Nothing

The word “nothing”  should be rarely used.  Once this word leaves a person’s mouth there is all the time in the world for someone to prove us wrong.

Jesus used this word nearly 2000 years ago when He explained to His disciples they could never do the will of God on their own.  Here is how He used the word:

“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.” John 15:5

When we set out to produce what the Father wants, we can do “nothing’ without a living connection to Jesus.  2000 years later no one has found a way to prove Jesus wrong.

Anyone who has ever seriously tried to live the same kind of life Jesus lived always comes to the conclusion they cannot.  Only those who have seriously tried to live what the Father wants from us are useful witnesses concerning Jesus’ famous statement.  Those who simply want to debate the subject of doing God’s will have no credibility in this debate.  Only those who have tried to repeat Jesus’ cooperation with the Father’s will know there is nothing they can do.

According to Jesus,  true cooperation with the Father’s will requires direct contact with the kind of life that does the will of God naturally.  Jesus called this continuous contact “abiding”  or “remaining” in Him like a branch in a vine. 

Doing the Father’s will on our own is not natural to us.  When we abide in Jesus we can do something instead of nothing. Jesus can enable us to do the will of God fruitfully. 

Abide in Him and nothing can become something God wants.

Bud McCord

Abide International

God Speaks With His Hand

“For the Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand...”

Isaiah 8:11

How does God speak with His strong hand?   The same way a parent speaks to a child with his or her strong hand.  The parent takes hold of the child’s circumstances with a strong hand until the child will  finally be still and listen.

When God speaks to us by taking hold of us and our circumstances it is unmistakeable.  When God speaks with a strong hand, we find ourselves literally in the grip of circumstances we are powerless to overcome.  We can fight, run, resist and complain but our circumstances hold us.  We cannot move away. We are held too firmly by an unseen hand.

By his strong hand God gets our attention.  We have come to the end of ourselves and we know it.   Finally we grow still and begin to  understand that we are not God,  God’s strong hand brings tears of repentance to our eyes. The tears are the stress of our resistance finally leaving us.

By holding us in the grip of our circumstances God educates us.   Once we have felt the grip of God orchestarated circumstances we are much easier to educate. We learn to be still before God.

When God’s hand has made its point,  we know God is greater than our circumstances. We know we are really in the grip of the hand of His will and voice.

Being stil and knowing He is God is such a relief!

Bud McCord

Abide International