John 6:28-29 (Amplified) says, "They then said, What are we to do, that we may habitually be working the works of God? What are we to do to carry out what God requires? Jesus replied, This is the work (service) that God asks of you; That you believe in the One Whom He has sent, that you cleave to, trust in, rely on, and have faith in His Messenger."
Jesus prayed in John 17:18 (Amplified) saying, "Just as You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world." According to these two scriptures, Jesus didn't send us "blind," into this world to do His work. Jesus didn't send us into the world, without equipping us with all that He had, but with all we needed to overcome the world. Just as the Father sent Him, Jesus sent us.
When Jesus came into this earth as the Son of Man, He had to learn "Who He was," from the Word and He had to have faith in what the Word and the Holy Spirit taught Him. In John 16:15 (Amplified) Jesus says, "Everything that the Father has is Mine, that is what I meant when I said that He, the Spirit, will take the things that are Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you."
Jesus also says in John 14:11-12 (Amplified), "Believe Me that I Am in the Father and the Father in Me; or else believe Me for the sake of the very works themselves, If you cannot trust Me, at least let the works that I do in My Fathers Name convince you. I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, If anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and even greater things than these, because I go to the Father."
The above Words of Jesus, are very strong and of course, Truth for us. Jesus was sent by the Father with Words, deeds, signs, wonders and power. And, Jesus said in John 17:18 (Amplified) that, "Just as You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world." Does this mean that we're equipped by the Same Holy Spirit and Father, in order to do the same works, preach and deliver the same Message that Jesus was? Has the Father, through Jesus, equipped us with the same Super-natural ministry as He gave Jesus? We we only saved and then left defenseless against the enemy? Or, are we supposed to carry on, in the same works that Jesus did in His earthly ministry by the Holy Spirit?
Jesus directed His followers in Luke 10:8-9 (Amplified), "Whenever you go into a town and they receive you and accept you and welcome you, eat what is set before you And heal the sick in it and say to them, the Kingdom of God has come close to you. Behold, I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions,and physical and mental strength and ability over all the power that the enemy possesses, and nothing shall by any way harm you."
Luke 10:21 (Amplified) says, "In that same hour [Jesus] rejoiced and glorified in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank You Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, that You have concealed these things, relating to salvation from the wise and understanding and learned, and revealed them to babes the childish, unskilled, and untaught, Yes Father, For such was Your gracious will and choice and good pleasure."
Now, we come to the real heart of this lesson. After reading these scriptures that Jesus said, we (as believers) must ask whether we're to take Jesus at His Word and go as He went, do as He did and speak as He spoke? We ask, "Is it God's will to bless, heal or fill with the Holy Spirit?" And, we ask, "Are the healings and miracles that Jesus performed, the same things we're to be doing?"
Jesus' followers asked in John 6:28-29 (Amplified), "What are we to do to carry out what God requires?" This sounds like a valid question, "What are we to do?" Jesus simply answered, "Believe in the One Whom God sent and have faith in His Messenger." Believing in the One Whom God sent, means that we believe in Jesus and His Message to us. We are born-again by the Same Seed and the Same Father as Jesus. When reading the Word, we discover that our predecessors in the early Church, did the same works that Jesus did. But, for some reason we've deemed these things as now having "passed away."
Many in the Church, question whether it's God's will for us to do these things any longer. Jesus said that, "I came to do the Father's will" and when He performed miracles, He said, "It's not Me, but the Father in Me Who does the works." If it was the Father in Jesus, Who did the works, then it had to be His will to do the works. Jesus never took credit for anything that He did. He always referred to the Father in Him.
If the things that Jesus did, were God's will then...then they're still His will today. Jesus performed miracles, raised the dead, healed maimed people, cleansed the lepers, fed the poor, stopped the storms, multiplied the loaves and fishes, and cast out demons. These are still God's will for today. We've come short in our faith and believing, to encompass these other things. It might sound harsh to say that good Christians have "fallen short" of doing what the Master taught us to do. We've concluded that Jesus' entire ministry was for "getting people born-again." Even if we weren't born-again, these things would be impossible for us to do. God has called us into the impossible, from the beginning though. If we could simply do these things on our own, then we would need the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said in John 10:37-38 (Amplified), "If I am not doing the works (performing the deeds of My Father), then do not believe Me (do not adhere to Me and trust Me, and rely on Me), But if I do them, even though you do not believe Me or have faith in what I do, in order that you may know and understand clearly that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father, One with Him."
Jesus made an alarming statement for us, even today. He said, "If I am not doing the works and performing the deeds of My Father, then do not believe Me." What if today's Church took Jesus' Words seriously? Can you imagine telling those we minister to,"If I'm not doing the work, performing the deeds of My Father, then do not believe what I"m saying?" Can the Church actually take Jesus at His Word and go from "faith to faith?" Paul says in Romans 1:17 (Amplified), "For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith, disclosed through the way of faith, that arouses to more faith, as it is written, the man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith."
Can it be that we have stopped in our faith, with just being born-again? Has everything other than "Going to Heaven when we die," become irrelevant? I'm writing these things, in order to challenge your faith. Have we ever found in God's Word, that after becoming born-again, our faith is finished and complete? It is wrong for the child of God, to reach deeper into the Life of the Spirit, for those that that are the will of the Father?
Colossians 1:9 (Amplified) says, "For this reason we also, from the day we heard of it (their love) have not ceased to pray and make special request for you, asking that you may be filled with the full, deep, clear, knowledge of His will in all Spiritual Wisdom, in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God, and in understanding and discernment of Spiritual things." The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write this scripture, for the Colossians and for us. We are supposed to know God's will and His heart and we're to be filled with Wisdom and insight into all God's purposes and understandings.
If it wasn't God's will to physically heal and set men free, then Jesus couldn't have done it. God's will is for all to be healed, physically and spiritually.
No comments:
Post a Comment