MAN’S SOUL BEING
SATURATED WITH SATAN
We must realize that our soul has been thoroughly saturated with Satan. In our soul we are one with Satan and permeated with Satan. Whether you have a good intention or a bad intention, whether you love people or hate people, and whether you are a gentleman or a criminal, you are saturated with Satan.
What could be better than a noble concern for the Lord? Peter had such a concern for the Lord Jesus; yet the Lord rebuked him because he was occupied by Satan. If you set your mind on the things of God, that is excellent. But if you set your mind on the things of men, you are in the kingdom of Satan. This portion of Matthew 16 reveals that our soul in its fallen condition is one with Satan. Because this is the condition of our soul, we must apply the cross to it.
I appreciate the Lord’s word in Matthew 10:37-39. The Lord said that anyone who loves parents or children more than Him is unworthy of Him. If you love your parents or your children more than you love the Lord Jesus, you are finished with Him. Then in Luke 14:26-27 the Lord spoke of hate. The Lord said that if anyone comes to Him and fails to hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be His disciple. These two passages linked together prove that it makes no difference whether you love or hate as long as you are one with Satan. Our eyes must be opened to see what we are in our soul. In our soul is the kingdom of Satan. Our soul has been fully saturated with Satan and has become his kingdom, his domain.
BEARING THE CROSS
God’s way to deal with the soul is the cross. The cross must do its work in us. We have been put on the cross already, but we must stay there. To bear the cross means to remain on the cross. The destiny and destination of our soul is the cross. The good soul and the bad soul, the loving soul and the hating soul, have been put on the cross. God has put your soul on the cross and it must remain there. The Lord Jesus first bore the cross and then was crucified on the cross. We, on the contrary, were first crucified on the cross and now we bear the cross continually. Never get off the cross, for God has put you there. Whenever we come down from the cross, immediately we become one with Satan. We saw in the last chapter that because our mind is a battlefield we must pray for the Lord to bind the strong man. However, for our emotions, for our loving and hating organ, we must bear the cross. For our mind we must bind the strong man, and for our emotions, we must bear the cross.
(The Kingdom, Chapter 10, by Witness Lee)
