That
I may know Him and the power of His resurrection
(Philippians
3:10)
The same power that
raised Jesus from the dead is available to you today. This is made clear in the
New Testament and particularly by Paul in Ephesians 1:15-19 where he prays that
the eyes of our understanding will be enlightened that we may know what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.
The word “toward” in
this passage is translated from the Greek preposition eis, which literally means “into.” Paul then says that this mighty
power that is directed "into" us (the believer) is, according to the working of His mighty power
which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at
His right hand in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:10-20).
I learned this truth in
the early days of our ministry. It was one of darkest moments of my life. A
God-given vision had died. Everything was gone. But on this particular evening as
I sat on a park bench praying with Sue and three other friends, something
incredible happened.
Suddenly, prayer in
tongues began to well up from deep down inside of me. It was those rivers of
living water that Jesus spoke about in John 7:38 when He said, Out of your heart will flow rivers of living
water.
As I prayed in the
Spirit, these words reverberated over and over in my heart and mind, “Don’t’ be
afraid of death for I Am the Resurrection.”
I recognized these as
the words Jesus spoke to Martha at the time of the death of her brother,
Lazarus. When Jesus said, Your brother
will rise again, Martha had replied, I
know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus then
declared, I am the resurrection and the
life (John 11:23-25).
As I pondered this, I
suddenly realized that the resurrection is not just a doctrine about a future event, but an ultimate force of life that has been personified in the
person of Jesus Christ. I also realized that His resurrection life and power
was available to me, then and there, to restore and renew the vision that had
died.
Through this experience
of death and resurrection, I had to learn the difficult lesson of not trusting
the arm of flesh, but relying completely on Him. You see, He had given me the
vision, but in my youthful zeal I had set out to bring it to pass in my own
wisdom and human strength.
I had made the same
mistake as Abraham and Sarah when they attempted by their own human ingenuity
to bring about God’s promise of a son. But instead of bringing about God’s
promise, they produced an Ishmael and created problems for themselves and for us
today.
It was when they set
aside all self-reliance and put their trust completely in God that they
experienced resurrection life in their impotent bodies and Isaac was born when
he was 100 and she was 90.
This was the same
lesson God was giving Israel when he warned them not to trust in human strength
and resources, saying,
Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and
trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are
very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord!
As I turned from
self-reliance to an absolute and unequivocal trust in the Lord, He did
resurrect the vision, and He did it in ways I could never have imagined or
schemed. It came forth, not by human ingenuity and strength, but by His
resurrection life and power.
Is there an area of
your life that has died? Do you feel that all hope is gone? I encourage you now to renounce all trust in human wisdom and strength and put your trust
completely in Him. This Easter, resurrection can be more than just a sermon you
hear or a service you attend, but a real life-changing experience with Jesus Christ.
Dr. Eddie Hyatt is the founder/director of The Revive America Project whose purpose is to lay the Biblical and historical foundations for another Great Awakening in our land. To learn more about his ministry, check out his website at www.eddiehyatt.com.
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