I consider yesterday’s “AHA! Moment” to be a spiritual
marker in “the race that is set before us.”[1] Some
things I learn from God’s word are the encouragement I need to keep running
along the present stage of the course. Other times, something from God’s word
is so foundational that I realize it forces me in a certain clarified direction
for the rest of my life.
The spiritual marker comes down to this: faith relates to
impossibilities; flesh relates to possibilities.[2]
Now that I so clearly see this difference, I understand why there
are so many bipolar church-goers. It isn’t that we swing between faith and
flesh, as much as that our flesh keeps changing its mind about possibilities.
When the flesh believes it is possible to handle the circumstance it is facing,
it feels confident, encouraged, and, at a few rare times, even excited. When the
flesh believes it is impossible to handle the situation, it falls into anger,
frustration, hopelessness, and depression.
It is not that our encouraged times were of faith, and our
discouraged times were of the flesh, but that our encouraged times where when
the flesh believed, “I can do it,” and the discouraged times were when the
flesh realized it could not do it, but still wanted to rely on itself.
So, the battle is not between getting the flesh to do
impossible things, or the flesh feeling hopeless about impossible things. The
battle is to move us from the flesh, and into faith. Faith is NEVER a sarky
belief that we can do the impossible. It is ALWAYS a Spirit-filled belief that
God can do the impossible.
This is the Scripture that made this very clear today: “But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With
man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’”[3]
The life of
faith believes these two things:
• “With
man this is impossible,”
• “but
with God all things are possible.”
I look back on things I have experienced in various churches,
and the sarky/fleshly stuff that hinders church-goers today, and realize that many
church folk want the second part without the first part. We do not want a life
that requires us to say, “with me this is
impossible.” We want a life in which we can say, “I want to do the things that are possible for me, and let God do the
things that are possible for him.”
Back in the day when the TV show, “Touched by an Angel,” was
so popular, that was their exact message. The fallen angels kept telling
everyone, “you do your best, and God will
do the rest.” In other words, you do the part that is possible for you to
do on your own, and then God will do the part that he has to do on his own. It
is the deadly marriage between people thinking there is something we can do for
God, partnered with something God can do for us.
It is easy to see how churches express this when we limit
what we do to a building, a location, a budget, time available, personnel,
confines of programs, or any other box in which we decide what is “possible”
for us to do. Such thinking packages church into what is possible for people to
accomplish, and then throws in a prayer meeting here and there to cover what
only God can do.
This is why I have never liked the popular notion, “God will
never give us more than we can handle.” That is fleshly/sarky thinking. It is
the deceptive belief that the Christian life is a mix between us doing our
possibilities, and God doing his impossibilities. The truth is that God will
ALWAYS give us more than WE can handle, but he will NEVER give us more than HE
can handle.
The life of, “With man
this is impossible, but with God all things are possible,” helps me
understand why God must do the Beatitudinal thing on our inner drive to earn our
worth through what we do. This is why Jesus had to let Peter sink while walking
on the water. It is why he had to let all the disciples fall asleep while he
was agonizing in the Garden, and why he had to let them all desert him in his
hour of greatest need, and why he had to let Peter disown him three times. It
was so that they could see that, “with
man this is impossible.”
It also shows why he had them wait in Jerusalem until they
received power from on high.[4]
The “but with God all things are
possible,” requires the Holy Spirit working in our lives to do those
God-only things. And, the only way we can connect to the Holy Spirit is by
faith. He is not waiting for us to help him. He is waiting for us to become the
little children who enter the kingdom of heaven by faith,[5]
and rest in the work Jesus Christ has already done,[6]
the work the Holy Spirit continues to do in us,[7]
and the work God will complete at the return of our Savior.[8]
Clarification (I think this is really important): I think church-going
people are struggling to try to get their sarks/flesh to believe that things
are possible, when God is working to convince our new hearts[9]
that “with man (in the flesh/sark) this
is impossible.” I believe I have the Beatitudes on my side for that one![10]
What should we expect to see God doing in us? Convincing us
that we will never succeed at pumping up the sark/flesh to believe things are
possible. He comes near to the brokenhearted because the brokenhearted no
longer believe they can do anything in the flesh.[11]
He comes near to the contrite in heart because the contrite in heart see nothing
in themselves by which they can do what is impossible.[12]
I also expect to see God speaking to his church about faith
that, “with God all things are possible.”
He will lead us to feel the childlike freedom that knows it can do nothing, but
Father can do everything. He wants us to share in the experience that, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no
longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”[13]
And, “I can do all things through him who
strengthens me.”[14]
As a pastor, this is helping me see that I do not need to
make anyone do anything. I can accept that God will call me to teach, and
reprove, and exhort, and encourage, with great patience and careful
instruction,[15]
but with a sense of “with man this is
impossible” teaching my new heart to rest in Christ, and with a “but with God all things are possible”
mindset of faith constantly encouraging me to press on no matter what I see
(that wind and waves stuff that keeps people from walking on the water[16]).
Bottom line: I can stop trying to earn my sense of worth in
my sarky efforts to perform because “with
man this is impossible.” However, I can put my faith in God’s ongoing work
to conform me into the same image as my Savior, “from one degree of glory to another,”[17]
because “with God all things are
possible.”
Now, if I could see the difference between faith and flesh
before, and already saw some sense of the distinction between Sprit and sark
prior to yesterday morning, this spiritual marker in the race has made
everything even more distinct than ever. God’s children cannot give any ground
to the flesh/sark whatsoever. From here on in, I resign my sark (totally
against its will, of course) to the fact that EVERYTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!!! Apart
from Christ, I can do nothing![18]
However, instead of freaking out because my sark cannot do
anything, I will seek God in faith, and for faith, so that I can live in
constant enjoyment of the impossible things that surround me (or accept one
more Beatitudinal lesson on how to do so!). With me, in my flesh, all things
are impossible. But with God, all those same things “are possible.”
My flesh hates that; my faith loves that; it is time that
the righteous shall live by faith![19]
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Hebrews 12:1 speaks of this race. Yesterday’s post: http://in2freedom.blogspot.ca/2015/11/faith-is-best-friend-of-impossible.html
[2]
In the New Testament, references to “the flesh,” which I prefer transliterating
as “the sark,” speak of that part of ourselves that is geared to living
independent of God. Paul explains the difference between living in the
flesh/sark, and living in the Spirit by faith, in Romans 7 & 8.
[3]
Matthew 19:26
[4]
Acts 1:4
[5]
Matthew 18:3
[6]
Matthew 11:28-30
[7]
II Corinthians 3:18 shows that the transforming work is “from the Lord who is
the Spirit.” Romans 8 shows the necessity of the Spirit’s work in our growth in
Christ.
[8]
I’m thinking here of verses like Philippians 1:6, and I John 3:2.
[9]
Ezekiel 36:26
[10]
Matthew 5:3-12 shows the things that happen to us under the blessing of God.
[11]
Psalm 34:18
[12]
Psalm 51:17; Isaiah 57:15
[13]
Galatians 2:20
[14]
Philippians 4:13
[15]
II Timothy 3:16-4:2
[16]
Matthew 14:22-33
[17]
II Corinthians 3:18
[18]
John 15:4-5
[19]
Romans 1:16-17
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