The Works of Jesus

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these because I am going to my Father.  John 14:12

What are the works of Jesus, the works he spoke of to the 11 before Judas came to betray him?  Jesus himself answers my question in what he said to the 11 in John 14:11:

"Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves."

Jesus was responding to Phillip's request for Jesus to "show them the Father."  He told Phillip that there was no need for him to show them the Father because if they had seen Jesus, they had seen the Father.  Jesus wanted Phillip to take Jesus at His word, that he and the father are one.  But if Phillip couldn't take him at his bare word, he could at least believe based on the works of Jesus:

Signs and wonders, healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead.

Now we get to it.

Not only are these the works Jesus spoke of, but these are works that we who believe will continue to do by the Spirit until Jesus returns--and even greater works than these, according to Jesus himself.

Now the purpose of these works are the same as Jesus' purpose:  conviction leading to salvation.  Any miraculous work that doesn't prove people have rejected God and lead them to accept Him as God is a false work.  But if people are to be brought to God, it must be by the power of God.

We have the power of God.  We have the Spirit of Christ in us.  By the power of God and the Spirit of Christ, we will do the works of Jesus until he comes.

I saw the Spirit do this.

"When the Spirit comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment."~The Lord Jesus

I saw the Spirit do this.  It was him, and only him.  Because only he can prove someone wrong about  sin, about righteousness, and about judgment.  Have you ever tried to prove someone wrong about anything?  How successful were you?

But the Spirit can do it without any help from you and me at all.  Again, I just saw him do it.

Someone spoke to me rudely.  I was angry.  I prayed that the Spirit would prove the person wrong in how she talked to me.  I waited.  I didn't confront her because I've tried before and it never works.  It only leads to arguments.  It only makes things worse.  So I waited.  And sure enough, she came to me and asked me to forgive her for how she talked to me.  I forgave her.  The Spirit did this.

I'll take something back.  I have confronted her before and it worked.  But again, it was because the Spirit gave me the words to say, and when to say them.  If I don't trust the Spirit to convict her through me, it leads to arguments.  But if I trust the Spirit, an apology comes easily.

What about you?  Is there someone in your life that did you wrong?  Pray that the Spirit convicts him or her.  Then wait.  Or go to the person if the Spirit gives you the opportunity, or tells you to take the opportunity.  (You'll know if the Spirit is leading it.  If you don't know, then he's not.)  Or wait for the person to come to you and bring up the situation.  Whether you let the Spirit do it for you or through you, it has to be him.  And he'll do it.  I saw the Spirit do this.  It was him and only him.

Glory to God.

How to Experience The Spirit's Power in Your Life (Part 1)

"You shall receive power when the Spirit comes upon you..."  
~The Lord Jesus, to His followers, before He ascended into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God

As a follower of Christ, you have a superpower, The Super Power, The Spirit of the Almighty.  Jesus promised you this power, This Person, who would empower you and be your power.  By "power" Jesus meant "supernatural, miraculous, divine power."  I want to share with you what this power is and how you experience it.

GOD'S POWER IS THE SPIRIT IN YOU.
It is written, "God's eternal power and divine nature, though invisible, have been clearly seen through the things God made, so that we are without excuse."  God's power is eternal, unborn, undying, infinite.  This is the power of God, and this is the power Jesus promised His followers.  What this power is can be seen in the life of Jesus, our role model, who was supernaturally born, and who supernaturally lived.  The same is true for you, if you believe in Jesus.  You were supernaturally reborn, and you supernaturally live as Jesus did, as it is written, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God."  It is written again, that "...as many as received Him, as many as believed in His name, He gave the power to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."  As Jesus was Spirit born, you are Spirit reborn.  And as Jesus was filled with and led by the Spirit, your birthright as a child of God is to be Spirit filled and led.  That's what this power is:  the Spirit of God in you, as your life, leading you and empowering you, as it is written, "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God."  If you believe in Jesus, the Spirit of God lives in you.  This is God's power in you.  This is how you experience it.

GOD'S POWER IS EXPERIENCED BY ASKING FOR IT.
It is written, "If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?"  God gives His children His Presence and Power when they simply ask for it.  It's that simple.  In the same way that you asked God to forgive you for your sins, and received forgiveness just for asking, so you receive the Spirit's leading and power just by asking.

"Is it really that easy?"  Yes, it really is that easy, if you believe what Jesus said.
"Then why is it that when I ask, I feel the same, and nothing seems any different?"

We'll get to that in the next blog. (Click HERE  for part 2.)

Are you spiritually desperate?

"On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.'  By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified."  

John 7:37-39

About 20 years ago, I came to a point of desperation in my life, a point where I desperately needed to hear from God.  I used to listen without question to my pastor, but during this time something happened that changed everything.

I began to hear the voice of God for myself, 

and what my pastor was telling me didn't match what God was saying.

I felt devastated.

Though it seems obvious, at that time I never considered that my pastor may not being hearing from God on a given occasion, especially an occasion that directly involveed my life and not his. 

During this time in my life, hearing from God was a matter of life and death for me, a matter of my identity and destiny as I knew it at that time, because everything I'd hoped and dreamed and lived for had failed me.  

I had nothing but the voice of God.  

I had no one by the Spirit of God.

That's how I became a Spirit listener.

Through many hardships, mistakes, trials and errors, I learned that I needed to know God's voice for myself, so that I would know when my pastor (or any other believer for that matter) was speaking from God or was simply speaking from their own opinion.  This is true for me, you, and every believer.

Every believer in Christ can now hear the voice of God.  This is the privilege and birthright of every one who believes in the Lord Jesus:  young and old, rich or poor, Jew or Gentile, full time minister or home-school teacher.

But in order to Spirit listen, we must feel our desperate need to listen.  

As the Lord Jesus said, we have to be spiritually thirsty to receive His Spirit.

Are you spiritually desperate?

A Call To Spirit Listeners (Part 3)

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God?"  The Apostle Paul

What is more important than God in us?  Who is more important?  Is there anything else more worthy of our thoughts, focus, and purpose?

If you believe in Jesus--

The Holy Spirit is in you.

The Holy Spirit is God.

Therefore, God is in you.

If we really believed that, how could our lives ever be the same?

We often think of how awesome it would be to have Jesus Himself with us like the apostles did.  I'm sure you've heard this before or read it before.  But it's worth repeating, hearing again, and reading again.  Jesus Himself said it was better for Him to leave so He could send us the Holy Spirit.  How could that be better to men who had been with Jesus Himself, in the flesh, for 3 whole years?  The only way it could be better is if the Spirit of Jesus Himself, the same Jesus they were with for 3 years, was not only with them, but in each and every one of the 12 apostles.  They would have their own "personal Jesus" in them, if I can say that reverently.

So it would be like having Jesus with each and every one of us all the time, instead of Jesus being limited in time and space, only in Israel, where people have to crowd him and press him to get near Him.  The real Jesus, in each of us, all the time.

To make this real to me, I often imagine if Jesus were sitting right next to me...say, on my job.  How would that affect how I work? 

If Jesus were with me, in the flesh, I'd just want to do whatever He said.  Whatever.  He.  Said.  How could I come up with better ideas or plans than Him?  My job (and my life) definitely wouldn't be a democracy if Jesus, the Lord, is with me.  I'd just do what He said. And there could be nothing at all better than that.

After I imagine this, I realize that I am actually in this situation.  Jesus is actually with me all the time by the Spirit.  All I have to do is follow Him, just like He said to the 12 when He called them.  He still says this today by His Spirit to all who want to be His disciples:

Follow me.

If you long to follow the Spirit no matter the consequences, like the 12 apostles followed Jesus, then you are a Spirit listener.

Let's begin our journey. 
Let's follow the Spirit of Jesus together. 
Let's be Spirit listeners.

Tell me your passion for this in the comments.

A call to Spirit listeners (Part 2)

So what Spirit are we listening to?  Who is He?  And how do we know Him?

Before we look at who He is, let's first look at who He is not:

He is not the Universe, or you, or me, or creation, or everything, or nothing, or the all, or whatever we think He is.

He is God, The One Who is Who He is, The Creator of everything and everyone.  The Spirit of God the Father, The Spirit of God the Son, the Spirit of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.

This is the Spirit I am listening to, and I am seeking to listen with you, if you are listening to the Spirit of the Only True God.

How do I know?  And how can we know together?

1. The Spirit always acknowledges and honors the Lord Jesus:  honoring who He is--the Son of the Living God, and what He did--Jesus died for our sins, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven.

2. The Spirit gives Jesus' followers power to bear witness to who Jesus is--convicting unbelievers and carnal believers of sin, and encouraging spiritual believers in the knowledge and likeness of Christ, uniting them in this pursuit.

3.  The Spirit always brings about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Key words--love, peace, and self-control.  God is love, therefore His motive is always love.  God is peace, therefore He never authors confusion or chaos.  And as it is written, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." The Spirit will never render you passive in mind or will.  Satan and demons will.  The Spirit will not.  Ever.

So what Spirit are we listening to?  Who is He?  And how do we know?

We are listening to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the only true God, and we know Him by the testimony of Jesus, by power as Jesus' witnesses, and the fruit of the Spirit that comes from yielding to Him.

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