross. When Romans 12 says "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed in the renewal of your mind", it does not say "the renewal of your Self". Self is beyond redemption or reformation, but the mind can be transformed. It has to be reprogrammed to think according to new laws of physics of the new life. That may take years of efforts and daily devotions, a process known as sanctification, but things that were immovable before are now changeable. Things that Self has been insisting are now removable. Positively, things that were hurting and gloomy are now refilled with the glory and joy of knowing the Lord personally.

        b. When Saul of Tarsus heard the voice of Jesus, whom He had been persecuting with all fervor, he was totally floored. He said, "Lord, what have you for me to do?" See, Saul immediately acknowledged Jesus as his new Master of his personal life. That is what "Lord" means. It took him 3 days to assess the depth of his years of rebellion, and to comprehend the depth of Jesus' forgiveness. What was he doing? He was squaring with his own Self life. His self-pride is all dashed to pieces. His value system has to be totally reexamined and reassessed in the light of the Word of God. Wow! what a change. That was an experience of true repentance. 3 days were not enough for him. Later on he went to Arabia for 3 years of solitude and private Bible study. Paul is not like most of us who raised our hands at an after-meeting invitation, and then the whole church is in a hurry to declare us born-again. No. We are not born again unless we see for the first time that our life under the dynasty of Self is bankrupt and hopelessly stinks before God, and that only Jesus can save us out of it.

        c. Paul says in I Cor. 9:27, "I buffet my body (handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships) and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel, I myself should become unfit (unapproved) and rejected (disqualified)." Paul says the body is where all the lusts of the Flesh lurks. In other words, the body is the home of Mr. Self. Paul will discpline his body, so that Self cannot thrive and destroy Paul's new life before God. Would Paul stay away from social drinking and alcoholic drinks? I think most probably he will, but not because it is sin, but because it feeds the desires of Self to let out his imaginations and fantasies, or to conform with the norms of society in his day. Would Paul look at sensuous pictures of women on the media? I bet he won't, not because it is or is not sin, but because he is determined to live a life that pleases his new Master, instead of feeding the lustful desires of the old Flesh.

        d. I Cor. 2 talks about 3 kinds of people: First is the natural man, who lives totally according to the impulses of the Flesh and its desires. He is an unsaved man, living a life of verse 1 of Alphonse Monod's hymn. Then there is the carnal Christian, who lives like verse 2 of the hymn. He loves the Lord a little, but due to ignorance, he loves his Self still more. He has not learned to let Jesus have the keys to every room in his heart and mind. That is why those folks in Corinth were full of petty pride, petty boastfulness, party spirit, over-tolerance of evil, and quarrelsome. Finally there is the spiritual man, who walks by the Spirit (Gal.5:16). People won't comprehend him, but he sees through all things. As the Self becomes less and less dominant in his life, there will be more and more peace and freedom, due to his daily surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This is the state of verse 4 of the hymn.

        Next time we shall talk about how to tame the Self.

How to Subdue Self (I Cor. 9:27)

Peter Y. Woo, 7/26/93

        Many Christian writings in the past used the term "dealing with Self". I certainly does not mean "coping with" it, for "coping" means "I cannot do much about it, so I have to live with it. I better adjust myself to it, like a mother-in-law." No. "dealing with Self" means "sqaring with it", "confronting it", "breaking it" like breaking a wild bronco, and "liquidate it" in the sense of the Communist system of justice, where he is forced to confess in detail every sin he has committed in the past. There is public humiliation. Our Self is a sneaky slime-ball, that we need to force him to face his sinfulness, and confess every wrong he has done to your life. Hence the term "dealing with" and "squaring with".

        1. Defy him like a strong-willed child.

        Self is like a strong willed child. In fact it is what makes the strong will in each of us. It is part of us, so we cannot kill it. It is different from a strong willed child, whom we should love, but Self we should hate. Yea, hate thy Self, and then love Christ. Jesus says "he who hates his life shall save it." If you hate your wretched state of constant defeat, to the scorn and sneer of the Evil One, you will have hope. For Jesus has given victory as part and parcel of your heavenly heritage, which you can appropriate and avail yourself to, at any time of need.

        What do you do to a strong willed child? You have to break its defiant spirit. Your Self is so defiant, it thinks it is a strong character to dare and defy all authorities, even God's. The only authority he respects is really himself, not any moral or ethical principles set up by men or by God. The American constitution talks of freedom and liberty. The original intent is to free us from domination by human authorities, but today most Americans think it is a license to defy moral and ethical principles, as well as God's laws, which definitely is not the original intent and implications. So how do we break Self's defiance? First by defying his strident voice. You say, "Self, I ain't gonna listen to you any more." Let him get frustrated. That moment in which you choose to submit yourself to Jesus, Self will lose his strength, and Jesus will fill you up with joy and moral strength.

        2. Buffet him.

        Secondly, make rules for yourself. That is called self-discipline. Self hates that word. "Every morning I shall have my devotion time with the Lord, else no breakfast" is a good rule. After practicing it for a week, Self will quiet his protest down to a mutter. Paul does not mean practicing ascetism like the monks, or self-flaggelation like the Philippines Catholics. No, it is rather like hitting a nail right on its head. You have to frustrate Self right at his head: its will and devious intent.

        Suppose Self urges you to take a drink of wine at a social occasion. It will give you plenty of excuses. It may even say you can gain some friends for future witnessing. All these excuses have a devious plot ---- to ruin your self-discipline. How did Satan tempted Eve? By bringing her out of her self-discipline, and to think that God is too strict, too conservative, irrational, authoritative, etc. Wow, what a sinister plot! If you see that plot, then you say, "I am going to overact being a Christian for once. I'll not touch the bottle. I'll lst Jesus take care of my impression upon my friends." Amazingly, Jesus will do it, and give you a wonderful joy and liberation. He wants you to be a liberated man or woman.

        3. I am crucified with Christ.

        Thirdly, learn from Watchman Nee, who in turn learned from Mrs. Jessie Penn-Lewis and Madame Guyon's writings. Madame Guyon lived in the 15th century or so. She communed with the Lord in wonderful closeness, though still being a Catholic. Mrs. Penn-Lewis wrote and preached quite widely, on the subject of mastering the Self life. She shared the same insight on the work of the Holy Spirit as Evans Roberts, a leader of the Welsh revival, and A.J. Gordon, the wonderfully Godly man who founded Gordon-Cornwell Seminary of Boston.

        Watchman Nee reaffirms Galatians 2:19,20 from day to day, and hour to hour. "I (Self) am dead to the Law... I (Self) have been crucified with Christ. It is no more I (Self) that lives in me, but Christ, who loves me, and gave Himself for me." Interpreted, it means "my new life is no more under the jurisdiction of the Law. My Self is mortified with Jesus. It has no more authority over me. No longer is Self living in me, but Christ is, who loves me so very much."

        The fact is, that our Self has been crucified, publicly humiliated and defanged, at the Cross of Christ. Today it keeps its tyranny on you only by intimidation with a big mouth. Watchman Nee lived from hour to hour by reminding himself of the truth against the lie. On the positive side, Paul says Christ loves you so much, even to have died for you. That means Jesus' love for you is so real, so accessible, that you can enjoy His love and security every moment. In fact, you should let Him have complete freedom to reorganize your mental life and redecorate your priorities. That is what it means by letting Christ abide --- live happily --- in you. When we let Jesus have His way, Self begins to lose his voice.

        4. Spirit of suffering and sacrifice.

        Fourthly, have a ready attitude to suffer for Jesus Christ. That is the least thing that we can do for Him who died for you and me. Hebrews 13:3, "Remember those who are in prison, as if you were their fellow prisoner, and those who are ill-treated, since you also are liable to bodily sufferings." Heb. 13:13-16, "Let us then go forth to Him outside the camp (world), bearing the contempt with Him... Do not forget to do kindness, to be generous to the needy..." Think of the tortured Christians at prisons in China today. You want to receive the same Crown of Life as they do? Arm yourself with the same attitude, ready to give up all comforts for Jesus Christ. If you pray for the Christians in China everyday, reminding yourself of their sufferings, you will surely be less likely to pay attention to the demands of your Self. I Peter 4:1 says exactly that, "So, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same thought and purpose. For whoever has suffered in the flesh has (been) done with sin, so that he can no longer spend the rest of his natural life living by human appetites, but for what God wills." So the thought of suffering with Christ will arm us from the attacks of Satan and the temptations of Self, the flesh.

        5. Look into the Mirror.

        Look into the word of God everyday as a mirror. Am I looking more and more like Jesus? I want His beauty. Is my Self raising its ugly head in my temper, in its insistence and demands upon other people, in its self-orientation, self-righteousness, self-pity, self-interest? Am I spending more time thinking of others than thinking of my Self? Do people see me as a very forceful, assertive, insistent person, or as a very Christlike person? I don't mean that being a Christlike person is to be not forceful or assertive. But do people see in me more of Christ than of my forceful or assertive personality? Do people see in me a strong desire to be holy and clean, without blemish, hating evil, yet loving sinners, like Christ? When we have a strong yearning, "O to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art...", we will be out of the domination of Self.

        6. Why are the churches today not preaching this today?

        Frankly, this is a tragic neglect. It was not so even 20 years ago. I remember InterVarsity Press had a book called "the Mastery of Self" by B. Burbridge, Tyndale Press. Jessie Penn-Lewis has a lot of booklets published by the Overcomer Literature Trust, Munster Road, Parkstone, Poole, Dorset, England. Some titles are: "More than Conquerors", "Dying to Live", "The Spiritual Warfare", "The Work of the Holy Spirit", "Opened heavens", "Communion with God", "The Glorious Secret", "Power for service", "Life in the Spirit", "The Cross, the touchstone of faith", "Face to face", "The climax of the risen life", "the Conquest of Canaan", and others. God has used mightily the public preaching ministry of His good servant. Watchman Nee's "the Spiritual Man (3 volumes)", "the Normal Christian Life", etc., are like sequels to Mrs. Penn-Lewis' Bible expositions. Then there are books by A.J.Gordon, F.B.Meyers, Andrew Murray, Oswald Sanders, and others. One can classify these books as books on the Deeper Life, or on Spiritual Victory. Unfortunately the pursuit of victorious Christian life has not been a curriculum on most Seminaries. No wonder many preachers today are intellectually well-fed, yet spiritually mediocre. There are too many sermons and books on how to feel good, positive attitudes to life, self-improvements, or charismatic topics, than solid Bible expositions on victorious, powerful Christian living. It is really alarming that Evangelical churches spend less than 10 percent of their sermons on the blood of Christ and the depth of His salvation. A statistical survey of songbooks such as Maranatha's or John Wimber's would show the same neglect on the Personality and Work of Jesus Christ. It is as if a foreign, superficially "Christian" religion has crept in to replace the crux of the gospel which Paul has so ardently defended in Galatians and Romans. Let us wake up to this sinister plot of replacing solid spiritual food with junk food.

        I remember the years of the 50's in Hong Kong, when through the preachings of men and women against sin and the Flesh, a great revival spreaded from China into Hong Kong. Many young people saw their sins, confessed them to God and men, with many tears, and had their lives wonderfully transformed. When the Holy Spirit really worked, there is no need of so called miracles and healings and other Charismatic "manifestations". We have witnessed a real spiritual revival that lasted till the sixties.