If you're falling from the sky in a burning plane, then a prayer for God's help is quite in order; if you've been bitten by a poisonous snake miles from medical assistance, then asking God to help is perfectly sensible; if you've just catapulted through the windshield of your car in a head-on collision at sixty miles an hour, then a quick "God, help me!" is a very wise thing to do (if, of course, you're still conscious). But asking God to help you overcome sin, or be more patient with your spouse, or try harder to obey Him is actually very unbiblical. Why? Well, because you had the answer to these pleas for help the moment you were born-again. Huh? What am I talking about? The Holy Spirit, of course. In him you have all that you need to "live godly in Christ Jesus."
Okay. So, every believer has all they need in the Holy Spirit to live like God commands. Why, then, are so many not living like it? Why do so many feel like they desperately need God's help? Good questions. Ignorance is one major factor. New believers often aren't taught about their new life in Christ and how it works. They're expected to figure it out on their own - or not. Frequently, they don't. They just live in frustrated failure, pleading with God to do something. Of course, He already has; they just don't know it. A proper course of discipleship would easily remedy this but, strangely, few churches actually offer such a thing. Instead, it's just a string of often unrelated six or ten week Bible studies. This is not discipleship.
Another reason Christians ask God for help with the sorts of things God has already equipped them to overcome in the Person of His Spirit is that they don't understand the subtle intrusion of Self into the life God has called them to live. What do I mean by "Self"? I mean the "old man" (Ro. 6:7), or the "natural man" (1 Cor. 2:14), or the carnal, flesh-driven, self-centered person you were before you were saved. That person, that Self, is focused on itself. It maneuvers constantly to be at the center of everything in a person's life rather than God. It's that part of the Christian person that wants to do for God rather than letting God do for and through the person. But out of Self only comes more Self. In fact, it is Self that breeds all of our sin (Matt. 15:19; Jer. 17:9; Ro. 7:18 - 23; 8:7, 8; Ga. 5:17; Eph. 2:1-3). And so, God had to put that unregenerate, self-centered, flesh-driven "old man" (or woman) to death (Ro. 6:1-11). It is simply too corrupt, too incorrigibly evil and self-centered, to be made better by God. The problem is, though, that believers don't live like they are "dead to sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ." They either don't believe they can't in their strength do for God in some measure, and/or don't see that Self is at work. They want to add their own bit to what God is doing in and through them. Self wants its finger in the pie of the Spirit's transforming work. And so, many Christians don't really live fully surrendered to God, dependent upon His Spirit always for all things. In an effort of Self they try to do what only God can do. Of course, the results are not good. And this leads to Christians pleading with God for help in being who He has called them to be.
But God's not really interested in just helping us. He's not playing a supporting role in our becoming like Christ. He's not there to catch us when we fall and prop us up when we grow weak. Not at all. He's aiming to be our very life. Because He is. What? What is this supposed to mean? Sounds like mystical, religious mumbo-jumbo, eh? Well, think about it for a moment: Who gives us physical life and sustains our existence moment-by-moment? That's right: God. Who does Paul say is the believer's life? Jesus (Col. 3:4), who is God. What did Jesus say about our ability to act apart from him?
John 15:5
5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
All of our living, physical and spiritual, emanates from God. He is our life. Strangely, many believers don't live like it. They think of God mainly as an assistant, a divine aid to right living, not as the very life they possess as "new creatures in Christ." But this is what it means to be "in Christ." No more striving and straining to be like Jesus. Instead, we are to simply abide in the Vine as a branch and let the life-giving "sap" of the Vine (the power of the Holy Spirit) flow into us and transform us and bring forth the "peaceable fruit of righteousness" from us. Do you see a branch straining and struggling to be a branch, to remain attached to the trunk of its tree? Do branches quiver with the effort of gripping the trunk? Is it all on the branch to be a branch? No, of course not. The life of the branch is in the tree; it is just an extension of the tree, not an independent entity trying to suck the life out of the tree. But so many believers act as though they must work, they must try, to be a branch, to produce by their own effort the life of the Vine. And when they do so and fail, and fail, and fail, they begin to plead with God for help. And God says in response to their pleas, "You must die and Christ must live. He is your life, dwelling in you in the Person of my Spirit. Stop trying and just abide in me."
Philippians 2:13
13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Okay. So, every believer has all they need in the Holy Spirit to live like God commands. Why, then, are so many not living like it? Why do so many feel like they desperately need God's help? Good questions. Ignorance is one major factor. New believers often aren't taught about their new life in Christ and how it works. They're expected to figure it out on their own - or not. Frequently, they don't. They just live in frustrated failure, pleading with God to do something. Of course, He already has; they just don't know it. A proper course of discipleship would easily remedy this but, strangely, few churches actually offer such a thing. Instead, it's just a string of often unrelated six or ten week Bible studies. This is not discipleship.
Another reason Christians ask God for help with the sorts of things God has already equipped them to overcome in the Person of His Spirit is that they don't understand the subtle intrusion of Self into the life God has called them to live. What do I mean by "Self"? I mean the "old man" (Ro. 6:7), or the "natural man" (1 Cor. 2:14), or the carnal, flesh-driven, self-centered person you were before you were saved. That person, that Self, is focused on itself. It maneuvers constantly to be at the center of everything in a person's life rather than God. It's that part of the Christian person that wants to do for God rather than letting God do for and through the person. But out of Self only comes more Self. In fact, it is Self that breeds all of our sin (Matt. 15:19; Jer. 17:9; Ro. 7:18 - 23; 8:7, 8; Ga. 5:17; Eph. 2:1-3). And so, God had to put that unregenerate, self-centered, flesh-driven "old man" (or woman) to death (Ro. 6:1-11). It is simply too corrupt, too incorrigibly evil and self-centered, to be made better by God. The problem is, though, that believers don't live like they are "dead to sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ." They either don't believe they can't in their strength do for God in some measure, and/or don't see that Self is at work. They want to add their own bit to what God is doing in and through them. Self wants its finger in the pie of the Spirit's transforming work. And so, many Christians don't really live fully surrendered to God, dependent upon His Spirit always for all things. In an effort of Self they try to do what only God can do. Of course, the results are not good. And this leads to Christians pleading with God for help in being who He has called them to be.
But God's not really interested in just helping us. He's not playing a supporting role in our becoming like Christ. He's not there to catch us when we fall and prop us up when we grow weak. Not at all. He's aiming to be our very life. Because He is. What? What is this supposed to mean? Sounds like mystical, religious mumbo-jumbo, eh? Well, think about it for a moment: Who gives us physical life and sustains our existence moment-by-moment? That's right: God. Who does Paul say is the believer's life? Jesus (Col. 3:4), who is God. What did Jesus say about our ability to act apart from him?
John 15:5
5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
All of our living, physical and spiritual, emanates from God. He is our life. Strangely, many believers don't live like it. They think of God mainly as an assistant, a divine aid to right living, not as the very life they possess as "new creatures in Christ." But this is what it means to be "in Christ." No more striving and straining to be like Jesus. Instead, we are to simply abide in the Vine as a branch and let the life-giving "sap" of the Vine (the power of the Holy Spirit) flow into us and transform us and bring forth the "peaceable fruit of righteousness" from us. Do you see a branch straining and struggling to be a branch, to remain attached to the trunk of its tree? Do branches quiver with the effort of gripping the trunk? Is it all on the branch to be a branch? No, of course not. The life of the branch is in the tree; it is just an extension of the tree, not an independent entity trying to suck the life out of the tree. But so many believers act as though they must work, they must try, to be a branch, to produce by their own effort the life of the Vine. And when they do so and fail, and fail, and fail, they begin to plead with God for help. And God says in response to their pleas, "You must die and Christ must live. He is your life, dwelling in you in the Person of my Spirit. Stop trying and just abide in me."
Philippians 2:13
13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
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