The Two “Nothings” of God

“Lord, apart from You, I can do NOTHING.” I have probably said this part of John 15:5 at least five or more times this last week. See, lately I have felt like the Lord was calling me forward past a roadblock that I have no power over or knowledge of how to move. It’s a spiritual battle requiring spiritual weapons, so I have been researching warfare and praying earnestly for the Lord to help me know what to do, say, and pray. After all, we see through a glass darkly. We don’t even know what we don’t know, much less how to deal with any of it. In any case, I said the same verse again about a completely different situation, and that’s when the Lord spoke clearly to my spirit. Scripture talks about two “nothings” of God. I have been focusing on the wrong “nothing.”

The Devil Would Have Us Hopeless

As human beings, we’re pretty puny in the scope of things. God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. The devil and his minions aren’t any of those things, but they do have the benefit of time, experience, and a network of entities with the very clear purpose of stealing, killing, and destroying anything good. They see us. They know us, and they use manipulation, deception, and our own flesh against us to harm us and get us out of the will of God for our lives. If it really were “us against them,” the devil would mop the floor with us. (Good thing it’s not!) There are just a lot of things we don’t know about how the spiritual world works. We must depend upon the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us.

So, this past week, I have been doing a lot of praying. I have also been watching videos, reading books, and searching scriptures to know how to fight. At times, the helplessness was palpable. The roadblock seemed so big and immovable, and I had no idea how to start or even how to pray. I just kept coming back to the same thing. “Lord, apart from You, I can do nothing.” I reminded Him of it again and again. If the Lord didn’t show up and do a work, nothing was ever going to change. I would just be stuck here on the curb instead of moving forward on the path that I know He has for me. There was literally nothing else I could do.

Pointing Out Another Nothing

This weekend, the same scripture reference came to my mind again. I was in the process of carrying out my Sunday morning ministry. Each week, the Lord has had me buy snacks and then attach a message in English and Spanish that the Lord lays on my heart to match. For over five years, I have taken these “snacks with tracts” weekly to three different stops on the way to church (a laundromat, a convenience store, and the place where men wait for day jobs). The ministry is called “Taste of Church to You.” It’s like a mini sermon attached to a food item to make the message practical and memorable. I usually prepare between 28 and 36 snacks per week and take the leftovers to church.

In those five-plus years (over 8,000 snacks), I have never seen one person come to my church because of it. I have talked to people and prayed for and with them, but I have never heard of even one person being saved. I have spent time, money, effort, and prayer, and in all that time have so far seen nothing come of it.

“Apart from You, I can do nothing, Lord,” I said as I pulled back out onto the road after a stop. It’s not the first time I have said it about this ministry, but it seemed even more meaningful after so many days of saying it about the other issue. It was starting to become like my little “chorus.”

The Lord Switched My “Nothing”

Just as I said it this time, though, I thought of another scripture in Luke 1:37. “For with God, nothing shall be impossible.” At first, I just nodded my head. Of course, Luke 1:37 is the inverse of John 15:5. It was another way to say the exact same thing, right? Without God, we can do nothing. With God, there is nothing impossible for us to do. Cool, cool.

Then it was like the Lord hit the rewind button and tried again. “With God, nothing SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE.”

My eyes opened wide, and my brain skidded to a stop and slid back to look at the sentence again.

• With God – when God is involved, when God calls us, when God leads us into things, when God is with us
• Nothing – no action, no progress, no movement, no benefit, no meaning
• Shall be impossible – is not able to occur, is out of the question.

All this time, I was worried about the “can do nothing” verse about me. It was like I was this tiny dot on earth frantically trying to wave down a big God in Heaven. If He decided to assist me, I would be in business. If not, I was helpless and without hope. I waved so hard that my arms were tired, sinking further down in the dust at the side of the road with each moment that I didn’t “see” anything happening.

But here He was telling me to focus on the “nothing shall be impossible” verse about Him. After all, where the Lord has called us, He will be with us. He’s in charge of the whole thing, and we’re just vessels He can flow through as long as we keep ourselves available and in tune with Him. Then there are GUARANTEED to be results at some point because God can’t be in it and have nothing come out of it. Wow!

Trust and Pray – Something Will Happen!

I saw this great video on Facebook by Kari Reyes. There is a seed growing under the soil with the caption at the top, “I’m trusting and praying, but nothing is happening…” In the video, we see that the plant begins to grow and grow LONG BEFORE part of it breaks the surface and becomes visible to the human eye. It reminded me that sometimes things might be happening that we just can’t see right now. And whether we pray and trust for five minutes or five or fifty years, the Lord WILL bring His will to pass in His timing. There’s absolutely nothing that can stop it.

Memorize John 15:1-10 with a Scripture memory song. Sing it until you know it by heart!

If you like to look closely at scripture, try Hold on in Hope: Bible Verses About Hope or One Condition for the Promises of God. Please sign up to receive my blog in your email inbox. You can find that at the upper right of your screen (or at the bottom on a phone). Also, check out my YouTube Channel, where I read the blogs out loud and have a playlist of hymns. For Scripture memorization through music, visit The KJV Rocks, featuring word-for-word KJV Scripture songs. Sing them until you know them by heart!