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Self Crucified, February 12
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith
of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
.
Candidly and seriously we are to consider the question, Have we hum-
bled ourselves before God, that the Holy Spirit may work through us with
transforming power? As children of God, it is our privilege to be worked by
His Spirit. When self is crucified, the Holy Spirit takes the brokenhearted
ones, and makes them vessels unto honor. They are in His hands as clay in
the hands of the potter. Jesus Christ will make such men and women superior
in mental, physical, and moral power. The graces of the Spirit will give
solidity to the character. They will exert an influence for good because Christ
is abiding in the soul.
Unless this converting power shall go through our churches, unless the
revival of the Spirit of God shall come, all their profession will never make
the members of the church Christians. There are sinners in Zion who need
to repent of sins that have been cherished as precious treasures. Until these
sins are seen, and thrust from the soul, until every faulty, unlovely trait
of character is transformed by the Spirit’s influence, God cannot manifest
Himself in power. There is more hope for the open sinner than for the
professedly righteous who are not pure, holy, and undefiled....
Who is willing to take himself in hand? Who is willing to lay his finger
upon his cherished idols of sin, and allow Christ to purify the temple by
casting out the buyers and sellers? Who is prepared to allow Jesus to enter the
soul and cleanse it from everything that tarnishes or corrupts? The standard
is “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”
(
Matthew 5:48
). God calls upon men and women to empty their hearts of
self. Then His Spirit can find unobstructed entrance. Stop trying to do the
work yourself. Ask God to work in and through you until the words of the
apostle become yours, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”—
Manuscript
Releases 1:366, 367
.
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