◄ Separated From Self – Separated To God ►

That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. That I may know Christ.
Phil.3:10

Testifying Tool

Scripture with it hundreds of promises and prophecies is only a tool.. a tool that Christ Himself used on the Emmaus Road to unveil Himself to the two friends. We read in John chapter 4:39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.

Divine Signpost

Just as faith is the essential key to unlock our hearts to His love, and just as charity is one small part of the whole of the love of God, so prophecy is a mere signpost to point us to incarnate love: Love never fails, but whether there are prophecies, they will be done away..” 1Cor.13:8

Aid to Growth

Scripture from prophecy to poetry, from history to science point to Him, and on that road to Emmaus in Luke 24 we read that: beginning at Moses and all the prophets, Jesus expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” Luke 24:27. But to know Him requires us to set aside all that wants to elevate self. And the more we know Him the more we trust Him – and the more we trust Him, the more we love Him – and the more we grow to love Him the more clearly we see self for what it is

Righteousness of God

Don’t despair – as He breaks your heart to crush your self-life. This is most truly a demonstration of His inestimable love for you. It is through the Spirit’s practical revelation of the sinfulness of self that we gain, the deeper knowledge of the Holiness of Christ. It is at this point that we truly start to count on Him as our life, until we can say with Paul at the end of our earthly toil:

Paul’s Heart Cry

That I may know Christ….. and I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness – which is from the law, but that righteousness which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, until… it is no longer I that live but Christ that lives in me.

Self-Revelation

Miles Stanford, when talking of self in the Green Letters writes the following:- “Self-revelation precedes divine revelation.. that is a principle for both spiritual birth and spiritual growth. The believer who is going through struggle and failure is the Christian who is being carefully and lovingly handled by his Lord in a very personal way. He is being taken through the experience (often years in extent) of self-revelation and into death; the only basis upon which to “know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.”

Lowest Place

Stamford continues by asking: “Is it, Reckon yourself to be weak in reference to sin? No, it is lower than weakness. Is it, Reckon yourself to be dying? No, lower still – reckon yourself to be dead — dead indeed unto sin. Rom.6:11 Some believe they are very weak. But what does that imply? A little weakness implies that they have some strength. But when a man is dead he has no strength. We must act on the fact that we are dead in reference to sin. We shall not then speak of difficulty as to resisting temptation in reference to ourselves. We shall take the lowest place, and say what is impossible with self is possible with God. We shall take our place on the resurrection side of the cross, and in so doing we leave behind the old self-life for the new Christ-life. To live in Him who is our Life, is to be in the power of God.”