The Power Of Christ
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. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
Several years ago, a servant of God, known as Praying Hyde was doing God's ministry in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. He would spend hours of time in prayer. Once, thousands of people had assembled eagerly to listen to his message to be given at a convention. He rose up to the dais to share the word of God. People got ready with their Bibles to listen to his exposition of Biblical verses, message and prayer. But he looked up to heaven and said just two words - "Abba, my Father!" That was all. The heavens opened. The Holy Spirit descended upon all the people, like a dove. The unrepentant, beating their chest rolled down on the ground with a loud out-cry and repented. The meeting lasted for hours together. The servant of God did not preach at all, except for the two words he spoke to God, which brought the shower of the Holy Spirit. The simple reason is to be found in his prayer-filled life. Jesus descended into him powerfully and moved the place.
Today many in Christendom talk about God’s power but the sad part is that so few of them demonstrate it. Their anointing is so miniscule that it can hardly do anything. Their vessels cannot seem to contain the anointing and dissipates very quickly! Yet God’s word is unchanging:
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many. Mark 14:22-24
God cut with Abraham an inferior covenant made with the blood of animals where all that Abraham was, all that he had or ever would have became the equal property of His covenant partner. Nothing would be exclusively Abraham’s again. During the covenant ceremony in Abraham's day, the partners exchanged coats, each one giving their authority to the other. They exchanged weapons as a way of saying, "Your enemies are now my enemies. I'll fight your fights as if they were my own." They walked through the blood of slain animals, pronouncing their loyalty to one another, even to the death. God had proven how intensely He desired to be God to him. He had given him every thing He had and bound Himself to Abraham in a relationship that could not be dissolved.
Well the good news is that God also cut with the sons and daughters of Abraham, those of faith, a new and superior covenant established in Jesus’ blood as a result of His sacrifice that ratified our covenant with God. A covenant where He gave us His Name (John 16:23), His authority (Matt. 28:18-20), His armor and weapons (Eph. 6:10-17). God’s word is unchanging:
Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:20-23
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11
As a result of what Jesus did on the Cross on Calvary, by faith everything is ours now. Jesus Christ has substituted all things on the cross for us and exchanged it there for us. Our death, defeat and poverty and curses have been nailed to the Cross. On the Cross Jesus Christ not only won real victory and redemption over sin and death and the world, but also over the wicked arch enemy Satan and all his angels who had made the Cross necessary by what he did to Adam and Eve.
The enemy had deceived and entrapped Adam and Eve to sin against God and live a life that was cursed and full of toil and trouble. But on the Cross Jesus Christ did the great exchange. He exchanged His sinlessness for our sins, His righteousness for our unrighteousness, His strength for our weakness, His boundless supply for our needs, His stripes for our healing, His riches for our poverty, His victories for our defeats, His glory for our shame, His triumphs for our disappointments, His Honor for our nothingness, His prosperity for our lacks, His joy for our sadness, and His fullness for our emptiness. But all of this is also something that must be revealed to us by the Holy Spirit before we can understand and partake of it fully. Yet it is all our birthright and the blessing of the fullness of the gospel of Christ.
The message of the cross and the Gospel is not only that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. He is now is seated at the right hand of the Father with all power given unto Him in heaven and earth waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool. But the message of the cross and the Gospel is also that as a result of the victories Jesus won on the cross, He has now given and shared all that He has with us (John 16:14) and He is also with and for us continually (Matthew 28:18-20).
God in Christ Jesus has literally become our inheritance and great reward; as well as everything else which we need, including our healer and deliverer. As result of the Cross, God said about Jesus and of us who have become strong and overcomers:
Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12
As a result of the cross, in Christ Jesus, we are rich, victorious and have a new life in Christ Jesus, as we walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. The empty Cross now also stands as a reminder and says to the world and to all the demons of Hell “You did your worst, but God gave His best.” Now things are no longer the same, because Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father waiting for His enemies to be submitted to Him. He has also now given us the power to subdue all His and our enemies through the use of His name and Word and dependence of the Spirit. Hence the Cross is also a real testimony of what God’s power can do no matter what the Hell or injustice that the world or the devil will throw at us. For Jesus’ resurrection after a cruel and awful death signifies the real possibility of total and complete victory in our lives, hearts and circumstances as well in the current time of life as we trust in God just like Jesus did.
The empty Cross of Christ at Calvary now says to you and I, that for every defeat there is victory in its place, for every failure there is success, for every endeavor there is prosperity, for every weakness there is grace, for every sickness there is healing, for every hatred there is love, for every injustice there is justice and for every poverty there is riches. All of this and much, much more belongs to each child of God because of what Jesus did and won on the Cross. Hence we can by the Holy Spirit understand what the Lord said to Apostle Paul:
“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. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
Our strength and victory comes from God Himself and all the victories He had won for us on the Cross of Calvary. Although in the annuals of time and history, our Creator God died on the Cross-on Calvary, but He didn’t stay there. He arose triumphant and victorious over everything, over the worst that the devil or others could throw at or do to Him and to us. Because of the cross of Christ, God has reconciled all things to Himself whether things on earth or things in heaven for Jesus having wiped out all the enemies of His people and especially the requirements that were against them, He has taken it out of the way having nailed to the cross.
The King of Kings and Lord of Lords with His unlimited and unimaginable power and riches was never poor or debased. But He chose, because of us, to leave behind his infinite power and riches become a man and identify and relate to humanity in all its sufferings and ways. God in Christ Jesus stripped Himself of His royalty and Kingship. He then became an ordinary man and walked with men doing by faith and dependence on the Holy Spirit the impossible such as healing the sick, raising the dead and cast out demons. He did it all to show that we can do it also. Then the innocent Son of man and Son of God went to a Cross-on a hill called Calvary where He bled and died for all of humanity. But the Cross-was not the end of Jesus Christ or life, it was the beginning of something new, a New Covenant or New Testament. It was the beginning of a new life and a new man and a new Spirit for those who would accept what Jesus had done for them. It was the beginning of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all flesh. As a result God’s word was now true:
“But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.’ Joel 2:16-21
Now all flesh can be saved, healed and delivered and walk in the newness of life in the power of the Holy Spirit. All men can prophesy, speak in tongues and be filled with the fullness of God. The good news of the Cross-is that the different victories that Jesus won there, and the resulting New Covenant with all its rights and privileges, is now ours to be claimed and accepted by faith. They will be true if we will only believe, accept, confess and act on it and then allow the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead to change us. Jesus won for us, on the Cross, such a victory with such power and might that it made hell tremble and Heaven sing with joy as the Triumph of Victory resounded from one part of Heaven to another. Our ears will tingle and our hearts will sing, as the faithful and mighty Holy Spirit reveals this victory to us.
The fact remains that Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God, ready to use His power on behalf of the good of His true children; to make them more than conquerors in all things that the world, the flesh and the devil would throw at them. For His word is unchanging:
“And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. “Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. John 16:23-24
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
In the world lack of strength and dependence on others is considered weakness, but in the kingdom of God weakness that causes us to depend on and trust in the Lord is great strength and blessings. For it is when the power of Christ rest upon us, because of our weakness, that we are truly strong. As it is then that we rest upon the Lord and walk in the power of His might and Spirit and not our own. As we by faith tap into all the riches and resources of heaven which are now ours by Christ Jesus because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross two thousand years ago we become more than conquerors. It is when the power of Christ rest upon us, because of our weakness, that we are truly strong. For it is then that we rest upon the Lord and walk in the power of His might and Spirit and not our own.
Yes, as a result of the victories Jesus won on the cross we are now delivered from the hand of our enemies, and are able to serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. Just like Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit stated about God and us:
“Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited and redeemed His people, And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of His servant David, As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, Who have been since the world began, That we should be saved from our enemies And from the hand of all who hate us, To perform the mercy promised to our fathers And to remember His holy covenant, The oath which He swore to our father Abraham: To grant us that we, Being delivered from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. Luke 1:68-75
Several years ago, a servant of God, known as Praying Hyde was doing God's ministry in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. He would spend hours of time in prayer. Once, thousands of people had assembled eagerly to listen to his message to be given at a convention. He rose up to the dais to share the word of God. People got ready with their Bibles to listen to his exposition of Biblical verses, message and prayer. But he looked up to heaven and said just two words - "Abba, my Father!" That was all. The heavens opened. The Holy Spirit descended upon all the people, like a dove. The unrepentant, beating their chest rolled down on the ground with a loud out-cry and repented. The meeting lasted for hours together. The servant of God did not preach at all, except for the two words he spoke to God, which brought the shower of the Holy Spirit. The simple reason is to be found in his prayer-filled life. Jesus descended into him powerfully and moved the place.
Today many in Christendom talk about God’s power but the sad part is that so few of them demonstrate it. Their anointing is so miniscule that it can hardly do anything. Their vessels cannot seem to contain the anointing and dissipates very quickly! Yet God’s word is unchanging:
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many. Mark 14:22-24
God cut with Abraham an inferior covenant made with the blood of animals where all that Abraham was, all that he had or ever would have became the equal property of His covenant partner. Nothing would be exclusively Abraham’s again. During the covenant ceremony in Abraham's day, the partners exchanged coats, each one giving their authority to the other. They exchanged weapons as a way of saying, "Your enemies are now my enemies. I'll fight your fights as if they were my own." They walked through the blood of slain animals, pronouncing their loyalty to one another, even to the death. God had proven how intensely He desired to be God to him. He had given him every thing He had and bound Himself to Abraham in a relationship that could not be dissolved.
Well the good news is that God also cut with the sons and daughters of Abraham, those of faith, a new and superior covenant established in Jesus’ blood as a result of His sacrifice that ratified our covenant with God. A covenant where He gave us His Name (John 16:23), His authority (Matt. 28:18-20), His armor and weapons (Eph. 6:10-17). God’s word is unchanging:
Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:20-23
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11
As a result of what Jesus did on the Cross on Calvary, by faith everything is ours now. Jesus Christ has substituted all things on the cross for us and exchanged it there for us. Our death, defeat and poverty and curses have been nailed to the Cross. On the Cross Jesus Christ not only won real victory and redemption over sin and death and the world, but also over the wicked arch enemy Satan and all his angels who had made the Cross necessary by what he did to Adam and Eve.
The enemy had deceived and entrapped Adam and Eve to sin against God and live a life that was cursed and full of toil and trouble. But on the Cross Jesus Christ did the great exchange. He exchanged His sinlessness for our sins, His righteousness for our unrighteousness, His strength for our weakness, His boundless supply for our needs, His stripes for our healing, His riches for our poverty, His victories for our defeats, His glory for our shame, His triumphs for our disappointments, His Honor for our nothingness, His prosperity for our lacks, His joy for our sadness, and His fullness for our emptiness. But all of this is also something that must be revealed to us by the Holy Spirit before we can understand and partake of it fully. Yet it is all our birthright and the blessing of the fullness of the gospel of Christ.
The message of the cross and the Gospel is not only that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. He is now is seated at the right hand of the Father with all power given unto Him in heaven and earth waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool. But the message of the cross and the Gospel is also that as a result of the victories Jesus won on the cross, He has now given and shared all that He has with us (John 16:14) and He is also with and for us continually (Matthew 28:18-20).
God in Christ Jesus has literally become our inheritance and great reward; as well as everything else which we need, including our healer and deliverer. As result of the Cross, God said about Jesus and of us who have become strong and overcomers:
Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12
As a result of the cross, in Christ Jesus, we are rich, victorious and have a new life in Christ Jesus, as we walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. The empty Cross now also stands as a reminder and says to the world and to all the demons of Hell “You did your worst, but God gave His best.” Now things are no longer the same, because Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father waiting for His enemies to be submitted to Him. He has also now given us the power to subdue all His and our enemies through the use of His name and Word and dependence of the Spirit. Hence the Cross is also a real testimony of what God’s power can do no matter what the Hell or injustice that the world or the devil will throw at us. For Jesus’ resurrection after a cruel and awful death signifies the real possibility of total and complete victory in our lives, hearts and circumstances as well in the current time of life as we trust in God just like Jesus did.
The empty Cross of Christ at Calvary now says to you and I, that for every defeat there is victory in its place, for every failure there is success, for every endeavor there is prosperity, for every weakness there is grace, for every sickness there is healing, for every hatred there is love, for every injustice there is justice and for every poverty there is riches. All of this and much, much more belongs to each child of God because of what Jesus did and won on the Cross. Hence we can by the Holy Spirit understand what the Lord said to Apostle Paul:
“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. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
Our strength and victory comes from God Himself and all the victories He had won for us on the Cross of Calvary. Although in the annuals of time and history, our Creator God died on the Cross-on Calvary, but He didn’t stay there. He arose triumphant and victorious over everything, over the worst that the devil or others could throw at or do to Him and to us. Because of the cross of Christ, God has reconciled all things to Himself whether things on earth or things in heaven for Jesus having wiped out all the enemies of His people and especially the requirements that were against them, He has taken it out of the way having nailed to the cross.
The King of Kings and Lord of Lords with His unlimited and unimaginable power and riches was never poor or debased. But He chose, because of us, to leave behind his infinite power and riches become a man and identify and relate to humanity in all its sufferings and ways. God in Christ Jesus stripped Himself of His royalty and Kingship. He then became an ordinary man and walked with men doing by faith and dependence on the Holy Spirit the impossible such as healing the sick, raising the dead and cast out demons. He did it all to show that we can do it also. Then the innocent Son of man and Son of God went to a Cross-on a hill called Calvary where He bled and died for all of humanity. But the Cross-was not the end of Jesus Christ or life, it was the beginning of something new, a New Covenant or New Testament. It was the beginning of a new life and a new man and a new Spirit for those who would accept what Jesus had done for them. It was the beginning of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all flesh. As a result God’s word was now true:
“But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.’ Joel 2:16-21
Now all flesh can be saved, healed and delivered and walk in the newness of life in the power of the Holy Spirit. All men can prophesy, speak in tongues and be filled with the fullness of God. The good news of the Cross-is that the different victories that Jesus won there, and the resulting New Covenant with all its rights and privileges, is now ours to be claimed and accepted by faith. They will be true if we will only believe, accept, confess and act on it and then allow the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead to change us. Jesus won for us, on the Cross, such a victory with such power and might that it made hell tremble and Heaven sing with joy as the Triumph of Victory resounded from one part of Heaven to another. Our ears will tingle and our hearts will sing, as the faithful and mighty Holy Spirit reveals this victory to us.
The fact remains that Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God, ready to use His power on behalf of the good of His true children; to make them more than conquerors in all things that the world, the flesh and the devil would throw at them. For His word is unchanging:
“And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. “Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. John 16:23-24
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
In the world lack of strength and dependence on others is considered weakness, but in the kingdom of God weakness that causes us to depend on and trust in the Lord is great strength and blessings. For it is when the power of Christ rest upon us, because of our weakness, that we are truly strong. As it is then that we rest upon the Lord and walk in the power of His might and Spirit and not our own. As we by faith tap into all the riches and resources of heaven which are now ours by Christ Jesus because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross two thousand years ago we become more than conquerors. It is when the power of Christ rest upon us, because of our weakness, that we are truly strong. For it is then that we rest upon the Lord and walk in the power of His might and Spirit and not our own.
Yes, as a result of the victories Jesus won on the cross we are now delivered from the hand of our enemies, and are able to serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. Just like Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit stated about God and us:
“Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited and redeemed His people, And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of His servant David, As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, Who have been since the world began, That we should be saved from our enemies And from the hand of all who hate us, To perform the mercy promised to our fathers And to remember His holy covenant, The oath which He swore to our father Abraham: To grant us that we, Being delivered from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. Luke 1:68-75
WALTER KAMBULOW
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Gordon
Williams http://gordwilliams.com/
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