"This 'union' truth [union with Christ] which we speak, only comes to us as revelation by the Holy Spirit. While we can write it out and study it doctrinally and scripturally, which we try to get out to people to help in their understanding, ultimately the light from this must come from the Spirit, as well as the 'ability to live it.'
"This is no good if it’s just 'another teaching.' We are speaking a total thing here. Almost every other 'teaching' I have heard promises success if its principles are applied. But we are speaking of something which the human person cannot make work or make happen, by anything we do. We cannot, by applying principles, produce the out-flowing life of the Spirit. He does not respond to rubbing a magic lamp of our own efforts.
"I cannot tell anybody 'how' to do it. Because we really cannot do anything. But we think that either we can do it, or that we should be able to do it. Most of us actually think that not only should we produce God’s works, but we also can produce God’s works, if we just do this or that, believe this or that, apply this or that.
"What many end up with by that road is failure (if we’re honest) and that just heaps on guilt on more guilt, because since we have been convinced we can, and that we should, but we have not, then we have only ourselves to blame.
"This is about coming to the end of all that. It is the only way into understanding and living in a union life, because all that previous life of striving and trying to abide, and making sure we are making all spirit and not flesh choices every day, is out of a life that thinks that it CAN do it and that is its part in the agreement. God does His part by providing the power, the love, the commandments, etc., and it is our part to choose correctly first of all, then to apply his wisdom, or take the power He provides, and use it correctly. Learn the 'techniques!'
"However, while we have all in some way lived in that 'God does His part, I do my part' sight, we find we don’t do our part so well. At least I didn’t.
"Paul’s struggle in Romans 7 is exactly about all that. And as you know, that is the theme of 'The Axe Laid to the Root' [another of Pruitt's books].
"But Jesus simply said, 'The Son can do nothing himself. But what He sees the Father do, the Son does the same.' And, 'I can of my own self do nothing.'
"That was something that Jesus was walking in--doing nothing of Himself. Note this: He DID NOT say He did nothing. He said He did nothing of Himself!
"Then how did He live His life? If Jesus, born of a virgin as the Holy Son of God, could do 'nothing' of Himself, of what, then, are we capable? If Jesus could do 'nothing,' what can we do?
"But Jesus chose, didn’t He? Yes, He did. How did He choose? How did He decide where to go, who to heal, what to preach on the mountain? The same way He did everything: 'The Father that dwells in me, he does the works.'
"The Son can do nothing--the Father does the works. And works got done by Jesus doing nothing of Himself. When I have shared this in places, people have actually said to me, 'Well, if I do nothing, nothing will get done.'
"Here’s a guy who did 'nothing of Himself.' This is what the apostle John wrote about His activities:
"Choice between alternatives is one of the most constantly occurring phenomena in the universe, and we cannot escape it. On the human level, if we decide to not choose anything whatsoever from now on, eventually they will come and take us away to the looney-bin, because we could wind up in a corner of our attic unclothed, covered with filth and living in our own waste. Maybe some might think that is a joke but I know a person who experienced that very thing. Choices, like air, water, heat, food, shelter, etc., are necessary for life.
"If anybody lived a 'Grace' life, it was Jesus of Nazareth. And He was choosing all the time, day in and day out. He didn’t not [sic] consider Himself presumptuous to make choices, since He knew the Source of His choices.
"'And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.' (Luke 22:41,42)
"Ok, then, how do I choose? The Son can do nothing--the Father does the works.
"I really don’t know how it works. The Father does it in me, that’s all I know. I live, yet not I, but He. I choose as He chooses in me, whether somehow conscious of that fact or not. Honestly, I don’t think about it too much. My attitude, which has come from the experience of living Christ, is that He’s got me, He and I are one, and I am safe daily and hourly in my 'choosing,' because everyone [sic] of them are His choices.
"Isn’t that being presumptuous?
"No, it is the truth. Jesus said, 'I and my Father are one,' and they were so enraged by Him talking about walking around as God in human flesh, that they killed Him for blasphemy. They could not bear truth in the flesh, but cared rather to protect their positions and their much safer God off in the ethereal--the god they had made up in their imaginations who conformed to their own image, rather than they to His.
"It is Jesus who first declared His intimate one-person-ness with God, who prayed that same oneness that He knew would be the oneness we walk in and know, too. So I just believe it and share it, because it is something I have seen and heard, too. (John 17: 11, 20-23).
"'I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.' Very simple. It’s not me living, but it is He living. People say, 'Ahem, uhh, well, you’ve still got to do this and remember that.' But you don’t. He lives in us, living His life, and we find rest and liberation there, not into sin or license but into living out the life of Christ within--which is a life that knows the Cross for others . . . ."
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