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By Fred Pruitt

(Everything but the final piece below, comes from the “Comments” section on my Voice in the Wilderness Blog. The final “short” is taken from an email from several years ago.)

from Ole Henrik: The Ultimate Risk of Freedom

The profoundness and purity of what you so masterly articulate here, Fred, is beyond this world. I am in awe by God’s master plan and that He has equipped people like you to put it into words so that it becomes life for others, like me. Thanks!

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from Joe: For God So Loved the World

Thanks Fred, it all rings true somewhere inside of me. I find myself a very confused believer at this present time, all kinds of questions that I never used to have about the infallibility of the scriptures and even some of the basic tenets of christianity seem crazy to me at times, I fear saying these things most of the time, it just seems wrong to question such basics of the faith, but mostly I can’t see what I thought I used to see, sorry to go on it must sound nuts but I feel I shouldn’t keep these thoughts locked up in my head, thanks for your posts they are the only things I read these days about Christ, I fear reading too much as most troubles in my life have come through taking on board some doctrines or teachings and throwing myself in to what I’ve read whole heartedly only for it to go “tits up” in fact my whole christian life has been like that and I’m sick of it now, something must change and I know I can’t change it, anyway thanks for listening and lots of love to everyone, Joe

from Fred to Joe: For God So Loved the World

Joe, I think you are in a really good place. What is crumbling are all the outer supports that have held you up and given you some degree of justification, and replacing it all with only Himself. It is a really rough time because it feels like we are losing all, have no security anymore even though we thought we had it all figured out, and the only thing that seems to be coming in to replace all that is “nothing.” Good! You are at the bottom! Everything goes, even our understanding or any sort of self-ability we might have thought we had to believe correctly, all the assurances we had counted on don’t seem so “sure” anymore, and we seem stripped out and far from home. Actually, you are just about there. To the human sense, Joe, God IS nothing. He has allowed us to see Him after a baby-fleshly way, for a time, but the time for that is up now. What is happening now is this — you are experiencing the full loss of all including yourself — and as the Spirit gives you understanding, the new self of Christ formed in you is rising. You are in the death part. The Spirit’s resurrection is right around the corner. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad! These are birth pangs and a time of travail, but that time has an end and you can begin to see that you cannot get yourself out of that hellish limbo and are almost past the point of caring. Light can only be shown how magnificent it is if it comes on the heels of dense darkness. The stage is set then. “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord IS risen upon thee!” (Is 60:1)

from Joe: For God So Loved the World

I just read your response again Fred and I feel a deep encouragement, like a cool glass of water when you are very thirsty and dry, many thanks again for this blog it’s a refreshment to my spirit, I see that God will indeed complete what He has begun in me regardless of what appearances may suggest. Much love to all, Joe.

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from Dan: Oneness Through Involuntary Servitude

totally wonderful … just beautiful … opening another page on the Advent calendar has always presented a moment ripe for deeper understanding… a moment for us to see and hear … this from you… His refiner’s fire, …He shall purify (not us who can never purify ourselves) He shall purify… ….. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. (Isa 40:3-5) … all flesh … what a wonderful thing… and the streets are paved indeed with gold….

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from Jean: Aroma of Life

Fred, As I read this truth, I thought I would explode,as God confirned in my heart what He is continuing to open my eyes to see. As you say, Fred, I use to see God all outside and NOW, I KNOW and SEE ,HE is an inside jobby and He does bring us to full cirle,”Salvation”.Thinking on Corn. 2:14–Aroma of Life, we are He living in our human forms, is a “bomb”. What can we say, there is no other way, seeing I can do nothing. I’ve been thru lots of hoops {and some religious} but I am finally seeing it is all “HIM”.As I think of a candle{ we the candle of light} and how the aroma smells so good, He in Us is not only the light but the aroma. And being ONE with HIM, WE ARE the Light and Aroma to the world.What a DEAL! As said, we never get tired of these truths and encouragments. Thanks, Fred! Gal 2:20 Praise to YOU, GOD!!

from Fred to Jean: Aroma of Life

Dear Jean, what a wonderful comment. Thank you. What glory all this is, it is too much to contain. One would burst at the attempt. Paul’s testimony to the Lord has become ours as well: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us …” (Eph 3:20 KJV). This is what we are living in, Jean, this continual outpour out of God’s eternity flowing through our lives like a mountain river in spring. It’s the truth, Jean! Hallelujah!

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from Sheila: Aroma of Life

Yes! Somewhere at some time his life clicked inside of me and I knew that he was the one living through me. It has nothing to do with my behavior but with the reality of his life. I often listen to another voice and forget that it is not me who lives, but I KNOW that it is Christ who is living! Thanks Fred and bless you for your constant encouragement in Christ Jesus!

From Fred to Sheila: Aroma of Life

Bless you, Sheila. Trust God to be the listener in you and the One inside you Who knows the Father’s voice. Don’t worry about whether you are attentive enough or listening correctly. It’s not your job but His and trust Him to do it. You are one with Him, and it is plain from that point that it is not we living, but He, and yet still as if just me. It is He in you Who is the perfect listener, He in you who orders your steps. He in you Who will never leave or forsake you. How could He? Hasn’t He made you (us) His precious Bride?
Thanks again, much love,

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(Finally, a somewhat stern note from several years ago, the end of a long dialogue spanning a few weeks. The discussion really hinged on one point. From my perspective I was telling him who he already was without effort, but received as a gift. He could relax and know Christ doing the living. From his perspective he agreed with what I said, conditional to whether he yielded, submitted, resisted temptation, etc. He left himself as the “chairman” responsible for continual choosing, resisting, listening correctly to the Spirit, etc., and could not let his “chairman” (himself) lose his final authority status inside himself. So after all this back and forth we came to a stalemate, and this is my last note in that dialogue. FP)

My dear friend,

I really can’t write further on this. You haven’t yet seen what I am talking about, and for some reason want to affirm your separateness from God, and some ability of your own to work in concert with God. I have said in as many ways as I can, that you are dead, and have no more self-ability to do anything. This isn’t something that can be explained doctrinally but which can only be inwardly known by revelation of the Spirit, when we have been taken by Him to that death. You still seek something you can do, and you can do nothing. You can’t know “I live yet not I but Christ,” until you first know, “I am crucified with Christ” (died with Him in His cross). There can be no resurrection of the “True I” (our little “i” inwardly united to the Eternal “I” with no gap between us) where you function as did The Son — “The Son can do nothing of Himself,” and eternally “The Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works,” until you live in the death, reckon yourself as dead as Lazarus was, stop believing you have some self-ability to do anything, including cooperate with God, and then you will hear the voice shouting your name to come out of the tomb. He must do the resurrecting, (we don’t resurrect ourselves) and what comes forth is not “just” ourselves ever again (and it never was), but now He in ourselves as the odd you and me. That’s all I can say. May you see this, because in this reality lies your personal Pearl of Great Price, and it is yours when you sell everything you have (including your deluded self-ability) and buy that field (which is the inexhaustible riches of Christ in us).

Always love,

fred