“What heresy are you talking?” many of you will ask me. Allow me to share a revelation the Lord gave me.

Some time ago my husband also shocked me with this phrase, and it just wouldn’t fit into my limited head. I remember being simply stunned. But then, not understanding it, I didn’t even try to go deeper into it, and that conversation simply slipped out of my head, or so it seemed to me.

Several years passed. Now my older sons are teenagers of 13 and 15. Those of you who have children who have reached this — I’m not afraid to say it — “wonderful” age will understand me. The thing is, they argue all the time, and it often irritates me.

And so one day I’m standing in the kitchen (where else?) — for some reason my kitchen is one of God’s favourite places to give me revelations :-)) — peeling potatoes, and my precious children start quarrelling. And I shout at them in irritation to stop. My blessed eldest son comes up and says indignantly: “Mum! Don’t you know that we can’t stop?!” I was about to answer him, but suddenly the Lord, in the twinkling of an eye, shows me that I, who usually applied grace and the message of Christ’s finished work to myself, for some reason was not applying it to my children.

Here I want to digress a little and say that my husband and I often preach the good news of Christ’s finished work to them, but unfortunately we act in line with this message much less often.

And so, realising that what I had wanted to say at first was not the truth of the gospel, I say: “That’s true, son, you can’t! But Christ, who is in you — He can.” “Yeees!” my son answers, disappointed. “I’ve asked Jesus to help me so many times, but He still doesn’t help!” And then I say this phrase without thinking at all: “And He won’t help you! Either He will do it Himself through you, or He will wait until you run out of all your fleshly resources and let Him take over!”

Dear ones! I stood there listening to myself! I was saying the very phrase I had rebelled against a few years earlier, and I was saying it so naturally, as if it were self-evident and something I had known for a long time. And later, when my son left — also in shock, by the way — I began to think about what I had said. I believe it was the Lord speaking through me then.

Nowadays it is somehow customary, both in the world and in Christianity, to encourage people and raise their self-esteem, and it seems that we are doing something good. But in fact, without thinking, we are simply strengthening human flesh. (Don’t confuse this with “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” [Phl.4:13]; that is not about our flesh.)

Recently I was upset that something wasn’t working out for me. I both condemned myself and justified myself. And when things got really bad, I talked to my husband, and he asked me: “Isn’t Christ living in you enough for you?” After thinking, I answered: “Yes and no. I want not only to have Christ, but also to act the way a new creation should.” And at that moment the Lord asks me: “And why do you want these actions?” And then I really realise that I want them so that I myself can feel better because of the works I do. And to look good in front of people. And then the Lord says to me: “It is I who produce fruit in you and through you. For you and in you, I am the One you are trying to become by your own efforts!”

In 2 Corinthians there is a passage where Paul talks about his weakness. I will highlight the words I want to draw your attention to:

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (ours). Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong (He is strong in me).
–2 Corinthians 12:9-10

We people, although we have a new nature and a new birth, are still, in our not yet fully renewed thinking, inclined to busyness, which drowns out the voice of the Holy Spirit leading us on the path of grace, and so we sometimes give in to these urges of the flesh to do something ourselves and then enjoy the false pleasure of having achieved something ourselves. But in fact this is nothing other than pride and self-righteousness. You know, you often hear believers say: “What can we do by our own strength, in the flesh?” I want to object. We can do a lot in the flesh; very few people are really so weak that they always trust Christ in everything. We can do a lot by our own strength. The question is not how much we can do, but where it will lead or what the results will be. And this is exactly where the answer lies. God does not accept anything we have done in the flesh [Rom.8:8]. And what we do by our own strength is not good enough to achieve the results we really want: peace, blessings, abundant life.

But I have good news for us:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” [Eph.2:8-9]

Have you ever noticed that God’s solution to your problem comes exactly when you have given up? It’s always like that with me!

We mistakenly think that salvation is given to us only in a single moment, simply for receiving Christ. But that is not so. It is a salvation as long as our life ([1 Pet.2:2]: “that you may grow thereby“; as the NKJV margin notes, many manuscripts add “up to salvation” — this is one of the places that tell us that we grow in salvation). It is like a baby: when he is born, he is already a complete human being. Absolutely everything he will become in the future is already laid down in him. But he simply needs to grow, so that what is laid down in him can simply develop and show itself. The same analogy can be drawn here: when we are saved, born again, we immediately have absolutely everything for life and godliness, but it develops and shows itself in us as we grow in the salvation we received from the very beginning.

Whatever situation you find yourself in, the way out of it is ALWAYS by grace, through faith, not of works, LEST ANYONE SHOULD BOAST!!! “to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved…” [Eph.1:6]

So that’s how it is, beloved. God does not help US, but He does something much greater. He does it Himself, through us.

Beloved saints, righteous ones, dear brothers and sisters, I hope my revelation will be useful to you. With love in Christ, sister Nina.