( Heb. 4:12 ; 2 Tim. 1:7 ; Matt. 10:38-39 ) The call of the Cross of the Lord Jesus is to beckon us to hate our natural life, to seek to lose it and not keep it. Our Lord wants us to sacrifice self and be yielded wholly to the working of the Holy Spirit. If we are to experience afresh His true life in the power guidance of the Holy Spirit, we must be willing to present to death every opinion, labor and thought of the old soul life.

( Ps. 25:20-21 ; Isa. 53:12 ; Luke 23:46 ; 1 Pet. 4:19 ) Self-pity, self-love, fear of suffering, withdrawal from the cross are manifestations of the old soul life: for its prime need and motivation is self preservation. When we choose to commit our souls to His keeping and not follow our desires, God will fulfill His purposes in and through us to establish His Kingdom on earth. Jesus poured out His soul to death and gave His Spirit to the Father. We are to do the same by putting our trust in His promises and to wait on God to fulfill us.

( Heb. 4:12-16 ; Luke 2:35 ; Matt. 10:38-39 ) By His word and the indwelling Holy Spirit, the Christian is enabled to differentiate in experience the operation and expression of the spirit as distinct from those of the soul. The High-Priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus in this case fulfills His work as High Priest with respect to our spirit and soul, splitting apart the soul and spirit by the word of God which is the sword of the Spirit.

The sword pierced Mary's soul for she was required to let go of Him 'Her Son', to relinquish all her authority and demands upon Him. Mary must deny her natural affections, and so do we. As Jesus poured out His soul to death but committed His Spirit to God, we must do the same. Then we shall know the power of His resurrection and shall enjoy a perfect spiritual way in the glory of resurrection ( Phil. 3:10 ).

( Ps. 25:20-21 ; Rom. 6:11-12 ; 1 Pet. 1:22 ; Luke 9:23-24 ; Gal. 5:16-17 ) We must know the necessity of having the spirit and soul divided. We are to ask God to do His work, the separation of our spirit from our soul. Our responsibility is to yield daily to specific situations as we stand on Rom. 6:11 daily bearing the cross and living according to the Spirit.

( Rom. 12:1-2 ) To lie on the altar is what we must do. Everything that belongs to emotions, sensations, mind and natural energy would be separated one after another from the spirit so as to leave no trace of fusion.

( Mark 15:38 ) Curtain that remains is our soulish, natural life. We are to commit our soul life to death in order that the Lord Who dwells in the Holiest may finish His work. As the work of the cross works thoroughly enough in us the Lord shall indeed integrate the Holiest and the Holy within us just as He did centuries ago: renting the curtain by His might so that the Holy Spirit might flow out from His Glorious body, filling our soul completely with His Presence.

( 2 Chron. 7:1-2 ; Heb. 10:39 ; 1 Pet. 1:9 ; Eph. 6:6 ; Matt. 6:25 ; 1 Pet. 4:19 ; Luke 1:46 ; Matt. 6:33 ) Our mind, emotion, memory, imagination, and will shall be filled by Him. What we know by faith, we shall know and experience in the soul. The cross works toward the surrender of the soul's independence so that it may be reconciled completely to the spirit. We obtain the life of the word from the word of life. Though the organs of the soul still remain, these organs no longer function through its own power; rather, they operate by the power of God's word. A soul under the rule of the Holy Spirit never fears, never worries because self-consciousness and self-centeredness are eliminated as believers lose their self in God. Instead of suffering anxiety we can restfully seek God's Kingdom and righteousness. We know if we care for God's cares that God will take care of our cares.