12/01/13 DEATH TO SELF IS ESSENTIAL AND PAINFUL
Those who are unsaved hate to hear about being BORN AGAIN. It is too mystical, too mysterious, too churchy, too religious. Once a person is born again, he realizes it is as normal as eating and drinking and breathing, except it is in the spiritual realm.
Those who are not sanctified entirely hate to hear about themselves or their old man (sinful nature) being CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST. Death means the end of a rule and authority, almost a relationship. The un-sanctified have an inner resistance to losing control of their own lives, and an inner rejection of sacrificing the things that they have come to love.
"Crucifixion" is an appropriate model used in the Bible to explain a part of what happens when believers are Entirely Sanctified. Another model is "the Baptism with the Holy Spirit," though it has been misrepresented by the glossolalia people.
"The Baptism" is actually the means whereby believers are Sanctified Entirely; the Holy Spirit purifies the heart of the believer (Ac. 9:15), which is entire sanctification (1 Th. 5:23), and He fills the believer with Himself. The death to the old man is not a happy occasion, since it involves the believer dying to self rule; but the filling of the Holy Spirit is the more enjoyable part of this experience. Therefore you can see why people tend to talk more about, "the Baptism" or "the Filling," than they do the, "crucifixion of self."
However, the "death to self" part is essential to the "fullness of the Holy Spirit" part. But death is hard and painful. The more a person wants to hold on to the carnal mind, the more traumatic it is to make total commitment. Dying may take awhile, but when death comes, it is sudden and it is sometimes horrific. Some people come to the point of sudden death, but then take their offering off of the altar, thus losing the possibility of heart purity and the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
For those who deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Christ, there is newness of life and all of the blessings of God are taken to a new level.
But, you gotta die to self before you are set free completely.
