Over The Edge

 I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing." John 15:5......"Christ risen means an open heaven where everything is possible for us in Christ." T. Austin-Sparks

John 15:5 may be the most "unfamiliar familiar" verse in the Bible. We give mental acknowledgement to it, but our life witness is too often to the contrary. We say that we know we can do nothing apart from Him, but my experience, both personally and in observation, is that in so much of what we undertake for Him, lurking behind it all is the sense that "we can do this! I can do this!" We're living, as one friend put it, in the realm of "possibility thinking." We're attempting what we think is possible, what we believe we can do. Yes, we'll need His help, but in the end, we see, can weigh the pros and cons of everything, and see how it can be done. I believe He wishes to take us much further than this. I believe He wants to take us into the realm of living in the sense of "nothing is impossible with Him." This is the realm where we step out into places where our very survival, let alone success is completely dependent upon Him, that without Him, we're doomed. This is terrifying ground, but it is ground He calls us to. Too few of us wish to go there.

A man named T. Austin-Sparks, an Englishman who ministered into the mid-20th century, said this; "Are we willing to do what can only be done in the power of His life? That unless He "shows up," it is impossible to accomplish?" This was the norm in the first century church, indeed, the norm for all who have been greatly used by Him. The disciples, as well as Paul, were all sent by Him into impossible, even hopeless situations. Situations that were beyond the natural ability of all of them. They didn't shrink back. They didn't because they had no confidence in themselves, but total confidence in their Lord. They knew that if He was leading, then what was against them didn't matter. The impossibilities didn't matter. They knew nothing was impossible with Him, and so, nothing would be impossible for them as they lived in, abided in Him. Someone said that those who are fully alive in Him look completely out of their minds to the unbelieving, including the unbelieving in His church. I think the world, as well as the church, is in desperate need for just such men and women in the days in which we're living.

When I think of an example of this, I think of a man named David Wilkerson, who pastored a small church in a town called Turtle Creek, very near where I grew up. He came to feel a call upon his heart to go to the city of New York and establish a street ministry there. He had no resources for this but the Father, through His Son Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. Neither did he have anything in his background to suggest he could do it. All he had was a call into the impossible, and a Lord with whom He knew there was nothing impossible. He left a small industrial town that bore no resemblance to NYC, and went there. He should never have been heard of again, but God used Him. The effects of his beginning a one man ministry are seemingly infinite. Not just in the establishment of the Times Square Church and all its far reaching ministry, but in the thousands upon thousands of lives transformed through that church and his ministry. God took a simple man, one who knew he couldn't do what His Father called him to do, and worked mightily through him. Wilkerson knew he couldn't, but he knew that if his God was calling him to the impossible, his God would also do the impossible. This is the kind of faith and walk that a dying world is crying out for. A faith that He dares us to test. Can we? Can you, and can I?

I've heard many talk of being involved in "edgy" ministries, those that go to the edge of where the church has been ministering. I think Christ calls us to something much greater. If we're on the edge, we're still on familiar ground. I think He calls us to step over the edge, where the only ground is Christ Himself. That's the realm of "nothing is impossible." Do we have the courage to go there, or, do we continue to measure our lives and service in terms of what we think is possible, which contains a strong element of security, or step out into the place where our only security is Him?

Blessings,

Pastor O