Dying to self

ByTheSpirit said:

Just saying... telling someone inexperienced in faith or just born again to "just look to Jesus" to overcome the flesh is not bad advice it just doesn't accomplish much.

How do we "look to Jesus"?

We ask him for help. We focus our thoughts and meditate our heart on him.

Call out to him in the midst of trouble.

Praise him always.

Etc.

Practical tips

I didn't disagree with you, just trying to break it down a bit more is all

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I agree with the 'practical tips'. We probably do need to give more concrete examples of how some of us who are more mature believers incorporate Biblical concepts into our everyday lives.

ByTheSpirit said:

We ask him for help. We focus our thoughts and meditate our heart on him.

Call out to him in the midst of trouble.

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No. That's giving yourself far too much credit. He is our life, not our assistant. Maybe this is where you are having trouble.

GingerBeer said:

Death to self starts with thinking less about one's self.

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Sometime we complicate something that is pretty straight forward, so that's why I like this answer.

Our focus is love and service, that's how the world knows we are disciples of Christ

One of the surest ways to stop looking inward and putting the focus on our needs, wants and desires is to get out and serve others. Another way is to stop acquiring stuff.

When I know I'm leaving the house, I ask God to put others in my path that need loved and served.

It may just be getting a can off a high shelf for someone or encouraging and young mother that she is doing a good job or just a smile. Look around you and get busy loving people.

Spend time getting filled up with God's love and then go out spread it around.

ByTheSpirit said:

How is focusing my heart and thoughts on him making him my assistant?

Anyways didn't Jesus call the Holy Spirit "The Helper"... what else is he living in us for? Just hang out and watch us struggle?

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Read Galatians 2:20.

ByTheSpirit said:

I agree but how? What does that mean? How do you explain that to a newborn in Christ?

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Maybe you don't need to explain but show.

When someone is a new Christian, there needs to be a mature Christian walking with them for awhile until they are steady on their feet. It's called discipleship.

Teach them about healthy and unhealthy relationships, walk together through the one another's in the Bible, pray and worship together.

It takes time, it can be inconvenient or sometimes messy and always there is a risk to love.

ByTheSpirit said:

Praise God that was a beautiful explanation! Thank you!!!

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You are welcome and I'm glad that was helpful.

ByTheSpirit said:

How does one die to themselves? What practical advice would you give to someone seeking such advice?

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ByTheSpirit said:

I agree but that is a very bland answer from scripture. Not that it is bad, I'm not saying that but there is no practicality to it.

What practical advice do we give someone who wants to die to themselves but can not seem to do so?

Such as "denying oneself" etc

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I would recommend to you an anthology of comparative religion, with quotes from the major religions, including Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant. There are many wonderful quotes and a commentary explaining the need to modify our own consciousness by subordinating ourselves in varying degrees to a measure of asceticism, including chastity, humility, fasting or moderation in our consumption of food and drink. It is a most fascinating and educational essay.

I would also recommend Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre de Caussade.

ByTheSpirit said:

lol

That doesn't answer my question it only further cements it.

I am crucified with Christ... therefore I no longer live... Jesus now lives in me... (By The Spirit)

And this life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me...

Again how does that counter a person looking to themselves when they focus their thoughts and hearts on Christ?

How does that negate the Holy Spirit who is "The Helper" living in me to make me more Christ like? What else is he the "Helper" for? To help me bake cookies?

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It's called: f a i t h, and it's the only way this works.

You fail to see the obvious. You are trying to use self to kill self. That will never happen.

By the Spirit... Russ Taff has a OLD song about going down to be buried alive..and other songs pop up like..put Jesus 1st in your life.

If we dont really pray about this and understand one can get confussed. Well we die so HE can live.. for me to die is gain but to live is Christ. I ME ME ME is not in this. What I want .. things like this are 2nd place to HIM. Yet.. HE came to give us life.. and more abundently. He said how many times ASK the Father for ANYTHING.. what ever you desire when you pray. So one might look at this like WE are 1st.

But to die.. is to seek 1st the kingdom of GOD and HIS righteousness. See if we GIVE Him everything.. every thought desire all the things we want.. and this can hurt.. but what we just never see is when we give Him everything.. He does not keep it and run.. God for bid..no.. He gives it back.. SO MUCH GREATER.. and then.. you REALLY want to give everything .. every moment to HIM.

The flesh has not been changed so.. it has to die.. each day.. all of its WANTS and desires so forth. To put HIM 1st.. every thought word deed. Every action. Everywhere we go.. always praying.. always thinking of HIM. FREELY.. has to come from us FREELY..we have to WANT to do it. The flesh so many times does not want to..

To die.. how many of you KNOW when you cant fall asleep.. you KNOW just pick up the bible and start to read.. strange how fast this flesh wants to fall asleep haha. Dont FEEL like worship.. stand there and praise Him.. feel sad.. rejoice.. remind GOD of his word... like HIS JOY is your strength.. things like this..

Paul said it best by the sweet sweet Holy Spirit.. the things I want to do I dont do.. the things I dont want to do I do. So we dont go by how this body FEELS..its still alive in a sinful world. But your SPIRIT is NEW.. all things have become NEW. It like Jesus said.. the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.. aka we have to DIE to the flesh. So ASK Him for help..for it would seem at times.. its impossible to do.. but ALL things are possible to them in Christ.. He is RIGHT there with you.. so LEAN on Him.. pfft ..jump in His arms for that matter and relax

BytheSpirit, I fear that in most of the answers given here, we subconsciously have become our own potter, trying to fashion ourselves in such a way that we might please God and reflect His purity and holiness.

One of the most overlooked promises in the entire word of God concerns His promise to us of what exactly the new covenant will accomplish for us. In Ezekiel 36, He tells us clearly, concisely, that He will give us new hearts and cause us.... yes, Hos exact words.....to obey Him.

This will not happen by lifting up a atandard and thrn having God tell us to do our best to fulfill it. We can box up the flesh, we can try to discipline it, tie it up, wound it, but after all is said and done, it lives on, even in saints that have walked with God for many decades.

We have tossed around all the advice here for as long as we have followed Him, but there is a critical piece missing. All our efforts, though well intended and very sincere, ultimately still leave us in Romans 7 and with the free indeed promised us in Romans 8 always just out of our reach, like a miage teasing us in the desery sun.

The core of the old covenant, the law, was self effort. It can be summed up as:

Do, and you shall live

But the new covenant, praise God, puts one thing and one thing only on our shoulders. Only believe. When a man or woman steps out in fsith and declares to the heavens above, and to the devil below that the old him is dead, self is GONE, it almost seems like a lie. Our outer being still has the same weaknesses and propensities. But I promise you this. If a man will, no matter what, no matter how much he slips, or still acts like his old self, if he refuses to lower his shield, and clings to the truth that he IS dead, and his life is now hid in God, by that very act of abiding in Him, in the fact he is continuing in the truth and will not be moved away from the promise of God, then God WILL work from the inside out and change him, filling him with fruits we longed before to have but never could achieve them.

Indeed the new covenant is now summed up as:

Live, and you shall do

But who can believe such a thing is truly possible? Only the man or woman who has come to the end of themselves, and seen clearly that they will never die to self. Self is too strong. It is to the one who has NO strength that He increases might.

The passing over from unbelief to faith is the simplest thing in the world. But arriving at that place where their hunger for God, for abiding in Him all day, every day is so all consuming, that is indeed a pain filled journey.

When I had my visiation many years ago, I was at the point of despair. Ihad no more answers. I had tried everythibg I knew to die to the old me, all in vain. I was ready to give up, and do you know the words God spoke to me?

"For this, my son, I am well pleased with you."

It made no sense. For thirty eight years, I had sought the father's approval, amd heaven was brass. But now, when in tears I am telling God I cannot obey Him as I know I ought..... NOW He tells me He is pleased with me?..

But the next words Je spoke made it clear as day to my aching heart.

"I knew all along that you could not walk the walk I have for you, but you did not yet know it."

Yet.

What a powerful word, I finally was ready to ONLY believe, and from that day to this, God has never failed to live up to His promises. I have far to go in my metamorphisis, but how I wish all here could see how far HE has brought me. I have made my tree good by an act of desperate faith. But it is HIS job to fill me with fruit.

Now, as I continue to hold my testimony up and combine it with the blood of the lamb, the fruits I so longed to see manifested in my life, begin to swell and bud as if by magic.

It works, dear brother. HE works. Will we only believe? We will indeed.

Blessings,

Gids

ByTheSpirit said:

How does one die to themselves? What practical advice would you give to someone seeking such advice?

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The advice I would give, for the sake of giving " practical advice " is to simply deny what you once did for yourself.

Meaning:
1. You no longer live your life to please your own desires. Everything you do now, is with the intent to PLEASE GOD. In everything you do, you must always ask the question.." Is this pleasing God? How is this serving the LORD...Jesus Christ. "

2. Everything you do MUST involve Him some kind of way. Christian Forum participation is a practical way of doing that. Reading your Bible is another. Witnessing to co-workers or neighbors is another. Doing a good deed for some one in SPIRIT is another.

3. Test yourself to see if what you are doing is for God. If you're watching a sporting event on television, simply ask yourself " How is this applicable to the Will of God? "...if you can't answer that? Then you have not died to yourself in this particular scenario.

4. Doesn't mean to no longer feed yourself. That's not what it means to die to yourself. But self-control is one of the Fruits of the Spirit and so in the department of food consumption...do you really have to eat the last piece of chicken? Knowing that you are already FULL? To eat it means you have not died to yourself in this particular scenario.

Before death to Self, there must be love for God; for it is only love for God that is a motive powerful enough to take us into the death of the Cross. It was not duty, or obligation, or fear that motivated Jesus to atone for our sins at Calvary, it was not self-righteousness or religious piety that drove him on. No, it was "for the joy that was set before him that he endured the cross." (He. 12:2) And what was the source of his joy in the midst of such horrific self-sacrifice? Obeying the will of his Father (Jn. 5:30) And why was this incredibly painful obedience a joy? Because Christ loved and was loved by the Father. (Jn. 10:17, 18; 15:9-11) Nothing else but love has the power to move us to the sacrifice of the Cross with joy. Besides, God will not accept any dying to Self from us that does not arise out of a love for Him.

1 Corinthians 13:3
3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

The First and Great Commandment isn't to die to Self; it is to love God with all of one's being. (Matt. 22:36-38) When one is "made perfect in God's love" (1 Jn. 4:16-19) dying to Self is a very natural and even joyful thing - just as it was for our Saviour.

Selah.

ByTheSpirit said:

How does one die to themselves? What practical advice would you give to someone seeking such advice?

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Everything begins and ends with a thought; no thought, no problem.