HELP FROM ABOVE

Members of the Body of Christ come out of many backgrounds. We differ about a lot of things. But there is one thing we have in common: we are seeking an authentic walk with Jesus Christ. When we gather the first day of the week to worship and break bread we're looking for whatever it is we need to make our walk with the Lord real.

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13

And the fact that we're born of God is evident in the way we live. We have something inside us that enables us to speak the truth, to show mercy, to forgive, to share what we have. It makes us reliable, steadfast through storms, disciplined. Surely we're agreed that if these marks of the presence of God are not found in our living, our faith is a sham and the world has a perfect right to call us hypocrites.

The problem with many of us is that while we know we ought to be conformed to the image of our Lord, we ought to be living the life He describes in the Sermon on the Mount, we're trying to do it in the strength of our own flesh, and it isn't working.

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God...

And nobody is going to live as a son of God without that power. Just as surely as Jesus laid down His life to wash away our sins, He also sends us power to live as new creatures. And there's not one thing Jesus tells us to do that can ever be done apart from that power.

I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you. John 14:18

And when He comes to us, he comes to help us.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth... John 14:15-17a

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. John 14:26

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth... John 16:13a

The normal Christian life is the life that receives continuous help from the Lord through the Holy Spirit to do the will of God. If we're following Jesus for fifty years we're still receiving help.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.

But something in our flesh seems to think we don't need this help. Something in us prefers to "know all the answers." This is why we stumble.

Our Lord Himself lived His life on this earth by receiving constant help from above. If this was normal for Him, how can it be any less for us? The same Helper the Father sent to help Him, Jesus now sends to help us.

At the beginning of His ministry Jesus had help to see the Father.

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, "Thou art my beloved Son, with thee I am well pleased."

Mark 1:9-11

For thirty years, from the time the Son had left the regions of glory to enter the womb of a virgin, His vision of His beloved Father had been largely wiped out. He had no more vision of the Father than any other human in this sin-sick world. Now it's time for His work to begin. And to do this work He's going to have to see God. As Jesus comes out of the waters of His baptism help descends from above. He sees the heavens opened and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove and a voice from heaven. saying, "Thou art my beloved Son, with thee I am well pleased."

And for the first time since He left glory He has an unclouded relationship with the Father. Today this help which opened heaven to Him comes to us. The very same Spirit is released through His atoning blood to open heaven to us, to open our eyes to God.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven...

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God... Matthew 5

...he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. John 14:21b

i.e., "I will show myself. I will make it possible for you to see me, to know me, to realize who I am."

If there's anyone reading these words who still hasn't seen Jesus, hasn't met Him, the only way you ever will is by help from above,

... no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit...

I Corinthians 12:3b

and that help is here. Open your heart to it, as you empty yourself of your pride.

Jesus had help to deny Himself.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Matthew 4:1

Jesus didn't go into that wilderness alone. When Jesus refused to turn the stones into bread, refused to jump from the pinnacle of the temple, bow down and worship Satan, (temptations which offered immediate gratification), He had help. The Spirit was with Him. And now when Jesus, for our good, tells us to deny ourselves He knows that without help we'll never do it.

...but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body...

Romans 8:13b

How else can we put to death the deeds of self and flesh and vanity and ego, but by the Spirit?

All I have to do is say, "Help me, Lord!" and He sends forth upon me the same help that came to Him in the wilderness. And by the power of that help I am able to rise above my insatiable ego and my childish flesh and enter into the glorious liberty of God's will.

By the help of His blessed Spirit I can now say "No" to the temptations, impulses, addictions that tossed me around like a rudderless ship in the past, and I can move on to the work God has called me to do.

Jesus had help to minister.

On one of those days, as he was teaching, there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was with Him to heal. Luke 5:17

Notice that Jesus didn't heal people because He was the Son of God. He had left His own authority as the Son back in heaven. Now, though He was the Son, He was truly a man, and if He was ever to bring divine healing to anyone He would have to have help. So He received it ... the power of the Lord God. The same could be said about His words. Words such as never before crossed human lips. Words which any seeker of God could recognize as coming straight from heaven. Were they His words? No.

For I have not spoken on my own authority; the Father who sent me has himself given me commandment what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has bidden me. John 12:49-50

And the same Spirit that caused the power of the Lord to be with Him to heal, the same Spirit that gave Him words from the very mouth of the Father, now helps us in our ministries.

And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ... they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover, Mark 16:17-18

because by the power of the Holy Spirit they are receiving help from above. Jesus never told us we'd have to work alone. He promised us that we'd have help, that He would be with us, that the Comforter would come with power from on high.

Jesus had help to lay down His life.

When Jesus rose up from prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane He was ready to die. The Father didn't take the cup away, but He truly gave Him help to face the rage of the mob, the venom of Satan, and to come to that awful hour when He would be utterly alone, forsaken even by the Father as the consequences of human sin.

One day many of us will face a laying-down of our lives for which our present tribulations are only early trial runs. We will see the door of death looming in front of us. And as that door approaches there will be temptations pressing in from every side to deny Jesus. But we will have help.

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou art with me... Psalm 23:4

And Jesus had help to come out of death into life.

That tomb was visited by the Spirit of God, and by His power the spirit, soul, and body of the Son of God came back together in a completely new way. And when the earth shook and the stone rolled away, the Being that stepped forth from that tomb was the Firstborn of a new race, unlike any creature this world had ever seen before — the perfected, glorified Son of God, the Firstborn among many brethren. And we are the brethren who are to follow Him into that resurrection. We too will pass from our death into an unspeakable glorious life with the same help He had.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you.

Romans 8:11

The mystery of mysteries is how can all this help be available, how can it be breathing on us even at this moment, and still we miss it?

The answer: because we're too self-righteous and unbending to humble ourselves to receive it.

Our Lord acknowledged His utter dependence on the Father. Not just with His mouth, but by the way He lived and the way He thought. We often claim to be dependent on God, yet we're too proud to reach out and receive the slightest blessing, too stubborn to fall on our knees and ask, too self-righteous to acknowledge before God, and each other, how utterly helpless we are and how desperately we need this help from above.

It boils down to this question: Will we keep our wretched pride and go on thinking we know all the answers, that we can handle it on our own? Or will we humble ourselves before the Lord, right now, break before Him, open our hearts, and receive help to do what we need to do? We too need help to open our eyes to God, to deny ourselves, to minister to others, to lay down our lives.

That help is present---for those who are willing to humble themselves, become as children, and ask.