Self will, self-love, self-centerednessùself, self, self!

I've got to be me!

How many assemblings have been destroyed by the self-will of the pastor or the people or both?

How does God destroy self-will out of us?

By suffering.

God keeps us in prison.

The cross is a prison. One arm of the cross is the denial of your intense desiresùfor a season at least. The other arm is the compelling of you to continue in a situation you "cannot stand for one more minute!"

Would you believe forty years?

There are three crosses on the hill. God is crucified. The unsaved are crucified. The saved are crucified.

There will be only two crosses on the hill when you take your place with Jesus and say "not my will but yours be done." In that day you will live in Christ at the right hand of the Father.

God's prisons don't last forever. There is light at the end of your tunnel, it is not a grave you are in.

But for Heaven's sake don't bolt and run. You can't stand another day? Cool!

If you focus on your cross you will destroy yourself. There always are little flowers in the valley. Concentrate on your blessings. Quit focusing on your pain, what you are being denied. Get a hobby. Do something. But do not break God's laws by grasping what you want before the time or running from your responsibilities. "Can you hear me?" the drill instructor used to scream.

You want to rule with Christ? The cross and the crown go together.

You must be conquered internally before you are ready to march in the army of the Lord in the conquest of Satan and the nations of the earth. Until you are governing yourself with the rod of iron how do you expect to shatter the nations?

Your love of the world must be brought under subjection to Jesus Christ.

The lusts of your flesh must be brought under subjection to Jesus Christ.

Your self-will and personal ambition must be brought under subjection to Jesus Christ.

Tell Him right now this is what you want.

"Dear Jesus, I repent of my love of the world and excessive participation in it. Show me where I am sinning in this area. Guide me as I through the Holy Spirit reckon myself dead with Christ and alive with Christ and begin to think, speak, and act as a Christian should. Deliver me from entanglement with the things of this life.

"I repent of yielding to the passions of my flesh. Show me the elements of sin that are living in my flesh. Guide me as I through the Holy Spirit put every one of these sins to death, remembering the failure of the Israelites to destroy the enemy completely.

"I repent of my self-will, my stubbornness, having to have my own way, running through the checks of the Lord, refusing to seek His counsel in every detail of life. Guide me as I learn to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, not murmuring and complaining as I am obliged to suffer the withholding of my desires for a season. Help me to remain faithfully in the prison where I have been placed and wait, as did Joseph of old, for deliverance from Your hand.

"This I pray in Jesus' name. Amen."

Congratulations! You are on your way to perfect internal conquest.

God has many such as you in these days. He is preparing all of us for external conquest, for the Battle of Armageddon, for the driving of all sin and rebellion from the world.

God is ready to punish all disobedience as soon as your obedience is complete.