Simple Yet Profound

Today’s Bottom Line: A Christian’s life is predicated on the choice that they make about the nature permitted to have dominion. The nature of the flesh that we are born with or the one which comes from the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit. While many Christians understand that the flesh has an evil side to it they do not realize that it also contains a good side. Because of this, only their evil is given to God the so-called good remains within them for they do not understand that God commands death to all of our fleshly nature. A command which comes for He knows that permitting any part of it to remain even that which is good will prevent the Spirit from returning to its rightful place in our lives.

The Rest of the Blogcast

I have been reading “The Spiritual Man” by Watchman Nee since last September and shamefully admit that I am only one-fifth of the way through it. Considering that I can read through a fan-fiction with a word count of Three-Hundred-Thousand in a few short weeks makes me feel like I am slacking off. In my defense, the book is thorough and something you can’t breeze through without feeling like you missed something. When I first had this blogcast listed in my plans I had labeled it as “Make a choice, Serve the Spirit or Serve the Flesh” but I felt God leading me to give it the current title of “Simple but Profound.”

Watchman Nee in his book uses simple sentences to explain profound principles in his book. If you read the post “Prayer and Fasting Part 1” you will see that I talk about it for a short bit in there so this isn’t some “new” book to the blogcasts. I am most likely going to be referencing it here and there as I go along through the book and part of me feels like I need to read through it one more time after I finish it the first time before I can give a proper review on it. However, the most recent chapters I’ve read are dealing with the topic I mentioned in the bottom line of this blogcast. The need to execute the judgment of death on our fleshly nature.

In these more recent chapters of what I’ve read so far, I might make some progress from the time of this blogcast going live and now as I write it on February 27th, Nee has been looking at the Galatian church to make his point. Using them as an example of Christians who first started in the power of the Holy Spirit and obedience to God but then quit doing so. He points to Galatians 3:3 as the reason for this which asks them why are they trying to do by the power of the flesh what was started by the Spirit. 

On a separate note, the book of Galatians is only 6 chapters long and you can read one per day to digest it internally and complete it in less than a week. This is great if you are doing a weekly Bible study with one week dedicated to each chapter. By doing this you will have the full book on your mind for context as you cover the individual chapters. Currently, my fiancé and I are doing two or three chapters of Job per week and that book is 42 chapters long so we are going to be there for maybe 10 weeks if we don’t have life events, like sickness, that require us to put off our meeting that week. This is just my shameless way of saying I highly encourage you to read the Bible on your own. The true worst thing that can happen is instead of wasting your time with one worthless thing you spend it on something that will benefit you later in life. Now let us return to our main subject for today. 

One of Nee’s many insights from this book is that our flesh is not incapable of doing good but that it is different from when we do good under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I think John Bevere did something similar with his book “Good or God” I haven’t read that book so I can’t say for certain but I do think it is good to see that truths like that haven’t been forgotten. Nee is saying in my current section, Volume 1 Part 2 Chapter 5, that the believer needs to have an attitude of hatred for their flesh. He is not talking about our bodies. He is talking about the nature that we are born with. The reason for the hatred being needed is that it is our flesh that is sinful and in rebellion against God. Should we only surrender the obviously sinful part then the so-called “good” part will lead to a return of the sinful part. And thus we are once again made slaves to our flesh and to sin. When we are made Christians we are not meant to remain slaves to those things in our lives. We may have a remaining desire for them but we are not to indulge them. The power to overcome and put to death these things comes by acknowledging the work of Christ on the cross. 

One point that Nee makes is that the event of the cross is a fact. By becoming a Christian your flesh has been crucified and it cannot go any deeper than that but as an experience where the fact comes alive manifesting itself in how you live can continue to grow. He even ventures to ask the question of what would happen if more Christians let the simple fact that the Holy Spirit dwells within them truly sink in. 

Galatians chapter 5:16-17 addresses the fact that the flesh and the spirit are contrary natures. If you are reading this and feel like it’s similar to what is written in Romans 7 and 8 then you are not wrong, for both of these letters were written by Paul. As I write this I am beginning to wonder if God had Paul say the same thing in so many different ways so that we the church would have a greater understanding of certain subjects like this one.

In Galatians 5:7-9 Paul says “You were running so well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” The issue that the Galatian church had was that they had started out with the gospel and even received Holy Spirit’s baptism but had later been tricked into believing that salvation was earned through obeying the Mosaic Law. Romans ties into this because Paul explained to the church there that the purpose of the law was to simply reveal sin and the need for someone who could do what we ourselves could not do. In Romans, he goes on to explain that this is the reason Jesus was sent. To be the one who was able to be in the likeness of sinful flesh and thus through Him put it to death so that the Spirit could bring resurrection and new life. 

Our flesh is deceitful and will attempt to trick us into thinking that we don’t have any need for God, obeying His commands, or even operating in His power. Making us believe that our own “goodness” is enough. When that attitude, one which closely resembles the Pharisees, establishes itself it hinders us from being led by God and understanding Him properly through the building of pride. It is here the door becomes open for sin to walk right back into our lives and take over again. Something which ought not to happen in the Christian life. We may stumble but it is not meant to take over and bring us back into bondage. 

At the start of “The Spiritual Man” Watchman Nee points out that there are many who say they are Christian but don’t have the fruit of the spirit that comes from His growing in our lives. It’s in those chapters that Nee established that there is something missing from a life that isn’t victorious over sin. And throughout the rest of this book, he has been working to establish an understanding of the two natures that fight for control in our lives along with what we need to do to live in victory. I am not finished with the book I think there are a few more volumes left in it before I am finished. Maybe when this blogcast goes live I’ll be two-fifths instead of one-fifth.

Till next time, Courage and Godspeed.