My Testimony: the Holy Spirit Guides Me to Be One in Christ -- the Testimony on the Change of Life (Excerpt)

3. Crucify the old self on the cross:

After the Holy Spirit gave the message of the truth that the old self is completely corrupted and should be given up completely. I started to understand that to crucify the old self on the cross is one of the most important messages to be holy in the Bible. To be holy , there are three enemies that we should fight against: the old self, the world, and the devil.

1. Crucify the dead person of the old self on the cross:

We should look on our old selves as the dead. The way to deal with it is to crucify the old self on the cross. In the sight of the completely righteous, holy, good and perfect God, we can only be counted as the dead. The difference between each other is just the difference of whether one has gone 50 steps away or 100 steps away. No matter what, all are the dead. Only to live in accordance with the Holy Spirit, produce all the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and live the holy life of Christ, is the way to be alive.

(1) Dealing with the selfish desires:

The lessons of dealing with the selfish desires started from the diet. Ever since I knew that the Holy Spirit does not like me to eat in the restaurant, I did not go to the restaurant any more. I can understand this well; it is for the sake of practicing thrift. What I did at most is to buy a few inexpensive fried chicken wings in the supermarket near my home. I used to have no any constraints in the food, and I preferred the strongly flavored dishes. Later, the Holy Spirit suggested me to eat the light flavored dishes. Does He take charge of me even on this? I was slow to get the point about this. Of course, I also know that the strongly-flavored dishes are not good for the health. For example, if eating too much sweet, I am also afraid that I might get the diabetes. Also, those elderly can not take the food that are too salty; it is obvious that the strong flavor is not good for the health. However, only after I started to practice it, I gradually understand the benefit of this to the spirituality, which is the same as the benefit of fasting to build up the spirituality. That is, I won’t put my mind and pleasure on the satisfaction of the body any more. Do not eat the strongly-flavored dishes, also including snacks, refreshments and so on, which are considered as the enjoyment before. My diet became more and more simple, and mainly is the vegetables and fruit. Although the money saved is not much, with it I can continue to feel at ease to do the donation occasionally. In another testimony, I talked in details about the testimony granted by LORD to me after the Thanksgiving that the change of the looking like Daniel and his three friends after they ate the vegetables for ten days. Thus, I gradually learn not to rejoice in the food. I also found out another reason that I liked eating before is to shift my mind; especially when I am not in good mood, I shift my mind and fill in my mind by eating.

In this way, I found out that other all kinds of so-called enjoyments are the same, which are not real joy. Most of them are just some stimulations to the body added with the psychological suggestions; then people consider them good. They are also used to fill in the empty mind and time of people, such as watching TV. It is not that what we see on TV are necessarily something pleasing to eyes and minds; sometimes, what we see on TV is even something making us upset and feel no good. However, we do it to make our mind filled and to kill the time. These are all the substitutions for people who are not filled up with God and the joy of God, and are all the idols that lead people away from God. There are also other activities used as the entertainments by people. For example, one of them is playing golf. I recalled that I used to carry the clubs to the field every weekend. With the same movement, did the swing repeatedly in the whole morning. I do not know whether it is the same toilsome as a peasant waving a hoe. I do not know whether the joy of putting the ball back and forth finally into the hole is greater than the joy of a peasant digging a potato out of the field or not. The so-called pleasant entertainments of people are really fake and deceiving. I used to go skiing on the mountain. Giving it a thought, I saw that it is only the stimulation of the speed and the cold wind stroking the face together with the psychological suggestions, and people regard it as the enjoyment. In fact, wearing the goggles, I could not appreciate the scenery; and after a day of skiing, the calves become ached due to the tight boots, as if just going through a corporal punishment. While these are the rich and pleasant life that we are longing for. And these are the idols that let us admire and make efforts to pursue, fill up our minds and time, and make us not to seek God and rejoice in God.

After knowing these, I am more willing to live a holy life. I cancelled the cable service of the TV; it is not only that in reason I consider that I should not watch it, but also I really feel it not interesting. I’d rather look upon the richness and goodness of God and chew the pleasance of the words of God. And it is out of my expectation to receive the accommodation and pleasance in spirit by doing this. I do not admire and desire for any other entertainment any more. My joy only lies in knowing God more. How wonderful, marvelous and rich God is! His power, wisdom, goodness and glories are really amazing. The more I know about it, the more I feel it marvelous and reverent. To give thanks to God, praise Him and love Him everyday, and to seek His will and do things to please Him, these are most satisfying, joyful and peaceful.

Another thing that makes people sin easily is the improper pictures everywhere. They can be seen everywhere on the web and in the supermarket. We should try to avoid them. A good method is to keep the command of LORD in mind. If we think about that we do not want either one of our eyes to fall into the hell, we won’t sin.

(2) The selfish desire that is most difficult to deal with is self-pride and self-justification of being holy. Denying oneself is the required course of “To Be One in Christ”.

The selfish desire that is most difficult to deal with is self-pride and self-justification of being holy. A person needs to realize that he is a sinner so that to know God and become a Christian; while a person needs to realize that he is a dead person so that to be really holy and be one in Christ. Denying oneself is the required course of “To Be One in Christ”, and is also the most difficult course to learn.

A. Let him who boasts boast in the LORD, and give all the thanks, praises and glories to LORD.

LORD is the source of all the power, wisdom, truth, brightness, understandings and goodness and so on. LORD is the only One who is worthy of praises! Any self-boast, self-conceit, and self-satisfaction of the created is false and not in truth. To walk with LORD, firstly one must be humble. Let him who boasts boast in the LORD, and give all the thanks, praises and glories to LORD.

From the very beginning, each time my self-complacency and self-satisfaction will be rebuked by the Holy Spirit. This is the sin that I learn to deal with long ago. The more I know LORD, the more I feel that to praise and thank LORD is the absolute truth, and can directly give me the joy and strength. The more I know LORD, the more I see the corruption of the old self. If I mention myself in front of LORD, indeed I can do nothing else but only blame myself and look on myself as a dead person. Therefore, if we want to have confidence in front of LORD, we must let Christ be in charge in us. When we look inside, we only see the fruit of the Holy Spirit; that is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. No matter look outside or look inside, we only see Christ; then there will be harmony and peace.

The self-boast and self-pride is the character of the devil. It is also the important methods and means used by the devil to lure people to sin. Therefore, whenever we hear the praise from others to ourselves, we must not feel complacent. We should know that it is just a makeup on the face of the dead. We should immediately give thanks, praises and glories to LORD. Otherwise, we sin. We must remember that apart from LORD, we have no good things.

B. We must deny ourselves.

The selfish motive, selfish ideas and selfish desire is the source of all the sins and evils. All the big or small sins and evils come from it. Only LORD is absolutely righteous, and completely holy, and He is the only good One. Only taking the will of God as the motive, taking the teachings of LORD as the principle, and taking LORD as the goal, can make one’s deeds and acts meaningful and correct. Only to center on Christ, one can really be kept away from sins and be holy. It is impossible for those who center on themselves to really keep away from sins.

The self-justification and considering oneself holy is the fatal problem of many people that hinders their spiritual growth. After I posted the series of messages and the spiritual poems by following the Holy Spirit, the people in the church expressed their wish to learn and benefit from it. I know that as to some of them, it is not that they are not smart enough; it is not that they do not desire for the eternal life; and it is not that they do not work hard for LORD. It is because they are self-justified and consider themselves holy, so that they can not see their own problem and can not get close to God. However, in fact, it is because they are not willing to and are unable to deny themselves. As a result, they are jealous, like speaking ill of others, and are not willing to admit their fault. Therefore, they can not repent. For a person without a mind to deny oneself, he can not accept the teachings and disciplines, and can not grow up; he will live in the dead body and dead life of the old self all the time, and can not receive the power and true holiness of the rich life of Christ. Those who consider themselves holy provoke the anger of God. This is also where I most easily offend LORD according to my own experiences. Once, there was someone who put finger on me with no reason. My old self was provoked with the resentment. After I got back home, there are all the defending words filled up in my head, so that I offended the Holy Spirit that He nearly left me. After knowing LORD and His truth, whenever I met with the ill treatment of others, I have more endurance, for I know that LORD will make a judgment on everything, and endurance can actually be counted as a merit. The endurance and patience is indeed a measurement of one’s spiritual life. We should suffer a wrong without defending; “It is LORD to avenge; LORD will repay.” ; and "The Lord will judge his people." and “leave room for God's wrath”; these are the lessons that I need to learn repeatedly. Afterward, when I saw that I supposed to share the truth of “do not consider oneself holy” with others to build up them according to LORD, my sinful nature unconsciously made me somewhat reluctant to share this secret with those who offended me and to build them up at first. Of course, the Holy Spirit shined on my fault immediately and I corrected it right away and shared this truth with others. I know this is the critical part that separated them from God. However, to my surprise, those who heard about it are not grateful and glad to learn this truth; instead, they became annoyed. It can be seen that this is indeed the most critical yet most difficult lesson for a person to learn.

Another display of self-justification of being holy is to judge others. This is also not pleasing to God. God is the only One who has the right to make the judgment. When someone did the evil things, LORD will say that this person did it wrong and unrighteous, and is the evildoers and so on. LORD even will discipline that person, but usually LORD disciplined those whom He loves. However, LORD absolutely does not let us to judge others, for we are imperfect too and we are the same as others, and we do not have any right to judge others at all.

The purpose to carry the cross daily is to deny oneself. Only by crucifying the old self and breaking the jar of clay, one can live in Christ. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. ” (Gal 2:20) This is the goal of the life for every Christian. However, in order to live as Christ, one must deny oneself first. Many servants who are selected by God had the lessons of cross. Being treated wrongly, being misunderstood, and even being persecuted, are all for the purpose to break the old self. A person has to experience the pain of being broken before he can enjoy the freedom in the new life.

To deny oneself, one also needs to deny his own benefit in front of God. One should not think that he deserves to get something or is worthy of something; otherwise, he will do all kinds of sins.

2. Crucify the rubbish-like world on the cross:

We should look on all kinds of temptations in the world as the rubbish: “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ” (Php 3:7-8) Our attitude toward the world is also to crucify it on the cross: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Gal 6:14)

(1) Do not compromise with this world; and we should have an attitude of traveler to live in this world.

We should know that this world is an evil world that the devil is the ruler in the air, and this world should and will go to destruction soon. We are only the travelers in this world. Our reward is in the heaven; and our hope is in the new heavens and the new earth. We should not expect to live in harmony and mix well in this world and enjoy a cozy life in this world. Do not be tempted by all kinds of temptations and enjoyments; do not be influenced by all kinds of sins and evils; and do not be contaminated by the secular filth.

We should learn the righteous truth of LORD, regard the kindness and goodness as the good thing, and take the conscience as the standard rather than to take the benefit as the standard. We should change and become like the little children, and set apart from the world to live a consecrated life. We should take the teachings of LORD as the requirement for ourselves, such as the teachings in the Sermons on the Mountain; but not only take the worldly law as the requirements which is a much lower standard. We should live a life according to the holy and righteous judgment of LORD; but not live a life according to the judgment of the secular and worldly people.

It is relatively easy to receive the truth of LORD in front of LORD by oneself alone. However, after going out and meeting with all kinds of people and matters, one will be influenced inevitably and does not know how to obey the commands and will of LORD practically. It is because the rules and principles of this world seem to be in another way. Indeed, this is a world that the devil is the ruler in the air and the sins of people are spread everywhere. However, we must know and believe that God has all the power and authorities and do not be timid by the deceiving principles of the world. Those who truly obey the will of LORD will be kept by and receive the helps from God, will see more deeds of God, and will understand the will of God more. Facing the filthy world, we should often turn our eyes to look upon LORD so that we will not get lost. We should arm ourselves with the attitude of the willingness to suffer and have the determination and preparation to carry the cross everyday. We should not be afraid to suffer disadvantages and losses; we should learn to be diligent and self-control, and have endurance and patience, and love; and we should trust in and rely on LORD all the time; thus, we will receive the strength and help.

(2) How to understand that the sufferings are allowed by God:

If one understands the sins of men, it is not difficult for him to understand what is the source of all the sufferings. If one understands that the primary purpose of the salvation is to save people from sins and let people repent and be away from sins so that the souls and spirits of people will be like their Creator, but not to let people get into the heaven, it will not be difficult for him to understand why the Christians have even more tests and trials, and are not immune to the sufferings, and why they must go through the fights with the devil and the evil spirits. The great work of salvation is as great as the great work of the creation.

A. Sins will incur sufferings and sins:

The LORD is righteous in all His ways. LORD never does anything that is not good. When people do sins and do not live in accordance with the truth, righteousness and holiness of God, that will keep the guard of LORD away from them. The sins of men will incur the devil and the sins of others. Sometimes people think that they are innocent; why there are sufferings? One biggest sin that is often ignored is that they do not know God. Do not know God and give thanks to God who daily bears our burdens; this is the sins of the men who will surely die. Isn’t the suffering the punishment that they deserve? Furthermore, the suffering helps people to seek and turn to God. Another common sin that is difficult to overcome is the self-pride. All the power, wisdom and goodness and so on come from God! God is the only One who is worthy of praises. Only taking the will of God as the motive, taking the teachings of LORD as the principle, and taking LORD as the goal, are righteous, good and meaningful. The self-center, self-justification and selfish desire of men is the source of all the sins and evils; without getting rid of them completely, the spirit and soul can not truly become holy and in accordance with God. Therefore, many saints, especially those servants that are loved and put in important position by God, had their old self be broken completely in the sufferings and persecutions. In fact, this is also to get rid of the sins. What we receive are much less than the punishment we should get from God.

B. The sufferings let people see the harms and dangers of sins:

In the suffering, people will see more clearly the sins of men and the evils of the devil, so that they will understand more the truth and reasons to keep away from sins, understand the truth and goodness of God, and understand the malice and harms of the sins of being away from God. We should treasure the goodness, hate the sins and evils, and be away from the sins and evils.

C. Overcome in the sufferings by relying on LORD:

Facing the sufferings, besides examining whether one himself has sin or not, especially the sins of pride and not relying on God, getting rid of it; or understanding the good and evil and the harms of sins, we should overcome in the sufferings by relying on LORD. God is unchanging and everlasting. Relying on LORD, we should have the eternally reliable joy and peace. To learn to rejoice in God only, we should prepare to experience the pains of breaking the jar of clay, and breaking off one’s own favoritism and cares. There is no any loss and pain bigger than the happiness of the eternal life. We should remember that we have the most genuine and best hope -- the hope of the new heavens and the new earth. Surely it is for our benefit that we suffer anguish. In days to come we will understand it clearly about the complete goodness of LORD. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ” (2Co 4:17)

3. To fight against the devil and evil spirits, we must rely on LORD to stand firm.

The devil and evil spirits only want to pull people into the hell and the lake of fire. Our only attitude toward the devil and the evil spirits is to rebuke them to the Abyss early in the name of LORD.

LORD has told me that the fights against the devil and evil spirits is inevitable long ago. How to distinguish the evil spirits:

A. To distinguish them from the faith, the spirit who confesses that Jesus is LORD and is willing to praise God is the Holy Spirit. While these two things are what the evil spirits are not willing to do. The evil spirits put the thoughts of doubting and being against God into the thoughts of men. Therefore, whenever one has such thought, he should not take it as his own thought and continue thinking in that way, and he must stop it with the truth in the Bible.

B. The Holy Spirit encourages people to do what is good and righteous. The evil spirits strike people when people do what is good and righteous. Also, the evil spirits lure people with the selfish desires and pride, and let people be selfish, seek one’s own benefit and be proud. If a person is selfish and likes his own glory, he will often listen to the words of the devil and fall into the trap of the devil. However, many people, after falling into the trap in this way, even consider themselves smart.

C. The Holy Spirit is the truth; the words of the Holy Spirit must come true. The evil spirits are liars and their words do not agree with the fact. One can distinguish them through the conscience and the fact. Although the devil is the ruler in the air momentarily, God has all the power and authorities. Therefore, one should not be panic no matter what happens.

By relying on the holy Name of LORD Jesus Christ and His life that has overcome, one can stand firm, fight a good fight and win the victory.

4. To be one in Christ, we should walk in His Name:

To be one in Christ, we should regard anything outside Christ as the unrighteousness. In everything, we should center on Christ, and have Christ as the motive, goal and the principle.

We should live the same as Christ: trust in and obey God completely, give thanks and praises to God all the time, love God with whole heart and whole soul, and love others as ourselves, also deny ourselves and be humble. We should produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit; that is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

We should revere God, so that we won’t do things that are not pleasing to God; we should love God, so that we will do more things that are pleasing to God.

To be one in Christ, we should live in accordance with the Holy Spirit; and we should think what Christ think, do what Christ do, have the same attitude of Christ, look at the world from His view, and walk in His Name.

All thanks, praises and glories be to LORD!

Written on Feb. 6, 2007, and translated on Feb. 10, 2007.