Through the Door and Living the Life

  YOU SHALL RECEIVE POWER
(Basic Law No.2: No Person Or Persons, Nor Any Situation,Has Power Over You Unless You Allow It Through, a.Ignorance or, b.Your Own Willingness Because You Also Are Engaged In Some Form Of Power Play.)

               Now that you realize you have been freed from terrible slavery and brought into a totally new life, the next thing on the God-list of goodies for His newborn child is equally exciting. The first thing the followers of Jesus were given when they went through the Door to the Land of Always and Forever was an infilling of  His power: " You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you" (1). So, just as, when you were conceived in your human mother's womb, you automatically received physical power to develop and  be birthed and then grow up into full human maturity, when you were conceived and birthed by Almighty God, you automatically received His spiritual, heavenly power to be able to live and grow into the New Life He had planned for you from before time began. (2) Considering the deception within Christian teachings these days to the effect that all power died with the apostles, it is fitting and necessary that you deliberately claim this "infilling" of the power of God's Holy Spirit once you are born again. You will learn more of this in the next chapter.

                        So . . .  you've come through the Door - what does your old, unresurrected flesh say when, as you walk out in your new suit of  God-clothes, life in the Fallen World sneaks up on you and whacks  you behind the ear?  When tragedy slams against our senses and its very obvious expression of seemingly total, unstoppable disaster challenges our frantic thoughts - when it seems absurd to even dare face up to its onslaught, we are faced with a choice:

     a. "Gathering Nasty Flowers in Hook's Smelly Garden"
                     We can succumb at once to what seems to be the logic of the situation and allow whatever face death is presenting to us to have its horrific way, falling to our knees in abject misery as another one of our dreams is shattered cruelly and inexplicably. Thats' what I call "The Way of the Wimp". It's very common amongst the poor, ignorant unsaved masses, of course, but what gets to me is how so many of God's born-again people also justify it as being God's inscrutable will. In other words, they don't know how to handle the situation so they shift the blame onto God by saying it must be part of His mysterious plan. Watch out for these and similar Hook-words when tragedy sticks its toe in the door: "God's will be done", or, "God's teaching me something". What a cop-out. If that's the case then the smartest people on Earth should be amongst the most traumatised and sickest. I can see the look on His face when they say things like that! Although God's Word does, on occasion, show how tragic circumstances can be incorporated into His plan for His children re. their particular calling (e.g. Joseph being put in prison, Moses running for his life to Midian, Paul whipped and thrown in jail, etc.) these are not to be used as carte blanche for allowing every tragic situation to rule as part of "God's mysterious will". Real discernment is needed to see the difference between the majority of horrible situations as purely the work of the enemy (whether it be of the world, our flesh or, specifically, the devil) and the minority of such situations as being allowed by God, perhaps to character - train us for His plan for our life and when that is accomplished the situation changes for the better anyway.
Or we can choose:

b. "Tiptoeing Through the Tulips in God's Pleasant Pastures"
                        Listen from within our own God-bought spirit and hear across the centuries the cry of He Who rules and reigns throughout all of Creation, "Lazarus, come forth" (3), and feel that same Spirit rise from within us to confront that same mask of death which bore Jesus' friend to the grave. Time is of no significence to one's spirit. Death will always reign supreme across the ages and in every household unless it is confronted by  "He Who was and is and will be" (4), and we, as His children, have His Spirit within us to confront such situations. We have that same power which Jesus wielded so confidently and so effectively during His short time of public ministry. The Master, our Lord and Savior, our Creator God and Friend, assures us, "You shall do the works I do, even greater . . ." (5), and  has already spoken into our born-again spirits His blood-bought guarantee of total and absolute power over every manifestation of evil and death whilst we live in His service here in the Fallen World, "Behold, I give to you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you" (6).
               So, as the God-folk in Old Testament times would have said: "Gird up your loins", - I say in today's words: "Close ranks.  Prepare to engage the enemy". I always remind fellow - Christians that when old Hook or any of his gang slip within smacking distance of you, aiming to give you the old one-two, realize this, that they have come inside your smacking zone too. So let them have it really fast, no quarter given. And when you have them pinned to the mat, so to speak, don't forget to kick them real hard, just to remind them of who they've come up against. They haven't come up against you primarily but against Jesus in you. He is the power but you are His front man. He calls the shots but you deliver them. Doesn't that make you feel really good?  Me too.
               My friend, because of who and what you are in your new identity, no matter what  tragic situation you find yourself in, in this rotten old Fallen World,  you are now able to look that situation  right in the eye and say to it or to the old, foul spirit that's possibly behind it, "Just who or what do you think you are, coming against me like this? DON'T YOU KNOW WHO  AND WHAT I AM? DON'T YOU REALIZE WHO LIVES IN ME? " (7), and with that, kick it in the teeth with the appropriate God-word, and watch it stagger off to die in the graveyard of God's enemies.
                  There's nothing sweeter, apart from rejoicing in God's love and basking in His presence, than beating your enemy to death and nailing his hide to a branch of God's Promise Tree.
 
 

Personal Affirmation
"I have within me the ability and the power to walk victoriously in every area of my new life"
("All things are possible to him who believes". Gospel of Mark,Cpt.9,v.23,Amplified Bible)

Footnotes
1: Acts,Cpt.1,v. 8                          4: Hebrews,Cpt.13,v.8; Gospel of John,Cpt.8,v.58.
2: Ephes.Cpt.1,v.4.                        5: Gospel of John,Cpt.11,v. 43.
3: Gospel of John,Cpt.11,v. 43.     6: Gospel of Luke,Cpt.10,v.19.

     7: Ist.Letter of John,Cpt.3,vv.1,2; Col.Cpt.1,v.27; Gal.Cpt.2,v 20.

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