A true test!

(John 15:5) “For apart from me you can do nothing.”

Our minds, by nature, do not love spiritual things. We will attend to any outward duty, or to any external rite; but to bring our hearts into subjection to the divine will, to bow our minds to the Most High, and to serve the Lord our God with all our heart, and all our soul is foreign to the natural man, in fact he abhors it. Yet nothings less than this will suffice to turn our captivity. Yet without this happening, we will remain locked into carnal reasoning and be rendered useless. Faith will not accompany us on our daily walk, and we know “without faith” it is impossible to please God.

All or nothing, or is it line upon line, or both!

There is one obvious conclusion we must arrive at; we are helpless without God, but do we confess that before Him, do we really fall to our knees crying for help? The first thing that is required of us is to bemoan the fact that, by and of ourselves, we can do nothing; even as our Lord said to his disciples, "apart from me ye can do nothing."

Let us just stop for a minute, what is the context of this statement? This comment from the Lord Jesus would also obviously apply to all under the banner of “common grace” (we breathe and live because God has so willed it); even the atheist lives and breathes! He does not believe that God exists and yet God allows him to live and breathe. This is not John’s point; his point speaks of a special kind of grace, elected grace. It is of a spiritual nature and it has nothing to do with the carnal will or mind-set. But with it comes a particular life-style, look at this portion of scripture…

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:4-11)

How many of us claim to be children of God, but when we look into the mirror or others look too the way we live, do they find us wanting? Self-Denial, robbing us of a richer lifestyle with our Lord and Saviour! We pretend that all is well with our souls and yet we live no differently to the heathen. For if we were sold out, and we walked in obedience to how we had been called, would we not live differently? I suggest we would! How often have I asked for something and not received it? “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” What then get in the way? Is it not our carnal natures? It can only be our selfish wills that gets in the way; “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” (James 4:3) – It is obvious then why we do not receive what we ask for at times. It is all about our carnal wants and not the Lord’s will for our lives. What is a man to do? Our half-doing is our undoing; but when we cease from self, then we make way for God. The sooner we recognize this truth, the better.

“We must, next, have a universal desire for the presence of God with us. I mean by that, that every Christian man and every Christian woman must agonize with God that he would come into the camp; not merely some few of us desiring it, but all of us vehemently crying unto the Lord, "Come, Lord, and tarry not."

Moreover, there must be a conscientious obedience to his word, a strict adherence to his truth, his doctrine, his precepts, to the whole of Christ's rule and law. He will not prosper us unless we are careful to follow every step that he has taken. God help us to have this conscientious care, this coming out from those who may not be thus careful, according to his word. "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."” (C.H.Spurgeon)

There seems to be so many bad habits that still live with me. There must be an agonising urgency from us to God as we call out to Him day and night if we are to prove that He is the vine and we are the branches.

May God help us to be about His will and not our wants!

Signing off

Tyrone