Can Man Be Good Alone?

"Without Me you can do nothing" John 15:5

The finality of this statement will frustrate you if you think good actions of any kind can originate in man. They do not. Man is a receiver not a source.

Even the good we see unbelieving men and women doing in the world they do by receiving from God their breath, their reason and their opportunity. God allows them to live, move and deliver some good. (See Acts 17: 28)

Even some of the so-called good we see being done in Jesus’ name is not rooted in God as it should be. Much of what is seen as ministry is man simply going to his personal limits of good and then putting Jesus’ name on their own best effort.

"Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’" Matthew 7: 21-23

In His own behavior Jesus affirmed time and time again that as the perfect man He was never the source of what He did. He was not "lawless" because He did what He did in oneness with the Father. He, too, was a receiver.

"Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works." John 14:10

The great secret of doing true good is to find its true source and connect our spirit to that source by faith. This is what I call "receive mode." When we find the "source of source", which is God, and relax our own spirit into His Spirit by faith, we can then let the source of all good carry our spirit, soul and body to where the specific good God wants done through us gets delivered in His name. This is what I like to call the "receive-rejoice-release" simplicity of daily, moment by moment Christian living. This is abiding.

Jesus came so this connection can happen supernaturally in us as His Spirit connects with our spirit. It is this spirit-union that allows us to deliver the good that God wants delivered. Our individual calling is the delivery of the good God Himself pours in us and then through us.

"He who believes in Me, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water." John 7:38