TEMPTATION And FAILURE, THE CHALLENGE To FAITH – cont

THE PATH of PROGRESS: RECKONING(The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee - Chapter 4, Part 4)

Now of course in a particular personal matter such as the above it might be quite possible for me to deceive myself as to what God had said, but of the fact of the Cross there can never be any such question.

We must believe God, no matter how convincing Satan’s arguments appear.

A skillful liar lies not only in word but in gesture and deed;

he can as easily pass a bad coin as tell an untruth.

The Devil is a skillful liar, and we cannot expect him to stop at words

in his lying.

He will resort to lying signs and feelings and experiences in his attempts to shake us from our faith in God’s Word.

Let me make it clear that I do not deny the reality of the ‘flesh’.

Indeed we shall have a good deal more to say about this further on in our study.

But I am speaking here of our being moved from a revealed

position in Christ.

As soon as we have accepted our death with Christ as a fact, Satan will do his best to demonstrate convincingly by the evidence of our day-to-day experience that we are not dead at all but very much alive.

So we must choose.

Will we believe Satan’s lie or God’s truth?

Are we going to be governed by appearances or by what God says?

I am Mr. Nee.

I know that I am Mr. Nee.

It is a fact upon which I can confidently count.

It is of course possible that I might lose my memory and forget that I am Mr. Nee, or I might dream that I am some other person.

But whether I feel like it or not, when I am sleeping I am Mr. Nee and when I am awake I am Mr. Nee; when I remember it I am Mr. Nee and when I forget it I am still Mr. Nee.

Now of course, were I to pretend to be someone else, things would

be much more difficult.

If I were to try and pose as Miss K.

I should have to keep saying to myself all the time, ‘You are Miss K.; now be sure to remember that you are Miss K.,’ and despite much reckoning the likelihood would be that when I was off my guard and someone called, ‘Mr. Nee!’ I should be caught out and should answer to my own name.

Fact would triumph over fiction, and all my reckoning would break down

at that crucial moment.

But I am Mr. Nee and therefore I have no difficulty whatever in reckoning myself to be Mr. Nee.

It is a fact which nothing I experience or fail to experience can alter.

So also, whether I feel it or not, I am dead with Christ.

How can I be sure?

Because Christ has died; and since “one died for all, therefore all died”

(2 Cor. 5:14).

Whether my experience proves it or seems to disprove it, the fact remains unchanged.

While I stand upon that fact Satan cannot prevail against me.

Remember that his attack is always upon our ASSURANCE.

If he can get us to DOUBT GOD’s WORD, then his object is secured and he has us in his power;

but if we rest unshaken in the assurance of GOD’s STATED FACT, assured that He cannot do injustice to His work or His Word, then it does not matter what tactics Satan adopts, we can well afford to laugh at him.

If anyone should try to persuade me that I am not Mr. Nee,

I could well afford to do the same.

“We walk by faith, not by appearance” (2 Cor. 5:7, mg).

You probably know the illustration of FACT, FAITH and EXPERIENCE walking along the top of a wall.

FACT walked steadily on, turning neither to right nor left and never looking behind.

FAITH followed and all went well so long as he kept his eyes focused upon FACT;

but as soon as he became concerned about EXPERIENCE and TURNED to SEE HOW he was getting on,

• he lost his balance and tumbled off the wall, and

• poor old EXPERIENCE fell down after him.

All temptation is primarily

• to look within;

• to take our eyes off the Lord and

• to take account of appearances.

FAITH is always MEETING a MOUNTAIN,

• a MOUNTAIN of evidence THAT SEEMS to contradict GOD’s WORD,

• a MOUNTAIN of APPARENT contradiction in the REALM of

TANGIBLE fact—

• of failures in deed,

• as well as in the realm of feeling and suggestion—

and EITHER faith or the mountain has to go.

They cannot both stand.

but the trouble is that many a time the mountain stays and faith goes.

That must not be.

If we RESORT to our SENSES to discover the truth, we shall find SATAN’s LIES are often enough true to our EXPERIENCE;

but if we REFUSE to ACCEPT as binding ANYTHING that CONTRADICTS GOD’s WORD

and MAINTAIN an ATTITUDE of FAITH in HIM ALONE,  we shall find INSTEAD that SATAN’s LIES begin to DISSOLVE and

• that our experience is coming PROGRESSIVELY to TALLY with THAT WORD.

It is our occupation with CHRIST that has this result, for it means that HE becomes PROGRESSIVELY REAL to us on concrete issues.

It is our occupation with CHRIST that has this result, for it means that HE becomes PROGRESSIVELY REAL to us on concrete issues.

In a given situation we see Him as real holiness,

real resurrection life—for us.

What we see in Him objectively now operates in us subjectively—but

really —

• to MANIFEST HIM in US in that situation.

That is the mark of maturity.

That is what Paul means by his words to the Galatians:

“I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you” (4:19).

GALATIANS 4:19 TPT

You are my dear children, but I agonize in spiritual “labor pains” once again,

until the Anointed One will be fully formed in your hearts!

GALATIANS 4:19 ICB

My little children, again I feel pain for you as a mother feels when she gives birth.

I will feel this until you truly become like Christ.

GALATIANS 4:19-20 MSG

Do you know how I feel right now, and will feel until Christ’s life becomes visible in your lives?

Like a mother in the pain of childbirth.

Oh, I keep wishing that I was with you.

Then I wouldn’t be reduced to this blunt, letter-writing language out of sheer frustration.

Faith is ‘substantiating’ God’s facts;

• and faith is always the ‘substantiating’ of eternal fact—of something eternally true.