Resurrection Power

Intro

I stand here in amazement, a testimony of what God has done, can do and will always do for those He has called. But for the many He has called, few He has chosen (Matthew 22:14)

Today, I wish to speak to you all from a Word I got last week during worship. Until then over the last few weeks, I was contemplating different thoughts. Sitting with my bible, I could not figure out what was it, that He wanted me to share with you. Usually, I share what He is doing with me first, talking to me and revealing something new about Himself and then it’s quite natural for me to share here in public.

But this time, it’s different. This Word that I bring to you today, I speak to myself at the very same time I speak to you. Into me and then unto you all. The Word is POWER, and I expect nothing less than His power today! I expect a miracle, at the least, in me, today!

Last Sunday I heard “Resurrection Power” during the second last song during worship and as I have been doing since the last one year, I check (and recheck) whether it is indeed HIM looking for small signs from God to confirm. You get to do that from my vantage point having heard so clearly and yet the world around me crumble in the last two years 😊. We are not going there!

Anyway, the last song confirmed to me when all that the worship team did was to declare the resurrection power and how we as a body need to speak about it, discuss more about it and live it out.

Pastor last week clearly told us about the Impact (and Action thereof) of Jesus’s crucifixion in how we think, how we live and how we feel now that we know in our head of the physical resurrection of the MAN Jesus. Over the centuries we have spiritualized this so much that we forget the actual aspect of HIM being RISEN physically amongst us. HE IS RISEN, in flesh and blood too.

Today, I just take the same message forward a little more. What stops us from believing and living in this truth? And what is the truth about Resurrection POWER?

I remember the last time I stood here. I went and looked at the notes of the message I shared. The topic was Wisdom of God vs Wisdom of man and one of the passages I looked at was 2 Corinthians 4. Was talking about how the gods of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel and the Glory of Christ.

The same passage talks about us being treasure in jars of clay. Let’s read that. 2 Corinthians 4: 7-17. All of this surpassing power is from God not from us. The source is GOD. ALWAYS

RISE UP:

There are many incidents in the gospels and other places where we see the physical evidence of this power. For sake of simplicity, let’s look at just healings. They all have physical effects thereon.

The incident of a lame for 38 years walking from the pool of Bethesda. His legs were lifeless. But when Jesus touched and healed him, there was life in those areas where there was none. Power came and flowed through the bones and muscles.

Let’s talk about Jesus resurrection. Physical things happened on resurrection Sunday. Its easy for us to believe this because of Jesus being GOD. But He was a MAN too.

I think about things like -who spoke to Jesus’s body in the grave? Who asked Him to RISE UP? Whose was the voice and whose was the power? What kind of power are we talking about here? In Genesis, God’s said “Let there be light”. He Spoke, and we know HIS WORD is sufficient and powerful. But someone or something moved into ACTION.

When God speaks Holy Spirit moves. And there is an almost perfect union with “the speaking and the doing”. ALMOST. Why do I say almost? The third person, Jesus is vital to the equation. It’s the perfect Man’s action on the cross, perfect in submission and perfect in being sinless, PERFECT as son of God, sinless as Son of MAN, that completes the equation. He had to die, the perfect sacrifice, and it was indeed “finished” as the requirement for sin was finished. But for task to be completed, HE had to RISE. Power of GOD is best exemplified in Jesus’ resurrection, which is Resurrection POWER! HE ROSE. But for us to experience this same power, we need to RISE UP too.

Spiritual Truth Vs Physical Truth:

Acts 2:24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. It was not possible for death to hold Him- that is the revelation Peter had after resurrection, on Pentecost, that’s how the early church understood resurrection from the dead. Yet when they saw Him in flesh and blood, they disbelieved. Today, we find it hard to believe He’s raised bodily from the dead because it has been received as a spiritual truth only in many places.

It needs to be perceived as a physical truth as well.

I’m not sure if He stood in our midst in flesh and blood, whether the church would believe?

What is Resurrection Power?

Let us look at some verses:

Romans 1:4: Jesus was declared the Son of GOD with POWER through His resurrection. Meaning, His resurrection demonstrates the POWER, is the POWER and proves this POWER.
1 Corinthians 15: 42-44: The context is resurrected body and general resurrection of dead based on the resurrection of Christ which is POWER. ”The body is sown in weakness but is raised in power”.
Ephesians 1:19-20: “- - and His incomparable great power for us who believe, that power is like the working of HIS mighty strength”. This power is equated to God’s strength and we all know what that is.
Heb 13:20: it is God’s power, the God of peace who raised Jesus from the dead, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

How do we get it?

Do we desire it is the first question here? Paul wanted it and therefore he had it and operated in it. In Philippians 3: 10, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death Paul states that he wants to know this power and wants to become like Jesus in death so as to attain to the resurrection from dead.

2 Cor 1:5 (For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.) for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds by Christ. Meaning, the apostle saw suffering as par for the course, in order to experience resurrection power. This is the process of the “I, ME, MYSELF” being removed and replaced with “CHRIST IN ME THE HOPE OF GLORY”.

2 Cor 12:8-10 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” Today, the church is averse to suffering in many places; it’s a wrong understanding of the grace of God, that grace = an easy road with little to no sufferings, trials, setbacks, disappointments, failures, losses. That is a deep-rooted mindset in the church because of a wrong understanding of God’s Word mixed with unbelief. Only faith in who God is and what He does can destroy unbelief. A desperate cry for personal heart revival can change that mindset. This is something we must want for God to do in our hearts, for out of the heart come all the issues of this life. Once our hearts are revived, we are able to present our bodies as living sacrifices, then our minds can be renewed with God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. This is God’s divine order, but not being obeyed by many in the church.)

2 Corinthians 4:10-13

“always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you”

Something has to die within us for this power to RISE. We carry the death of Jesus in us by way of believing in HIS death so that the LIFE of Christ is manifested as well. BY FAITH

A good indicator of your desire to have this kind of power is your longings toward the flesh and its desire. I read a quote this last week, where it said that your measure of what God has done for you determines what you do for Him. If you have great regard and respect of the mercy of God in your life, you will render equivalent service to His people, however if you think not a lot about what He has done for you, your appreciation of His grace is limited to just salvation. Salvation is but the starting point. I believe the resurrection power of God in our life has the same equation. If you have faith that that you were transformed, changed, by this Power, you have a good chance to operate in it. My desire for today is for me FIRST and I pray that for you to believe and live this out.

Who has it?

DO we have the same power inside of us? Are we worthy? Are we eligible? I asked God, how can we say we have this power when we feel weak so often. I myself haven’t felt strong in the last few months. How can I claim to have this? God pointed me to a passage in Matthew 18:1-9 about Who is the greatest in the kingdom? I thought about the word greatest. Does it mean only in terms of honor, or popularity, or their legacy on earth? Or can it also mean the most powerful in terms of what we discussed earlier.

Jesus said the greatest is someone who can humble himself like a child. What is it about a child that makes him the greatest and by extension the most “powerful”. Humility is usually not the trait that we often associate children with. But their love for God and their faith (coining the term child-like faith) is pure and therefore worthy of such power. And it’s the same thing that stops us from yielding that power. Our lack of faith or must I say our disbelief. MY disbelief in thinking my situation cannot change and is hopeless limits God. I believe in God and I believe Jesus rose again but often I think in my situation I am just not able to believe!! That’s not child life. Infact its quite the opposite.

The resurrected Christ is of NO particular use to our logical Greek thinking. Devoid of the same, we are walking, talking power houses capable of changing the world.

Do we not believe we have such power inside of us? I don’t need to convince you, it lies within. You seated here, saved by His Grace, is the very testimony of this power alive in you. But we operate just in 1% or 2%. Some situations may be 10%. What if we could operate in this 100%, ALWAYS?

The disciples of Jesus before Pentecost struggled with it too. We see their journeys. Sometimes so strong, another place so weak. But after Pentecost we read about a major transformation. Boldness of a different kind. Fearlessness in all situations. No more cowardice. No more worldliness. No confidence in flesh. How can just 12 people change the world, but they did! With no social media or any digital tools available to us. And yet here we are not even able to change ourselves.

Think about it. When it comes to others speaking to us, its different. How do we get encouraged by a testimony on YouTube? Why do we suddenly feel better when Anju chechi here sends an inspirational message? Why is when the Pastor lays hands on you, you feel the power? Is it his Power or HIS POWER? Can you not lay hands on your own self?

Romans 8: 11. “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raise Christ from the dead will also give you life to your mortal bodies through HIS spirit which lives in you.”

Conclusion:

Today I want to extend an invitation to you all. To speak to yourself, words of Life. Maybe you, like me, sometimes do not have the strength to say it. But you can start with how the Psalmist state, “why are you so downcast oh my soul, why are you so disturbed within me?” And it got me thinking a new thought.

Jesus the MAN was dead, but His resurrection was of HIS Spirit first which must have spoken to HIS Body to Rise up. His Spirit is the same as Holy Spirit, the animate presence of GOD.

My spirit man needs to RISE UP to the occasion. Our spirit man needs to Rise Up. And speak to our soul/mind/thoughts/emotions. This day and age, we are not hit more so on the physical as much as we are hit on the emotional. My soul is downcast within me but my Spirit with the same resurrection power commands it to RISE UP. And then what would follow suit? Obviously, my body. I command my body to shake off the shackles of this world. I speak LIFE into me. I speak Healing into me. I speak resurrection of my soul. MY SOUL is now born again. Yes, it was sown in weakness, my body was sown in weakness, my heart was broken, not anymore. NOT ANYMORE. I speak resurrection power over me. RISE UP.

Church, I ask you to speak to oneself. Speak to each other. Prophecy over yourself and over each other. If you are alone and praying but just not able to speak words, speak in tongues if you have the gift. It would encourage you, lift you up in a way that is unexplainable. I have had times I couldn’t utter a single word. Nothing would come out of me. NOTHING but gasps of air. And then I would take a long breath and then speak in tongues. And it would lift me up. In my darkest times, it would build life in me.

And then there are times, I couldn’t even speak in tongues. I would just groan. And I know in those time Holy Spirit prays and intercedes for me. I imagine HIM going to the Father saying, can you please help Tijin, he is struggling. He isn’t able to see what WE see. Can You pls touch him yet again. He feels low, can You lift him up dear father, I the Holy Spirit asks this in Jesus’ name in whom this man believes in. Once again will you not lift Him up with your strong right ARM?

How do I know this could be an actual prayer by the Holy Spirit? Because it’s in God’s perfect will for me to be lifted up. (Romans 8:26-27)

And its in HIS perfect will for us to walk in freedom and with heads held high. Even when we cannot lift up our heads, He lifts our soul and our heads. When we walk with the resurrection power, we walk in His confidence. And in HIS Power, WE walk with Heads Held High!!