04/13/2023
There are many gifts that are given us by God, but eternal life and power are not among them. You are probably asking how I can say such a thing. Aren't these part of the promise we have been given? In a way, I am dealing with semantics. God doesn't give us eternal life, but we do experience it when the life that is Jesus comes into us. I like the way Oswald Chambers put it when he said "Eternal life is not a gift from God, eternal life is the gift OF GOD." You see, when we accept Jesus, and He enters into us, we have no choice but to live forever because that is His nature.
“We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 6:9-11 ESV
Yes, when we have accepted Jesus and His sacrifice into our very beings, the fullness of God arrives with Him and death must depart... not physical death, but spiritual death which is eternal in itself.
“and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:19 ESV
The same is true of power. We receive power when the Holy Spirit enters into us. It too is not a gift from the Holy Ghost, but of the Holy Ghost... you find no place in scripture where the power of the Holy Spirit transfers that power to man... it is always part and parcel of Him. Reading John 14:17 we find Jesus saying directly that the Spirit will not just be with us, but in us.
“even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
John 14:17 ESV
So as part of this indwelling we receive the power OF the Holy Spirit that is Of God.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."”
Acts 1:8 ESV
Don't view eternal life and power as something you earn, because that is saying that you can come to deserve those things. Instead, understand that both are inherent in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit... and only by accepting them into our lives and ourselves can we share in them. There is no eternal life if we separate ourselves from Jesus and thus God, and there is no power to heal and the other things if we do not embody the Holy Spirit and thus God.
There is an old hymn that I have sung since I was a small boy, it is actually the combination of three hymns written by Archbishop Thomas Ken and published in 1709... we call it The Doxology today, and my favorite verse says... "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." It reiterates the fact that our blessings flow from God and if you think about a flow... it can be shut off if we separate ourselves from the source. The water never emanates from us, and God's gifts and blessings are never given to us, but rather they flow from Him, and through us. Listen to these lyrics…
Prayer:
"Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."
And we always follow these words by singing..."AMEN."
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your Son Jesus Christ and the fullness of you that He brings into my life and body. I also thank you for sending your Holy Spirit to be with me and in me. These blessings are always OF you, and never let me think, even for a moment, that they have become mine, separate from you. Let me always understand that all I have flows from you, and that if I withdraw from you the flow of your grace and mercy are diminished in me. In that instant I return to the world, powerless, and certain to die. Keep me Father and never let me stray, or my love for you to weaken or falter... for all I have that is of value flows from you by your magnificent grace. Thank you for giving me the message and the ministry of reconciliation, as I am simply the instrument of your power and will come to know eternity through you alone.
“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
2 Corinthians: 5:18 ESV
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”
John 5:30 ESV
“But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.””
Matthew 19:26 ESV
Rich Forbes