“Everything comes from God, exists because of his power, and is made for his glory.” – Romans 11:36.

We all need things we can count on in our lives. A source is someone who gives us something we can’t make on our own. For instance, if you want to stay warm in your house during the winter, you need a source of energy. One of your sources is the gas line that goes into your house. Electricity is the same. And then there are sources of money, food, and the government. Sources make our lives easier, enjoyable, and productive. These sources can run out or be interrupted, and there may not be enough of them. But not when God is our source and supply.

When you look to God, He will be your supply

What’s real? God is your Source. He gives you everything you need and want at the right time. But you have to believe that He is your one and only source. The Word of God will refresh your mind, strengthen your faith, and get you to where you need to be to get what God has for you. God will give you everything you need if you let him. Jeremiah tells us what happens when we put our trust in God: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord. He is like a tree that grows near water and sends out its roots by a stream. It doesn’t worry when it gets hot because its leaves stay green, and it doesn’t worry when it gets dry because it keeps making fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7-8 ESV)

Beyond What We Can Do

Most people think they have to be their own source. When something bad happens, they’ve been taught to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and move on. That sounds good up until the part about self-effort. We’re all limited by being human, but “God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus,” the Scripture states, will come true in the end. (Philippians 4:19 ESV). It is imperative that we place our faith and confidence in someone or something that can never fail us: God. Your job shouldn’t be what makes you feel safe. God is the source of what you do at work. Let me say it again: Your job is a way to get things done, but God is the one who gives you what you need. He always has what we need.

God is where everything comes from

God can turn on another resource if yours has stopped working. God can open another door in your life if He closes one. And if another door shuts, He can open a window through which you can crawl. God is not limited by what you can or can’t do. Accounts in the bank go up and down. The economy rises and falls. The stock market can either go up or down. It makes no difference.

By going to Jesus every day, you get what you need from the place where all resources come from. He is the love you need, the joy that will keep you going and refresh you, and the strength you need to get through the day, no matter how much you need.

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1) There is another Law that works in reality which is as equally important to understand as the Law of Attraction. It is the Law of Detachment. It is this Law that gives the crucial distinction in utilizing the Law of Attraction successfully. The Law of Detachment is complimentary to the Law of Attraction.

2) The Law of Detachment says that in order to successfully attract something, you must be detached to the outcome. If you are attached, you project negative emotions of fear, doubt, or craving which actually attracts the opposite of your desire.

You are operating from a position of worry, fear and doubt rather than serenity, trust and faith. Of course, there are times when negative emotions are meant to be felt and acted upon, but your dominant emotions should be positive ones.

3) Let go and let God. Anything you want can be acquired through detachment, because detachment is based on resting in the complete grace of God and knowing that He is always working everything through you and together for your greatest good.

To be detached is to realize that everything good is from God and nothing at all is from you. It is God doing it through you and the elements and people in your life so there’s nothing to hold on to as your own, all you have to do is to believe and let God do it.

4) Ease and perfection of action depend entirely upon the degree in which you cease to depend upon your conscious efforts. You must take your conscious mind off it in order to let your subconscious mind take over.

The pilot and the autopilot cannot control the plane at the same time. You must let go in order to let God take over. To detach is to allow God to bring your desire into manifestation in whichever way is best for you. When you are detached, your desires will manifest much faster.

5) To be attached means to be powerless because what you attach yourself to, you give your power to it. When you look to outside sources to bring you fulfillment, you are giving your power away.

When you are looking to something outside yourself for power and happiness, you are making something other than your true self your source. Detach knowing that whatever you detach from has no power over you, but you have complete power over it.

6) Attachment to anything will always create insecurity no matter how much of it you have. In fact, some of the people who have the most of what they want are the most insecure. Attachment to someone or something makes you wonder if you will keep having them or it or if you may lose them or it. Insecurity causes unhappiness stress.

7) The search for security and certainty is actually an attachment to the known. There’s no evolution in that, absolutely none at all. And when there is no evolution, there is stagnation, entropy, disorder, and disintegration.

Uncertainty and the unknown are the field of all possibilities and pure potential. It is ever fresh, ever new, always open to the creation of new manifestations. It is the realm of pure creativity and freedom. When you are attached, your intention gets locked into a rigid mindset, and you lose the fluidity, the flexibility, and the spontaneity inherent in the field of pure potential.

 When you experience uncertainty, you are on the right path so don’t give it up. You don’t need to have a complete and rigid idea of what you’ll be doing next week or next year, because if you have a very clear idea of what’s going to happen and you get rigidly attached to it, then you shut out a whole range of possibilities.

Realize that there is an infinite God working IN YOU and alongside you, and HE is the ONE that can bring you a better way or more worthwhile experience. All you must do is state your intentions and desires and detach from the how and when they manifest.

9) Are there times when you want to work something out, but yet the more you try to work it out, the worse it gets? When God works, it is effortless. God arranges the situations for you when you are not in it, so that when you step in, you experience the blessings.

It is so much better to depend on God than to depend on your own strength. “Unless the Lord builds the house, they that labor do so in vain.” What you can control, you should control. What you can’t control, you should let go and let God. When you trust God, everything is under control.

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The Bible calls God, “the God of all grace.” Grace is not just a THING God does; it is a characteristic of God Himself. Thus, God is a God who GIVES – it is His nature to give free of charge. But God will not give free of charge if His giving will do spiritual harm to those who receive.

Thus, in most cases, we must become rightly related to God before God can give, and before we will receive. That right relationship is that we become fully dependent upon God.

We see this principle in the Truth of grace. The only way to receive grace is if you have nothing to give in return. You must be fully dependent upon God. The moment you try to buy grace, or merit grace, you cannot see or recognize grace.

But the moment you realize your utter helplessness and dependence upon God, you will embrace grace. Thus, we see the relationship God desires. He wants to provide. But we must be dependent.

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“Now why doth thou cry aloud? Is there no king in thee? Is thy counselor perished?” (Micah 4:9)

“One God and Father of all, who is ABOVE all, and THROUGH all, and IN you all”. (Ephesians 4:6)

Paul declared that “We must through much tribulation (pressure) enter into the kingdom of God,” (Acts 14:22). There is no cause to view this negatively, for it is this very pressure which shall press us into God, as His life becomes a REALITY WITHIN.

Our present situation

One translation for Luke 21:25 gives, “Crowding pressure of nations with no way out.” Another translation states, “Upon the earth distress (trouble and anguish) of nations in bewilderment and perplexity, (that is, without resources, left wanting, embarrassed, in doubt, not knowing which way to turn)…”

This pretty well describes our present situation. Mentally we are drained and exhausted, financially we are spent, without resources, while spiritually we are in such doubt and unbelief as to be morally bankrupt. We are rapidly being brought to the end of human ability and strength that we might turn to the Lord.

The King’s Domain

In the midst of all this, God is bringing forth a spiritual remnant who POSSESS THE KING, and they are becoming ‘HIS KINGDOM COME”. The King, and His domain, are within (Luke 17:21). There is arising today a people that know their God, they affirm His sovereignty that He alone is GOD and there be no other gods. It is His being KING WITHIN which has required a continual surrender until every part of our being has come under His rule.

We begin with our surrender of things to the Lord, our family, our finances, and our own life – every phase of surrender is essential, sometimes painful, sometimes offered with joy and singing, but eventually we come to the place where everything is committed into His hand. It is a realm beyond surrender where our committal leads to an abiding peace and rest.

Peace That Surpasses All Understanding

We trust Him with all that we have, and all that we are, knowing He doeth all things well. Our committal merges into a complete trust which in turn brings ‘a peace that surpasses all understanding’. The King is within, and all is well!

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If you perceive an obstacle in your path as a problem, you will nurture negative emotions in respect to that problem- frustration, fear, anger, hopelessness, despair, and depression. These emotions are grave diggers in that they carve out a pit of failure and death in which to bury you.

On the other hand, if somehow the Holy Spirit can give you the revelation of it, if you can see by the inspiration of The Almighty that the obstacle is God’s challenge- you have received a ‘Kingdom Attitude’ in which a spiritual perspective is released-

faith, hope, confidence, peace, rest, encouragement, joy, thanksgiving, wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and power.

Positive emotions

These positive emotions (the fruit of the Spirit), energize you and propel you through, over, out, and above the obstacle, providing strength and victory.

The only problems in the world are problems that are perceived as problems. When the problem ceases (in your mind) to be a problem, then the problem is no longer a problem.

Rise above it

Although the problem may still exist outwardly, yet when the problem is no longer a problem to you, you have risen above it, overcome it, and conquered it!

“I assure you that whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea’—and doesn’t waver but believes that what is said will really happen—it will happen.” (Matthew 11:23)

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“Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall be able to harm you in any way.” says the Lord (Lk. 10:19). The King James Bible does mention that Christ has given us “power” to walk on serpents and scorpions, but the Greek term for “power” is exousia, which means authority or jurisdiction. But when Jesus refers to the “power” of the adversary, He used a different term, dunamis, which literally means “power.” The Greek word dynamite is the source of the English words dynamite and dynamo. Thanks be to God, all that our foes have is POWER in this day and age — but what the Lord provides us is AUTHORITY! This demonstrates that authority is greater than power and has the ability to control power; as a result, authority has the upper hand. A lot is made of the adversary’s might; while it is true that enemies do have some power, they do not possess any authority! The satanic realm has been completely deposed of its power.

You have the upper hand

The Lord provides us authority so that we can cope with the full force of the enemy’s strength. An automobile going down the street can serve as an illustration of this. Despite the fact that it has hundreds of horsepower under the hood, it is under the control of a traffic officer. As soon as they blow their whistle, the powerful engine must slow to a whisper and the car must come to a complete stop. That is what it means to have authority over power! Once again, it is analogous to an army. Despite the fact that it possesses tremendous strength in the form of men, tanks, airplanes, guns, and bombs, the General retains authority. Before the General gives the order, nobody moves or does anything. That general has the authority to wield authority! Authority is superior to and regulates power; as a result, authority takes precedence over power. The authority over all of the enemy’s power has been entrusted to us by the Son of God who sits on the throne of grace! Rejoice because you now have the authority to speak to the strength of the adversary, and that adversary must accept your command or succumb! You have the authority to order the destruction of every stratagem and activity of the enemy in order to break its hold. You have the authority to breathe new life into people, circumstances, and even nations of people. That is the wonder of it all!

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What are you looking for in life? Are you only after a better life? Are you just seeking some “choice” blessings from God? Are you looking to make someone love and care for you? Are you working your butt off for the “Good Life”? How does your life compare to the people in the Bible who waited on God expectantly?

Much of the Christian work we see all around us is related to materialism, the size of things, and their outward appearances. Ministries that seem to only do things to be seen, generally looking for immediate, instantaneous results. They are the least concerned with the eternal value of what they do, which is what God is most concerned about. God does not judge things by their size or by appearance. Nor does God look for instant remedies and big results.

The way that man chooses is often the popular way that pleases everybody. In the ministry and the work of God we are often pressured and compelled to go the same way the masses are going. Just because a ministry takes the name of the Lord before they do anything, and has a bunch of people in attendance, does not mean that what they do is initiated by God. We need to understand this. Everything we do as Christians, needs to, not only be initiated by God, but also continually led by God.

There are two kinds of works

there are works that are of God, and there are works that are of men. Therefore, and hear this well, there are two starting points, one of man and one of the Lord. The way of man is usually to start with largeness and greatness……giant sized publicity and organizational structures with glitz and glamour. Man tries to impress others so that they will be drawn to the bigness being displayed. This is how man usually starts when he is going to do something for God.

We are spiritual people going for big meetings, big crusades, and big seminars and conferences. I hear people say, “ our God is a mighty Big God, and He is worthy of something gigantic and big. Do we really honor God by doing things in a BIG way? This may sound logical and reasonable, but it is actually full of deception. Certainly, God is worthy of our best efforts, but generally there is a hidden agenda in all that the carnal or humanistic man does. On the face of it, all he seems to do is for God’s Glory but the spirit behind all that he does points the honor and fame solely of himself.

Everything starts small

On the other hand, God’s beginnings are always humble, simple, and unnoticed. God brought something “small and insignificant” when he sent His Son to earth. He was born like any other baby but in a dirty, out of the way, “barn”. During Christmas season we like to call it a “Manger” and we pretty it up, but it was a dirty, stinking stable where animals were kept. God Almighty displayed the ultimate humility appearing in the form of a man and in the eyes of man being born as a “little” baby….Miraculous!

God’s beginnings are so small and appear so little. This is what we can observe throughout the Bible in the principle of “The Seed”. It starts out in God as such a small thing yet look at all the potential in that small seed. If you can receive it, God has planted that same “Seed” within you. And that is the “Seed” of Himself. It is “THAT” Seed containing God’s own creative power and potential that when cultivated and nourished develops meaning and purpose in your life.

CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE NO ACCIDENT…….YOU WERE BORN FOR PURPOSE.

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Clay was piled on top of Clay until a lifeless shape appeared on the ground. The entire garden came to a halt to take in the spectacle. Cherubims and Seraphims ascended and flew, stretching their wings.

Several eagles perched on the nearby rocky cliffs to take in the scene.

Materialists will fall in love with God, he promised. “You were designed to love Me, the universe, and to reflect My glory in the heavens, because that is how you were made. In Ps. 19:1, The only difference is that this one will be able to make his or her own decisions based on what I have decided.

The silence was deafening as something unseen, a seed, was extracted from the Creator’s body “Seed of the woman, it is known as “Man.”

Holy Spirit protected the seed until Messiah was born (Gen. 3:15). The silence of creation was broken only by the screams of the frightened creature.

Then the angel said, ” “Is it possible for him to “choose not to love?” The work of God has been completed!

I’ll show you when you come.” In the future, God and the angel were free of the constraints of time. See the fruit of man’s seed, which can be both sweet and sour.”

Angels have never seen anything quite like this before; the angels gasped at what they saw. His heart was warmed by the affection of the Adams family. His ears were filled with the laughter of Eve and her daughter, his eyes were drawn to the food and burdens that were shared, and his heart was filled with wonder at the warmth.

Lord, this is the most beautiful thing you’ve ever made. Heaven has never seen anything like it.”

It’s time to see the bitter side of things, now that you’ve seen the sweet.”

The two of them were enveloped in a foul odor. The angel screamed in disbelief:

“What’s this?!” Only one word was uttered by the Creator. “Selfishness.” Having never seen such filth, rotten hearts, ruptured promises, forgotten loyalty, or children of creation wandering blindly in lonely corridors as they passed through centuries of repugnance, the angel stood speechless.

There was a choice to be made here, right? asked the angel Yes, but the creature (creation) was subject to vanity, not by choice but because of the One who subjected it in hope. Rom. 8: 20.

Are you going to be forgotten?

“YES”

“Won’t they ever return?”

There will be some who do and others who don’t, but in the end they’ll all do it. When I say, “Return you children of men,” I mean it literally. The third verse of Psalm 90. “No one can stand in my way.” Rom. 9: 15-22. Only one person can be in charge at any given time.

“What will it take for them to pay attention? “, I wondered.

Eventually, the Creator arrived at a tree that would one day serve as a baby’s cradle, and he could smell the hay and the dung that would surround Him even then.

His gaze fell on another tree that stood alone, its trunk thick and strong, a stubborn ruler on an otherwise barren hillside. With another step into the future, he stopped before the tree. As soon as they had finished cutting it up, they were going to hang it from another hill, and soon after that, Jesus would be nailed to the cross of that hill. His back was yet to be covered by the wood. Hands that had yet to be formed by the nails piercing his skin. Crown of thorns driving through his skull, which had not yet been fashioned into its final form

The angel asked, “Will you go there?”

“I’m going to do it.”

Inquiringly, “Is there no other option?”

‘No, there isn’t’

“Isn’t it simpler to avoid planting the seed of man altogether? Wouldn’t it be more convenient if the man didn’t have to make a decision?

The Creator said, “It would,” in a measured voice. To take away the ability to make a decision, on the other hand, is to take away love. He surveyed the landscape and imagined a scene of three crying-out figures dangling from a cross with their arms outstretched and their heads bowed in the wind.

In John 19:18, Jesus tells his disciples that he is crucified in the middle of two thieves.

The trio was surrounded by men dressed in military garb, who sat on the ground and played games in the dirt with them. Arrogant and cocky men in religious garb stood to one side, smiling and boasting that they had done God’s work by killing this false one. One by one, females in mourning are gathered at its base. With their mouths quivering and tears streaming down their cheeks, they tried to lead his mother the other away, but she wouldn’t budge.

“I’ll stay,” she whispered softly. “I’ll stay,” she replied.

Heaven and Earth were in awe of the Creator, but he did not command them to intervene.

This has to be done…” He said, and then walked away.

The cry that He would one day scream was audible as he traveled back in time.

God, My God why have you forsaken me?

Sheathed in the pain of tomorrow, he writhed in agony. “It would be less painful,” the angel said again.

The Creator’s voice was soft and hushed. “But even so, a man wouldn’t love,” I countered. Once more, they entered the garden, and as the Creator gazed intently at the clay sculpture, a torrential downpour of love poured forth from Him. Before he created anything, He had already died for it. 8th verse of Revelation 13:8. The sculpted face was bent over by God’s form and he breathed. The new one’s chest rose, cracking the dark mud, the cheeks grew fleshy, a finger moved, an eye opened, and dust stirred on the lips. Those who were able to see the unseen gasped at the sight of the movement of the flesh.

There’s a chance that the wind said it first, and that the star’s blinking is a direct result of what it saw at that exact moment. As far as I can tell, “It appears to be exactly like Him!” Rather than focusing on the face, the angel was focused on the spirit, not the body. Ecclesiastes 3:21, 11:7

As the saying goes, “That this will never end!” There is no doubt in my mind that it is him! Another gasped.

God has sown a divine seed in every Redeemed man. a seed from which he grew Earth’s masterpiece was created by the God of Might. As a result of the Creator creating another creator, the One who chose to be loved created a being that could be loved in turn.

“Using my hands, I created the earth and put man on it, stretching the heavens and commanding their hosts. The Lord of Hosts says that he will build my city and free my captives, not for money or reward, and that he will guide him in every step of the way.” Bible verses from Isaiah 45:12-13

Because of Jesus, we now have a choice: Do we love our Father, the Creator? 

When Jesus tells his disciples that they didn’t choose Him, He doesn’t mean that they didn’t choose Him; rather, He means that He chose them and ordained them to go and produce fruit, so that “whatever ye shall ask of the Father in my name He may give it to you.” In John’s Gospel, verse 16.

Chose

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Our naturally developed mind-set and tendencies are opposite of God’s ways. God told us that through Isaiah long ago. “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.'” (Isa. 55:8,9).

As fallen, sinful persons we have all developed patterned tendencies to approach everything in life in particular ways. It is called the “flesh” in the New Testament Scriptures. We each have unique action and reaction patterns of selfishness and sinfulness in the soul. When we become Christians, we still have those patterned tendencies of the “flesh.” Paul explains to the Galatian Christians that “the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another” (Gal. 5:17). To the Romans, Paul wrote, “I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. …I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not” (Rom. 7:14,18).

These patterned tendencies of the “flesh” affect our individual approaches to living the Christian life. We have various patterns of thinking, with which we approach our Christian living.

Some Christians approach the Christian life as a “project”

It is a task to be completed; a job to get done. They want to see results in everything. The objective in their mind is to get it accomplished. So they decisively implement the necessary activities to achieve the objective and to reach the goal. “What are we waiting for?” they ask. “Let’s get the job done…now!” They want everyone to assist and to do their part. Focused and persistent, they take direct action to perform what is necessary, and to produce the desired end-product. Should they begin to relax, they feel guilty. They work so hard to achieve what they perceive to be the desired result. They want to do it, get it done, and make a significant change in things. The project called the “Christian life” must be accomplished and be completed in order to “get to Heaven”!

But, what happens when they cannot accomplish the project of Christian living? What do they do when all their efforts are not enough, and their greatest fear of being a failure in getting the job done seems to be evident? It is then that they might conclude, “the Christian life doesn’t work!” They often then respond by saying to themselves, “Maybe I haven’t been good enough. Maybe I haven’t been persistent enough. Maybe I haven’t worked hard enough. Maybe I haven’t buckled down to get it done. Maybe I didn’t attack it with enough effort and commitment.” Back they go to approaching the Christian life as a “project” to be completed!

Other Christians approach the Christian life as a “promotional effort”

To persuade everyone and to get everyone inspired. They want everything to be exciting. The Christian life is measured by the level of enthusiasm, energy, and liveliness. These Christians thrive on spontaneity, emotion, and zeal. They always want to be optimistic and up-beat. The objective is to be excited about being a Christian and living the Christian life, to be “on fire for Jesus.” They want everyone else to get involved and to join in the exciting programs. Everyone should be personable, outgoing, and friendly. Everyone should feel good. Like cheerleaders at a pep-rally, they try to motivate and enthuse by being dramatic, entertaining, and communicative. They want to whoop it up and be expressive. They conceive of the Christian life as a promotional effort for excitement.

But, what happens when life isn’t always exciting? What do these Christians do when the energy level runs low, and when no one responds to the peppy promotion? It is then that they might conclude that “the Christian life doesn’t work!” Their response is often to say to themselves, “I am unacceptable to God and to others,” which is their greatest fear. “Maybe I haven’t been zealous enough. Maybe I haven’t been friendly enough. Maybe I haven’t been personable enough. Maybe I haven’t been convincing enough. Maybe I haven’t been enthusiastic enough. Maybe I haven’t been involved enough.” Back they go to approach the Christian life as a “promotional effort!”

Other Christians approach the Christian life as a “panacea”

They think that the Christian life should be pleasant and predictable. Their expectation is that the Christian life should cause everything to be peaceful and pastoral. With an aversion to conflicts and troubles, they think the Christian life should have no unexpected bumps and no curve balls.

The Christian life should be consistent, laid-back, and traditional. For them security is found in that which is steady and stable and status-quo. In relating to others who are trying to live the Christian life, they want everybody to “get-along.”

They think that everyone in the church should be amiable, accommodating, and cooperative like them. Everyone should be patient, loyal, faithful, and contented, in order to work together as a family and a team. The objective is to have a safe environment of fun and fellowship, for the Christian life is viewed as a pleasant and predictable relief package.

But, what happens when their Christian life is not such a stable plateau? How do they respond when problems and conflicts arise, and when their greatest fears of an out-of-control chaos seem to be realized? It is then that they might conclude “the Christian life doesn’t work!” Their response is often to say to themselves, “Maybe I haven’t been loyal enough. Maybe I haven’t been patient and accommodating enough. Maybe I haven’t been faithful enough. Maybe I haven’t been cooperative enough. Maybe I haven’t been tolerant enough of others.” Back they go to approaching the Christian life as the development of a “peaceful relief package!”

Other Christians approach the Christian life as “propriety”

They view the objective of the Christian life as proper thinking and proper action, issuing forth in correct doctrine and correct morality. These Christians want to get everything figured-out accurately and analytically. They “study to show themselves approved.” In their quest for truth and knowledge, they are conscientious about every detail. They think that if they can get everything down-pat and air-tight logically, systematically, while memorizing enough scripture, then there would be precise procedures, techniques, and formulas by which to lead an orderly and structured Christian life. In the process, they want everyone else to think like they do, and to agree and conform in thought and practice. The objective is to “do it right,” “follow the rules,” and “go by the Book.” Then the Christian life will be successful, proper, correct and right.

But, what happens when their Christian life doesn’t go as planned and the tight structures fail? Inevitably they will find that everything isn’t “proper” in their lives. It is then that they might conclude, “the Christian life doesn’t work!” Their response is often to say to themselves, “Maybe I’ve been wrong.” They hate to admit it. “Maybe I haven’t understood it well enough. Maybe I haven’t been studious enough. Maybe I haven’t been disciplined enough. Maybe I haven’t been exhaustive enough. Maybe I haven’t been moral enough.” Back they go to approach the Christian life as “self-effort.”

All Christians can see themselves in one or more of these misdirected approaches to the Christian life. We have all had a tendency to approach our Christian lives with a degree of self-effort. That is why the Christian life doesn’t seem to work, because it will not work by our “works” of self-effort.

The Christian life works alright

But not because we try to make it work in a certain way according to our selfish propensities. The Christian life works only when Jesus Christ works IN US. That is the way the life of Jesus worked on earth as a man. Jesus said, “the Father abiding in Me does His works” (John 14:10). In like manner, the Christian life works, for the writer to the Hebrews prays that “the God of peace…might equip you in every good thing to do His will, working IN US that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ” (Heb. 13:20,21). The Christian life is Jesus working IN US that which is pleasing in God’s sight.

    To the Philippians Paul wrote that they should “work out their salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). He did not mean that we should try to work out our Christian lives in accord with our self-oriented mind-set and approaches to life. Rather, those misguided ideas, approaches and orientations must be given up in order to recognize what Paul goes on to say, “God is at work IN YOU both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).

Christianity is not about you   

The Christian life does not work if we try to “pull it off” by our pre-conceived agenda of patterned perspectives and approaches. Paul wrote that “He who began a good work IN YOU will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6). To the Thessalonians he indicated that “Faithful is He who calls you, and he will bring it to pass” (I Thess. 5:23). Who is going to bring our Christian lives to pass, and effect sanctification? God by His divine action! The Christian life is really God’s business, not ours! There is only one Name in the word Christian and it’s not ours…It is CHRIST.

    In his epistle to the Galatian Christians Paul notes that “it is no longer I who live…” (Gal. 2:20). It is not me trying to live the Christian life by my own self-expression, and my own expectations of what it should be. No one is going to be able to sing Frank Sinatra’s song, “I Did It My Way,” concerning their Christian life. Rather, Paul goes on to say, “Christ lives in me, and the (Christian) life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20). The Christian life is our receptivity of His activity.

Christianity is Christ!

The Christian life is the life of Jesus Christ lived out through our behavior. The Christian life is not a project. The Christian life is not a promotional effort. The Christian life is not self-effort. The Christian life is not propriety. The Christian life is a Person, Jesus Christ. The Christian life is affected by the ontological Presence and activity of the Being and Life of the risen Lord Jesus.

The Christian life is a process of allowing the Person of Jesus Christ to be lived out in us. It is not a project to get completed and finished. It is not a panacea to arrive at. It is not a promotion to get a “high” of excitement about. It is not a propriety to be properly enacted. The Christian life is the salvation/sanctification process whereby we are “made safe” and “set apart” from the dysfunction of trying to live the Christian life by our own effort and expectations, in order to function as God intended by the indwelling dynamic of the life of the risen Lord Jesus, the Spirit of Christ.

The Christian life is not static

It is not accomplishable. It is not promotable. It is not a plateau of pleasantness. It is not a systematic belief-system. The Christian life is the dynamic manifestation of the life and character of Jesus Christ, who is “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6).

In John 15:5 Jesus is recorded as saying, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.” Apart from Jesus Christ and His activity in and through us, we can do nothing that will affect the living of the Christian life. We must give up our naturally patterned approaches and rely only on Him. “Not that we are adequate in ourselves, to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God” (II Cor. 3:5). With His divine adequacy and empowering, “we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us” (Phil. 4:13). We can live the Christian life through Jesus Christ, as He lives through our behavior.

Our argument has moved from “why the Christian life doesn’t seem to work,” to the recognition that “the Christian life works” by the out-working of the life of Jesus Christ. Christians must give up trying to make the Christian life work by their own efforts and orientations and allow the life of Jesus Christ to be lived out through them.

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Nothing follows us around like a persistent sense of judgment when it comes to living a Christian lifestyle. We consider ourselves to be such failures, and we appear to be completely fruitless. We’re experiencing a lot of ups and downs. We’re such cowards and cowardice is in our blood. It is not so much that we fight against the great sins — the things we do or don’t do — as it is that we fight against the dragging feeling that we are of no service because we are such a mess. We look around and notice that other people appear to be doing well, and we begin to wonder why we are such failures. We are continually burdened by a heaviness in our hearts and minds. However, we don’t feel intelligent, we don’t feel compassionate, and we don’t feel spiritual; rather, we feel out of touch with the outside world, dull and dry, and helpless.

It displays itself constantly in the way we constantly denigrate ourselves as useless, more of a burden to God than a help, so rebellious, so disobedient; and we are fond of claiming that if God uses us at all, it is because we are doing something wrong..

It is quite important to understand how we can accept ourselves without feeling condemned. It is our inability to grasp this concept that causes us to lose all of our vitality.

The important thing to remember is that it is He who accepts us

If our salvation hinged on our choosing Him, we could be tempted to put it off indefinitely, because we couldn’t be sure He would accept us. But He selected us — and He chose us unreservedly. “It was not you who picked Me; it was I who selected you”.

He chose us just as we are, with all of our flaws and flawless aspects of our humanity. We can certainly marvel at the absurdity of His choices, but it is not our place to do so. He paid the ultimate price for us – the price of His own Son’s blood — so we had best get busy choosing ourselves if we want to remain in His grace and blessing. It is an insult to Him if we do not accept those He accepts.

You are not a failure in any way

In truth, we need to do a full spring cleaning of the damning, disparaging, and guilty notions about ourselves that we have inherited or picked up in some other way. The transparency of today, while shocking many because of its excesses, is actually much healthier and closer to the truth than the secrecy of previous generations of Christians. Which is why it is a good thing for everyone. And there is no book that can be opened with more confidence than the Bible. There, a spade is never referred to as anything other than a spade.

Allow it to sink in that there isn’t a single reaction that we may have as humans — not a single response of our bodies, thoughts, emotions, or imaginations — that is fundamentally incorrect. God desires for us to experience all of these normal human feelings.

Put an end to your pretenses

As a result, instead of criticizing instincts or impulses — and instead of attempting to pretend they are not there as so much religious play-acting does — let us investigate how misuse might be replaced by proper usage in the first place.

The negative is to state that something is wrong and to try to conceal it if at all possible. The constructive way to deal with it is to acknowledge it and consider how God’s goal is to use that particular inclination as a channel via which He might show Himself in your life.

“All things are worked out according to the counsel of His own will,” says God. “It is in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure,” He says. The Bible says that when we are called by God and accepted by Him, “all things [positive and bad] work together for good.”

Put an end to your self-condemnation

Every scenario we find ourselves in is a result of God’s perfect plan. It is, in fact, the one that is required. So thank God for each and every circumstance! No matter what situation you are in. Never question or criticize yourself since this is what causes the bondage of spirit that has brought us all so much sorrow. Instead, embrace yourself exactly as you are and as you are feeling at any given moment.

Don’t stress yourself out by trying to be someone you’re not. Just be yourself. Realize that as long as you are honest with yourself and with others about who you are and what you do, there is no room for criticism.

In the words of Jesus, “God justifies, and who is the one who condemns?” At the same time, acknowledge that Christ has become your very life. He has taken the place of your previous self. This then allows you to be genuinely free as yourself — as the Christ within you — as a result of the experience.

Simply relax and allow yourself to be spontaneous

Only He has the ability to transform whatever attitudes or feelings you may be experiencing. As a result, don’t strive to accomplish anything other than what comes naturally and readily to you. Simply carry out the actions that occur to you as a result of your spontaneous inspiration. Take the stance that, in Christ, you are dead to everything but dwelling in Him and nothing else matters.

But often that death includes those aspects of ourselves that we would truly wish to keep. However, we must be comfortable with being whatever He decides to be in us at any given time. “If it is necessary, you are in a state of heaviness as a result of numerous trials,” Peter explains. When you are faced with one of these difficult trials, accept the heaviness and sorrow that comes with being human and do not attempt to change the situation. You just have to accept it as God’s direct will for the time being and give Him gratitude for doing so.

You have no way of knowing what God has planned for you or what future reasons He may have in mind for the events you are going through right now, so don’t waste your time trying to figure it out. Continually carry out the tasks you believe He is assigning you at the time. He has a perfect reason for everything that is occurring around you, even if that reason is not immediately apparent to you. So keep your attention fixed on this liberating truth.

Take pleasure in your freedom

The single eye of faith of which Jesus spoke allows us to remain free within, regardless of the situations and appearances around us on the outside. We are not to be deceived by the circumstances or disappointed by them. In order for His life to manifest in us, we must embrace our current circumstance completely — both the external situation He has placed us in and our internal feelings toward it. We must do so knowing that it is for His life to manifest in us.

While sorrow and temptation abound — as well as failure and apparent defeat — our entire responsibility is to remain calm and at peace inside ourselves, knowing that we walk with Him alone, that He walks within us, and that He will direct our steps in His direction.

He will see to it that His purpose for you life is completed

His determination to lead us down this path means that He does not notice the uncertainty, heaviness, or bewilderment we are experiencing, but simply the next step in His perfect plan for us. And He in us is the One who will bring it about when we fully embrace and enjoy in the present moment, trusting that, despite the appearance of the moment, all things genuinely do work together for our good.

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