Getting A Handle On Self.
Instructing my soul on self.
Bless the Lord, Oh my soul, and all that is with-in me bless His holy name. Who am i talking to? To self? No, but to all that animates my body, for the difference between self and your hidden-man-of-the-heart is location and condition, although they are not completely unrelated. When self is unified, collected, healed, consolidated and drawn home; he becomes your hidden-man-of-the-heart.
When i become fractured, broken, weakened, and distributed throughout your imagination, thoughts, passions, and senses; even if i am partly collected there, i then become your self. The main difference is that self has no hidden-man-of-the-heart experience, reality, or communion, for he dwells out-side of the sanctuary. As the song says, 'Lord prepare me, to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true'.
Being healed, unified, and collected (having pulled your self together); i can 'walk in love, as Christ also hath loved you, and hath given himself for you an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour'. Also i can taste the fruit of the Spirit which 'is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance' and give you something to draw from. And i can bear the Light so you can 'Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven'. 'Let love be without dissimulation'.
Being healed, unified, and collected, i can 'draw nigh to God (for i am where He meets with me), and He will draw nigh to you (my soul). Cleanse your hands, you sinner; and purify your heart (follow your hidden-man within you), you double minded (withdraw from sensual pleasure). Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble your self (withdraw out of flesh) in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up (first inward and then upward!)'. 'Lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset you (withdraw from these), and run with patience the race that is set before you, Looking unto Jesus (who is in your heart) the author and finisher of your faith (from the inside out)'.
'Set your affection (my soul) on things above (first inward then upward), not on things on the earth (through your senses). For you are dead (with Christ), and your life (which has withdrawn) is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory'. 'Mortify therefore your members (for you control these)... But now also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth (for these pollute me - your sanctuary). Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds (which resided in you on the extremities of me); And have put on the new man (from the fabric of your healed hidden man), which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him'.
'Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies (transferred through the soul/body boundary), kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if you have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do you. And above all these things put on charity (from the fabric of your healed hidden-man), which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your heart (up from your hidden-man-of-the-heart) ... Let the word of Christ dwell in you (a living Word in me) richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace (uncreated energy) in your heart to the Lord (first inward, then upward collectively)'.
Being healed, unified, and collected, i can 'work out your salvation with fear and trembling (my soul). For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure ... shine as a light in the world (from the inside out); Holding forth the word of life (which is Jesus in me). 'So then you shall give account of yourself to God. Do not therefore judge anyone any more: but judge yourself, that you put no stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in any-ones way'. ' I speak because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when you were the servant of sin, you were free from righteousness. But now being made free from sin, you are a servant to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life'.
Listen, my soul, 'As i was allowed of God to be put in trust with your good news, even so i speak; not as pleasing you or any man, but God, which tries your whole heart; including me in it. 'And whatsoever i do, i do it heartily (in and from you), as unto the Lord, and not unto you or any man'. 'For do i now persuade you, or God? or do i seek to please you? for if i yet pleased you, i should not first be the servant of Christ'. 'Wherefore i labour, that, whether present or absent, you (and i-in-you) may be accepted of him'.
Remember the days, my soul, when your self was all strung out, restless, and confused? What a difference, now that i am cool, calm, and collected - emanating from with-in the center of you. 'For you used to think your self to be something, when he was nothing, he deceived you. But now i prove your work, and you shall have rejoicing in me alone, and not in another'. 'For i dare not make your self of the number, or compare your self with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise'.
Not wise, for wisdom is not to compare, but to withdraw from comparisons with another, for it either leads to boasting or dejection. 'But let you examine yourself, and so eat of that bread (obedience from the heart), and drink of that cup (believing from the heart). 'Cast out the beam from your own eye; and then shalt you see clearly to cast the mote out of your brother's eye'. As it is written, 'Judge not lest you be judged' and 'For if you would judge yourself, you would not be judged'.
Not only do i not compare you with others, but i do not seek for you the approval of men. "Even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God" - Paul. And Paul again, "Do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men". Neither do i seek to elevate you to be served with servants, "But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister" - Jesus.
You must also work on being a good steward (my soul) over all that is placed in your care. 'As you have received the gift, even so minister the same to another, as a good steward of the manifold grace of God. If you speak, speak as the oracle of God' (not the oracle you read, but as the living oracle you yourself are). 'Account of yourself, as of the minister of Christ, and steward of the mysteries of God'.
'When you are faithful in that which is least you are faithful also in much: and when you are unjust in the least you are unjust also in much. If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? You as a servant cannot serve two masters: for either you will hate the one, and love the other; or else you will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon'. As Bob Dylan wrote, "You got to serve somebody, you got to serve somebody. It might be the Lord, it might be the Devil, but you got to serve somebody".
Here is your worst case scenario in your stewardship, 'You wicked and slothful servant, you knewest that I reap where I sowed not (and so as a servant, i must sow good seed in you, my soul on His behalf), and gather where I have not strawed (He will check if there be a harvest, then the kind and quality): Take the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath (has produced more out of what was given) shall more be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not (has not produced more out of what was given) shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth'.
Tremble, my soul, and wonder; what is the basis of all this? Simply stated, you are not your own, for you not only have a Creator (and therefore owner), but He also has bought you back from your slavery and servitude to sin (and therefore you are double-owned). Any form of denial: naturalism, agnosticism, or atheism; will not hold water in the day when accounts are settled. I just read your rebellious thoughts soul - 'before I would believe that this is the way things are, I would have to have sure proof that He exists'. O.K., then follow through with your thinking now - 'there is the king-pin of His resurrection, and the evidence of intelligent design; and to seal it all, there is the change and inward experience of Jesus in my life'. 'O.K., since I have to serve somebody, it is my great pleasure to serve the Lord'.
Here is an assurance concerning your labor within your stewardship. 'call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work'. 'What? do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's'. And so, my main labor is to help you glorify God.
I will cooperate even more in being healed, unified, collected, and anchored; rather than moving toward the flesh, which is the farther reaches of the soul. In this manner your consciousness will not be reduced again to that blind sense of self. This will keep you from falling short in all those self activities: self-esteeming, self-exalting, self-pitying; as well as just plain old selfishness. Focus rather on serving God and others. 'Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind esteem other better than yourself. Look not only on your own things, but also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who took upon himself the form of a servant'.
'Give none offense but please all men in all things, not seeking your own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved'. 'Seek not your own, but another's wealth'. 'For though i be free from all men, yet have i made myself servant unto all, that i might gain the more'. 'To the weak became i as weak, that i might gain the weak: i am made all things to all men, that i might by all means save some'. 'Please your neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself'.
"Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." - Jesus.
Your new man, which was transformed from your old self; must be all about his Father's business. Once there is inward peace and communion is normal, then all circumstances and relationships should be viewed as God's assigned work. When you accepted Jesus you signed up for His on-going work. 'And that he died for you, that you which live should not henceforth live unto yourself, but unto him which died for you, and rose again'. "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be" - Jesus. And Jesus again, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me".
Your new man, who is at peace is also content. 'For you have learned, in whatsoever state you are, therewith to be content. You know both how to be abased, and you know how to abound: every where and in all things you are instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need'. For you have 'set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God'. 'You are not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good'. 'Neither do you yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourself unto God, alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin does not have dominion over you'. 'Knowing this, that your old man is crucified with Him, that your body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth you should not serve sin. For when you are dead you are freed from sin. Now if you are dead with Christ, you believe that you also live with him'.
Listen, my soul, deny self and i will withdraw and function in the realm that i am designed for. Pamper, coddle, or esteem self and i will join those dangerous rebels of these last days. For 'this know also, that in these last days perilous times are here. For a man is a lover of his own self, covetous, proud, unthankful, without natural affection, false accusers, fierce, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth'.
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Author: bimonics
Location: Rocklin California USA
Gender: Male
Age: 58
Blog Entries: 219 (archive)
Blog Comments: 250
hello, my name is grant. my user name is bimonics which is short for bible mnemonics. i am blessed with a wonderful loving wife; a gifted, mature, christian lady. between us we have 8 children and at present 27 grandchildren, and 2 great grandchildren. i was born in 1952, to...
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i was lost when jesus found me. i am still lost without his company, and without all that he does. i was a lead guitarist in a rock band, until i gave up my old life and picked up the bible. i am still a guitarist for the rock that...
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