New This Week:

Spiritual Capacity

John 12:24 “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” NIV

Discipline and devotion alone cannot produce what only the living Christ can. Many Christians work diligently to create the capacity of the life of Jesus Christ in themselves through rigorous religious effort. I asked a friend, “What do you think Jesus means by telling us to ‘die to self’?” “It means that my will gets lost in his.” He replied.
He hit that theological nail square on the head. My will and desires go out the window so that God’s will and desires can take residence in me. And there’s only one thing that completely encapsulates God’s will and desires: Jesus Christ living inside of me through the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells us that a kernel of wheat must fall to the ground and die. That kernel of wheat, I believe, is our will. I’ve found that my will is a hard religious nut to crack. It likes to go to two extremes to avoid this necessary death. One extreme is trying to manufacture my own spiritual capacity by works of the flesh, trying to live the Christian life by my own power (which is pathetically inadequate). Extreme number two is using grace as a license to live my own way, and not live for God’s will. Now is where discipline and devotion do find purpose. Discipline and devotion are what God gave us to keep our will and desires in the dirt, or coffin, so to speak. Devotion serves to make us constantly aware of our need of the Holy Spirit to reside in every nook and cranny of our life. Discipline’s job description is to tell our will that it no longer has a spiritual vote. Then, the living Christ produces the impossible, even through our dreadful inadequacies.

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