Good deeds are dangerous because they let the weak soul believe wrongly that it is the source of the good deed. So it thinks it is the source of goodness. But a deed is one thing and goodness is another thing. The good treasure that settles in the heart and makes it good and gives it the power to do good deeds is God Himself. He is the Holy Spirit, 'the only source of goodness':

God is the reason for goodness and the source of holiness and its first and last reason. Not man, no matter who he is.

So the only way to make sure that the work a man does is truly good and holy is to give it completely to God. The work that man does must be with the belief that it is a gift from God. All its results and everything that comes from it must be given to God.

So if we know that the main reason behind every good deed is to honor God, as the Lord says:

If we really know this and are truly sure of it, then we understand why God gives us the strength and understanding and feeling and spiritual power for prayer and praise and service and preaching and giving and love! Then why does He take it from our hands and leave us completely empty and dry, looking around as if He has abandoned us all at once?

So good deeds are needed because they show the difference between wanting to honor ourselves in the world or wanting to become famous. If it is decided completely that it is to honor God, then the good deed grows bigger and its sources expand and its good results are kept without limit. If it turns to honoring ourselves, it gets smaller and weakens over time. Its shine fades in the eyes of God and people. Its good results weaken and break apart. Finally, it is trampled on.

The Holy Spirit is the One who gives the good deed the 'taste of true goodness.' He puts in the very depths of our effort a sincere, true feeling of where this good deed comes from and this good giving. He makes us feel from our work and from our effort the smell of God Himself coming out in holiness. So the person becomes more sure that he is not the owner of this good deed even though he works with all his will. This makes him burn with the feeling of being close to God. He burns with a deep longing to struggle more and give more.

The Holy Spirit convinces the soul during righteous struggle with a complete belief that is the highest belief. All the good of God that we enjoy through good deeds is His—not ours! True holiness is not in the deed itself, but in the strong closeness to God during the deed. Then we turn the deed over to its Owner!

The lack of continuous feeling of honoring God and glorifying Him during the good deed takes the goodness away from the deed that we give it credit for. It shows that the Holy Spirit is absent. Yes, it shows that we do not have faith in God. The self alone owns the deed and looks for honor from it:

So denying ourselves is the basic work of the Holy Spirit in the soul. It guarantees that any good deed will be done and will keep going. The practical and positive way to practice denying ourselves is to honor God with complete determination. We do this whether by word or by thought or by imagination or by faith or by every drop of sweat or by every effort. Here the Holy Spirit stands to witness to God with a power greater than every trick of the self and its lies and its hunger for honor and glory:

But it is impossible for the Holy Spirit to witness to Christ through the work and word of man except through self-denial. Then it becomes possible for God to be in the end everything in everything!

If there is prayer that can be called a good deed, it is the one that honors God and thanks Him and praises Him. If there is service or preaching or speaking that can be called the work of witnessing to the Holy Spirit, it is the one that ends not just in saving souls, but also ends in obedience to truth and faith and God's rule over all souls.

Likewise, every loyalty and every justice and every giving and every love are considered good deeds done by the Holy Spirit if they were to increase the honor of God. They are a practical witness to His loyalty and justice and redemption and love.

And here notice that the Holy Spirit's work to make us deny ourselves through good deeds is not just a fight against the soul or a negative resistance to remove and destroy its existence or nature. It is a pure positive action to direct every good deed to make sure it goes in its true and faithful path: from God and to Him through the person—by the witness of the self itself! So the soul becomes in the end the greatest one who benefits from the good deed if it goes in God's path—that is, if it began with the soul recognizing God's grace and ended with honoring God. The soul becomes holy by God's holiness!