We haven't really understood what happened to us when we were born again. When we were born again, we weren't just mere men who have been forgiven our sins. We were transfigured by the Holy Spirit into a new creature that the world had never seen before. That's what the enemy has tried to keep the Church from ever finding out. When Jesus rose from the dead, He had restored all things back to God that were lost in the Garden of Eden. Man had once again been restored to the likeness and image of our Father. We were restored back to the authority and dominion that was man's place from the beginning.
Jesus was the first man after Adam to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Even He performed no recorded miracles before He was filled with the Spirit in the Jordan River. Luke 4:1 (Amplified) says, "Then Jesus, full of and controlled by the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by and in the Holy Spirit."
When the Holy Spirit took Jesus into the wilderness, it was a deliberate move to confront satan and his own realm and to show him what he was up against. No matter what had worked on mankind before, was useless on this Spirit filled man. The authority and power that was man's in the beginning, was now man's once again.
As of this time, there was only one man that satan had to deal with and he put everything he had into motion to stop him. Jesus, now operating in God's own authority, was ruling over everything that satan had built. Jesus operated by the power of the Word of God in Luke 4:3-13 (Amplified). Verse 14 (Amplified) says "then Jesus went back full of and under the power of the (Holy) Spirit into Galilee, and the fame of Him spread through the whole region round about."
What was the difference between this Jesus and the Jesus before the Jordan River? The Holy Spirit of God. John 16:13 (Amplified) tells us "Jesus said, '(When He, the Spirit of Truth, the truth giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the truth (the whole, full truth), for He will not speak His own message (on His own authority) but He will tell whatever He hears (from the Father;He will give the message that has been given Him) and He will declare and announce to you the things that are and to come (that will happen in the future).'" John 17:21-22 (Amplified) says "that they all may be one, (just) as you,Father, are in Me and I in You, that they may also be one of us so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me.'" Verse 22 (Amplified) continues, "I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one (even) as We are one."
In Acts 1:8 (Amplified) we read how just prior to Jesus ascending up to the Father, He told those who were present that,"But you shall receive power (ability,efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth."
In John 5:26-30 (Amplified), Jesus made some statements that we sometimes overlook. Verse 30 (Amplified) Jesus said that He can do nothing of Himself, but only as He was taught of God and gets His orders from Him. You and I can do nothing of ourselves but only as the Father tells us. As we watch Jesus in His walk, it is the Father speaking through Jesus to us. "As He was sent, He sends us."
You and I are to be conduits for God to flow through and reveal His Love for manking by breaking the devil's hold on their lives. Whatever that hold may be...sickness, demons, poverty, fear...that's what He did and that's sstill the work of the Holy Spirit on us.
Ephesians 3:16-19 (Amplified) reads "May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the (Holy Spirit, Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality). verse 17 goes on "May Christ through your faith (actually) dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in Love and founded securely on Love." Verse 18 (Amplified) "that you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints (God's devoted people) the experience of that love, what is the breadth and length and height and depth (of it)." Verse 19 (Amplified) "that you may really come to know (practically, through experience for yourselves) the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge (without experience) that you may be filled (through all your being) unto all the fullness of God (may have the richest measure of the divine presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself)."
This same God that moved through our Lord Jesus is now wanting to move through us. This same Holy Spirit who filled Jesus is now filling you. The same work Jesus did then is what He still wants to do now. This isn't some watered down version of the Holy Spirit, but the same Spirit that filled Jesus and raised Him from the dead. God still wants to heal the sick, cast out devils, set at liberty those who are bound and set the captives free. We need to know that what Jesus said in John 17:18 (Amplified). As the Father sent Him into the world, He has sent us.
We are His likeness and His image, His Temple, His children, and His dwelling place. All He needs for us to do is let Him live through us and do the same works as His firstborn Son, Jesus.
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