We have received life, yet this life and the head are inseparable. Upon our accepting Him, we still must live in Him. Though we have received Him, we are yet to depend on Him. Accordingly, we cannot be independent in anything. The Lord alone is head, and He is the sole resource of our life.
~Watchman Nee
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
~ John 7:37-38
yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
~ 1Corinthians 8:6
Beloved, G_d is the sum, source and substance of victory in our lives. Any time i “try” to do anything good (or stop doing anything bad), i give birth to law and fleshly desire. Only allowing Him to be my victory works.
There is no try.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
~ John 10:10
The stream of Christianity from which my practice flows carries the theme of victory in its chants and songs and prayers and the lives of its saints. We are a portion of the Body that have the dazzling audacity to simply say that the Bible is true. No… like really, totally true. And the Bible tells us that is actually possible to live a life of victory where sin becomes the ever-more rare exception; this, rather than the rule in our lives.
Upstream in this tradition are men like Eric Ludy, Ian Thomas, A.W. Tozer, A.B. Simpson, Oswald Chambers, Andrew Murray, and C.H. Spurgeon. These guys are (were) basically, swing-for-fence preachers who spend (spent) very little time talking about anything other than the Bible and the Jesus in and behind the Bible.
They even dared to sometimes whisper the word… ssshhh… holiness. They actually preached that a Christian is designed to live a holy life. One life that is totally dedicated to G_d. Now, none of these guys tended to say that it was probable that a human in this life would ever actually become totally holy. What they were saying is that the Bible says clearly that, if we walk in His Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of our flesh.
This walking in The Spirit. There is the rub. How do we do that?
We can’t. It’s impossible. At least it is impossible if we try to do it. Especially hard to do if we try really hard. Any dedicated Christian reading this knows exactly what i am talking about here. Any time we try to live a holy life, it is like all the yuckiness in us just starts to boil up. The very things we don’t want to do – are the exact things we end up doing.
This walking in the Spirit has nothing to do with us. Well, nothing except for one thing: yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit. Said more simply, getting out of the way and letting God work in and through our lives. It is His grace that He pours into us through His Spirit that empowers our walk towards Him. We don’t have the ability to take a single step in the right direction – no matter how hard we try. We might, for a short time, stumble in the right direction. But, we cannot ever maintain the correct heading under our own power.
Side note: i was just looking for the image for this blog entry – and was looking for images about Jesus being the Source of life. I had the safety filters on ‘strict’ settings even. But, sure enough, in with all the beautiful imagery was one that showed an altogether different kind of beauty. She was very attractive, and the image held intense power. The only way that i escaped gawking at this photo for more than a couple seconds was to yield to the power of the Spirit in my being. There would have been no way for me to escape under my own power. He had to get me out of there and provide the way of escape.
So, yeah, the Bible tells us that we need to be holy. But it is also just as clear that it is G_d that is responsible for doing the work. Would that we might let Him continue that most vital operation in our lives even tonight.
No soul can be really at rest until it has given up all dependence on everything else and has been forced to depend on the Lord alone. As long as our expectation is from other things, nothing but disappointment awaits us. Feelings may change, and will change with our changing circumstances; doctrines and dogmas may be upset; Christian work may come to naught; prayers may seem to lose their fervency; promises may seem to fail; everything that we have believed in or depended upon may seem to be swept away, and only God is left, just God, the bare God, if I may be allowed the expression; simply and only God.
~Hannah Whitall Smith
