Easter is the time to remember the resurrection and victory of Jesus. In Him we shall triumph! In Him we shall rule and reign, and demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit.
In Him, death and sickness have lost their sting, and we can rise victorious! The cross He took upon Himself in our stead, carries a promise. The empty tomb where He was put after His dead body was taken off the cross, speaks of victory and defeat over death! We can walk the walk with Him. Ruling and reigning over our circumstances, over darkness and desperate situations trying to pull us down, over discouragement and disappointment - all very real, but won in the battle over the darkness, at the cross. Death that used to work harm, has become our secret friend. How so? As all things are subject to God, He has the keys to the kingdom, and the hell and death as well. Today death to our carnal self and nature works in hidden for our good. Leaving less of us, revealing more of Him. Col. 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Paul told in 2. Cor. 12:9 that therefore he boasted of his sufferings and infirmities..."And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." And Paul knew the meaning thereof. He met resistance to the fullest as he proceeded to do His Father's will.
In 2.Cor. 11 he listed some of the things he encountered as he progressed to do the will of God for his life:
"23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 In journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brothers; 27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28 Beside those things that are without, that which comes on me daily, the care of all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? 30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities."
Sometimes we are so used to certain indoctrinally approved and accepted phrases like "when God sends, He provides" or "if you are in trouble, you cannot be in God's will" that are useless, as they are man's and not God's invention - you find no such reference in the Bible, and if carelessly and casually applied, religion can be formed - that has to do with cold hearts that are as far from the heart of God than the heavens are higher from the earth - man-made settings that have the outward religious look, but lack in compassion and understanding of the ways of God, and are sparked off by ignorance, and misdirected enthusiasm". Such phrases, although outwardly as if carrying a religious feel, are namely that - borne out of religion, that killed Jesus, the Life Himself. If the advocate of such superficial attitude hurls a phrase like that at the sight of the misfortune and suffering of another, the heart of God will be very poorly represented.
Now, when God indeed protects and provides for His servant, Paul was a servant of God and his journey demonstrated clearly that he knew both how to abase and abound. Even when Jesus has paid for all in full, also for the redemption from under the curse of poverty, there is still resistance as one advances on the path of the will of God. The winds of adversity can blow, but they are by no way to be taken as a proof that one is out of the will of God. Otherwise Paul would have embraced a very wrong journey. (And we well know, he, whom the Lord used to write down a major portion of the New Testament, was definitely in the will of God. All he did was to follow in the footsteps of Jesus who was broken out of His own love to mankind, the way bread is broken, for the life and strength of God to flow out of him, to bless and bring life to many).
In Matthew 14:26 there is a story about Jesus and His disciples. In verse 22 we can see how Jesus had constrained His disciples to get into a ship, and to go before Him unto the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.
In verse 24 the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. (Now the advocate of a religious teaching would stop here, and think about turning back, telling himself that surely that can not happen if pursuing the full and perfect will of God!) But the story with the disciples of Jesus did not end here. He went to them in the fourth watch of the night, walking on the sea.
At the sight of that....in verse 26.....His disciples were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.
Now we know that this was not the devil, but Jesus. Jesus who had decided to opt for a new unrecognised route.
He still loves to do the same. He may choose to come in the form of a stranger (Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares - Hebr. 13:3. Do we consider it a myth? Something that happened in old times...but not today? Has God changed? Has His Word changed? Has anything about His nature and dealings changed? In the time of grace and the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, under the new and better covenant, made by the blood of His own Son who gave His life for us?)
The answer is no. Every jot and every tittle from the Bible holds also today (Matthew 5:18). He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebr. 13:8). He has not changed, our understanding of Him and His ways has....
He - the Way Himself - made us a new and living way (Hebr. 10:20) through His Body. If we err from the path set ahead of us, there is always His hand beckoning us and telling us: "This is the way. Walk on it!" The blood He shed for the redemption of ALL SIN of the whole mankind has not lost its power, and still speaks today (Hebr. 12:24). It is a better message than the old one. With this message He became the Message by Himself. It was a message sealed and signed by His blood. It is a message upheld by Him, a message that He wrote with His blood, and always backs up, whenever the need.
Your sins have been blotted out. When you come to Him, asking for forgiveness for a missed shot, He always gives you a new chance. Even if you were to fall 7 times 70 times a day (what is pretty much an impossible count, as the day has a certain number of minutes in it and no one is THAT capable of missing it).
The Blood of Jesus speaks louder than the blood of the bulls and rams today! A perfect God shed His perfect blood to pay for YOUR sin. It was a perfect covenant by His blood.
No matter where you stand today, you cannot outdo with your sin the grace and goodness of God. He has paid in full, and in advance. He gave His life as a downpayment, for many sons and daughters to follow Him into the Kingdom of God. He redeemed you. You belong to Him. If you turn to Him, and decide to forsake your old ways that have kept you captive to the powers of darkness out to steal, kill and destroy, not in your own power, but His, He waits for you with His arms wide open. His grace will never run out.
He accepts you the way you are. He will transform you then inside out. But if you have been into witchcraft and teachings that have taken you to a different way, then you cannot go both ways. It is either one or the other. Light and darkness cannot coexist. In such case you need to renounce the former ways, in order to embark on a journey with Him and experience full freedom.
Come, drink the water from the well of salvation, that He is offering you today, and you shall never be disappointed. It is a water of life, giving you strength and freshness to blossom in the midst of a desert. And...it contains a miracle power. Soon you discover that what was formerly a desert surrounding you, has turned to fertile ground as His living waters flowing forth from YOU have been watering it, bringing it to life and fruition.
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