04/13/2025
There are many gifts that are given to us by God, but eternal life and power are not among them. You are probably asking how I can possibly say such a thing. Aren't these part and parcel of the promise we have been given by God? Well, 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 wrote "Eternal life is not a gift from God, eternal life is the gift of God." 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 believe and 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. We come to realize in Christ that the fullness of God must include eternity… because God is eternal.
“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 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 the Holy Spirit’s indwelling we receive the power 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
We mustn’t view eternal life and power as something you earn, because that is saying that you can come to deserve these 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 these things. 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 allow the Holy Spirit and thus God, to abide in us.
There is an old hymn that I have sung since I was a small boy, it is actually a combination of the closing lyrics 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 close off the source. This flowing water of eternal life and power that we are discussing today never emanates from us, in as much as they flow from Him through us as He abides in us. Let’s begin our prayer today by praying the Doxology hymn…
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 now, having prayed these words, let’s follow them with..."AMEN."
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 Lord, and never let me think, even for a moment, that they have become mine, or can exist separate from you. Let me always understand that all I have flows from you, and that if I withdraw from you then the flow of your grace and mercy are diminished in me. In that instant I return to the world, powerless, and surely to die. Keep me Father and never let me stray, or my love for you weaken or falter... for all I have that is of value flows from you through your magnificent grace and presence in me. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who was, and is, and is to come. Holy are you who by your grace and mercy has come to abide in me, and there imparts your nature. Praised be your name Holy Father, for you are worthy and I will worship you in Spirit and truth for all eternity.
Listen now, and let’s close our prayer as it was begun… by praying and singing along to the Doxology Hymn…
https://youtu.be/tQUTvMtUhw4?si=wY_7yLvz-KmGdxjS_
Amen!
Rich Forbes