It’s About The Flow

Beloved, this is one of the most-missed critical aspects of the Christian life.  And it is fully missed by most teachers of the Gospel today in the western church.  Here it is: 

• The Christian life is impossible.

That’s right.  We can’t live it.  Not ever.  No matter how hard we try.  Even with fully-dedicated minds and bodies, it is absolutely impossible for us to live FOR G_d.  Romans 7:18-25 clearly lays this out

• 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

We, in and of ourselves cannot live the Christian life.  We cannot live for Him.  Ever.

But Jesus can!  He can do it in us!  He can do it through us!  His Holy Spirit can actually live the Christian life THROUGH us.

In Him, we can bear incredible fruit.  LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, and even SELF-CONTROL.

Apart from Him, we can do NOTHING.

Get the flow right, and everything works.  Get it backwards, and nothing works.  And there is no in-between.

Seem like just philosophical posturing?  Try these on:

• 1 Corinthians 5:17-20 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

• Ephesians 3:14-20 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

• 2 Corinthians 4:5-12 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.

It’s all about the flow of His power to live life.  It flows from Him, into us, and out through us onto others.  Not just through our minds and bodies but through our spirit.  The newly-generated spirit of a believer is the interface G_d uses to literally channel Himself through a totally surrendered person.  This is NOT passivity,  this is active obedience to the express will of G_d as shown throughout the totality of Scripture.

Also, Christ living through us is not just being a “clay pot,”  it is rather becoming an actual weapon of righteousness for G_d (Romans 6:13).  There is great power from Him to live rightly.  When we humble our pride, and let Him live through us, there is tremendous power over evil. 

• James 4:6-7 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

How do i know this whole thing is real?  It works in my life. 

As i have surrendered to this truth and simply allowed G_d to be fully G_d in my life, there has been a radical transformation in my entire existence.  Years of horrible pain, fear, anxiety, sinful patterns of behavior, and fatigue have simply vanished.  They do not wax and wain.  They are gone.   Do i transgress sometimes?  Sure (enter Grace!), but that is only when i get in the way…  Regardless, now the truths of Scripture now simply FLOW in and through my life.  That which i tried for decades to achieve by living FOR G_d, were accomplished in days by allowing Him to live His life THROUGH my own.

The data are in.  Ask anyone who has truly, in their spirit, allowed His flow to operate in their lives.  It works because G_d’s Word says it works.