Continuous Conversion

. . . unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven —Matthew 18:3

These words of our Lord refer to our initial conversion, but we should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. If we trust in our own abilities, instead of God’s, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. When God through His sovereignty brings us into new situations, we should immediately make sure that our natural life submits to the spiritual, obeying the orders of the Spirit of God. Just because we have responded properly in the past is no guarantee that we will do so again. The response of the natural to the spiritual should be continuous conversion, but this is where we so often refuse to be obedient. No matter what our situation is, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered. But we must “put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). God holds us accountable every time we refuse to convert ourselves, and He sees our refusal as willful disobedience. Our natural life must not rule— God must rule in us.

To refuse to be continuously converted puts a stumbling block in the growth of our spiritual life. There are areas of self-will in our lives where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, “I won’t submit.” We deify our independence and self-will and call them by the wrong name. What God sees as stubborn weakness, we call strength. There are whole areas of our lives that have not yet been brought into submission, and this can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.

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不斷迴轉

你們若不迴轉，變成小孩子的樣式……（太十八3）

這話不但在我們初信之時十分真確，就是在我們生命的每一天，也要迴轉，向神作小孩子。我們若信賴自己的頭腦過於神，他就要我們負責後果。我們的身體既在神安排下進入新的境況，就要讓天然生命順服聖靈的指揮。一次成功，並不等於第二次也可以成功。肉體生命與屬靈生命的關係，是不斷的迴轉，這是我們本性所不願的。不管在什麼環境下，神的靈始終不變，神的救恩也不變，但我們要[穿上新人]。我們每次不肯迴轉，神都要我們自己負責，因為我們的拒絕，是出於故意的頑梗。我們不要被肉體的生命管轄，必須讓神掌管。

屬靈生命的阻礙，是不肯經常迴轉悔改，我們用許多頑梗的藉口，在神的寶座前自傲地說：[我不肯。 ]我們尊崇獨立固執，給它們錯誤的稱號。神看作頑梗的軟弱，我們卻稱之為力量。我們生命中還有許多地方未受管治的，這只有靠經常迴轉才可以達成。逐漸地，我們必然被聖靈收復所有失地。

祈禱◆噢，主啊，願我能被你帶進你與我同在的境地，從你的立場觀看事情。今天早上，我要向你的百姓說話，噢，主啊，以你恩慈的靈重新膏立我。