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January 6, 2023

Constrained by God's Love to Grow

2 Cor. 5:14 For the love of Christ constrains us because we have judged this, that One died for all, therefore all died; (15) And He died for all that those who live may no longer live to themselves but to Him who died for them and has been raised.

How can these things [things which usurp the place of God] be dropped? Simply put, the love of God first operates within a saved person. When this person is constrained by God's love, his heart turns towards God, and the Spirit of God is then given a chance to work and operate within him. When this happens, he is enlightened and sees something. Once he sees something, the Holy Spirit intensifies His work. The believer will obey the Spirit, and something will drop from him. One day God's love will inexplicably constrain you, and your heart will be turned to God, and you will say, "O God, I love You." When this happens, the Holy Spirit enlightens you. Once the Holy Spirit enlightens you, something is seen. Once you see something, the Holy Spirit intensifies His work, and you will immediately obey and say amen. This obedience results in something falling off. The degree to which things fall off will be the degree of your spiritual progress. The Lord said to the disciples, "Everyone of you who does not forsake all his own possessions cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:33). Some people forsake all things, only to pick them up again shortly. When the Lord Jesus spoke of forsaking all, He meant for it to be accomplished by the Spirit in us. Consequently, the work of the cross can only be executed by the Holy Spirit in us, and only then will things drop off. How does the Holy Spirit execute the work of the cross? As long as our heart is open towards the Lord, the Spirit will execute the work of the cross in us. On the cross the Lord Jesus stripped away everything for us already. Now the execution of this stripping work by the Holy Spirit is based on the degree to which our heart is turned towards God. We must reiterate that spiritual progress on the positive side is the increase of the element of God, and on the negative side it is the decrease of things usurping God's place. The extent of this decrease depends on the degree to which our heart is turned towards God. How we wish that something would be removed from us daily! This is dying daily. Whenever we do not find anything dropping off, our progress has stopped.

Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Watchman Nee, General Messages, Vol. 37, The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, pp.144-145. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].

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CWWN - vol. 36 (Central Messages)