For years after I had been saved, I had been taught to "reckon." But the more I reckoned I was dead to sin, the more alive to sin I clearly was! I simply could not believe myself dead, and I saw no way of producing this death. Whenever I sought help from others I was told to read Romans 6:11, and the more I read Romans 6:11 and tried to reckon, the further away death was. I could not get it at all. In my trouble, I said to the Lord Jesus, "Lord, if I cannot be brought to see this which is so fundamental, then I will not preach any more. I must be thoroughly clear here." For months I sought and prayed, at times with fasting, but nothing happened. Then one morning! And it is a morning I shall never forget, as I sat with the Word open and said again, "Lord Jesus, open my eyes!" Then in a flash I saw my oneness with Christ. I saw that I was in Him, identified with Him, and that when He died I had also died. My old man really was crucified with Him because it was in Him! Oh, it was so real to me! I was carried away with such joy that I longed to go through the streets shouting the news of my great discovery.

Today in the Church as the earthly body of Christ, we also need to be clear about one thing here, and that is that revelation from the Lord Jesus to us always precedes our faith. It is when He draws alongside us and opens our eyes to the fact that something already there but hidden is revealed. When we see it from this way, and this way only, then we know it because it is our heart that knows. Christ has revealed it in our spirits' intuition. Many times the majestic things that Jesus has achieved for us at the cross, are like prized treasured objects hidden in a dark room that belongs to us. Should somebody shine a torch then we will see and know what is ours instead of stumbling over it!