We can be saved by believing in the Lord Jesus. We can receive the Holy Spirit by presenting ourselves before the Lord for His service. But we cannot press further into the Kingdom of God until we have the sentence of death in ourselves.

Why is this? It is because we must overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our Spirit-filled testimony, and finally by loving not our life to the point of death. Until we are willing to hand over to God every hope, every aspiration, every joy, every promise, Satan has a foothold in us. We still have an idol. God is not completely God and Lord. We are not yet a chariot of God.

The Apostle Paul was a fruitful bough. But not by the efforts of his adamic nature.

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (II Corinthians 4:6)

The revelation and Person of God through Christ dwell in the heart of each member of the Body of Christ as he or she keeps the commandments of the Lord Jesus. But the member of the Body cannot then communicate the Divine Glory to the needy of the world by means of his or her adamic efforts. There is only one way the Life of Jesus can be revealed, and that is through the death and resurrection of the minister.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. (II Corinthians 4:7)

God has placed all His little gods in earthen vessels. Our physical body is the body of our humbling. The strongest among us is no more than an ant in the universal scheme of things. We are dust and less than dust compared to the mighty angels who do the will of God. The galaxies move in their celestial orbits while we death-doomed creatures crawl about on the ground. This humbling is for the purpose of maintaining the preeminence of the power of God. Even in this lowly state human beings strut about as though they had power and wisdom of their own that was of benefit to mankind. What a delusion!

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; (II Corinthians 4:8,9)

Why do such troubles fall on the man of God who is attempting to do God's will? It is to keep the flesh of the individual from being able to accomplish anything in its own strength. Unless God is doing the work it is of no profit. We are to be God's chariot. God is not our chariot. It is not a case of God blessing our work, it is a case of our being obedient to God and doing His work as He provides the wisdom, protection, health, and strength.

All—absolutely all—we can accomplish by our own means is loss for Christ (and for us as well!)

Trouble, perplexity, persecution—these help us greatly by keeping our flesh and soul from being lifted up. Just when we think we can do something we are struck down. How wonderful! How utterly wonderful it is to come up out of the wilderness leaning on our Beloved!

We enter the Kingdom of God through much tribulation. There is no other way to enter the Kingdom of God. It is still our own kingdom until our natural man is brought down to helplessness.

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. (II Corinthians 4:10) (from The Chariots of God)