Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
When we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we were raised up in Him from death to life, and we sit in Heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 2:6), as part of the body of Christ, at the right hand of God our Father. We were then sent from Heaven to earth as a Spirit to be an ambassador from The Kingdom of God to mankind. Our mission is the same exact mission and ministry Jesus Christ had when He was here in the flesh on the earth.
Luke 4:18-19
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of The Lord.
Jesus clearly said in John 14:12 we would do the same works He did and greater works.
John 14:12
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father.
Well, we can read The Scriptures and see what Jesus did while on earth. “Because He goes unto His Father,” and returns inside us as The Holy Spirit, we are anointed to do the works Jesus did, and greater. What did Jesus mean by “and greater?” We’ve not been given any more power than Jesus had, but we are on earth much longer than Jesus and able to do what He wasn’t able to do. For instance, Jesus was sent to the Jewish people of the nation of Israel. We are sent to the world. Jesus’ works during His focused and specific time in the earth did not include building orphanages, schools, churches, missions, printing Bibles in various languages, producing various study materials, building Bible schools like ORU, Charis, Ken Copeland Bible College, etc. These are the “greater works.”
Religion struggles with what I’ve just written. Religion promotes a “fear” of God. The “fear of God” we see in The Scriptures is not to have a physical and mental fear of God. Instead, it means to “have reverential trust in Him, in His Word.” How are we to fear God as religion teaches when He clearly and plainly tells us in Hebrews 4:16 to “come boldly to His Throne of Grace with Jesus.” We cannot be in religious fear and come boldly. You see, the “fear” religion teaches, and I was taught this in my denomination, ties us to death. There are only two states a person can be in while in this world: faith or fear. As has been said many times before, there is no middle ground, no third rail, no grey area. We are either walking in faith or fear every moment of every day. Fear is a faith. Fear is faith in the world and yourself. Faith is being fully persuaded in The Truth of God and His Word. Selfishness is fear based, and fear is self-based.
I Peter 5:6-8
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time:
7 Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
How do we put aside fear in our lives? I Peter 5:6-8 tells us how to do this. First, we humble ourselves. No, not in the definition of the world for humble, but in God’s definition which is found in I Peter 5:7. When we cast all our cares, concerns, worries, fears, doubts, unbelief, anxiety, situations, grief, etc. upon God, then we are considered “humble” by God. We have to do what Jesus said to do in Luke 9:23. We have to remove “self” and allow God.
Luke 9:23
And He [Jesus] said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
Do you see the part of Luke 9:23 where Jesus says, “let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow me?” This is exactly the same thing as I Peter 5:6-7. To “humble” yourself before God is to “deny yourself and nail your flesh, your opinions, your fears, your unbelief, your anxiety, your doubt, your grief, your lack, your sickness, etc., to the cross.” Leave all of it there at the cross and be raised up with Christ, fully persuaded, and follow Him (this means follow His Word). If we do this, God promises us in I Peter 5:6 God will exalt [promote] us at the due [appropriate] time. The “appropriate” time is when we let patience have her perfect work (James 1:3), and we receive God’s VERY best for us.
Now, let’s not forget I Peter 5:8. As soon as you decide to be “fully persuaded,” guess who is going to show up? Yep, the imp, the loser, the conquered, the toothless, the condemned, the big mouth, the beaten, the embarrassed, the powerless dead spirit known as satan. Notice, I Peter 5:8 says, “seeking whom he MAY devour:.” The “MAY” is the key. satan may only do what WE allow him to do in our lives. He has NO power. Jesus took all the authority and power from satan at the cross and resurrection. How do we prevent satan from taking authority in our lives? By The Word. Do what Jesus did to satan during the temptation. Every time satan tells you that you are going to fail, to die, to go broke, etc., and tries to get you into his faith, called “fear,” tell him, “It is written…….!” You fight satan, and very successfully, by decreeing The Word of God to him about the mountain, the situation in your life. Continue to beat satan over the head with The Word and become violent with him over the promises of God in your life (Matthew 11:12).
Let’s not give power to satan through fear. Instead, let’s be fully persuaded that God loves us as much as He loves Jesus. Yes, God loves us just AS MUCH as He loves Jesus. That thud sound was the religious fainting. We just tipped over one of their sacred cows. Let me close with this. I will write more on it. God is teaching us through The Holy Spirit that we must change our perception and our self-image of who we are in Christ. Rather than seeing ourselves as the woman with the issue of blood, we need to learn to see ourselves as the one wearing the robe she desired to touch. OH NO!! You just said we are Jesus. This can’t be!! Then why did God call Jesus in Revelation 1:5, “The First Begotten of the dead.” Because we are “the second and third and fourth and fifth, and one millionth, and one billionth, etc., begotten of the dead.” No, we are not Jesus The Preeminent, but we are “little Christs,” or in other words, “little anointed ones.” When Jesus sends our Spirits to earth, we come with all of His authority and His power. We have to see ourselves as Spiritual beings with an earthly shell, not earthly beings with a Spirit. We have to see ourselves as ambassadors of Jesus Christ and realize the world is seeking and looking for something. We know Who the something is they are seeking; they just don’t know. They need to see Jesus, hear Jesus, and experience Jesus through us. The “Jesus” in us will connect with them, and we know what happens: they pass from death unto life.
My soul is becoming what I am already in the Spirit.
Blessings in Christ Jesus,
Larry