The death of self begins when God calls a person to abandon the attachments of this world and surrender to union with the death of Jesus Christ. This surrender is not a single event at baptism but an ongoing crucifixion of the carnal nature that must be taken up daily. Each morning requires shouldering the cross of self-denial so that the deeds of the flesh may be put to death, allowing the life that follows to be lived for God rather than for personal direction or preservation. Scripture presents this requirement as the condition for true discipleship: anyone who desires to follow Christ must deny himself, lose his life for Christ's sake, and accept that gaining the whole world while clinging to self results in destruction. The principle extends beyond obvious sin to anything that interferes with wholehearted following, including material comforts and personal ambitions that the Laodicean attitude seeks to retain. As clay in the hands of the divine Potter, the believer must yield without resistance to repeated pressure, shaping, and even intense heat so that the vessel may be remade according to God's purpose rather than its own original design. This yielding produces a life in which the old self no longer lives and Christ lives within, a condition maintained by continual faith and the deliberate choice to let the Shepherd lead rather than to pursue the desires of the flesh and mind. The same death of self that separates one from the world also opens the way to the righteousness, restoration, and peace that God alone supplies.