Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ

1. Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ

2. The Christian Life (God’s Plan) Position Position Heavenlies Eternity Death/ Rapture Condition Condition

3. The Christian Life (Man’s Plight) Position Heavenlies Eternity Elemental Principles of the World Death/ Rapture Condition

4. Identification Truth • Spirituality: A Complete Package by God’s Plan • Phase 1/Phase 2 Crosswork Distinctions • Reality through Reckoning • The Question of Yielding • Spirituality and Obedience: The Law Problem

5. Identification Truth • Spirituality: A Complete Package by God’s Plan • Phase 1/Phase 2 Crosswork Distinctions • Reality through Reckoning • The Question of Yielding • Spirituality and Obedience: The Law Problem

6. Process of Spirituality 1. Means 2. Need 3. Time 4. Order

7. Process of Spirituality 1. Means Need Time 4. Order

8. Process of Spirituality 1. Means 2. Need 3. Time 4. Order

9. “Appropriation does not necessarily mean to gain something new but to set aside for our practical possession something that already belongs to us. In order to appropriate something for our daily walk in Christ, there are two essentials: to see what is already ours in Christ; and to be aware of our need for it.” Part One: Principles of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 7, Appropriation, p 27 “Yes, there is going to be deep, thorough and long preparation if there is to be reality—if our life is to be Christ-centered, our walk controlled by the Holy Spirit and our service glorifying to God. Sooner or later the Holy Spirit begins to make us aware of our basic problem as believers—the infinite difference between self and Christ.” Part One: Principles of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 5, Preparation, p 20 “Norman Douty writes: ‘If I am to be like Him, then God in His grace must do it, and the sooner I come to recognize it the sooner I will be delivered from another form of bondage. Throw down every endeavor and say, I cannot do it, the more I try the farther I get from His likeness. What shall I do? Ah, the Holy Spirit says, You cannot do it; just withdraw; come out of it…Don’t try to be like Him, just look at Him. Just be occupied with Him. Forget about trying to be like Him. Instead of letting that fill your mind and heart, let Him fill it. Just behold Him, look upon Him through the Word. Come to the Word for one purpose and that is to meet the Lord. Not to get your mind crammed full of things about the sacred Word, but come to it to meet the Lord...’” Part One: Principles of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 4, Purpose, pp 16-17

10. “It might be good to stress several points just here. (1) Never was a believer brought into healthy spiritual maturity by means of pressure meetings and constant exhortation nor before he was prepared by the Spirit. (2) Healthy progress is based on the apprehension, understanding and appropriation of the truths in Christ that make for real growth. (3) The experiential aspect of all truth, and especially these so-called deeper truths, is closed to all but the needy heart. Until one is aware of his need to progress spiritually, he will never be brought beyond the birth truths—a mere babe in Christ.” Part One:Principles of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 9, Consecration, p 35 “The believer must learn by two means the fact that the self-life is unimprovable. (1) Specific Scripture: God never intends to improve the old man, because ‘the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God… neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned’ (1 Cor. 2:14). Further, ‘the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other’ (Gal. 5:17). Everything of the first Adam is unalterably opposed to everything of the Last Adam. Self is implacable in its attitude toward God, having the very essence of the Enemy. ‘Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be’ (Rom. 8:7). (2) Personal experience: One’s daily life proves beyond a doubt that the sinful Adamic source within never changes. The awakened and honest believer must admit that self is as capable of sin after fifty years of the Christian life as it was before he was saved—sometimes, it seems, even more so!” Part Two: Foundations of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 23, Sanctification and Consecration, p 104

11. “The ‘flesh’ will only yield to the cross; not to all the resolutions you may make at a conference, not to any self-effort, not to any attempted self-crucifixion; only to co-crucifixion, crucified together with Christ (Gal. 2:20). It is not by putting yourself to death, but by taking, through faith and surrender, your place of union with Christ in His death. That is the blessed barrier of safety between you and all the attractions of the flesh, and that makes the way open to do the will of God” (G. Watt). Part One: Principles of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 11, Self-Denial, p 45 “‘It is true that the intellect is stumbled by the cross; yet the antagonism to the cross is mainly moral, both in the sinner and in the saint, for its message is only welcomed by those who desire freedom from the bondage of their sins, and who hunger and thirst after the experiential righteousness of God.’ Yes, the need must be intense, as Norman Douty says: ‘The Divine way (via the cross) for spiritual emancipation is just as offensive to the child of God as the Divine way for salvation is to the lost.’” Part One: Principles of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 13, Discipleship, pp 54-55

12. “…three of the principal reasons why many believers fail to live in the new life that is theirs in Christ. “Lack Of Knowledge The most prevalent factor is that many Christians do not know the truth concerning their union with the Lord Jesus ... All know about His substitution for them, but too few realize their identification with Him. This is mainly due to the fact that the identification truths have long been a neglected teaching ... “Misapplied Knowledge There are others, less numerous, who do know their participation in this aspect of the work of the Cross. However, after reckoning upon their identification with Christ, they set about to produce its results by self-effort. It is not readily understood that only the Holy Spirit can make experiential in us that which is already true of us in Christ… “Unbalanced Knowledge Still others are saying in their hungry hearts ‘… I seem to know more about the work of the Cross than I do about my new life in the risen Christ.’ “Be encouraged! …The years of struggle and failure have not been wasted, but have been governed by His loving hand to prepare the hungry heart for the blessed exchange… “The believer… has to learn that in the old fleshly nature ‘dwelleth no good thing,’ and that even its so-called ‘righteousnesses are as filthy rags’ (Rom. 7:18; Isa. 64:6).” Part Three: The Ground of Growth, Chapter 36, The Process of Conformation, pp167, 168

13. Process of Spirituality 1. Means 2. Need 3. Time 4. Order

14. “It is the faithful Spirit who gives growth to our new-creation life, slowly manifesting the very image of its Source. This growth is evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit as set forth in cluster form in Galatians 5:22 and 23.” Part Three: The Ground of Growth, Chapter 31, Diametric Differentiation, p 149 “How often we simply admire and talk about truths the Holy Spirit reveals to us in the Word, whereas His primary purpose in giving them to us is that we might stand on them in faith, waiting confidently for Him to make them an integral part of our life.” Part One: Principles of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 7, Appropriation, p 30

15. “‘Every bit of truth we receive, if we receive it livingly, will take us into conflict and will be established through conflict. It will be worthless until there has been a battle over it. Take any position the Lord calls you to take, and, if you are taking it with Him, you are going through things in it, and there will be an element added by reason of the battle. You have taken a position—yes but you have not really got it yet, the real value of it has not been proved. You have not come into the real significance of it until there has been some sore conflict in relation to it. “‘As the result of the work of His cross, and as the grand issue of His resurrection, eternal life is received already by those who believe. But while that life is itself victorious, incorruptible, indestructible, the believer has to come by faith to prove it, to live by it, to learn its laws, to be conformed to it. There is a deposit in the believer, which in itself needs no addition, so far as its quality is concerned. So far as its victory, its power, its glory, its potentialities are concerned nothing can be added to it. But the course of spiritual experience, of spiritual life, is to discover, to appropriate, and to live by all that the life represents and means.’ “… After we have seen our possessions in Christ and become aware of our need, then we must give Him the necessary time to work the appropriation into our everyday walk. If we are looking for our needs to be met in the next interview, the next devotional book, the next series of special meetings, the next hoped for ‘revival,’ then reality will never come. “In the matter of Christian development, there is no shortcut, no quick and easy way.” Part One: Principles of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 7, Appropriation, pp 29-30

16. Process of Spirituality 1. Means 2. Need 3. Time 4. Order