Death to Self

Nothing is more important and vital to the Christian walk than death to self, and yet few people really search the Lord out for this valuable experience, which can only happen over a period of years ... and with much pain and suffering.

As Madame Jeanne Guyon said:

It is only by a total death to self that we can experience the state of Divine union, and be lost in God.

The scriptures also teach "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Matthew 10:39

We must go beyond the objective and finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, whereby we were buried with Him in death. That must be then embraced in a subjective way, having it worked our practically in our walk with the Lord.

The end of all of this, as in the eternal purpose of God, is that He may be all in all. That requires a deep and devastating work of the cross on our self. We must lose our lives in order to find Him deep within our spirit, where He dwells.

If not, we will live an endless life of frustration and ineffectiveness, or even deception, whereby we believe we're living for God, when in fact we're living from ourselves.

This requires experience, which results in the ability to discern what is of God and what is not of God.

The more you pursue Christ in order to get close to Him, the more of your self you'll have dealt with, as the closer you get to the center of your spirit where Christ dwells, the less of your self can survive.

Remember, the end of the purpose of God is to be all in all. That leaves none of self left.

That doesn't mean we lose our personhood, as in our patience we retain our souls. What it means is we lose our self. Our self lives and being a person are two different things.

The bottom line is we're to be alive unto God in Christ. We no longer live, but Christ lives in us.