PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

THE WAY GOD LEADS BELIEVERS TO KNOW THEIR SELF

The first work of the Holy Spirit in a believer is to bring him to know the self after he is saved. This is so he will, according to God's will, forsake all that is from the self and completely depend on God. But how difficult it is! How unflattering it is to know the self! How unbearable it is to forsake the self! A believer often does not know the self or want to know the self. Because he does not know the self, he thinks the self is reliable; because he does not want to know the self, the Holy Spirit has no way to reveal to him his true character under God's light. Under such circumstances, God has no other way than to use a more painful method to cause a believer to know the self. This method is to deliberately allow him to fail.

Just as the failures in the wilderness caused the children of Israel to realize their self-motives, failures similar to those in the wilderness also cause believers to know the hopelessness of the self. Because believers are self-confident and think that they themselves are competent, able, capable, and perhaps talented in many ways, they lose a heart of complete dependence upon God. Therefore, God allows them to fail in all their affairs and have no true abiding fruit. This makes them realize that they themselves are not reliable....

Brothers, if you do not misunderstand me, I would like to tell you one word: God likes His children to sin more than He likes them to do good. Please do not misunderstand what I mean or deliberately misunderstand my words. I am not persuading you to sin, nor does God want you to sin. However, the believers' self-confidence, self-boasting, self-satisfaction, and every selfish thought, feeling, and act cause God to prefer that they commit sin rather than do good. If they did not sin, they would not know themselves and break away from their pitiful, ludicrous, and detestable self-life.

We must know where God wants us to arrive. We must know out of what and into what we have been saved....The self is the source of all sins and is God's greatest enemy because the self declares independence from God in everything. God considers everything of the self to be utterly filthy, unacceptable, and useless. What is the self? It is all that man has, all that he can do, and all that he has done without seeking God, waiting on God, and depending on God. This is the self and the things that result from the self.

Although God hates the self very much, the believers' view of the self is totally different from God's. They depend on the self, admire the self, and glorify the self. They do not know the true character of the self. They do not know how filthy, corrupt, and weak they are in God's eyes. They do not. have God's view. They still have no self-knowledge, that is, they do not know the self. Under such circumstances, if they have more progress, success, or are continuously victorious, their self-life will become stronger. It will become even more difficult to forsake it. At this point, the more good or righteous work that they perform, the more they will be alienated from God. The more strength they have, the more veils there will be between themselves and the Holy Spirit. The more success they have, the more the self will gain the glory, and the more the detestable self-life will be prolonged. This is why I say that God would rather have the believers commit sins than do good.... God is not bothered by believers committing sin because sinning causes them to know the self and depend on God.

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 1, Vol. 8, pp. 39-46)

APPLICATION

1. Why does God allow His people to be tested and humbled in their daily lives?

2. What is the primary need in a believer after he is saved and why is it so difficult for a believer to realize his need in this regard?

3. Why do we say that God prefers that his children sin rather than do good? Explain this concept with a view to parenting.