Our Purpose Devotion

July 26th
Apart From Him We Can Do Nothing

We must have His working operating in every area of our lives. The Holy Spirit is gathering all things in Christ; all things into the working of the nature that made Jesus the Christ. The Apostle Paul firmly believed in what he received through the new birth. He desired to live his life by that new nature 24/7. He wanted his outward man to be possessed by the inward man.

Galatians 2:20
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Notice those words, no longer I that lives. When we abide in Him we are taking that dedicated position. All Him, no more me. Actually in that place we find ourselves. As John the Baptist said, “I must decrease so He may increase.” Apart from Him you can do nothing. Does it really mean that? Apart from Him I can do nothing? Anything that does not bring furtherance to the main purpose that was established before the foundation of the world, is really nothing as far as the Kingdom of God is concerned. Without Him we cannot bear fruit as the branch of the True Vine.
Remember what he said in 1 Corinthians 13 He said, I could prophesy, I can have faith to move mountains, I can give all I have to the poor, I could do all these things but without love it’s nothing. The Amplified says, without God’s love for us and in us it’s nothing. Everything in this world apart from Him is really nothing. But it is true we can’t achieve anything regarding the eternal purpose apart from Him. The branch needs the Vine to bear fruit. We can’t trust and lean on what we have naturally, we must trust completely on and in Him. When Jesus sent out His disciples He said don’t take anything with you. They went out trusting God. They trusted in God completely. When they came back Jesus said “Did you lack anything?” They said, “No Lord, we lacked nothing” This time He didn’t tell them to not take the things with them. He allowed them to take the things they needed, because they received it not in their own abilities, they received it through faith and the blessing of God that was on their life. Apart from Him anything achieved is nothing. That’s what Paul was talking about. Paul was saying in Philippians 3, that my own achievements and the things that I have accumulated in this life are in comparison to being in union with Him, dung or nothing. Everything we do in this life apart from Him is useless of no value in comparison to the purpose.
We’ll continue tomorrow.
You can’t get anywhere without Him. 😊
Pastor Kevin Vaughn