Allow the Cross to Deal with us and Not Loving our Soul-Life to Overcome the Enemy

The overcomers as part of the man-child overcome the enemy by not loving their soul-life even unto death; we need to be those who allow the cross to deal with our natural strength and ability so that we don’t live by our self, have no self-confidence, and not love our soul-life even unto death for the Lord’s sake.

Lord Jesus, we love You! We love You more than we love our soul-life. Shine on us. Expose what our soul-life is. Expose our self-confidence. Shine and expose any natural ability and strength. Oh Lord, may Your cross operate in us to deal with our trust in the self, our soul-life, and anything of the self, so that we may be more than overcomers in Christ! Make us Your overcoming saints today! Make us those whom You can rapture at Your return! Amen!

This week we have been prayerfully considering the matters of the man-child, the war in heaven, and the overcoming saints. On the one hand, the man-child seen in Revelation 12 refers to the overcoming saints who have died and will be resurrected by the Lord to be raptured to heaven.

On the other hand, we today want to be the Lord’s overcoming saints, those who overcome in our situations, wherever the Lord places us, so that we may cooperate with the Lord for His kingdom to come and for His enemy to be defeated.

As soon as the man-child is raptured in Revelation 12 we see that there’s a war in heaven. It is not the man-child who fights, but Michael and his angels begin to war against Satan, and Satan and his armies are cast down, for there’s no place found for them in heaven.

This means that the man-child, composed of those who overcome the enemy in their lifetime, is raptured and cannot tolerate Satan’s presence in the heavens, so the command is issued, and Satan is cast down.

Who are these people, and how can such ones be produced? How can we be become such overcoming believers today?

As seen in Revelation 12:10-11, the overcomers are those who overcome Satan because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony and they did not love their soul life even unto death.

We need to be those who apply the blood of Christ and hide under the powerful, prevailing, overcoming blood.

We need to even speak to the enemy concerning this prevailing blood. We need to be those who declare the divine facts, always proclaiming the victory of Christ over Satan. In this way, we overcome the enemy, and he has to flee from us.

We Overcome Satan by Not Loving our Soul-life even unto Death: we must Hate and Deny our Soul-Life

The third main way for us to overcome the enemy is by not loving our soul-life even unto death (Rev. 12:11).

Why do we need to not love our soul-life? We need to realise that, due to Adam’s fall, Satan joined himself to man’s soul-life – man’s self. In order for overcome Satan, we need to not love our soul-life (Matt. 16:23-24; Luke 14:26; 9:23).

We may think that it is not something sinful to allow our soul to have its enjoyment and way in this age, but we need to realise that Satan joined himself to our soul-life.

As believers in Christ who want to be the Lord’s overcomers in this age, we need to not love our soul-life even unto death. This means that we must hate our self; we follow the Lord by denying the self, taking up our cross, and losing our soul-life.

Our soul-life is like dust, food for Satan; when we are indulging in our soul-life, when we do things in our soul, Satan eats and is delighted.

But if we don’t love our soul-life, our self, there will be no food for Satan, and he will be killed. When our soul-life is killed, Satan is killed also.

This is the way for us to be the stronger part of the woman, the man-child, to overcome Satan. We need to go on with the Lord and advance in our experience of life to overcome Satan by losing our soul-life.

One of the main reasons so many Christians have not been growing in life for years and even for decades is that they live in their soul-life.

They may not sin, they may not create problems in the church life, and there’s no dissension with them; they just live according to what their souls like.

The Lord has to break through in us. There has to be the breaking of the outer man so that the inner man may be released and the Lord’s life to flow.

We are believers in Christ, but in ourselves, when we live in the flesh and in the old man, we are like the rest of human beings on earth: we love ourselves.

We may love people, but when it comes down to it, we love ourselves first. We not only have a soul-life, but we love it. We love our soul, our disposition, and our feelings. Oh Lord Jesus!

How can we overcome Satan if we love our soul-life, thus feeding Satan until, as seen in Revelation, he becomes a great dragon? Oh Lord!

May we learn to open to the Lord and allow Him to shine on what our soul-life is. May we allow Him to shine on us and expose us. May He expose the abyss in our being. May we let Him make His home deep down in our heart.

To overcome Satan, we need to not only stand on the blood of Christ and proclaim the victory of Christ, all of which have nothing to do with us but with Christ and what He has done, but we also need to lose our soul-life, even hate our soul-life, not loving our soul-life even unto death.

Satan is expressed through our soul-life. Our soul is joined to Satan, and when we live in our soul-life, we express Satan. May we learn to open to the Lord about this and let Him shine.

It is only when He shines and exposes our soul-life that we can allow the cross to operate in us. We need to let the cross operate in our being to put our soul-life to death.

Satan wants us to act in our own strength, move in ourselves, do things in the power of the soul, and speak with our natural ability.

The Lord, however, wants to thoroughly deal with our inner being; He wants to touch the natural strength, the natural ability, and the self in all its expressions.

Satan wants us to act in our own strength and move in ourselves with the power of our soul, our natural ability; this is exactly opposite to what the Lord wants us to do.

Our natural ability is the ability which we originally had and which has never been dealt with by the operation of the cross.

When we do something according to our natural ability, we delight in it, for this is what we love doing.

We may even speak for the Lord eloquently or expound the Scriptures, yet we do this with our natural ability.

There is no denying that each one of us has a certain ability by birth or by training; the problem is when we use it for the Lord without it going through death and resurrection.

We need the operation of the cross so that the power of Christ’s resurrection may work in us.

The failure of the church is mainly due to man’s bringing in his natural ability. So many did great works for God, spoke great things, yet they did everything in their own natural ability.

Even in the church life, we may do so many things and even speak in the meetings according to what we are by nature, not in the Lord or in resurrection.

May we be before the Lord regarding this, for as long as we live in and love our soul-life, we cannot overcome Satan. May we open to Him, telling Him,

Lord Jesus, we want to be Your overcomers today. We open to You. Thank You we can take Your blood and we can proclaim Your victory. Oh Lord, we want to go deeper with You. May we be those who do not love their soul-life even unto death. We want to follow You and be Your true disciple; we deny the self, take up the cross, and lose the soul-life today. Oh Lord, we simply open to You. Cause us tos ee that Satan has joined himself to our soul-life. May we see that our self is the embodiment and expression of Satan. May we reject the self and not do things according to our soul-life. Make us Your overcoming believers today, those who do not love their soul-life even unto death. Grant us the spirit of a martyr, one who sacrifices his soul-life for the Lord’s sake. Oh Lord, may we not live in the soul-life or do things according to our natural ability. We love You and we depend on You. We allow Your cross to operate in us to break our outer man so that the inner man may be strengthened and Your life can flow in us! Amen!

Allow the Cross to Deal with our Natural Strength and Ability so that we Lose our Soul-Life for the Lord’s Sake and Overcome the Enemy as we Live and do All Things in Resurrection

Each one of us has their own soul-life, their own natural abilities and capabilities. Some may be shy, but they may have an ability to do something else, and when they do that thing, they are happy, and they do it with all their heart.

Others may be quite outspoken, and they may speak Scriptural things without being in their spirit or depending on the Lord.

However, we cannot serve God with our natural ability that has never been dealt with by the cross.

God must bring us all to the place where we are trembling and fearful lest we do anything without the Lord. We must become persons who not just speak things or do things for the Lord but our very being is proper.

To be useful in the hand of God, our soul-life needs to be denied and put aside.

The purpose of the cross is to deal with our natural strength and ability so that we will not dare to move by ourselves. We see this in particular in the cases of Moses and Peter (Acts 7:23-30; Luke 22:32-34; 1 Pet. 5:5-6).

They both were in their natural strength doing things for the Lord, and God had to expose them and deal with their self-confidence to the extent that they depended on the Lord for all things.

May we have the attitude that we will not live by our self in any way; we will not value our own ability or have any self-confidence (1 Cor. 2:2-4; Phil. 3:3; cf. Isa. 11:2).

Paul had this attitude; he did not come as a powerful speaker with great words of wisdom but rather, in weakness and with much trembling. He determined to know nothing and no one among the saints but Jesus Christ, and this One crucified.

His speech and proclamation was not in persuasive words of wisdom. As to his person, he was in fear and trembling, not trusting in himself. In regard to his work, he did not have any persuasive words of wisdom but spoke the Lord’s word as the gospel.

We may think that if Paul were here today, he will be so rich, full of his own resources, and powerful in speaking. But his message was the cross and he himself was in weakness, fear, and much trembling.

This is what the cross works out in us. If we are dealt with by the cross, if we allow the cross to operate in our being, we will not have any self-confidence but rather, we will not boast except in Christ and in His cross.

The Lord wants to change our attitude, and we can cooperate with Him to change our attitude.

We can choose before the Lord not to live in the soul or in the soul life but allow the Lord to make His home in our heart (Eph. 3:16-17).

We can allow the cross to operate in us to deal with our natural strength and ability so that we have no self-confidence but trust in the Lord, and do all things in resurrection, one with the Lord.

May we allow the cross to work in us subjectively to take away and remove from us anything that does not originate with God, leaving only things that are of God.

When the cross operates in us, we can no longer do things in and by ourselves to help others, preach the word, or adjust others; we will depend on the Lord.

What we previously could do in ourselves, we no longer can do, for the cross has cut our self-confidence, and now we rely on the Lord for all things.

We will no longer love anything of our soulish life or of the life of the flesh; we will let all these things go into death.

We will not value our own ability or have any self-confidence; we will live as men full of fear and trembling, for we realise we’re feeble persons.

This will make us self-sacrificing persons, even a drink offering, allowing Christ as the heavenly wine to fill us and cause us to become wine to God (Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6; Judg. 9:13).

Just as Christ poured Himself out as the real wine before God for His satisfaction, just as the apostle Paul became a drink offering poured out upon the sacrifice and service of the saints’ faith, so we will pour out the Christ constituted into us over others and before God for His satisfaction.

Lord Jesus, we allow the cross to operate in us today to deal with our natural strength and ability. Oh Lord, may our spirit flow! May You have a way to overthrow any confidence in the self. We open to You. We love You. We give You the ground in our being. We say Amen to the subjective work of the cross in our being. Amen, Lord, may we with all we have and are and can do pass through the cross. May we depend on You for all things. May we realise how feeble and weak we are, fully depending on You for all things. Oh Lord, have Your way in our being. Make us persons who can overcome the enemy by losing our soul-life by the work of the cross. May we be those who do not value our own ability or have any self-confidence. Take us on with You. Make us a drink offering to God, self-sacrificing persons who allow Christ as the heavenly wine to fill us and cause us to become wine to God! Amen, Lord, have a free way to fill us, even to fill all our inner being, and to flow out through us in a pure way! May our spirit flow! May Satan in us be overcome! Praise the Lord!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 34, “The Glorious Church,” msg. 4, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (4) (2025 December Training), week 44 (msg. 8), The Man-child, the War in Heaven, and the Overcoming Saints – day 6.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Oh, may my spirit flow, / Oh, may it flow! / Now I beseech Thee, Lord / Oh, may it flow! / My past I would forsake, / The iron walls would break, / My spirit free would make; / Oh, may it flow! / Oh, may my spirit flow, / Oh, may it flow! / Now I implore Thee, Lord, / Oh, may it flow! / No more self-satisfied, / No more in self-bound pride, / No more my spirit tied; / Oh, may it flow! (Hymns #846 stanzas 1-2)
  – By the cross discern the spirit, / Put the soul to death alway; / Bear the cross, deny the self-life, / Walk in spirit day by day. / By the cross discern the spirit, / Through the living Word of God, / Separating soul from spirit, / That the right path may be trod. (Hymns #748 stanzas 1-2)
  – The cross’s final goal, that God’s will be fulfilled; / His will’s arch enemy is but the self of man. / If self be done away and all the soul-life killed, / God’s will shall then prevail and prospered be His plan. (Hymns #622 stanza 3)