The Believer’s Mistake 601
he must be countered with light. Let us learn by heart that the
principle governing the working of the Holy Spirit and that of the
evil spirit are diametrically opposite. Let us also remember that each
operates according to his respective principle. Although the evil
spirits are skillful in a variety of camouflages, their working principle
remains the same. By examining the inward principles we are able to
differentiate what is of the Holy Spirit from what is of the evil spirit,
for each invariably acts in accordance with his particular principle.
Let us now consider in some detail a number of erroneous
conceptions which Christians more than not commonly hold.
A Mistaken Notion Concerning Co-Death with ChristThe conditions for passivity in a believer may come about through
a wrong interpretation concerning the truth of “death with Christ.”
Paul says that “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I
who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me” (Gal. 2.20). Some misconstrue this to connote self-
effacement. What they deem to be the summit of spiritual life is “a
loss of personality, an absence of volition and self control, and the
passive letting-go of the ‘I myself’ into a condition of machine-like,
mechanical, automatic ‘obedience’.” (Penn-Lewis, WOTS, 86)∗ They
thereafter must harbor no feelings; they should instead renounce all
consciousness of personal wishes, interests and tastes. They must aim
at self-annihilation, reducing themselves to corpses. Their personality
must be totally eclipsed. They misapprehend the command of God to
mean a demand for their self-effacement, self-renunciation and self-
annihilation so they may no longer be aware of themselves or their
needs but may be conscious only of the movement and operation of
∗See previous Chapter for full bibliographical citation.