I CAN OF MINE OWN SELF DO NATHING!

I Can of Mine Own Self do Nothing!
by Arthur Burt www.arthurburt.com

Divine purpose

Divine purpose is using ordinary people who recognize they are ordinary and will not seek to be extraordinary. Man fails by aiming to be what he's not. He can only be effective in his function. And he will discover his function by the unction on his function.
In other words, the will of God works. But the will of God is meant to work perfectly with ordinary people who realize they are ordinary and, as such, will not move out of order.
All our troubles come in exalting ourselves. We trespass out of our function and aim to be what we could never be, because God never meant us to have any function outside of what He gives us. Selah!
One Head is the Head. The Head of the Body is our Lord Jesus. Amazingly, He declares, "I can of mine own self do nothing." (John 5:30) I am being compelled by circumstances all my life to believe this.
I don't believe it, therefore, I have to prove it. I arrive helpless, useless, like a car with a flat battery. I've tried pushing, I've tried pulling, I've almost ruptured myself, but I can't start it.
Ah! Here comes somebody. I've flagged them down.
"Could you help me please?"
"Of course I can."
And this person puts jumper cables on my flat battery, positive to positive and negative to negative. The Son of God becomes the Son of Man.
The negative is vital

That's the whole purpose! I need to be positive about the fact that I am negative.
Now that is the revelation of God. God is positive for the negative.
Do you see your calling? God has chosen you!
You don't have to be something you're not. You simply have to have the truth of what you really are!
You're ordinary. You are very ordinary.
When I cease trying to be something I'm not, then God comes into my life.
Now the power is throbbing through my poor flat battery! Now my life is throbbing with power! How? I look to this Person. He takes the jumper cables off; He puts them away.
I say, "Thank you! Oh, thank you, Sir, so much! What is your name?"
He says, "Oh, my name? It's Jumping Jesus."
"Jumping Jesus?"
"Yes!"
"Oh, how wonderful! Well thank You for giving me a jump!"
He says, "You don't understand, do you?"
"Well tell me."
He explains, "My cables don't start in me. Just as I connected you to My cables, My cables at the other end were connected to My Father. Don't you see that?
When you become positive with your negative, then you'll find the power will flow.

Take My jumper cables, take my yoke and learn of Me. (Matt. 11:29)
Do you see it? I am like you, a flat battery. I can of My own self do nothing! It's the Father that's in Me, He doeth the works. (John 5:30)
But He only does those works because I am connected to My Father. I am totally helpless of Myself, but I am perfectly fulfilled in being plugged in or connected to My Father. He does the works in Me.
Now understand this! Come here! Let Me talk to you."
"All I ever did, I never did. (John 5:30) All I did, I didn't! I did not do what I did do. Do you understand this? I am a fl at battery connected to a throbbing Father by jumper cables. Do you see that?
Only when you are positive with the negative will anything positive ever come out of you. You've looked in the wrong place and you've not had the truth. You are bankrupt! You are a failure! You cannot do anything!"
"Why should you think you are better than Me, the Son of God? If I can do nothing of Myself, (John 5:30) who are you to think you could do something of yourself? Th is is the root cause of all your failures.
Like it or not, you think you're better than I am! You're not! You're not! Don't you see, smoldering inside you is a volcano ready to erupt at any given moment.
How do you erupt? In your judgment of other people, all of a sudden you erupt when you meet another individual
Now the next thing is the uncomely member (Ì Cor. 12:23) in the Body. Is there such a thing? I know the scripture declares it. But maybe God is looking through the window of my attitude toward another person.
In terming someone else uncomely, have I not seen I'm revealing what I believe about myself? I declare your ruler isn't straight and put my crooked ruler against your ruler.
What's revealed? It's my ruler that isn't straight!
Romans says, "Thou that judges doest the same things." (Rom. 2:1) Things that irritate me are the things I am guilty of. Thou that judges doest... I'll either believe it or I'll prove it.
So now, I judge. In the Body, there are uncomely members. Some members in the Body are so uncomely in our estimation, we do not even like to talk about them. But how did you get into the world? Did you grow on a gooseberry bush? Or did your father and mother rub noses?
Well you know the answer to that. We are very, very ordinary people and we need to adjust to God's standards instead of ours. There are no uncomely members in the Body except one and that is me. I am ordinary.
But when I embrace the truth of this, I see that God has put more abundant honor on the uncomely member. This is where God's glory is safe.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels. God deposits in somebody who is so totally unattractive. They are like the little black box that holds the pearl in the shop window.
Nobody considers it beautiful or attractive. Nor does it distract. It's a background for the glory of the pearl. No one notices the box, their eye is on the pearl.
There is only One who is wonderful and his name is Jesus!
No one sees the clean window, they see the magnificent view through the window. What a wonderful thing when people will not see me, but will see through me and see God. To see through you and see the altogether lovely One!
What a triumph of grace when others will not see the earthen vessel, but the glory it contains, the altogether lovely One. This is the purpose and the plan of God.