Dear Fellow Believers in Christ, (Christ and the Cross is the Source of Genuine Power)
Does not our Father's eternal plan action begin and consummate before the foundation of the world? Is not our Father and the Son the source of genuine power? How is the genuine power of His grace for liberation found in the cross? What is genuine resurrection power? Where does it come from and when and where do we get it? What is the transformed mind in us and how does that release the genuine power of Christ in us? How does Christ do all things in and through us, as we do all things in and through Him? Father, let the Holy Spirit reveal the fullness of Your Son in and through us today.
GENUINE POWER
by Dwight Davis"Now to Him who is ever able to do superabundantly beyond all things that we ever ask or ever think, according to the power that is ever operating in us" (Eph. 3:20, Expanded Greek Translation – EGT).
First, Genuine Power Begins in God Before the Foundation of the World
Our Heavenly Father is omnipotent or all powerful. Genuine power began in the heart and mind of our Heavenly Father. Our Father chose us to be in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). In our Father’s omniscience, He completed His eternal plan in Christ before anything or anyone else in the universe was created. The ultimate source of genuine power does not come from created persons or things. The ultimate source of genuine power must come from the omnipotence source of God Himself. Anything less is a mixture of flesh and spirit or soul and spirit. As the church, we need to Spiritually discern things that are commingling mixtures and concoctions of law, tradition, flesh, and man’s teaching with the genuine power of the love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is why Paul "determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (I Cor. 2:2). Paul wanted the faith of the church to not be in the natural, fleshly wisdom of man, but in the genuine power of God (I Cor. 2:5). For "Christ" is the genuine "power of God" (I Cor. 1:4), and "the message of the cross is the" genuine "power of God" (I Cor. 1:18).
Second, Genuine Power of His Grace for Liberation is Found in the Cross
Paul declares that we should "stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage" (Gal. 5:1). Christ paid for our salvation through the grace of His 100% finished work on the cross. Everything in Adam and through Adam that separated us from our Heavenly Father was put to death. The liberating secret of the true and final gospel is that the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8), but was manifested in these last times to literally fulfil all things (I Pet. 1:20). Adam, the Adamic (or satanic) nature was put to death on the cross, along with Adam’s original sin, and all sins of mankind. This is why Paul referred to Christ as "the LAST Adam" (I Cor. 1:45). When we are Spirit rebirthed, we enter into a new creation life together with Christ in us (II Cor. 5:17). From our Spirit rebirthing, we are progressively liberated as we know and operate in truth of the genuine power of His grace appropriated from the 100% finished work of Christ .
Third, Genuine Resurrection Power Comes from Our Heavenly Father
The subject of Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:17-23 is God the Father. It is the Father who is going to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Himself (Eph. 1:17). We are called by the Father and are His inheritance (Eph. 1:18). Paul declared that we need to know "the exceeding greatness" of the Father’s power toward us who believe (Eph. 1:19). The Father demonstrated "His mighty power" when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in all authority in heaven "above all principality, power, might, and dominion" (Eph. 1:19-21). Genuine resurrection power comes from our Heavenly Father.
Fourth, Genuine Resurrection Power Comes to Us in the Spirit Birthing
The Father and Son send the Holy Spirit to draw us, convict us, and births us into the Body of Christ (John 6:44, 16-8-11; I Cor. 12:13). Faith comes out of hearing and the hearing through the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17, EGT). The Holy Spirit reveals and speaks a word of Christ to us that produces the faith of Christ in us (John 14:23; 15:23, 16:13-15). Both the grace and the faith are not from us, but the gift from God (Eph. 2:8). When we, whosoever will, simply believe in our heart that the Father’s resurrection power raised Jesus from the dead, we are saved (Rom. 10:9,13; 4:24). The Holy Spirit births us by the incorruptible Seed (I Pet. 1:23). Every believer receives genuine resurrection power through the fullness of Christ placed in us at the Spirit birthing. Every believer receives the Person of Christ (Gal. 2:20), the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), the divine nature of Christ (II Pet. 1:4), and the eternal life of Christ (I John 5:11,12). We are literally saved by the resurrection life of Christ in us (Rom. 5:10). We are complete in Christ in the Spirit, with all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9,10). We are kept by the genuine resurrection power of God for all eternity (I Pet. 1:3-5).
Fifth, Genuine Power in Us Operates through Christ and His Mind in Us
However, what the believer needs is to allow the Holy Spirit to fully transform the mind. Paul tells us that we are not ever to be conformed to this age, but to ever be transformed by the renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2). Transformed is the Greek root word metamorphou. It is the same root for the word metamorphosis, or a complete transformation change, like the caterpillar to a butterfly. Transformed in the Greek is in the passive voice, which means the subject only receives the action but does not produce it. The caterpillar doesn’t do one thing to transform himself into the butterfly. It happens through God’s ordained nature. The believer does not do one thing to transform the mind, God through the Holy Spirit and His word does that work in us. We just receive that manifested grace. Certainly, we need to be cooperative with the Holy Spirit’s renewal process and focus on the Father and the Son, until the full mind of Christ in genuine power is operating in us (I Cor. 2:16). This all is in the hands and timing of the Father.
Sixth, Genuine Power Increases through the Knowledge of Christ in Us
Christ actually lives in us as us, with all his love, mercy, and grace manifested (Gal. 2:20). The believer is living a shared-life or the Christ-life, where Christ completes everything of man in the Spirit. This is the new creation life that Paul declares (II Cor. 5:17). Our mind needs renewal to the truth that Christ is the power of God (I Cor. 1:24). As the heart and mind is transformed by His life and love flowing in us, Christ is revealed as the source of that life and love in us and to us. Christ’s genuine power increases through His knowledge in us. We are able to do superabundantly, from Christ’s genuine power in us (Eph. 3:20).
Seventh, Christ in Us Can Do All Things through His Genuine Power in Us
Paul tells us to always rejoice in the Lord (Phil. 4:4). We must relax and trust in the Lord fully with prayer and thanksgiving (Phil. 4:6). Then, the peace of God in Christ in us will flow (Phil. 4:7). The timing of the Father will arrive and the Holy Spirit will renew the mind and we can think properly (Phil. 4:8). We will then find ourselves content in all things (Phil. 4:11). It is at this point, that we with that renewed mind can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Phil. 4:13). Christ in us can then do all things, through His genuine power working in us! V