Part III (cont.)
“How do you know that you shall not be able to rescue your wife or your husband, your children, your mother, your father, or your friend? But you certainly cannot rescue them by refusing to follow the leadings of the Spirit and by continuing to be like them. You can rescue them only by becoming godlike; and if your becoming godlike makes them your enemies, then you cannot help it, you can remember them only with loving kindness, the same as your heavenly Father does, and every opportunity to lead them to God and to righteousness should be improved. Render always good, for evil. The first great trial and struggle will be to separate yourself from the controlling power of those who love you, and from the influence of the world.
You must remember at this point that the object in our creation, the object of our Father who is in heaven, is to give us dominion; as the prophet said, “But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.” You have set out upon the road where the first step requires that you should take dominion over your own body and especially over your own mind, your loves, and sympathies. Here is the hardest struggle on the whole road; but it will not be the hardest for you, because, if you consecrate your life to God and trust in him wholly, follow the guidance of the Spirit as perfectly as you know, and go forward conquering fear of anything that may happen, you will then have the special care of angels, so that your struggle will not be so hard for you as some of the struggles that will come after, yet in reality it is more difficult to conquer than any that you will have to meet after.
You will not go far in this direction until the Spirit will impress upon your consciousness, the fact that you must overcome carnal generation and must stop absolutely all waste of the seed. In other words, you must live the regenerate life, and when you have stopped all waste of the life, have conquered entirely all sex desires, and have begun to turn the generative forces inward and upward toward the brain for regenerative purposes, then the regenerate body becomes a vessel to hold spirit.
In man’s present state, controlled by carnal generation, he is as a shadow to spirit. There is nothing in him that can touch or sense spirit, and therefore, he cannot be conscious of spirit; but when he has conserved all the life generated in the body for a period of at least one year, he will then begin to feel the touch of the Holy Spirit, he will then begin to see the door that leads from this world to the heavenly world; that leads from the association of men as mere animals to the association and membership with that holy order of Melchizedek of which Jesus the Christ is the door.
At this point he will meet another class of enemies; enemies in his own flesh and enemies in the invisible world, which Jesus called demons – translated devils. If you should keep your mind firmly fixed in the spirit of devotion and confident reliance upon God, and at the same time live the regenerate life, and there was no hindrance in the way, you would at once enter in through the door into the city. But if you were thus permitted to enter in, without using the power of the Spirit to conquer the enemy, you would enter in as but a child, without knowledge of the powers of the Spirit.
You will find enemies rising up in your pathway out of the invisible, disputing every step of the way; and here remember that God’s law is, “Use determines all qualities, whether good or evil.” Therefore, your extremity is God’s opportunity. So the fact of these enemies rising up against you is God’s opportunity to make you know his power, to teach you his methods of handling, controlling and subordinating these dark powers. Thus, all the enemies that you meet in your pathway are as gymnastic instruments by which you develop strength of mind and will, and confidence in God, and the fulness of the powers of manhood, wherein you become both the son of man, and the son of God – having dominion.”
Hiram Butler
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 