Coming with Authority
1 “This will be the third time I am coming to you. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.” 2 I have told you before, and foretell as if I were present the second time, and now being absentI write to those who have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare— 3 since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you. 4 For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.
5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. 6 But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.”
Many who know Jesus Christ believe in Him through the Gospel, through His words. The true believers know that His words should rule their thoughts, their hearts, and actions. They believe that they should grow in their spirits, that is why they continue to meditate in His words and continue to dwell in them. They allow the words that they received (with meekness) from Christ Jesus to continue to be implanted in their hearts, the only word that is able to save their souls (James 1:21). They also believe that the power of His word to save us is the power of the GOD, the Holy Spirit, for those who believe (Romans 1:16). This power that works actively in our inner being is the power that will make us conform to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29).
In Genesis, GOD created us in His image until sin entered into human beings and as a result we lost the fullness of GOD. We lost His Spirit in us because of sin. But His Son Jesus has the fullness of GOD (Hebrews 1:3). That is why GOD sent His Son and through His Word Jesus, HE will break the power of sin inside of us. And Jesus’ work should be done within. St Paul said in Ephesians 3:14 -21, “14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
Then the Gospel of Christ emanated. The Gospel of Christ is full of Spirit and life. This is the Word of GOD at work, the only Spirit that could give life to our dead spirits because of sins. (John 6:63). Romans 8:9-11 further explained, “ 9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
But sometimes, believers thought GOD is ruling and manifesting from the outside not from inside. Yes at first, GOD showed Himself through Jesus Christ so that GOD can teach us about Him, to show His wonders on a human level (as we humans cannot be God to understand GOD). This was explained when Jesus Christ was asked by Philip about the Father in John 14 :8-11.
8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.
At that time, people with awe, saw Jesus Christ doing all miracles on the outside with their naked eyes. But Jesus was already seeing the Father’s work for the people inside of Him because He has the spiritual eye. This should be our case also. We should know and see that the same Spirit of Him, working in Him is the Spirit of Christ working in us too. This is how the Father reveals to us His Son, not only from the outside but rather from the inside of us, showing His mighty works in us. St. Paul, even though he met Jesus through a bright light along his way to Damascus, he later knew that GOD revealed His Son completely to him not from the outside but from the inside. He said to the Galatians in chapter 1:15-16, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles” That comes after St. Paul's more than three years of meditation, listening to the teaching of Jesus Himself in himself (Galatians 1:11-12,18).
Not only St. Paul testified about Christ Jesus in him, St. Peter also. Act 3:6 testifies when Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” We know we cannot give what we do not have. Jesus Christ that St. Peter gave to the lame is inside of Him.
With the awareness of the Truth that Christ in us, anchors our hope to completely turn away from sins. Jesus Christ is watching from the inside through our conscience. If we let Him work from the inside, holiness is not impossible to us. Jesus Christ said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
So, let Jesus work in us, and all things will be straightened and best for us. He told us in John 10:10, ‘The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. AMEN
Comments