THE KINGDOM AND THE SELF-LIFE – Lorraine Cruikshank
Emphasizing in detail, 1 Peter Chapter 1, has been my experience in many painful trials of my faith, through sufferings. Self suffers when it is being dealt with in the crucible.
Self-life is the culprit. The Lord in His great mercy and love towards me purposed that I “see” my self-life in suffering experiences. The Holy Law stirred up that self-life in me, as it did Paul, who explains the purpose of The Holy Law to reveal self-life.
Paul would not have known his self-life otherwise. He called it “this body of sin and death,” sin singular meaning the sinner or self-life which is a dead-life.
Paul emphasizes it as the “carnal mind,” when he wrote to the Corinthians who were believers but their self-life was ruling them rather than Christ ruling in maturity in their hearts. 1 Corinthians 3:1: “I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly, mere infants in Christ.” Worldly is the self-life.
In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul writes: “My message and my preaching were not with human wisdom but with the Spirit’s power so that your Faith might not rest on human wisdom but on God’s power. We speak a wisdom among the mature. We speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory, God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. This is what we speak, but not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught us by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words, that are understood and spiritually discerned, having the mind of Christ.”
In I Corinthians 1:30: “It is because of God that you are IN Christ Jesus, who has become our Wisdom from God, that is, our Righteousness, Sanctification and Redemption.”
Human wisdom is from self-life.
Paul also emphasized this when he wrote to the Galatians 3:3, “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?”
Human effort is the self-life.
Paul explains in Romans 5:20, the Holy Law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin, [also meaning the sinner or self who commits sins] increased, grace, [meaning Christ who is Grace] increased all the more. He goes on to explain that just as sin reigned in death, [or self-life reigned in death] so also grace, [who is Christ-life] might Reign in Life in us, through His righteous reconciliation to our God.
As Christ increased in me in effectual grace, I was seeing my self-life trying to do right but failing many times. The more I tried, the more I failed, which caused me to cry out to Jesus to deliver me. Self, became more evident. I see that my self-life keeps breaking His Holy Law. This is most painful as it was painful for Paul in Romans 7.
However, by the Lord increasing my faith in growth and understanding, He opened the Scriptures further to me, and I was able to apprehend the truths by Holy Spirit power, thus enabling me to overcome in order to walk by mature faith. Self-life is still in me, but by faith I walk by Christ-life in me, who is greater in me. My spiritual mind is staid upon heavenly things, not on the seen things of earth and its history of events. I am not looking for a physical Jesus nor a physical Jerusalem, but like Abraham a spiritual heavenly New Jerusalem, which has profound spiritual meaning revealed only by Holy Spirit. This was granted to me in a vision when the New Jerusalem came down out of Heaven to dwell with me, and I entered.
Jesus said I am The Way, The Truth, The Life, only through Me can you come to The Father. If we have Christ Jesus in our awakened most inner spirit, we have Holy Spirit revealing Him in us to save our soul, to deliver us from our self-life who sits as ruler in our soul in order for Christ to sit as ruler in our soul.
After we first believe, we are to press on to this goal, by faith increasing through many trials. Each trial gets tougher, as it did for Abraham, until faith is matured in us, and our soul salvation matured. Christ ruling as King sitting on the throne of our soul bringing His Kingdom in us, and delivering us up to our Father in Heaven. This is to be born again to enter the Kingdom.
As Jesus said in John 3:5, “Unless he is born of water and the Spirit;” water immersion is symbolic of the Cross immersion, as in baptized into Christ in His death at the Cross. And by the Spirit in power, who is the glory power of Father who raised Jesus and us to live a new life, Romans 6:4. Seeing this is by revelation and apprehended by faith.
Understanding these things is the Wisdom Paul speaks.
Lorraine Cruikshank
cruikshanklj@gmail.com