Resurrection Power
by Christel Baxter
This scripture is really mind-boggling if you truly grasp its full significance. Jesus walked the earth, knowing His full purpose and ‘job description’– to demonstrate the Kingdom of God on earth and to reconcile man with God. Before His death Jesus spent much time preparing His disciples for the events that were about to take place and He also reassured them that He would send them another Helper – the Holy Spirit – Who would be with them to comfort, strengthen and be alongside them.
The disciples had watched Jesus teach, heal and deliver those He encountered during His ministry. They saw the power of God at work before their very eyes. But I think the full impact of the power of God only became a reality after the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the disciples in the upper room after Jesus ascended into Heaven.
The Holy Spirit is the Life-Giver. He is the One who regenerates our spirits when we are born again. He is God’s breath of life within us. And He is the One who brings life to dead things. Job 33:4 says, ‘It is the breath of the Almighty that gives me life’. It reminds me of a very interesting account that we read of in 2 Kings 13:21. ‘Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet’. The anointing of the Holy Spirit that seemed to remain within the bones of this prophet was so powerful that it raised that dead body to life!
The point I want to get to is this: This same power that raised Christ’s dead, beaten and battered body to life – the One who is God’s very breath in our lungs – is alive in us. We have access to the death-defying power of the Holy Spirit because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The cross made it possible to have life, and to live a life of freedom from sin and bondage. The resurrection power of the Holy Spirit – the SAME power that raised Jesus from the dead - makes it possible for us to live this supernatural, Spirit-centered life! Jesus died to reconcile us back to the Father, but through His Resurrection He enabled us, His disciples, to ‘do even greater things than these, because I (Jesus) am going to the Father’ (John 14:12). Let’s be encouraged to live and walk in the resurrection power of the risen Christ!
Prayer: Lord, what a privilege it is to be able to walk each day in Your Resurrection Power! Thank You for reconciling us back to Father God, and for giving us Your Holy Spirit to guide us and counsel us and cause us to do great exploits for Your Kingdom, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Christel Baxter joined the Associate prayer ministry team at Shere House, S.Africa in 2008 after attending the 20 day school. Besides serving together on the associate team at Shere House, Christel & her husband, Gary, pastor New Life Ministries, a congregation in Boksburg, Gauteng. Their children, Liezl and Wesley, are both married, and they adore their son-in-law and daughter-in-law and their little granddaughter, Hannah! Christel is passionate about seeing broken lives restored and especially loves ministering God`s love and healing to women of all ages.
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