{"id":10634,"date":"2013-12-11T10:10:10","date_gmt":"2013-12-11T15:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=10634"},"modified":"2013-12-11T10:59:11","modified_gmt":"2013-12-11T15:59:11","slug":"individuality-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=10634","title":{"rendered":"Individuality"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Jesus said to His disciples, \u2019If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself . . .\u2019 \u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&amp;search=Matthew+16%3A24\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew 16:24<\/a><\/h1>\n<p><!-- .entry-meta --><!-- .entry-header --><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uOg-1JjAdGk\" height=\"315\" width=\"620\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<section>Individuality is the hard outer layer surrounding the inner spiritual life. Individuality shoves others aside, separating and isolating people. We see it as the primary characteristic of a child, and rightly so. When we confuse individuality with the spiritual life, we remain isolated. This shell of individuality is God\u2019s created natural covering designed to protect the spiritual life. But our individuality must be yielded to God so that our spiritual life may be brought forth into fellowship with Him. Individuality counterfeits spirituality, just as lust counterfeits love. God designed human nature for Himself, but individuality corrupts that human nature for its own purposes.<\/section>\n<p>The characteristics of individuality are independence and self-will. We hinder our spiritual growth more than any other way by continually asserting our individuality. If you say, \u201cI can\u2019t believe,\u201d it is because your individuality is blocking the way; individuality can never believe. But our spirit cannot help believing. Watch yourself closely when the Spirit of God is at work in you. He pushes you to the limits of your individuality where a choice must be made. The choice is either to say, \u201cI will not surrender,\u201d or to surrender, breaking the hard shell of individuality, which allows the spiritual life to emerge. The Holy Spirit narrows it down every time to one thing (see\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+5:23-24\">Matthew 5:23-24<\/a>). It is your individuality that refuses to \u201cbe reconciled to your brother\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+5:24\">Matthew 5:24<\/a>). God wants to bring you into union with Himself, but unless you are willing to give up your right to yourself, He cannot. \u201c. . . let him deny himself . . .\u201d\u2014 deny his independent right to himself. Then the real life-the spiritual life-is allowed the opportunity to grow.<\/p>\n<p>__________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>December 11, 2013-JDV<\/p>\n<p>Lord, thank you for the reminder about my individuality\u2026that it can get in the way. It seems that You only want one thing, my surrender to You. And when I surrender, I can relax, be at peace and simply \u201cgo play\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>And God says<em>\u2026\u201dEverything in the Bible and life can be summed up in two steps; love your God with all your heart and mind, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. Now go play. Go live life and life more abundantly; laugh, love, work, sleep, eat, knowing that I will meet all your needs, according to my riches in heaven. Know that when you seek Me first I provide everything else you need. Delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your heart.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cSurrender to Me, then live out your day, eagerly and expectant, curious about what I am going to do\u2026knowing that I have plans for your good, and \u00a0I sealed that promise with My Son\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus said to His disciples, \u2019If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself . . .\u2019 \u2014Matthew 16:24 Individuality is the hard outer layer surrounding the inner spiritual life. Individuality shoves others aside, separating and isolating people. We see it as the primary characteristic of a child, and rightly so. When we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10634"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10634"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10641,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10634\/revisions\/10641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}