These words
mean the breaking and collapse of my independence brought about by my own
hands, and the surrendering of my life to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No
one can do this for me, I must do it myself. God may bring me up to this point
three hundred and sixty-five times a year, but He cannot push me through it. It
means breaking the hard outer layer of my individual independence from God, and
the liberating of myself and my nature into oneness with Him; not following my
own ideas, but choosing absolute loyalty to Jesus. Once I am at that point,
there is no possibility of misunderstanding. Very few of us know anything about
loyalty to Christ or understand what He meant when He said, “…
for My sake” (Matthew 5:11). That is what makes
a strong saint.
Has that
breaking of my independence come? All the rest is religious fraud. The one
point to decide is—will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no
conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from
my own understanding of myself. When I reach that point, immediately the
reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. And
the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable—“I
have been crucified with Christ … .”
The
passion of Christianity comes from deliberately signing away my own rights and
becoming a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I will not begin to be
a saint.
