Greetings again my Brethren. This edition of our newsletter begins our 13th year of service to the Body of Christ. We have been battered and bruised, but with God’s grace and mercy we are still standing and withstanding. Many ask to name one hallmark of our ministry, well I would say we have not changed our message and that is the message of the cross which started in Germany at Christliche Gemeinde Stuttgart and continues with us today. We know as we continue in Him He will continue us and BHG for His glory.
This month we will begin a whole new section “a divine provision” as it relates to our dependence on God and not our independence. The more dependent we are on God the more we will hear and understand the call God has placed on our lives. Now we need to read the last sentence again before we proceed. Sadly in the church today we hear people running around saying they have the power yet Jesus said, I have no power even over my very life except what the Father gives me. “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” (John 19:17-18) We are totally dependent on God for everything (even the air we breathe) and on our family, brother, and sisters. Yet the church is full of people who say they have the call of God on their lives that operate outside the framework of dependence on God. The call of God on our lives is not to be an exercise in independence from God, but in a partnership, total dependence on Him. There is to be a union a partnership yoked together with God. And no God does not do all the work we are to engage as we come along side Him in what He wants to happen in our lives and in what He wants to see happen through us to the world. I wonder why we think we can go it alone? Thinking we do not need our brothers and sisters? This thinking my friend is nothing more than self-fed arrogance, presumption, and will lead to frustration, double and triple work on our part, and worse loss to any real work that God has been able to do in our lives. In John Jesus lays it out for us. “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 6If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 7If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” (John 15:5) He (Jesus) said I am the vine you are the branches here Jesus is showing us the correct order to be productive in God. My friend we never get to be the vine we will always be the branches. To think the production of God’s goodness and His works originates with us is just plain foolishness and open stupidity, yet the church is full of such folks leading good intentioned folks astray. Look at the end of verse five, “for without me ye can do nothing.”Now when Jesus says “nothing” He means “nothing.” We can do “nothing” we are totally dependent on Him for everything as He (Jesus) was totally dependent on His Father for everything. Then Jesus talks about you two groups of people using the word “If” (the most important word in the Bible because it always sets the condition for receiving from God) to express what happens if we think we are the vine and independent of God. For those who do not think they are dependent on God and think they are the captain of their own ship. They will be, “cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” Make no mistake my friend God will either us of to bless people or He will use us for fire wood. Then there is the second group of people. Please know order in the Bible is important: first things first (or that which is important to God is spoken about first) is God’s order. Those who work with God, those who abide in the framework and plan God has directed, “shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Now I will be honest I have never met (including me) someone who could move in this unqualified promise of God. Today we long for the ability to be able to ask whatsoever we want and it be done unto us, but this is only for those who are more than totally (not really sure of the degree required) plugged into the vine. Only for those who are totally dependent on God as His Son Jesus Christ was. What “a divine provision” God has provided for our lives, it is there all we have to do is allocate it through our obedience. “If” sets the condition for whatsoever we shall receive. It’s not up to God, but it’s up to us.
Next month we will continue to look at “a divine provision” as we look at how we are to exercise our dependence more on God. Can you hear Him now?
