Introduction

The subject of this article is extremely difficult for several reasons. Firstly, our society fills everything with activity. Secondly, I am personally very poor at dealing with unknown spaces. Rational, analytical hyper – vigilance may help ward off unknown threats when I am awake, but at night it causes me no end of sleeping problems. This psychic disturbance is intensified by the incomprehensibility of how Jesus will produce the spiritual transformation of which he has been speaking for so long. In the middle of this struggle, I am firmly convinced the Spirit is speaking about the power of nothing[1] as an essential precondition to the genuine revival he is working to bring toPerth and the Western church in general.

In discussing “nothing”, we are dealing with something at the very foundation of “all things” and intimately related to the being of God as Creator. This profundity is part of the difficulty of the topic. Yet our Father delights in bringing about something from nothing so that all the glory goes to him (Isa 42:8).To participate in this creative process are both our greatest struggle and honour.

Creation out of nothing

All Christians believe that God is the absolute Creator of all that exists[2]. To put it simply, God’s Word plus nothing equals everything. This means that everything that exists is essentially God – related[3], but without faith this is not obvious. “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (Heb 11:3 cf. John 1:1 – 3).

God has created a universe that is like Swiss – cheese; it seems to be filled with holes that are unknown. The “holes” however are realms of possibility that become filled with creative power when divine promises are joined to faith. Abraham had no son but he had a promise, “in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations” (Rom 4:17 – 18). Moses stood at the Red Sea, Joshua at the Jordan, and so on and believed. Such pioneers of faith[4] learned that in the kingdom of God a state of nothing is the precondition for the essentially new. This reality could only ever be fully expressed by the Incarnation of the Word of God.

Cross, Resurrection and New creation

In becoming flesh (John 1:14), the eternal Word appropriated to himself something that was null and void in the purposes of God, human flesh. “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” (John 6:63). Theologically, this is called the “kenosis”, the self- emptying of the divine glory, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing” (Phil 2:6 – 7). If in the beginning, the Word plus nothing brought forth the first creation, in Jesus, the Word plus nothing (helpful) brings forth the new creation.

Jesus came out of nowhere[5], and possessed no formal rabbinical or priestly qualifications[6]. He belonged to no recognised religious or political group. All this was preliminary. From the beginning, Jesus faith (Heb 12:1) was directed towards the new order of humanity that could only come into being through his resurrection from death.

The cross is entry into the great unknown, into the true abyss. The precondition for an essentially new humanity is for Jesus to be baptised into the unknowability of God as fallen humanity experiences it[7]. This absence of the Father is the final terror that can befall us – it is hell[8]. The shocking cry, “ “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34), is the climax of the Word’s encounter with the nullifying forces of sin, Satan and death. Yet, in a hidden way, the cry of dereliction contains a seed of faith.

Jesus cry is a quote from Psalm 22:1. The Hebrew/Aramaic mah that stands behind the Greek “why” of Jesus question to God in the Gospels[9], seems to mean “for what purpose have you failed to deliver me”. This means that Jesus has a faith that all this emptiness is for a purpose. The answer is that it is for the purpose of glory. “he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2: 8 -11). Glory now fills the space of Jesus life once occupied by the dead old humanity. This means that if anyone is “in Christ” they are in the new creation (2 Cor 5:17).

Living in the realm of Creative Power

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” (1 Cor 1:26 – 29)

God’s ultimate purpose in salvation is that we participate in his creative nature (2 Pet 1:4)[10]. The entire New Testament gospel is framed in these terms. Regeneration[11] is an encounter with resurrection life that is an act of recreation, “God… even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4 – 5). Faith is directed to God’s ability to create the world (Heb 11:3), to establish a new human race (Eph 2:15) and bring about “a new creation” (Gal 6:15). From such a faith in a presently active Creator flows pure adoration (Rev 4:11), good works (Eph 2:10), resurrection power (Phil 3:10), miraculous deeds (Gal 3:5) and so on. The dynamic of nothing plus the Word creating ever new realities[12] underlies the unique quality of biblical religion.

Biblically, from the helpless Hebrews fleeing mighty Pharaoh to the sick and unclean Jesus healed, the candidates for creative power, are those who know they have nothing. This is OUR problem; it is very very hard for us to believe we have nothing in ourselves to assist the work of God.

Beyond Church Know – how

The nothingness of the cross is the stumbling block of faith[13]. The apostles self confidence was broken by the ugliness of the death of the Messiah, and much of the church has avoided this scandal ever since. The cross punctures all our pride (1 Cor 8:1).

In the manner of a “theology of glory”[14], Western Christianity abounds with “church masters”. These are skilled religious professionals (mostly sincere) who can tell you how to master church growth, church health, marriage, family, prosperity and any other issue. This is a huge industry.

Some of these folks are confused spiritual mothers and fathers whose entrepreneurial skills are aimed at “protecting” believers from the unknown. Yet the cross, as the apex of the story of how God matures humanity, teaches us that God is the Father of the unknown. Any church that fears the unknown will inevitably be a church that compromises on Jesus radical call for disciples to step into the unknown.

A friend recently had a vision of Jesus standing before us with empty open hands beckoning us to come to him[15]. Jesus had nothing between himself and us. Sadly, in the other half of the vision we were standing before the Lord with our arms full of all sorts of stuff. This stuff represents all the things we think we need to have in place in order to come to the Lord – spirituality, gifts, wisdom, money, etc[16]. These are the things that are standing in the way of the coming of the divine glory. Nevertheless, we see God powerfully at work around us working to strip us of every human ability and confidence[17].

Flood, fire, fiscal disaster and nothingness[18]

Australia has floods in the north, fires in the south and economic apprehension everywhere. What purpose God is working in all this[19]? With the cross as the lens it is not difficult to see what God is doing through these disasters. Hear the survivors of the, to quote, “fiery hell”, saying, “We have lost everything. “We’re left with nothing. Nothing!”. There was nothing we could do”. Then they go on to describe their rescuer as, “more than a friend “a saviour””.

It is in the realm of nothingness, of the absence of ordinary human potential that we find the creative power of God released. This is the divine purpose hidden in the ashes and mess of national tragedy. Our nation, paradoxically, is being given a gift of participating in the brokenness of the cross.

When we everywhere see the motto of the Red Cross, “The power of humanity.”, we cannot but think of the humanity of Christ as the gift that the Spirit is seeking to release in our nation. This is the humanity that has been broken of the “Aussie battler” mentality of indefatigable human perseverance. This attitude, from war to sport to flood drought, fire and economic depression, says, “Whatever happens, we will struggle through.” Such perseverance is both a unique national gift and a tremendous tragedy. Its sheer human strength is incompatible with a totally relying on the Word of God through whom alone creative power comes.

Conclusion: A Prophetic Promise

Years ago in Argentina, the Lord graced me with a prophetic sign of his glory of. It involved a (physical) cloud and all the colours of the rainbow[20]. This was a manifestation based on a prayer to understand God’s “secret” in Colossians 1:27, “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. A week ago I walked into a clinic treating drug addicts here inPerth. On the wall was a clock, unexceptional except that around its perimeter were all the colours of the rainbow.

This is what I believe the Sovereign Lord is saying. People like these addicts know that they have nothing on the inside to overcome that which is destroying them, their hearts have been emptied of all human possibilities. They, and others like them – the poor, abused, enslaved and oppressed of this world – are fit candidates [21] to have their nothingness filled up with the glory of the eternal Word, Christ.

Only those who have been emptied of the powers of the old order can participate in the new creation, of which Jesus is the total content. The kingdom of God is not the modification of an already existing reality. Conviction of sin is not a mere heightened moral awareness[22] but a radical awareness of your utter emptiness before God. To be grasped by such things is to sense the reality of the true creative power of the Gospel.

The resurrection faith that the Lord is working to release amongst us is the foundation for a new creativity of the human spirit – a reformation, renaissance or efflorescence of the divine presence in every sphere of society. We are about to see a company of nameless, faceless persons emerge out of the spiritual desert of Western culture. This “pack of unknowns” (Tim Edwards) will be persons who may say or do “anything”[23]. This is how the great passion of God’s heart, “Go …and make disciples of all nations, 20 teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19 – 20) will be realised amongst us. Let us obey Jesus call in the spirit of an old song, “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.”