582 The Spiritual Man
personal like and dislike. Had the life of self genuinely and
completely been consigned to death, the attitude of the believer
towards every part of the will of God would be exactly the same.
Any disparity in speed, feeling and effort shows a lack of concord in
one’s will towards God’s will.
We may illustrate these two conditions of the will by citing Lot’s
wife, the Israelites, and the prophet Balaam. The departure from
Sodom of the wife of Lot, the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt,
and the blessing of Israel by Balaam can all be regarded as obeying
the will of God. All these were men and women subdued by the
Lord, not following their own opinions; even so, their inward
tendencies were not harmonious with Him; hence every one of them
ended in failure. How frequently the direction of our footsteps is
correct but our secret heart differs with God. And so we ultimately
fall.
The Way to SurmountGod never obeys us. He is pleased with nothing but with our
obeying Him, that is, obeying his will. However noble, grand and
indispensable a thing may be, it cannot be substituted for His will.
What He desires us to do is His will. He does it Himself and requires
us to do the same. From His view He sees nothing except corruption
wherever man’s self is present. If acts are performed under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit they are good and profitable; but if the
same acts are performed by man alone their value is greatly
diminished. Consequently the cardinal point is not man’s intention
nor the nature of the thing, but purely the will of God. This is the first
point to keep in mind.
Let us next inquire how man’s will can be attuned to God’s. How
can man effect the transfer from having self-will as his center to
having the will of God as his center? It all hinges on the natural life.
The measure of our being unshackled from the control of the soul life