PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

Knowing the Self

With this issue of Parenthood, we begin a study of the intrinsic nature of the self. To effectively carry out our divine commission as Christian parents, we must know the self. We are using some excerpts from Watchman Nee's Collected Works, published by Living Stream Ministry.

We have often pointed out in this monthly publication that our goal is not to equip parents with the knowledge and tools to become experts in raising children. We are laboring to assist the parents to realize that they are not volunteers to produce and rear children who will bring honor to them as parents. We affirm that every Christian parent is appointed by God Himself to carry out a divine stewardship to beget, nourish, and train children who will become a part of His eternal purpose. Some may find it difficult to discern and understand the difference. What we mean is that we must not do things our way and ask God to bless us. We must learn to depend on the Spirit of God in our spirit to live in us in all we do and say. The apostle Paul pointed out that the real circumcision of God are those who "serve by the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:2). Many of us may still depend entirely on the self.

At the heart of the eternal plan of God is His intention to join Himself to and mingle with His creation-blending with men who are elect, chosen, redeemed, regenerated, and eventually transformed into (2 Corinthians 3:18) and conformed to His image, and glorified in His Person (Romans 8:29-30). For this divine purpose to be fulfilled, we must become completely dependent on God, arriving at the intrinsic realization that apart from Him, we can do nothing so that we learn to abide in Him and allow Him to abide in us (John 15:4-7). But there is a huge problem-fallen man has become independent of God and does not sense his real condition before God. Hence, we are full of "self-confidence, self-boasting, self-satisfaction, and every selfish thought, feeling, and act."

Our role as parents does not depend on our good ideas or great efforts. In order that we may be delivered from our self-motives and actions, God allows us as regenerated human beings to repeatedly fail that self may be thoroughly exposed and we might learn to trust absolutely in Him.

And you shall remember all the way that Jehovah your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness in order to humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
Deuteronomy 8:2

If we want to understand the reason for this Scripture, we must go back to see the promise made by the children of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai. When God appeared on Mount Sinai, He said, "If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people" (Exodus 19:5). Immediately after hearing this word, without any objection, the children of Israel "answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do" (v. 8). How straight forward this was! The children of Israel thought that because God had saved them, led them, supplied them, and protected them to such an extent, they would absolutely obey whatever He might require of them and whatever word of command He might speak to them. So when God asked if they would obey His word, they all "answered together" and said they were most willing.

THE VALUE OF TESTING

But what your mouth speaks and promises is not necessarily what your hands do or the way your feet walk. God must test you in practical matters to see if you really desire Him and His will. Although in your heart you think and also feel that you are completely willing to obey God's word, your flesh is nevertheless corrupt, and what you feel and think is hardly reliable. God must test you to see if you will really obey His commandment or not. Moses told us that God wanted to test the children of Israel, that is, to test what was in their heart, whether or not they would keep His commandments as they had promised on Mount Sinai. For this reason, God humbled them and tested them in the wilderness for forty years. Such humbling and testing were not to depress their spirit, but simply to expose their true condition.

Have we ever considered that the experience of the Israelites in the wilderness is also what we as God's children must pass through? If there had not been the humbling and testing in the wilderness as well as the failure and rebellion that resulted, who would have known that the children of Israel were so exceedingly corrupt? If we only saw the fervent promises made at Mount Sinai, would we not have considered that they were the most obedient and law-abiding people? However, those who promised with swearing at Mount Sinai are the very ones who, worshipped the golden calf, murmured and lusted in the wilderness, and were unwilling to enter into Canaan. It was after so many failures that the children of Israel realized how corrupt they were nothing worth boasting of in their flesh.

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