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How To Do The Impossible By Wayne Bristow Copyright © 1995 Wayne Bristow Wayne Bristow is the founder and president of Total Life International Ministries. For 45 years, he has been engaged in a global ministry of evangelistic preaching. His work has taken him to 34 countries on five continents and to 39 of the United States. During 2001, his schedule includes projects in Honduras, Nicaragua, Brazil, Kenya and Zimbabwe. He is the editor of a cutting edge online magazine, Total Life Journal*. He and his wife, Robbie, make their home in Edmond, Oklahoma. The following is an except from his book, Total Life Now**. It is not difficult to live the Christian life in your own strength; it is impossible. Anyone who has taken Christianity seriously will not dispute that statement. The great spiritual giants of the ages have affirmed it. The Apostle Paul wrote, "Evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Romans 7:21-24, NKJV. Often we hear half-truths from well-meaning people, seeking to win converts to Christ. The impression is left that if you simply repeat some words, there will be no more problems. In fact, you will probably make straight A's in school, be captain of the team or head cheerleader. It is likely that you will go on to be the CEO of a major corporation, an all-pro athlete or Miss America. Actually, Jesus did not promise any of these things. Instead, He said, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head," Matthew 8:20, NKJV. "He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it," Matthew 10:38-39, NKJV. When you turn to Christ, suddenly you're going against the grain of the world. Instead of becoming popular, you may watch people you thought were friends reject you. Moral convictions, born out of your new allegiance, will fly in the face of modern mores. You will discover that God never intended to put you in a rose garden behind a brick wall. He wants to fill you with all of Himself, plant you in the middle of a crazy, war-torn world, and demonstrate His adequacy through you. Paul grasped this, and his cry of "who will deliver me from this body of death?" was followed with, "I thank God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Romans 7:25, NKJV. The Christian life is the Christ life. It begins with Him and continues with Him. Apart from Him there are only good intentions and frustrations. Jesus confounds the world. When it looks as though the bad guys have won, and that the Christian burned his bridges too soon, Jesus causes light to shine out of darkness and say, "Here's hope!" A group of ordinary men had left everything to follow Jesus. For three years, they had witnessed extraordinary things. They were convinced that they had found the Jewish Messiah, who would reestablish the Kingdom of David and deliver Israel from Roman tyranny. Suddenly, the wheels came off their wagon, it hit the wall and their world fell apart. If they had been paying attention to their Teacher, they would not have been surprised. They were not paying attention. Jesus was arrested on trumped-up charges, convicted on the basis of false testimony, condemned by a crowd-pleasing politician and killed before a mocking mob. His followers scattered in fear for their lives. Slowly, they found their ways back to each other. Disillusioned, and feeling God forsaken, they cowered behind locked doors. Suddenly, the resurrected Jesus stood in their midst. Stunned, they heard Him declare, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you," John 20:21, NKJV. They had thought it was all over, but Jesus was saying, "It's only the beginning!" Through these unlikely men, and millions of people who would come after them, Jesus intended to complete what He had started. He was saying, "When I came into the world, I was the Sent One from the Father. I've accomplished my primary purpose. I have fulfilled every demand of God's righteousness. I've died without sin in Myself, and I've had the sins of the whole world judged in Me. I have won a victory over hell and the grave. Now I'm going to ascend to Heaven, assume My rightful place and pray for you; but I don't want to leave you alone. I will send My Spirit to indwell those who submit to Me as Master. He will seal, teach, empower and lead you. Now, you are going to be the sent ones of the Sent One. Just as the Father sent Me, I am going to send you." Those words, "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you," fill me with hope and challenge. I'm hopeful when I realize that if I can only understand how Jesus was sent into the world, I will know how I'm to go into it. I'm challenged to understand how He was sent. How was Jesus sent into the world? See Philippians 2:5-8, NKJV. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." Two things are crucial to our understanding of Jesus' coming into the world. First, He is God, the very God who spoke the world into existence. John's Gospel begins with these words, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," John 1:1, NKJV. Secondly, Jesus became a man. He was not a pretension of a man, but a real man. He was a man without sin, born of a virgin, fathered by the Holy Spirit, but very much a man. He experienced hunger, pain, sorrow, temptation and death. It is just as much heresy to deny that He was a man as it is to deny that He is God. Understanding these two things, however, raises a question. How could Jesus behave as God and man at the same time? God is sovereign, all powerful, ever present, all seeing and all knowing. He does not draw the resource of His power from anyone but Himself. He is totally adequate within Himself. It takes God plus nothing to equal God. Man, however, is completely dependent on God. To be men and women as we were born to be, it takes you and me plus God. So, how was Jesus sent into the world? Look again at the second chapter of Philippians: "Made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant...He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death," Philippians 2:7-8, NKJV. When Jesus came into the world, God became man. He chose for those thirty-three years to live as a man in a faith relationship with the Father. For the first time since Adam, there was a man on Earth who was going to live as God had always intended for men to live. How did He live? It is important to understand. Remember, He said, "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." To begin to understand how Jesus walked through time into eternity, read His words in John 5:19, NKJV, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner." Note carefully that Jesus is not saying that He can do nothing. He could do everything. He could turn water into wine, make blind eyes see, cause the lame to walk, calm troubled waves, raise the dead and forgive sins. He was saying that He could do nothing of Himself. In case we missed it, He repeats Himself in John 5:30, NKJV, "I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgement is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent me." Again, in John 8:28b, NKJV, "I do nothing of Myself, but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things." If anyone who has walked on Earth has really heard what Jesus said and understood what He meant, that person was the Apostle Paul. Look again at his letter to the Philippian church. In chapter three, verse three, he wrote, "For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." He was saying that in spite of heritage, education, connections and position, he had no confidence in who and what he was of himself. In light of this, it may be startling to turn the page and find him writing, "I can do all things," Philippians 4:13a, NKJV. How can this be? In one breath he says, "No confidence in the flesh." In the next he says, "I can do all things." A pastor was reading Philippians 4:13 to his congregation. He has just uttered Paul's words, "I can do all things," when a man leaped to his feet and shouted, "I'll bet he can't!" "Sit down and be quiet," said the pastor, "I am not finished yet." The preacher went on to read, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." "Nothing doing," shouted the agitated man. "If you're calling in Jesus, the bet's off." That's it. A victorious Christian is not a super person. He is simply an ordinary person who is taking God at His word. He knows that of himself, he cannot do anything, but he has called in Jesus. Jesus never intended for us to go out in our own strength. He intended for us to go in His strength, so that people would be impressed with His ability to get the job done through ordinary folks such as you and me. All of this is summed up by Jesus in one of the Bible's mountain-top verses, John 15:5, NKJV, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." Do you believe that? Do you really believe that apart from Christ you can do nothing? Be careful. I didn't ask for the right answer to the question. Every Christian knows that the right answer is, "Certainly, I believe it. Jesus said it. That settles it. I believe it." That's the right answer, but that's not what I'm asking. I'm asking if you believe what Jesus said. It is easy to say aloud that you believe Jesus when He said that without Him you can do nothing, but inwardly you might be screaming, "No, that's not right. I can do a lot of things. I can write, speak, sing, play a musical instrument, carry out administrative activities, teach and build. I can do a lot of things!" When we protest like that, I think God quietly says, "I know that; but wouldn't it be a shame to spend your whole life being very busy doing nothing?" What makes something really significant in God's sight? Have you ever noticed that two people can do exactly the same thing; and when one person does it, there is dullness, boredom and hollowness. It is nothing. Then someone else does exactly the same thing. This person may not be as physically attractive, as well educated or as skilled as the first person, but when he does it there is fire, light, impact, a sharp cutting edge and enduring blessing. It's something! What is the difference? Could it be that the difference is not to be found in the outward nature of what you do, but in its origin? If your Christian life can be explained in terms of activity and appearance, you probably will leave little that will endure. But, suppose you take hands off your life, step back and submit totally to Jesus as Master. You die to yourself. Then God touches you with His resurrection power. He sends His Spirit to fill, equip, teach and lead you. He puts a fire inside you that will not go out. He shows you a mission, a task, and He says, "I want to accomplish that through you." With no confidence in yourself, you say, "I can't." He says, "I know that, but will you let Me do it through you?" Trembling, you say, "Yes." Knowing your limitations, but rejoicing that He has none, you step out by faith, believing God for the impossible. Then the fire falls, the blessing comes and the unimaginable becomes reality. You know that God did it. To Him be all the glory and praise. Great things He has done! As long as I can remember, I've wanted to fly. I grew up during World War II in the West Texas county seat town of Muleshoe. The community is located between Clovis, New Mexico and Lubbock, Texas. There were Army Air Corps bases in both cities, and planes were frequently flying over our house. I would watch them and wonder what it would be like to fly. This desire was inflamed by my Saturday viewing of action packed double features at the Wallace Theater and by my addiction to super hero comic books. If Superman and Captain Marvel could fly, why couldn't I? Finally, I decided to give it a shot. I borrowed one of Mother's best dish towels. I used an orange crayon to draw lightening bolt on it. Held in place with a safety pin, it made an acceptable cape. Based on everything I had observed, this appendage was necessary if a wingless man was to have any hope of flying. Now, I needed a launching place. I decided that the roof of our house might be a bit too ambitious, so the chicken house would have to do. There I stood with the West Texas wind whipping the cape out behind me. I was sure that I looked just like a someone able to leap tall buildings and confront world-threatening calamity. Looking down into the faces of puzzled chickens, I shut my eyes, took a deep breath and flung myself into space shouting, "SHAZAM!" When I could breathe again, I opened my eyes and looked up to the heights from which I had fallen. Slowly, I raised an aching and bleeding knee. When I saw my ripped jeans, I thought, "Oh no! I lived through this, but Mother is going to kill me!" I had done my best. I had screamed like an eagle and had flown like a chicken. Now I knew. I am bound to this earth by a law of gravity that, no matter how fast I flap my wings, will always frustrate every attempt I make to fly. No amount of positive thinking can change it. I can't fly. I can't live the Christian life. I've given it my best shot and I've discovered, with the Apostle Paul, that there is a principle of selfishness and rebellion called sin at work in me. This defeats every effort I make to live as Jesus lived. But, let's go back to flying for a minute. Call me a slow learner, because I've never given up on my desire to fly. The result has been that about fifty times every year, I do the impossible. I fly! How can I do the impossible? I do it by faith; not a blind leap into the dark, hoping against hope for the improbable, but a confident act that is grounded in established fact. Faith is only as strong as its object. When I fly, my object is a law that has overcome the law of gravity, the law of aerodynamics. I go to an airport, board a plane, buckle my seat belt and commit myself to the vehicle. I rest my whole being on the ability of the jet engines to thrust me aloft and transport me to my destination. The object of my faith is adequate. By faith, the impossible becomes probable. I fly! Suppose, however, halfway to my destination, I go to a flight attendant and say, "Recently, I attended a weekend seminar of flying. I listened for eight hours to an airline pilot. He was a combat pilot over Viet Nam, and now he has thousands of hours of commercial experience. He is one of the most captivating, charismatic speakers I have ever heard. I bought his book, video and audio cassettes. I've already read the book and I just finished listening to the tapes. Do you know what? I think I've got it!" Before the startled stewardess realizes what I'm up to, I open the door of the airplane and step out into space. In that moment, it will not matter how much I have heard or read about flying. It will not matter how dynamic or knowledgeable a teacher I have had. I will be back on my own resources, cut off from that which was allowing me to do the impossible. Left to myself, subject to the law of gravity, I'm seconds away from keeping an appointment with terra firma. For you, as a Christian, Jesus can make the impossible probable. Instead of thrashing about in your own strength and failing, by faith you can submit to Him as your Master. He has overcome sin and He wants you to experience His victory. How is this possible? Jesus said, "He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit," John 15:5, NKJV. Rest everything on His adequacy and the victory is assured, but the moment you decide you have the hang of it and set out to do something for God and man, you will fall flat of your spiritual face. When this happens, you will be shocked, but God won't be. He has already told you, "Without Me you can do nothing." This doesn't mean that you can't do anything. Jesus told His disciples, "The person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I've been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I'll do it. That's how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I'll do," John 14:12-14, The Message. Of yourself, you can do nothing. In Him, you can do everything (Philippians 4:13). That's how you do the impossible, and that's something...for God and man! * Visit Total Life International Ministries. To find the table of contents for the current issue of Total Life Journal, go to INDEX. You can use your Visa or MasterCard to secure copies of Total Life Now. Within the continental United States, call 1-888-868-2543 toll free. The cost is $8.00 plus shipping/handling. Wayne Bristow's e-mail address isTOTAL LIFE NOW |
