Hopeless Situations

In having no to very little revelation in our lives, we simply do what we have learned to do from birth, draw from our bankrupt resources, going real fast nowhere.
Here’s the kicker in my opinion, Jesus said, “Except you are born anew, you cannot see, or enter the Kingdom of God!”
Why is there such pandemic blindness in our lives especially if the source of Life is resident in us as us? "In him was life; and the life was the light of men."

Chapter 4 of John is but another way of setting forth the same truth. The woman after all is found to be bankrupt, at zero. Jesus gradually draws her out and the final expression from her side is, in effect, Well, I don't know anything about that, I have not anything of that; I have been coming here every day, day after day, but I know nothing about what you are talking of! She is down to zero: and then He says, That is where we begin. The water that I shall give is not the drawing upon your own resources at all, not bringing something out of your well, it is not something that you can produce and I improve upon and make better. No, it is something which comes solely and only from Myself; it is a new act altogether apart from you; it is the water that I shall give. We begin all over again in this matter.

The glory of God is not found in improving, the glory of God is found in resurrection. That is what is coming out here. The glory of God is not found in our being able to produce something or put something into God's hands, something of ours, that He can take up and make use of. The glory of God is something solely out from God Himself, and we can contribute nothing. The glory of God comes out of zero.
he glory of God is in resurrection, and therefore love demands that everything shall come to the place where only resurrection will meet the situation; no curing of things, no remedying of the old man.

Oh, let me start right back at the beginning if it is necessary. There are still a lot of people in this world who think that there is something in man that can contribute to the glory of God and that Christianity is only the bringing up out of man of something that is for the glory of God. That is a long-, long-standing fallacy and lie. It is not true. Call it what you like; it goes by various names, such as 'the inner light' or 'the vital spark'. The Word of God all the way through is coming down tremendously on this thing. I start at zero, and zero for me means that I can contribute nothing. Everything has to come from God. The very fact that the gift of God is eternal life means that you have not got it until it is given to you. You are blind until God gives you the faculty of sight. You are dead until God gives you life. You are a hopeless cripple until God does something for you and in you which you can never do. Unless God does this thing, unless this act takes place, well, there you lie. Spiritually, that is how you are. You can contribute nothing. Nicodemus, you have nothing to give, you must be born again; I cannot take you at the point at which you come to Me! Woman of Samaria, you have nothing, and you know it and confess it: that is where I begin! Man of Bethesda, you can do nothing, and you know it: then it all rests with Me! If ever there is to be anything, it rests with Me! Lazarus, what can you do now, and what can anybody make of you? If I do not come right in as out from heaven and do this thing, then there is nothing but corruption!
Glory—that the Lord shall be glorified in us. What greater thing could happen than that the Lord should be glorified in us? The glory of God is bound up with the resurrection, and resurrection is God's unique and sole prerogative. So that if God is to be glorified in us, you and I have to live on Him as the resurrection and the life from day to day, and know Him as that as we go through life.

Rich

Like a Tree Firmly Planted

See some of my first thoughts over here.

“And he shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity].”

Lord help me now, I’ve buckled my seat-belt even though my name isn’t Dorothy (see the movie, “The Matrix” to understand this inside humor) cause Kansas is going by-by!

From “Unto Full Stature”

“A little boy had listened attentively as his father explained the natural laws which God had built into the universe. He was especially fascinated by the law of gravity. A few minutes later as they were walking in the garden, he questioned his father, “Why do those leaves on that plant point up when gravity is surely pulling them downward?”
As they stood looking at several plants the father explained, “It’s because God has built a higher law of life into that plant which lifts its leaves upward to the sun. This is not exactly defying gravity, but in some strange way is transcending that downward pull. You see, this next little plant has one leaf which failed to draw from the plant’s resources and has become limp; (wilted) therefore the law of gravity has taken over. Only God really understands how the plant’s metabolism lives according to the law of life and thus transcends the law of gravity.”

“The same is true in our bodies. God has designed us to live according to a strange and wonderful law of life which is something imposed upon us from without, but is built into our very being. It merely requires that we be yielded to Him as His tender plant. Even as the plant is alive to the sun, so every petal and leaf of our being should continually be living unto Him. When this is so, our whole physical being is transcendently over riding every downward pull. As the law of Life is constantly operating within we are vibrant by sharing divine resources. As surely as our physical turns its “Sun” it will as surely become limp and succumb to the downward drag. Might we suggest that most failure or breakdown is simply proof that we have not heeded the divine law of Life and the resources which become available.”

“But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's! (Romans 8:9-11-The Message).

“If our controlling conceptions are wrong it is because have not truly passed through the rectifying work of the Cross. Apart from a Calvary crushing and seeing, no one will give up his little kingdom building or ego feeding to be released into that new plane of physical quickening by God’s Spirit.”

All I know is, that there so much more available to us then what we have settled for, whether in or outside of any so called box. It’s in Him and a knowing of this reality, that will save us from professing so much and experiencing so little, our leaf shall not fade nor wither.

Rich