Secret of the Master’s Indwelling (1) ... the Carnal Christian

by Dale Shumaker
Spirit Savvy Network
www.spiritsavvy.net

Finding your mission, Empowering your life through prayer,
Becoming a Missionary in the Marketplace,
Leading others to be Missionaries in the Marketplace

The Secret of the Master's Indwelling is about digging our roots deep into God’s soil that bears fruit abundantly and gives us strength Supernaturally. Andrew Murray shows what we must do and be to become stalwarts of Faith.

Secret of the Master’s Indwelling, Chapter 1, the Carnal Christian.

"The Church of Christ there are two classes of Christians. Some have lived many years as believers, and yet always remain babes, are carnal; others are spiritual men, because they have given themselves up to the power, the leading and to the entire rule of the Holy Ghost. If we are to obtain a blessing, we must first decide to which of these classes we belong. Are we, by the grace of God, in deep humility living a spiritual life, or are we living a carnal life?

From what we find in Corinthians, the marks of the carnal state. First: It is simply a condition of protracted infancy.

This is just the condition of many believers. They are converted; yet, somehow, there is very little growth in spirituality, in the real heavenly life. We come into contact with them, and we feel at once there is something wanting; there is none of the beauty of holiness or of the power of God’s Spirit in them. This is the condition of the carnal Corinthians.

The other sign of an infant is this: he can do nothing to help his fellow-man. Every man is expected to contribute something to the welfare of society; every one has a place to fill and a work to do.  They take a part in work, as it is called, but there is little of exercising spiritual power and carrying real blessing.

The second mark of the carnal state is this: There is sin and failure continually. strife or bitterness or envying is often shown by him. Alas! Alas! In we are told that the works of the flesh are specially hatred and envy. How often among Christians do we see divisions and bitterness! God have mercy upon them, that the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, is so frequently absent from His own people.

A third mark which will explain further what I have been saying, is that this carnal state may be found in existence in connection with great spiritual gifts. In the 12th and 14th chapters we see that the gifts of prophecy and of working miracles were in great power among them; but the graces of the Spirit were noticeably absent. I may have influence, and gather a large congregation, and yet, alas! I may be a carnal man; a man who may be used by God, and may be a blessing to others, and yet the carnal life may still mark me.

Now, in these carnal Corinthians there was a little of God’s Spirit, but the flesh predominated; the Spirit had not the rule of their whole life. And the spiritual men are not called so because there is no flesh in them, but because the Spirit in them has obtained dominance, you feel that the Spirit of God has sanctified them. Ah, let us beware lest the blessing God gives us in our work deceive us and lead us to think that because he has blessed us, we must be spiritual men. God may give us gifts that we use, and yet our lives may not be wholly in the power of the Holy Ghost.

The marks of the spiritual man are that he will be a meek man; and that he will have power, and love to help and restore those that are fallen. The carnal man cannot do that.

How can I enter into the spiritual state?

Nothing cuts the roots of the Christian life so much as unbelief. People do not believe what God has said about what He is willing to do for His children. Men do not believe that when God says, “Be filled with the Spirit,” He means it for every Christian.

The first thing that we need is to study, and to take home God’s Word, to our belief until our hearts are filled with the assurance that we can be spiritual men. God’s Word teaches us that God does not expect a man to live as he ought for one minute unless the Holy Spirit is in him to enable him to do it.

Then comes the second step; a man must see the shame and guilt of his having lived such a life. Some people admit there is a spiritual life to live, and that they have not lived it, and they are sorry for themselves, and pity themselves.

But there is one step for a man to get out of the carnal life into the spiritual life. It is when a man utterly breaks with the flesh; when he gives up the flesh into the crucifixion death of Christ; when he sees that everything about it is accursed and that he cannot deliver himself from it; and then claims the slaying power of Christ’s cross within him,—it is when a man does this and says: “This spiritual life prepared for me is the free gift of my God in Christ Jesus,” that he understands how one step can bring him out of the carnal into the spiritual state.

A man must take that step, a solemn but blessed step.

Will you not take the step? God grant that we may be led by His Spirit to a yielding up of ourselves to Him as never before. Will you not come in humble confession that, He has not made you what you want to be—a spiritual man? It is the Holy Spirit alone who by His indwelling can make a spiritual man.

Come then and cast yourself at God’s feet, with this one thought, “Lord, I give myself an empty vessel to be filled with Your Spirit.” Each one of you sees every day at the tea table an empty cup set there, waiting to be filled with tea when the proper time comes.

Bow down in the deepest emptiness of soul, and say, “Oh, God, I have nothing!” and then surely as you place yourself before Him you have a right to say, “My God will fulfill His promise! I claim from Him the filling of the Holy Spirit to make me, instead of a carnal, a spiritual Christian.” If you place yourself at His feet, and tarry there; if you abide in that humble surrender and that childlike trust, as sure as God lives the blessing will come.

The complete chapter on Carnal Christians
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/murray/indwelling.iv.html
The Christian Classics Ethereal Library and many great classic works on Christian Growth, by the best of the Saints of Old who’s works have been passed down through the ages.