Those who labor for the Lord need to see distinctly that nothing in man can generate Gods life. We may exhaust every psychological method to excite mans emotion, to arouse his interest in religion, to make him feel sorry and shameful for his past history, to create in him a fear of the coming penalty, to foster admiration of Christ, to induce him to seek communication with Christians, or to be merciful to the poor: we may even cause him to feel happy in doing these things: but we cannot regenerate him. Since interest, sorrow, shame, fear, admiration, aspiration, pity and joy are merely various impulses of emotion, man can experience all these and his spirit still be dead for he has not yet apprehended God intuitively. From the human viewpoint, might not one be tempted to assert that if a man possesses all these qualities must he not be a first- class Christian? Yet these are but the manifestations of emotion; these do not prove regeneration. The first and foremost sign of new birth in anyone is that he knows God intuitively, for his spirit has been quickened. Let us not be misled or be content in our work if people should change their attitude towards us, become friendly with us, and manifest the abovementioned expressions. This is not regeneration! Watchman Nee The Spiritual Man Oh Lord that You would teach us how to serve You by the strength of the Holy Spirit so that lives may truly be saved! Show us how Lord, in our times, for we have not yet been shown.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 11:47:25 +0000
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