My Ways in Christ

My Ways in Christ

It is of the utmost importance in these days to have clarity over the inner ways in Christ. The times are teeming with various schools of thought and different doctrines, and impressionable souls depart from the way in a number of ways.

No one can lead a soul further than he himself has come, and since most people keep to the elementary principles, the average Christian’s life remains at a low level.

Only very few people do as Paul did: he forgot those things that were behind him and reached out to the things that were ahead, pressing toward the goal—because he was apprehended of Christ. Phil. 3:14.

We need this urgent desire, this consuming longing, to reach the goal. We need to be apprehended by the eternal powers and led to a life of Christ’s fullness by dying to our self-life.

The root of all departures from the way, the root of all apathy, is enmity toward the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ means death to all self-life as we become aware of it.

God’s righteousness judges all self-life; it always condemns it to death together with Christ. There are many people who love the love of God when it billows around their soul like a gentle breeze; but who loves God’s righteousness, which consumes our self-life in the depth of our soul like a purifying fire?

Paul sent Timothy to the Corinthians to remind them of “my ways in Christ,” as Paul taught everywhere in every church. 1 Cor. 4:17.

Paul taught the ways of Christ. What are the ways of Christ?

They are the soul’s inner walk with his God. Whereas our body walks through the external situations of life, the soul walks on an inner, invisible way with God.

Our walk through life’s external situations reveals the facts concerning our inner walk with God.

An elect soul, who, with a willing heart, desires to purify himself, will on this way be drawn to the goal which God has predestined for him by means of eternal powers.

On the inner way God puts power at the disposal of a soul whereby he can race toward the goal. The word “race” is expressed by “press on” in English. On the one hand the soul has the blood that cleanses from all past committed sins, and the cross whereby the self-life perishes in Jesus’s death. By faith in the cross and the blood, all obstacles that stand in the way of the soul’s progress are removed. On the other hand, God has put all the powers of the kingdom of heaven at the soul’s disposal so that he may have an abundance of power to execute all of God’s commands.

We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Eph. 1:3.

His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. 2 Pet. 1:3.

The work of the cross is the power of God to salvation from everything that hinders the development of my life in God. 1 Cor. 1:18. The Holy Spirit is the guiding and effective power in my life. He draws the soul through all hindrances and leads him in triumph in Christ Jesus. The gates of hell cannot prevail against a soul who is willing to be led by the Holy Spirit.

If a soul is apprehended by Christ, he will stand together with God against his own self-life. When the soul and God are agreed, who can then hinder his progress? Just like the juice is squeezed out of a lemon, so the soul’s desire is that all his self-life might be pressed out. This occurs by dying to it. For such a soul the way of the cross becomes a consuming passion. His whole desire is to follow in Jesus’ steps in all his ways.

This desire, worked by the Spirit of God, creates an intense poverty of spirit, a poverty that takes God’s kingdom by force. It is as if the soul’s poverty possesses greater powers than God’s riches because it draws the fullness of God’s kingdom to himself in the boldness of faith.

On the inner ways the soul flees from sin, the world, and the self-life; he flees from everything that is created in order to cast himself into the arms of Him who gives all these things. His whole desire is to meet together with the source of his life in purity.

Paul was an amazing master on this inner course. 1 Cor. 9:24-27.

He did not run with uncertainty. With his eyes fixed on the goal, he was temperate in all things. He kept his body in subjection. He cast away everything that hindered him, whether it was great or small. His great example was Jesus Christ who had made a way to life through death. In the power of Jesus Christ he followed with the utmost faithfulness in his great Master’s steps so that he could call out to his followers to follow “my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.” Phil. 3:17. “Zeal for Your house has consumed Me.” We are this house. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Let zeal for this house consume all our self-will while we say, “Not my will, but Your will,” so that the glory of the Lord can fill the house.

All of us are meant to have an abundant entrance in Christ Jesus. Let us give our all. If we hold back, we do so only to our own destruction.

The inner ways reveal a wealth of truth, purity, and beauty. Therefore the soul loves God’s purifying fire with all his heart. The fire’s distinct purity is beautiful. It purifies the soul and puts God’s own seal on him. Therefore, let us all forget the things that are behind us and reach out for the goal, apprehended by Jesus Christ.