You could not miss a major theme running through this book. That theme is that we cannot produce our own faith. It is only God Who can produce faith in us. We made the same assertion regarding our love for Jesus.

    But this is not only true of our faith or our love for Jesus. This is equally true of every aspect of our Christian life. It is true from the first work of the Spirit in moving us toward salvation to (as we suggested in Chapter 6) providing faith even as we live throughout eternity.

    Yet, the reality of complete dependence on the indwelling work of God in the believer's life seems to be poorly understood in our American churches. This lack is observable in much more than vestiges of "legalism" from a past generation which were expected to produce spirituality. It is seen in the very fabric of our everyday Christian experience. My heart aches as I often hear sermons depicting the believer's struggle with ongoing sin, followed by the justification that there is great honesty in dealing with personal sin as a reality which we all face.

    I want to stand and scream, "That is not why Jesus died for me! Almighty God did not lead me into this fellowship with Himself to abandon me to a daily battle with sin. 'He chose me in the Lord Jesus before the foundation of the world, that I should be holy and blameless before Him' (paraphrased from Ephesians 1:4). He did not do that to drag me through life as an often-defeated believer, with only a hope that someday in heaven I would finally experience bliss without sin. He saved me that I might experience life today as one who is truly 'holy and blameless'."

    No, I do not believe that I can live month after month without confessing sin. The provision of confession in 1 John 1:5-10 is equally necessary for mature Christians. But I also believe (I can say that I know) that the life lived by the indwelt believer is one that is free from an ongoing struggle with sin. We constantly confront sin as we minister to a lost world. But we need not struggle with sin as an imminent victor over us. It is never the Spirit's purpose that I sin. He will exert His full influence in my life so that I will not sin. If I am readily available to Him, He will do all that is necessary to produce that "holy and blameless life" within me.

    (Do not, however, overlook what was said in Chapter 10: Faith and Holiness regarding the necessary discipline and cost of holiness.)

    But not only do I have the indwelling presence of the Spirit to direct me, I have the indwelling presence of Jesus to empower me. If I will give Jesus control of my life, He will never abandon me to sin. He simply paid too much in order to procure a "holy and blameless" life in me to abandon me now. He will exert His full influence to empower me to live a life that pleases Him. When I allow His indwelling presence to control me, God will "not allow me to be tempted beyond what I am able to bear; but with the temptation will provide the way of escape that I may be able to endure it without committing sin" (paraphrased from 1 Corinthians 10:13).

    Have we forgotten Jesus' promise? He said that if we "hunger and thirst after righteousness, we will be filled." That is not a future promise for heaven only. That is Jesus' promise for today.

    Confession of sin is not a daily occurrence for me. Neither the Spirit nor Jesus indwell me in such a haphazard way that They will fail daily. Their purpose is that I should live a life that is "holy and blameless before God," and They will lead and empower me in every way necessary to allow God to produce that in me.

    However, whereas confession of sin is not a frequent occurrence for me, a constant cry to God acknowledging my abject inability to produce anything good in my life is. As I think regularly throughout the day about the ministries God has given to me, I am constantly reminding Him of my inability to accomplish anything in my own strength. As I think of my love for Jesus and my desire to live and serve Him by faith, I cry out to Him daily in acknowledgement of my inability to even want to love or trust Him. In every area of my life, I must acknowledge before Him that I am entirely dependent on His leading and empowerment. This theme of my absolute dependence on Him is a constant topic of discussion between God and me.

    (How has God taught me that I am entirely dependent on Him? I was not granted some higher degree of spiritual knowledge appended to an otherwise successful and healthy life. He has taught me that I am entirely dependent on Him by challenging every area in my life in which I would otherwise trust myself.^[1] With the harshest of reality, He has shown me what "dying to self" entails. And I am certain He is not through with those lessons yet! I don't know how God might lead you to learn to trust in Him rather than in yourself. Do not, however, be casual in your quest for dependence on Him.)

^[1] I am modeling the things in which I would trust my own self-sufficiency after Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization). However, I am attempting to describe these needs as they have been adapted to American society. For an individual to function normally in this society, I am suggesting four needs which are prerequisite to one's sense of "success." Of course, weakness in one area may be over-compensated for in another. These needs are: 1) Financial. In our society, almost all live within a cash economy. Therefore, personal income has become both the indicator of security which protects us from the unknown and a symbol of relative worth in comparison with others. I placed it at the top of the list because there is a sense in our society that almost any other limitation can be overcome with money. 2) Health. The freedom from pain, disease, cosmetic deformities, and physical limitation has become extremely important in our society. American society has placed a high value on physical beauty, and independence and mobility well past retirement. 3) Relationships. All humans have a need for others to affirm their worth. In our society, this acceptance comes from a complex matrix of family, peers, subordinates, and superiors. The fulfillment of this need is threatened when the individual perceives that others' affirmation of them is diminishing. 4) Competency. Our society places a high value on knowledge or skills which place an individual in a superior position relative to others in their reference group. This is true in professional sports, among academicians and professionals, in the work place, among stay-at-home moms, and even between car thieves as they compare their hits. Personal income is often linked to the alleged level of competency. The perceived benefit of competency is self-sufficiency. This need to view oneself as competent explains why memory loss is so greatly feared in our society.

    Do you see where this has taken us? This is not "me" living the sinless life. This is Almighty God indwelling me, warning me of potential sin, empowering me when I face the threat of sin, and producing in me a "hunger and thirst for that which is righteous." The life free of sin has nothing to do with my ability to anticipate sin, or with my strength to avoid sin. In fact, it does not even require that I "hunger and thirst after righteousness" at my own initiative.^[2]

    ^[2] I do not want to imply that God does not use our will. I strongly believe that we are endowed with free moral agency (choice), and I believe that God allows each of us to exercise our will in responding to Him. However, speaking for myself, the exercise of my will includes conscious acknowledgement that the indwelling Jesus and Spirit must empower every action and motive of my life. It is my choice to be dependent on God.

    It is God—and God alone—Who produces a life in me which is "holy and blameless before Him." He will not fail to complete this every day of my life if I will allow Him to do that which Jesus paid such a terrible price to accomplish.

    Yet, we have been conditioned to view the above statement as arrogance. Can I suggest to you that there is no greater arrogance than the individual finding refuge in his or her struggle with sin? It is the arrogance of the one saying, "Sin is a daily and powerful threat. But look at me—I am battling against sin for all I am worth. I sometimes win. I sometimes fail. In fact, I will be honest with you and admit that I fail frequently. But be confident, I have not given up. I am still battling sin. I know I will never completely win in this life. But just watch. In heaven, God will finally reward me for my unfailing effort. I will ultimately triumph."

    Of course, I have never heard anyone make such a brash statement. I was raised in a church in which we acknowledged that we live by God's power and not our own. I attend a church now which subscribes to our complete dependence on God. I said earlier that I often hear sermons depicting the believer's struggle with ongoing sin. In that same sermon, however, we are also admonished that only God can deliver us from sin.

    But all-the-while, there is a sense of dismal defeat in moving from the ideal to the practical.

    I can only relate my own experience. As a young seminary graduate, I could expound my dependence on God for His indwelling empowerment of my life. Almost 25 years later, after a missionary career and more, I could still repeat the same words with conviction. But in reality, those words were shallow and untried in my own life.

    I understand where the change began to take place in my own experience. First, as I relate earlier in this book, I began praying that Jesus would give me an intense love for Himself. I gradually began to understand that I was asking for something which I was humanly incapable of producing. The more intently I prayed about loving Jesus, the more I was faced with my own inability to even desire to love Him. As a consequence, I was forced to acknowledge my inability to generate any good thing in myself. For the first time in my life, I realized my total dependence on God to produce something in me.

    When later I began asking for faith, I was again faced with the same inability to trust Jesus implicitly by my own effort. Again, God increased my awareness of my dependence on Him to produce faith. The same pattern was repeated when I began asking for godliness.

    Concurrently, I was learning more about the person of Jesus. The more I saw of His unmitigated Deity and His total humanity, the more I realized His power to transform my life. As Almighty God, the power of His indwelling presence was nothing less than that of the Creator of the cosmos. At the same time, in His total humanity, He had no more "spiritual" strength than we have. His perfect sinless life, while He was fully man, was all the proof I needed. If the Father and Spirit's ministry to Jesus could produce in Him a life in which He could be "tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15), then certainly, the indwelling presence of both Jesus and the Spirit is all I need to live a godly life. (Again, I am not discounting the provision of 1 John 1:9 for the forgiveness of sin.)

    But the indwelling presence of Jesus and the Spirit is not focused only on sin. Living a godly life is merely the foundation; we are "called to good works" (Ephesians 2:10) at the time of our salvation. We were commissioned to minister to the world that the body of Christ might be perfected (paraphrased from Ephesians 4:11). How will we ever perform the more difficult task of ministry through the indwelling power of Jesus and the Spirit if we can't even allow Them to produce holiness in us?

    In my case, He then began taking away my self-sufficiency while at the same time leading me into ministries as a layman which were totally beyond my own ability. When it seemed as though I would need my health, my finances, my mental ability, and my skill in persuading others most, He began taking them from me.

    Though I fear that the process is incomplete, I can now say that I have some knowledge of what it means to trust Jesus and the Spirit to produce everything in my life which pleases God. The words I use to describe Their indwelling power are not substantially different from the words I might have used just after graduation from seminary. But my understanding of the role of the indwelling presence of Jesus and the Spirit in my life is radically different today.

    This practical understanding of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and Jesus is transforming in both life and ministry.