John 15:5 I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.
How often do we try to hang on the vine, but keep falling off? Meaning, how often do we get a directive from God and fail to do that directive because we couldn’t do it? Tried but couldn’t and became frustrated and then quit?
If we knew we weren’t designed to do it without Him to begin with and knew we were to ask for help, how much easier it would be to get it done? Much easier and time saved!
That is why I am here today to help you to know what I didn’t and if I had, how much time and grief I could have avoided.
Not knowing is not good.
Not knowing what we need to know to live by faith is not faith, it is just walking around in the dark, which is not what we were meant to do. We have the Word of God and teachers to instruct us of how to live in the Kingdom of God successful!
If we don’t have that teaching we have to fumble around to long and go through too much stuff. Not good!
James 4:2-3 tells us we have not because we ask not, or because we ask amiss. First off, if we’re asking so that we can obey God, we certainly are not asking amiss. If we’re asking so we can do His will He will certainly will oblige us.
Through experience I have learned that if I don’t ask God to help to stay on the vine and be a branch I can’t. I have to ask Him to help me do His will and if I don’t, He won’t. Why? Because He won’t impose His will on me. I have to choose His will and I do that by asking for His help to do His will.
That very action of asking for help is actually a faith action because asking Him to help us means we are willing to do His will, which doing His will is obedience.
Obedience is trusting (faith) Him. Our trust in Him proves as faith and gives Him permission to teach us and to train us of how to live in His Kingdom. His teaching is our empowerment to walk in the light with His revelation knowledge which all mixed together is faith!
James 2:17 So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).
Faith without action is dead. We can’t say we have faith without adding actions of obedience to it, therefore to ask Him for His help is having faith in Him.
The things God asks us to do are impossible to begin with therefore we have to get His empowerment to do His requests. Sometimes that empowerment is revelation knowledge. Sometimes He just does it for you, but whatever it is we might have to do, only God knows.
Therefore we must go to Him and ask Him to help us do what He told us to do. We have to be willing to listen and then obey whatever directive He might give us that would make that empowerment possible.
Just the past few days God has been showing me something about myself I couldn’t see without Him. But as I sought to stay on the vine, He showed what I needed to do to keep from falling off. I didn’t want to do what He was showing me, so then I had to ask Him to help me to want His will and not my own because, plainly I didn’t want what God wanted.
In asking for conformation of His will (because I didn’t want to do it) His conformation was quite amusing and I want to share it with you.
I called my dog to come to me and she started to look at me with a bit of a head turn but then turned away again and jumped off the bed and ran off as if to say I know what you want, but I don‘t want what you want. I said to her, “So you think you don’t have to listen to me, what a naughty girl!” Right then I could hear God in my spirit say the same was true with me, I was a naughty self-willed girl.
God is so cute, but it was a sting! Now of course He had good in mind for me in the correction He was giving me, and showed He should me that later!
Got to love Him, cause He loves me more!