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Attaining the Power of His Resurrection
Posted by Lev/Christopher on November 22, 2009 at 6:28am in Discipleship
by Dr. Stephen E. Jones
11/21/2009
A musician friend of mine came to town last night to minister in a
nearby fellowship. I went to the meeting to see him, and as I drove
there, I was praying that the Father would show me some further
details in regard to the idea of death and resurrection.
So, of course, the message was specifically on the idea of death and
resurrection. One of the main points he made was that the promise or
dream God has given us cannot die. The purpose of death is to remove
the flesh from getting in the way. That which God does in us can never
die.
This is why we go through this "dying" process. Our first instinct
when we get a revelation promise of God is to try to fulfill it by the
power of the flesh. That is how we are oriented, and we really can't
help but do so. It is part of our concept of obedience, for we have
not yet learned that there are two types of obedience, one fleshly and
one spiritual. It is not that these two works have different actions,
or that one is lawful while the other is lawless; rather, it has to do
with WHO is doing the action. Is it the flesh or is it Christ in you
that is doing the work? The flesh can only attain partial success in
fulfilling the law (i.e., the word; commands of God); but when
Christ-in-you does the work, it is by the power of the Spirit, and it
cannot fail to fulfill the whole law.
So God has to bring us through this death process out in the
wilderness, not to kill the vision but to kill the flesh that is
trying to fulfill the vision in its own strength. By the time we come
out of the wilderness, we have learned something about distinguishing
the power of flesh from the power of the Spirit.
Yet it seems that we often need more than one course of study to learn
this principle more fully. How long this takes really depends upon how
great the vision is. The greater the vision, the more the flesh must
die in order to see the power of God released. The ultimate vision was
the resurrection of Jesus Himself. He could go to the cross with JOY
(Heb. 12:2).
This "joy" did not mean that He really looked forward to the death
that lay between Him and the resurrection power that was to come. No,
He was troubled greatly when He went into the garden to pray just
before His arrest (Luke 22:44). The disciples slept peacefully while
he was in agony, because they still lacked the vision of resurrection
that He had.
But yesterday morning, as I awoke, I felt troubled and apprehensive
about the time of death and resurrection ahead. For this reason, as I
drove to the meeting later, I prayed to know more about this. The
Pastor is a genuine Spirit-filled man who speaks from the heart out of
his own hard experience. He knows the principle of death and
resurrection. He has seen virtually every miracle in the book, but to
get there he had to pass through a wilderness of his own.
I came away from that meeting with the knowledge that the flesh is
once again being set aside in order to be raised up with the
empowerment of Elisha and to see the move of the Holy Spirit in this
nation and in the world--the outpouring of the Spirit necessary to
save the earth from destruction in the collapse of Babylon.
In Mark 1:12 we are told that the Spirit "drove" [ekballo] Jesus into
the wilderness. But in Matt. 4:1 and Luke 4:1, we are told that He was
"led" [ago and anago] into the wilderness. The distinction in wording
applies to us. Cattle are driven; sheep are led. The first implies
overruling the will of the cattle. The other implies that the sheep
are willing to follow. There is an attitude shift here that is
important for us to understand.
Back in December of 1981, I was driven into the wilderness. It was
good, and it was necessary, but it was definitely not my first choice
of action. Through the years, as we passed through this same window of
time, I saw others (like Pastor Red Thomas) experience a similar
wilderness experience in 1985/1986. All of these experiences were for
our learning.
We are now revisiting this whole theme once again. Yesterday's
revelation was that this time we go as sheep that are led, rather than
as cattle that are driven.
"Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for
the joy set before Him endured the cross. . ." (Heb. 12:2)
The whole purpose of death is resurrection power that sets us free of
fleshly limitations. For most of us, it involves the death of the
flesh, or, as Paul put it in Phil. 3:3, to "put no confidence in the
flesh." Why? "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection"
(vs. 10).
The only power big enough to save the earth now is resurrection power.
Nothing less will be adequate to the task that lies ahead. I am
reminded of a word that I received back in 1982 while I was in the
first wilderness. At that time, I wondered why God was "abusing" me so
much. His answer was, "You have asked a great deal of Me." In other
words, the vision that God had instilled in me was what I had asked
Him to fulfill in my life. It was a lot to ask. I did not realize at
the time that the greater the vision, the more I would have to learn
to die.
Our flesh wants to be rewarded for its activity. But God just wants to
kill the flesh. The flesh does not understand and thinks it is being
abused unjustly. I remember saying, "I wouldn't treat my dog this
way!"
I have a much greater understanding today than I did back then. In
looking back, I can honestly say that I would not trade those hard
times for anything in the world.
I do not know how this theme will play out in the days and weeks
ahead, but I do know one thing beyond all shadow of doubt. We are
being led by the Spirit. Even a simple answer to pray such as occurred
yesterday confirms the vision that we have been given and gives us
strength to go wherever the Spirit leads.
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Reply by Lev/Christopher on November 23, 2009 at 12:20pm
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