Dear Ray,
I am increasingly burdened by how much we can do for God while giving His life so little room to operate within us. We plan projects, organize ministries, prepare messages, memorize Scripture, attend trainings, and encourage one another to testify and witness. Our days become filled with things we believe God needs us to accomplish. Yet beneath all this activity, one question remains: Is Zoe actually gaining ground in us?
Even the choices I face this morning reveal how easily I can live by my own life. Should I pray? Should I read the Bible? Should I take a shower? Should I call a saint? Should I plan for the next Bible giveaway? These may all be good and necessary things, but none of them is the tree of life. They are activities, choices, and responsibilities. They can be carried out by my natural life, even while I remain inwardly disconnected from the living Christ.
The question is not merely, What should I do? The deeper question is, Am I turning to the Lord Himself? Am I allowing Zoe to be my source, or am I simply arranging a Christian schedule and asking God to bless it?
Zoe is the uncreated, eternal life of God. In receiving Christ, we have received this very life into our spirit. God has given Himself to us. The Christian life begins here, and its entire development depends upon this life spreading into our thinking, loving, choosing, speaking, and living.
But we so easily take charge.
We decide what a fruitful Christian should accomplish. We establish goals and then ask God to help us fulfill them. Even our desire to serve Him can become a means of keeping our own life firmly in command. We choose the work, determine its importance, and measure the results. Meanwhile, the One dwelling within us waits for room.
I know this tendency in myself. It is easier to become occupied with something I can finish than to yield myself to Someone I cannot control. A project offers visible progress. A ministry gives me something to identify with. Memorized verses can be counted. Trainings can be completed. A Bible giveaway can be planned and carried out. But abiding brings me continually back to dependence upon Christ Himself.
This dependence touches everything.
Will I allow Him to interrupt my plans? Will I release a work that gives me importance? Can I remain quiet when I have something impressive to say? Can I love a brother without turning him into a project? Can I be content with an unseen turning of my heart toward the Lord, even when nothing outwardly remarkable follows?
These are places where Zoe may be seeking ground.
Even our ministry, no matter how precious we think it is in God’s heart, can become wood, hay, and stubble when it comes from our own life rather than from Christ. A work may appear spiritual, benefit others, and even be done in the Lord’s name, yet still lack the substance of the tree of life. What matters is not merely whether the work is religious or useful, but whether it has come from the living operation of Christ within us.
Witnessing can arise from this life. Testimony can overflow from an actual encounter with Christ. Scripture can nourish our inward fellowship with Him. Prayer can become communion rather than duty. Calling a saint can be an expression of Christ’s love rather than merely another item on a list. But none of these activities can substitute for His living operation. We can speak about life while drawing upon ourselves for every word. We can train people to perform Christian functions without helping them live by the Christ within.
The issue is the source.
God does not need us to keep His purpose alive through our determination. His own life carries His purpose. Zoe loves, transforms, generates, and brings forth an expression of Christ. Our calling is to abide in Him and allow that life unrestricted access to us.
This may cost us cherished ambitions, including spiritual ambitions. It may undo our confidence in what we have built. It may even require us to question whether some of our most precious ministry has truly come from the tree of life or merely from our zeal, ability, and religious effort. Yet what could be more worthwhile than Christ gaining the freedom to live in those He has redeemed?
I want to stop offering Him a crowded life with a little space reserved for His influence. I want Him to have the whole ground. Before I decide whether to pray, read the Bible, take a shower, call a saint, or plan the next Bible giveaway, I want to turn to the Lord Himself. I want to ask not only what I should do, but whether I am receiving Him as my life and source.
Are we willing to surrender even our important work, our ministry, and our spiritual routines so that Zoe may operate fully within us?
