Resurrection Power And The Righteousness Of God

Part I
How do Christians walk in resurrection power? How do we walk in the power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead and now dwells in us? (Romans 8:11). It is through the understanding of the gift of righteousness. Without the revelation that we are the righteousness of God in Christ (I Cor.5:21), much of the body of Christ will continue to walk in a kind of low grade condemnation. And condemnation is an effective insulation against the power and presence of God. We’ve got resurrection life living in our spirits; the very life that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. But sin consciousness and an underlying sense of unworthiness can divert us from His presence. The life and power of God in our spirits cannot manifest ‘through our mortal bodies” when the soul is bottlenecked by condemnation, accusation and negativity. So the mind must be renewed by the revelation (not simply more information) of Christ’s righteousness imputed. From the time many Christians are saved, they learn to live under subtle forms of guilt and insecurity that masquerade as humility. It is thought a little happiness and a little bondage is normal. No, the life of the Christian is resurrection power, liberty, freedom, fearlessness, boldness and confidence in Christ. It is time to stop imputing sins to ourselves. The guilt and shame is over. We are the righteousness of God in Christ.

This is why Paul says that he wanted to be found in Christ‘s righteousness, not his own. In Philippian3:8,9 he says, “NOT HAVING MY OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS, which is of the Law, but through the faith of Christ, THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD by faith, (Why?) that I may know Him (and what else?) THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION”. Paul did not want to be found in his own righteousness trying to meet the demands of the law. The law kills, curses and makes you conscious of sin. Instead, Paul wanted to walk in a “righteousness consciousness”; the revelation that he was the righteousness of God in Christ. We are qualified as ambassadors for Christ, as containers of the power of God, because we have been made complete in Christ. There is a power available to us that raised Christ from the dead. It is available to everyone who believes. Ephesians 1:17-19 says, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is …the surpassing greatness of His power in US… according to the working of His mighty strength which He worked in Christ in raising Him from the dead”.

If you are born again of the Spirit, you are the righteousness of God in Christ. II Cor.5:21 says, “Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”. The law took the disobedience of Adam and condemned us all, but grace took the obedience of Jesus and declared us all to be perfectly righteous in God‘s sight. So now we can go “boldly before the throne of grace” into God‘s presence based on Christ’s righteousness imputed to us. The more we hear (and by faith believe) that we are the righteousness of God in Christ, the more confidence we will have and the more frequently we will walk in the security of Christ’s finished work. We are the righteousness of God in Christ. God is NOT counting our sins against us.

As the righteousness of God, we are worthy carriers of this divine nuclear power; we are both qualified and authorized to release the power of God, setting captives free and healing the sick. Jesus said in Luke 10:19, “Behold, I give to you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over ALL the authority of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means hurt you”. We operate in authority as we walk in righteousness consciousness.
And this is all for the glory of God. If the world is deprived of seeing God move in resurrection power, in the miraculous, then they are being deprived of knowing the true nature of God. The true nature of God is to to save, to heal, to restore, to lift suffering off humankind and set people free; this is the redemptive nature of God. Resurrection power heals cancer and opens blind eyes, it brings dead things back to life. As Jesus said in Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me; because of this He has anointed Me to proclaim the Gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those having been crushed”. And this same Spirit who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, DWELLS IN YOU.

Power For the Harvest

Matthew 11:2,3 says, “Now when John (the Baptist) in prison heard about the activities of Christ, he sent a message by his disciples and asked Him, ‘Are You the One Who was to come, or should we keep on expecting a different one?”
Look at how Jesus answers John’s disciples and validates His ministry, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed (by healing) and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have good news (the Gospel) preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at Me and is not hindered from seeing the Truth”. (Matthew 11:4-6). If today’s church was asked if it was the authentic witness of Jesus Christ alive in the earth today, could it respond to that question with the same answer? I doubt it. And that’s why in this hour God may be turning up the volume on the supernatural. It is for the sake of His church, the great harvest and His glory. As for those who are uncomfortable with some who claim to move in the power of God, do not let that hinder you from embracing the authentic. In Mark 9:38-40 John reported to Jesus that there were those who were not of their group moving in power, John said, “Teacher, we saw a man who does not follow along with us driving out demons in your name, and we forbade him to do it, because he is not one of us. But Jesus said, Do not restrain or hinder or forbid him; for no one who does a work of power in My name will soon afterward be able to speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is for us”. At the same time, the Lord will come to people in whatever way they can receive this increasing emphasis on the power of the Holy Spirit. But we can’t let skeptical attitudes form barricades and estrange us from the power of God. It is the anointing that sets people free.

I believe the Lord will be deploying laborers into His harvest filled with compassion, those who prioritize establishing meaningful relationships with the lost, feeding the poor and upholding justice. They will be a people who integrate into the heart of culture as the new humanity and not spiral off again into a new Christian subculture. But as this happens, I also believe there will be a growing awareness of the need for God’s power to heal the sick, bring release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind and preaching the extravagant grace of the true gospel. This will break strongholds that would otherwise persist. There are a lot of missional people with new, great and powerful ideas waiting for implementation. But in all of that, including the presentation of the gospel, I can’t help but notice a gaping hole. Where is the Spirit? It isn’t as if the many emergent and emerging ministries don’t mention the Spirit, but often in an abstract context. And this may be, in part, a result of many in the missional movement coming out of mainline denominations (or other groups) where pneumatology was thin and theoretical. Then there are those concerned about an over-realized eschatology. But all of that must not have us living an under-realized Christianity.

Thoughts on the Power of God

 I John 2:27 says, “The anointing (the power of God, God’s divine enablement) which you have received from Him abides in you”. (parenthesis mine). To “anoint” in the Old Testament was to literally be smeared with oil or to pour oil on the head as a sign of divine calling and enablement for mission. And as God anointed Jesus, so He has anointed us-not with oil, but with the power of the Holy Spirit. Everywhere we go, Jesus is now with us and in us and desiring to live through us for “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that it may be seen that the power comes not from us but from God”. Our purpose is not about what we can do for God, but about what God intends to do through us. He is interested in what He can do through yielded vessels in order to touch others. We no longer have to struggle, strive, and perform. As we give way to God, He empowers us so that we become the active presence of Jesus Christ in our sphere. As a result, though we may be ordinary, what we are doing is extraordinary and has a divine stamp on it. But it is “Not in your own strength, for it is God who is all the while effectually at work in you (energizing and creating in you the power and desire), both to will and to work for His good pleasure”. (Philippians 2:13). The release of the “anointing”; that is, the response of God in us to the needs of others is meant to “heal the brokenhearted and set at liberty them that are oppressed”. This is how I envision His power manifesting. As we make ourselves available to Him for the sake of others, we will see spiritual and emotional gridlock broken in people’s lives “proving that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 9:22). God’s power is stronger than sin. (Gal. 5:16, Ro. 5:20).

I Corinthians 12:11 says that the Holy Spirit apportions His gifts and abilities to each person individually and exactly as He chooses for the profit of all. This includes EVERY BELIEVER, EVERYWHERE-not just one man or one location. The anointing of the Holy Spirit is upon the body, not just upon somebody. (Acts 1:8). Many Christians often imagine that God’s gifts are proofs of holiness or marks of maturity given only to the most advanced Christians to demonstrate God’s approval of their spiritual progress. But this isn’t the case. God gives gifts freely on the basis of grace. Christ’s righteousness qualifies us to receive the amazing grace of the Holy Spirit. Having received the indwelling presence of God Himself purely by an act of grace, how could we suppose that we must merit in any way the manifestations of His presence! As a result, in the New Testament, we see ordinary people saying or doing extraordinary things (in their spheres of influence) by the power of the Holy Spirit. This includes the “good works” of Matthew 5, the making of disciples in Matthew 28, the preaching of the Gospel in Romans 10, and the miraculous works of the book of Acts all done that we might “glorify our Father who is in heaven”.