When I became a Born-Again Christian, my family was attending a traditional orthodox church. I really wanted to understand the power of the resurrection. Fifty plus years later, I continue longing to "know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death" (Phil 3:10).
As a young Christian, I became involved in a Pentecostal Church. I thought that their particular behavior was part of a normal Christian life and that all true Christians behaved that way. I desired to experience the resurrection power of the "Holy Ghost" they spoke of because I thought this "power" was some supernatural force given to "zap" people and knock them over.
I still see many today who continue to seek God's power in the same way - as a "thing" or a "force" that can be used for their own needs and wants. But there is a serious problem with this thinking.
*The "power" of the resurrection isn't a "thing" or some "force"— it is LOVE! It was love that exploded Jesus out of the tomb! It was love that sent Jesus into the world!
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16 ESV)
God loves you so much that He sent Jesus to die for you. It is His love that holds the universe together and will remain when everything else passes away (Luke 21:33).
"And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (Col 1:17 ESV)
It's far easier for many to understand the power of the resurrection as a kind of physical might or an explosive force such as dynamite. Many want that kind of power in their lives because they want to defeat their problems. They want the power to blow away and destroy those things they are afraid of or command 'spirits' to leave them alone.
When you realize that the power of the resurrection is love and not some "thing" you can use as a tool, you discover the predicament of learning how to appropriate it. It's a lot easier to destroy than it is to love.
*Loving is the hardest task of all, and you can't do it on your own. In fact, you can't even love God on your own. You have to ask Jesus to give you the love to love Him back.
Of all the 613 laws in the Old Testament, Jesus said that all of them hung on just two commandments. When asked by a Pharisee, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?," Jesus reminded Him of the first, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment" (Matt 22:37-38 ESV).
It is easy for us in the natural realm to understand the difference between right and wrong when it is clearly marked before us, such as a traffic sign. We drive down the street, and when we see a stop sign, we stop because it says to stop! If a line is drawn in front of us that we are not supposed to cross, we won't. Those are things we can do because they are clearly defined.
When Jesus says we are supposed to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, we have a real predicament on our hands because we don't have clearly defined signs in front of us.
Jesus then gave the second law: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matt 22:38-40 ESV).
*Jesus was saying that loving your neighbor as yourself is the same as loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength!
Now comes the real test: How are you supposed to love your neighbor when you can't stand yourself? You may live in defeat; you may even hate yourself. Many go to 12-Step programs three days a week and help make psychotherapists rich by dealing with the garbage inside them. Yet, they don't deal with the real problems inside because they can't handle the reality of who is to blame. Their lives stay miserable. They see themselves as useless. You can't love your neighbor if you don't know how to love yourself.
*You can only learn to love yourself and love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength by giving up and giving in to your Creator by forgiving yourself and others.
*You must say to Jesus, "I can't love You on my own. I'm asking You to give me the love I need so I can love You back."
Each time you do that, you die to self because you have come to understand that there is nothing within you apart from Jesus that can get you to the place you need to be.
A few years after becoming a Born-Again Christian, my life was transformed through the lives of fellow Christians I met in high school. I saw a vibrant faith in them for which I yearned. Then, just days after meeting them for the first time, I broke my ankle in two places, shattered a bone on Friday, and didn't return to school until Tuesday. I was in a lot of pain, wearing a cast and walking with crutches.
My Christian friends looked at me and said, "You know God can heal that. Why don't you come with us to church on Wednesday so that you can get healed?"
I hesitated because I had no idea what their church would be like. I had become a Christian watching Billy Graham on TV. Despite my uncertainty about their church, I told them, "If God wants to heal me, I'm all for it." I loved Him and wanted to know Him better. I decided that if He wanted to heal me, I was more than willing to receive.
I went with them that Wednesday night, and during the worship service while my hands were raised in praise, before I knew what was happening, something like a warm electrical surge flowed through me, starting at my finger-tips, down through my arms, flowing into my legs and then seemed to settle all of its energy in my broken ankle. At that moment, I knew the hands of God alone instantly healed it as my joy was overflowing! I was so overwhelmed by the experience that I walked two miles home that night without feeling any pain whatsoever!
A few months after that amazing experience of being supernaturally touched by God, problems with sin arose in my life that made my Christian witness a farce. In my minds' eye, the image that appeared in my bathroom mirror each morning had the giant word "hypocrite" written all over it.
I couldn't handle my hypocrisy because I genuinely tried to live a righteous, holy life before God. Every time I tried, I failed, falling flat on my face. I felt as if I was bringing shame to the Cross of Christ by saying I was a Christian living a holy life. I didn't understand what was happening to me, tearing me apart from the inside out. I chose to remove myself from church fellowship until I could figure the 'discipleship' thing out. The youth pastor at the church declared me reprobate and warned the people in the church to stay away from me.
Through the course of many months and with the support of a few exceptional Christian friends who ignored the youth pastor's declaration of judgment on me and helped me to focus on Jesus and not my sin, I ultimately came to realize that once I stopped looking at my failures and faults, and started looking to Jesus, I was no longer obsessed and overwhelmed with them because I knew He died for my failures. I began to see that He was changing and challenging me to trust in the work of forgiveness He had already done on the Cross and was working daily in me rather than the work at which I had failed.
"for all of you who have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Him." (Gal 3:27 NIV)
*Beloved, the Bible teaches that when you come to trusting-faith in Jesus, you receive all the blessings that are in Christ. You won't receive them one day in the future after you work at reaching some self-assumed place of "real holiness."
*They are now yours because you have already received them. You received them in that twinkling of an eye when you first called upon Jesus to forgive you of your sins and become the Lord of your life.
*It is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit to make you ready to meet Jesus when He comes for you (Phil 1:6)
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me." (Rev 3:20)
Although this verse is often used in evangelism to win the lost, it is addressed to Born-Again Christians. Jesus is standing at the door of your heart and knocking on it until you let Him in to every circumstance and situation so that He can empower, heal, restore you, and renew those areas of your life that are hindering you from growing in deeper intimacy with Him.
*As you let the Holy Spirit fill you daily with His resurrection power, the troubles of this world will become dimmer in comparison to the glory of God surrounding you.
*There is nothing that you will find outside of Christ that has any eternal value to it - Absolutely nothing! It is time that you accept this reality and open the door of every area in your life and ask for more of Him and less of you.
Let's pray….
