Intro. to the Spiritual Dying

PART I - Section 2

INTRODUCTION TO THE SPIRITUAL DYING - I

The Spirit of Wisdom, Revelation and Prophecy, having been shed abroad abundantly to declare many great and wonderful mysteries in this last age, has shown also the way for completion(20). The first passage toward this completion is through the mystical death(21), which is the pathway to the Ascending Mount of that glory that follows such a dying. But before I shall proceed upon this aspect, it will be necessary to let you know what has occasioned the setting plainly before your eyes the crucified Body of sin.

Upon a deep sense which opened in me concerning the three-fold bondage and captivity under which the Holy and Royal Offspring of God are groaning (in spirit, soul and body), the spirit of Daniel(22) came upon me and set strongly to work. Being well acquainted of such things in myself, I could all the more deplore and bewail it on behalf of the Elect Seed of God. This caused me to often set times apart to lament and mourn while beholding the law of sin and tyrannical bondage the saints are under. This bondage was shown in a three-fold aspect. The first, from that old Serpent, which from the beginning introduced the original venom of sin, who carefully watches in order to increase and keep it stirring. He has great advantage, being a potent Prince(23) in this world from which he presents all kinds of temptations to allure and to prevent the soul's restoration by holding to it with the worldly charms.

The second power which rules under him is the Beast(24), which is as the oppressing Pharaoh and which consults to impose such weights and burdens as may wear out the saints of the Most High(25).

The third power is that airy region(26) of which it is said he is also the Prince, having infected it with his poisonous influences so that the very elements are corrupted as they contact our outward bodies, bringing them into sickness, sorrow and death with many other evil effects. All this being set before me, my soul in me was sorrowful unto death and so great was my heaviness that it seemed as if the sin of the whole fallen creation had been placed upon me. And then with all this, there was this further aggravation of my troubles as I observed the strife, wars and great divisions(27) that are at this day enkindled among the Zion Professors! This is the greatest evil under the sunshine of the gospel dispensation and should be seriously considered so and sorrowfully bewailed.

This came upon me as a very burdensome stone which had lain very heavily. Being for some time under this exercise of mind, praying and pleading with my God, very close and constant in this mourning posture, refusing all comforts -- behold Michael, the Prince of the New and everlasting Covenant, appeared to me speaking these words: "I have seen thy soul's contrition and humiliation for the oppressed and desolated Daughter of Zion whose hurt and wound is still bleeding. I am come to inform thee what is to be done for the putting an end to all this deplorable captivity. Which captivity has lasted this long because there has been such a lack of Zion-Mourners who might be seriously affected and inwardly afflicted for that inherent Root of Sin. Therefore search has not been made as to the depth of the infection which has leavened the whole Man and kept him under this tyrannical servitude. I have waited in the office of Mediator for such soul-affected mourners to come up to me to show me all their internal woundings from first to last.

Let it be known that it has been a grief to my Spirit that I have not been more fervently entreated and made use of for easing the burdened. For there has been a secure carelessness that hath made them treat it lightly. But a consumption is determined upon the whole man of sin, and thou hast been all well pleasing to Me in that thou has presented the whole and full of the relapsed state with a concerned and sorrowful spirit, which is acceptable. I have also taken notice of this trouble and concern for the disunity among My own sheepfold, whereby they have rent and divided Me in Spirit; all which springs from bitter essence of sin. Therefore, do thou signify what way must be followed for restitution and setting together My disjointed members. Which restitution cannot be accomplished except through the passage-gate of Death.(28) Which from Me thou art commissioned to declare, as I have revealed it to thee and as thou hast the practical knowledge of it, as being that which is designed by the Father (as I am the Way unto it) to bring forth life and redemption. This is that which was promised from the first wound of sin that was introduced by the Serpent into Adam, which is all to be fully healed by conformity to the Death with Me. This conformity goes forward in a four-fold process -- (1) an inward, Spiritual Death, (2) Resurrection, (3) Ascension (4) and Glorification.

This I leave with thee to publish before the other part (Upon Ascension and Descension) as the foundation which must bring one up to the top rung of the Ladder. It hath been given by vision and prophecy, to see and understand. So hereby shall the Utmost (full) Salvation be wrought by the Mystery of Death, finishing with the following degrees of death. This Full Salvation and what it constitutes is the highest wonder that shall be brought into manifestation. It shall put an end to all evil. Go thou, nothing doubting, having faith in Me Who shall always be with thee and among also My mourning flock everywhere." Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Thus you are given to understand by Whom I am led forward to open and lay a sure foundation for the new and heavenly restoration in that living Word which died out to flesh but now ceases not to live and to send forth His renewed Springs. He is at hand to reveal and expound all things which may gather in the lost and scattered flock to bring them into God's Tent and Tabernacle of Rest. This is only possible by passing through this four-fold ministration. I shall take them as they lay in their own degrees and order:

First, I will show what is a spiritual Death which must be passed through by such as look for a reigning life with Christ. For this it cannot be better stated than the worthy Apostle has done it in the sixth and seventh chapters of Romans, (the reader is encouraged to lay this book down and read these two chapters, looking to the Holy Spirit for light, in order to get as much as possible out of this section) laying down full and clear arguments, showing the necessity for a spiritual Death so that we need not doubt that it will be granted. Next we are to consider how it shall be accomplished.

It is not my intention to frighten any when I tell them that it is at the first on-set, bloody work. Wherever this sacrificial knife(29) doth come it will soon touch the quick. But then consider in Whose hand it is put; our Emmanuel's, Whose love we may well confide in, Who acts this disastrous part by the lance of His Spirit. His Lance will fall only upon the viperous Body of Sin to let out the very heart-blood of it. So it must be, for there is no favoring that life which has caused all this trouble when the choice is between God or self. For it was this selfish life which has spoiled and defaced that pure Angelical Image in which the Most Holy One took such delight to see His own similitude. That Image is now so changed that it may grieve His Spirit, upon which account we must be driven out from His Face and Presence to live in that awakened Principle of Good and Evil. But here a Door of Hope is opened for such as are weary and oppressed, and are willing to give up their whole degenerated life unto death. But you will say, "If we must suffer in this way, to what end did the Lord Christ offer Himself as a Substitute for sin in His own Person, if our own sinful life must go also for it?"

In answer to this, please take notice that even though our Lord Christ was made a visible Sacrifice for sin, He never intended that to excuse any one of His own members from a conformity and fellowship with Him in death. Knowing that His death for us alone(30), would not be sufficient without His coming to us by His Spirit to put the sin in our flesh to death, He jointly (united with us) becomes Salvation to the utmost. He had no sin to put to death in His own body, but was a living type and example for us to follow.

But it may still be objected, "Who is able to go through such a full and total death to all that infection of sin which the first Adam brought in?" We must say, no one is sufficient, but the Mighty God and Savior, coming by His Spirit to incarnate Himself in our flesh, has the Key that opens this Mystical Gate of Death and thereby gives us passage through the Veil of Flesh.(31) For your comfort, you are to know that He does not go to work violently and all at once. He considers our form and frame and allures the soul into this work by degrees, showing and setting before us the absolute necessity of it, coaxing all by love-incitements to follow Him in this way of dying -- despising the shame and contempt of it. For Faith sees what glory, honor and immortality of Life with Christ will follow upon such a death.

This is then our only business -- to exchange our life for Christ's our Lord, for Him to offer it up in us through His Eternal Spirit. As He did in His own personal body, to lay it down freely, so now He woos the soul to a voluntary assignment of the whole man of sin for its death, so that when the heart and will is gained and brought over, the dying work will not be so grievous and terrible as many have feared.

I can assure you from my own experience, having been long and deeply exercised herein, that great comforts and supports will meet your dying agonies through internal infusions which may be felt as a burning Spirit which runs into every part until it eases those burdened in sin. This will continue and will not abate so long as there is any evil essence remaining -- if the soul agrees and gives consent to it. Truly, a well informed soul which lies under any powerful constraint of Christ's love can do no less than to comply and deliver up the accursed thing. When it comes to this, what a hopeful swiftness there will be for the cutting off of every member in the body of sin. Oh, where shall we find a wife and valiant Jael to smite Sisera (Judges 4:21), aiming at the Head-life (the rational mind) -- the very root of sin in its original!(32)

Oh, how I do hear the echo of some good, willing spirit about me saying thus; "Seeing you have presented the necessity of crucifixion and the greatest benefits thereof, and have placed the Lance of Death rightly in the hand of Him that hath given such a full proof of His love to the fallen offspring of Adam, we now have an open ear to hear further what the particulars are that we must die unto!" To which I most readily shall comply as from the Center of Light and experimental knowledge to give forth this narrative, reducing this inward death to three separate branches.

The Animal life, the Rational life, and the Sensitive life. We proceed to the first of these which is the more gross and downright earthly life. It consists of a beastly nature of brutishness and worldly-mindedness, loving and embracing the vain, empty honors and riches of this present outward realm which bring forth such vile fruits as arrogance, evil covetousness (which is idolatry), self-promotion, wrathfulness, slanderings, revengefulness, evil surmisings, cruelty, oppression, unmercifulness and such like.

When such a life of flesh(33) shows its face where anything of God is known and Christ revealed, for redemption out of all these bitter fruits and then, instead of dying out to them, there is a persistence in living in them, they become insensible to their weights, fetters and chains. They have placed themselves in a most dangerous state in which to continue. They should make haste to die out to them. But we are persuaded better things of those who are inquiring about this Gate of Death, knowing they dare not allow themselves to live in any one of these but as any matter of this kind does spring forth, to arraign, judge, condemn and deliver it up into the piercing Nail of the Cross as a testimony that they have broken with the gross evils. By this they declare that they will not cherish and harbor what the Serpent has challenged to place in the soul's essence and by which he seeks to keep his hold. Therefore recognize that men who are in good earnest to die will neither touch, taste nor handle any of these poisonous fruits.

Now we proceed to the "Rational Life," which is reckoned to be a wise, sober, and righteous life and therefore not to be laid aside, it being as a King that would govern the whole concerns of the soul, both as to heavenly and earthly things, determining all matters and causes. What then, it may be alleged, are the causes you find against him that he must fall under Death, if he is such a prudent Ruler? But know it from the Lord and that of a truth, that the Serpent lies more hidden in this than the other. It (rational mind) is in some as a grand Idol set up in place of God. Nay, it is so subtle in its council that you will scarcely distinguish it from the true and superior wisdom. A highly enlightened and well instructed soul in God can have a true discerning of this great Supplanter. And that he may be known to be this great Supplanter, here is a first and second charge brought against him.

20. That is what this book is all about. To show the way to completion in the life of one in a God-quest. It is well and good to hear much about the things held out to us and to know that we are to die in order to come into them, but "give us some specifics", is the cry often heard these days. While it is unnecessary and even unseemly to give out a set of rules and formulas, as if we were come to a New Testament Sinai, there are certain methods and ways which when known to the fervent seeker of God, can make things much easier and give hope and assurance even while in the very thick of the fight. I have no doubts whatever that this book will be a blessing to countless souls seeking that Life which is gained only through a death.

21. Many have come to almost flinch involuntarily at the mention of the word, mystical. But mystical simply means that which has a spiritual meaning or reality that is neither apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence. Whatever we may think about the word, mystical, be very clear about one thing. Because the death described herein is a mystical one and not a natural, observable one, it is no less a real death than a natural one. I stress this point because there are always those who mistakenly think that because something is not visible to the eye or detectable to the senses, it is therefore not truly genuine. They usually satisfy themselves by imagining themselves to be something spiritually they are not. This death, though indeed mystical, is every bit as real as a natural death and perhaps more so in some aspects of it. What you and I are to concern ourselves with is the fact that if our mystical, inward, spiritual death of the soul is not real, then neither shall our resurrection be real.

22. Obviously she does not mean that Daniel's literal spirit came upon her, but that same spirit of intercession by which he prevailed on behalf of the captive seed of Israel for an end to said captivity and a restoration of possessions lost.

23. This is an often little understood fact -- Satan is royalty. Even the angel Michael dared not to bring a railing accusation against him when contending with him over the body of Moses but said, "The Lord rebuke you." Many, not understanding this, are presumptuous and not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Please do not misunderstand me. I do not mean that we are to treat Satan with any cordiality or friendliness, but it must be understood that he still has a certain legal rule where this present realm is concerned and he knows this much better than we do. George Beutler, a precious saint of God, now in His Presence, once said that while waiting on the Lord in a motel room, the Lord appeared and spoke with him for some four hours, teaching him out of the Bible. He said that when Jesus had walked in through the closed door, there followed after him a train of glory, which then filled the room in which they were. After the Lord turned and left the room, His glory gathered up and followed Him in train. Then Satan walked into the room through the same closed door and behind him a train of glory followed him which also filled the entire room. He said that he was then made aware as he had never been before that Satan is royalty. I think it needs to be added that Satan is our enemy and is the essence of evil. There can be no quarter given with regard to him for you will certainly receive none from him. God has chosen to bring forth a seed, a royal seed, that will die completely to the realm over which Satan holds sway. They will receive governing authority and a throne much higher than anything Satan lays claim to in this present realm. Those caught up into this resurrection realm have nothing in them which corresponds to that realm over which Satan rules, that is, the old creation. This is why, in the 12th chapter of Revelation, when the Manchild is caught up to the throne of God, the dragon continues to make war with the remnant (the rest) of her seed. They are still of this realm, having not yet finished the dying process, and therefore Satan still has some legal ground in them. Not so with the Manchild.

24. It is my understanding that the term "beast," as it is referred to in Revelation and Daniel, as well as in some other places, has reference to the earthly government of a given age or era. Any government founded upon man's way of thinking, according to man's nature, is a bestial government. (See Daniel 7) It is that form of government or rule which is after man and according to that fallen creation which is in Adam. Thus, the beast of Revelation 13:1 which rises up out of the sea of humanity is an earthly governing authority which, like all of its kind, receives its power and its seat and its great authority ultimately from the Dragon. I think that as we continue to see these things unfolding before our very eyes we will begin to see them for what they are. There is no need to squabble over doctrinal differences on such issues. For there is another beast of which we must be even more wary than the above. It is that beast nature which is after Adam and is within each of us, by which we think and act, thus showing forth the mark in the forehead and in the right hand. This is the image into which man has fallen, which he must overcome, and from which he must be redeemed. Put down the rule and authority and power of that bestial nature within and one need never be concerned about an outward mark or image.

25. Americans have never really known oppression from government because this has always been a free country, but recently we have seen many of our rights and liberties suspended or circumvented by our government. In case you haven't looked lately, we aren't as free as we once were. Our form of government is no longer a democracy (rule by the people), it has become an oligarchy (rule by the few elite). I know that America is still the best place in the world to live, but it is not what it used to be. We are not far from a time when we could well come to know what it means to be oppressed by the bestial governmental powers of men still ruled by a fallen beast-nature. The beast which oppressed the early Church was Rome. The beast which oppresses the body of Christ in China even to this day is Communism, and we are seeing things happen daily which seem to be hastening us toward a situation wherein even if we don't come under a one-world-government, we are, for the first time ever, talking about giving up some of our national sovereignty for global trade considerations. These are momentous sounds that we should mark as having some weight. This will no doubt entail a change in our Constitution, allowing who-knows-what to then come into play. We, though citizens of another kingdom should pray earnestly for our President, for our leaders and for America, because troublous are as surely ahead for this nation as tomorrow's sun is sure to rise.

26. For this reason he is known as, "...the prince of the power of the air,..." --Ephesians 2:2.

27. The dismembering of the Body of Christ has come about because we have chosen not to die, chosen not to bear with someone, chosen not to suffer. It has been the mark of infancy among us that there has been such dissention and conflict. If we had been as spiritual as we have perhaps thought we were, would we not have shown the marks of a suffering Christ more in our lives? When we come to the place where we are willing to become conformed to His death, then Christ's Body will be remembered by us and made whole. This we will do if we love Him as we say we do. It will only come about through the dying members of His Body. May God have mercy on those who persist in betraying their Friend with a kiss, as doing so to the children of the Kingdom -- His members.

28. Every earnest seeker after God should take careful note of what is here openly declared: "Restitution and setting together again of Christ's disjointed members cannot be accomplished except by passage through the gate of Death!" It is confirmation that the dying way is the great imperative for all the members of the Body of Christ. As it was with Jesus, so it is with those who are His true disciples. He must be, 1. rejected of the elders, 2. slain, and 3. raised again the third day. We must 1. deny ourselves (that's rejection), 2. take up our cross (that's being slain) and 3. follow Him (and that's walking in His risen given life.) This is the only kind of disciple there ever has been or ever shall be.

29. By "sacrificing knife," it is meant, the living, applied Word of God. This is decidedly more than just reading the Bible; it is walking in the truths revealed to us by the Holy Ghost. This precious Spirit is always faithful to do what He has come to do. That is, to circumcise the heart by cutting away the fleshly foreskin thereof with the golden scalpel of God's word. He will carefully and patiently apply the Word to our lives so that there will come a separation of soul and spirit. We need not forget, either, that when we set out upon this dying way, to walk in it regardless of the cost, this same Word will be as a sword menacingly entering into everything, even into our family and causing a division, a breach, a split. Then it is that we remember His words, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. He that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it" --Matthew 10:34-39.

No sooner are we embarked upon this way than we find ourselves faced with some choice that to us may seem entirely unreasonable. Will it be the dying way or keeping peace in the family? How often has the higher way been sacrificed for the lower, moral, rational way? How often has obedience to Christ been made subordinate to the requests and desires of husband, wife, child or parent -- at great cost and loss? Dear saint of God, please hear this; we are not called to keep peace in the family, in the marriage, with the children or with the in-laws at the expense of perfect obedience to Christ. Never! Unreasonable, you say? Men have laid down their names, their fortunes, their marriages, and even their very lives to prove you wrong in this assessment of it. Those who have glimpsed the unsearchable riches of Christ and the glory that attends the first resurrection, have seen everything else shrivel and take on perfect corruption in the light of it. They need no one to exhort them to obedience. They have counted the cost (everything in fallen Adam) and deemed it to be the all-time bargain.

30. The teaching of merely and only a substitutional death without the participatory aspect of it, has brought about a pernicious and seriously wrong concept of Christ's work at Calvary. To know Him merely and only as a substitute implies a release from the guilt of sin but not from sin's power, leaving the offending one to continue in sin indefinitely. This is not only immoral but degrading to that sacrifice of which Christ said, "It is finished." This error is most fervently espoused by those who are only interested in "fire insurance." If full coverage costs more, they will take just that irreducible minimum. The unavoidable truth is that there is no way out of any life or realm except by a death. This is indisputable on the very face of things. It is the same with entering into another realm -- it cannot be done without a birth. Further, we are called to walk in Christ's life and not in our own. His life is ever and always a given life. It is never lived for one's self. No life lived for one's self is Christ's. Therefore are we everywhere in the epistles of Paul enjoined to participate in Christ's death and to know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death that we might also be made conformable to His resurrection.

31. It is this veil of flesh which was so well typified in Moses' Tabernacle as that which separated the Holy Place (the realm of the baptism of the Holy Spirit) from the Most Holy Place (the realm of fullness). Even though Christ has rent this veil when He died, the reality of a rent veil must become ours through an inwrought work of the Holy Spirit as much as His inwrought work that Christ truly died for us. Until this has been wrought in us, we cannot enter into the fullness of God's Presence. This veil which represents our soulish flesh-life must in reality be parted in us. Some have stopped half-way, simply reckoning themselves to be dead unto sin, and this we are to do. But if we simply reckon ourselves dead without participating in His death, without offering ourselves up to Him as living sacrifices to die daily, then we must inevitably and unavoidably continue to walk in weakness and sin. The reason for reckoning ourselves to be dead unto sin is so that we, being no more slaves to serve this body of sin, may be free to live unto God with our bodies as well as with our minds; as dying and yet living. How often have we been saddened at the sight of one who was quite obviously still in the clutches of his fleshly appetites, who theoretically claimed to be dead on no other basis but that the Bible said so. This is not reckoning, it is imagining. To be free from the bondage of the flesh is not so that we can serve ourselves or live for ourselves or satisfy ourselves; it is so that we, as the children of Israel who sought release from Pharaoh's bondage to go and sacrifice unto their God, might live unto God. This freedom from the slavery of the flesh is not ours merely in theory or concept, but in reality.

32. This refers to Adam's acting independently from God by use of the rational mind, the very fruit of partaking of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. No sooner were his eyes opened to the outer natural realm than they closed to the inner spiritual realm. For he had been promised that if he partook of this Tree that he would be as God, knowing both good and evil. He would be able to make his own decisions, as God. Since that fateful day, man has sat in the temple of God showing himself to be God and acting according to the logic of a reasoning mind gained through the fall. Man was not created with a reasoning mind, it came as the result of the transgression and fall. Thus, we must put this member of the rational mind to death also as being the root member of original sin.

It is well to remember that even the Lord Christ Himself was tempted of Satan in this regard with these words. "If thou be the Son of God, command these stones be made bread" --Matthew 4:3. The issue here was not that of hunger, it was, "If you can do something, then do it! Act on your own." The answer given to this challenge reveals the heart of the matter. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" --Matthew 4:4. In other words, Life comes not from taking thought for one's self, but from hearing and doing only what the Father says.

33. This, unhappily, is the case for many in the American Church. They have so long and so often heard the exhortation to die to self, to lead a crucified life that there is a lightness set by it as they continue in their embondaged condition, growing more and more insensitive to it. This has been caused in part by hearing this message preached from one not living it. It therefore carries no weight when preached to others and is received by them as such. This is a very dangerous position to be in, for the Word which was meant to prick the conscience means no more to these than does a thorn in the hand of one drunk on much wine.