A GOSPEL OF POWER by Gary Wilkerson
The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a gospel of evangelism alone but of sanctification. The power that saves us is the same power that keeps us and we need to walk that out in fear and trembling. We need to learn the weapons of our warfare and begin to grow and mature.
I say all that but I also have good news for you. There is a power available, a work of the Spirit, that is profound, glorious, dynamic! When the Spirit of God comes into the hearts of believers who stand firm in their foundation and faith, they grow in maturity. A release of power comes in them that heals the inside and closes the door to the outside. I love what Nehemiah, who is a type of the Holy Spirit, says to those trying to gain entrance to Jerusalem.
“But I warned them and said to them, ‘Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you’” (Nehemiah 13:21, ESV).
I picture Jesus standing at the door of my life! When Satan comes to buffet me, Jesus is standing between me and the enemy, saying, “I warned you once. Back off! You are in the wrong place. You’ve started something you can’t finish. You are dealing with somebody bigger than you.”
I picture the power of God on the wall of my life. On the inside I am clean but I hear these things lodged on the outside crying out, “You can’t stay clean.”
But I can stay clean because I have Jesus on the wall of my life, saying, “Who do you think you are, Satan? What have you to do with my son, my daughter, who is covered by the blood of the Lamb, cleansed and sanctified and made holy? Who are you to speak these vile things?”
“In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
Jesus has caused us all to be overcomers in Him!
I say all that but I also have good news for you. There is a power available, a work of the Spirit, that is profound, glorious, dynamic! When the Spirit of God comes into the hearts of believers who stand firm in their foundation and faith, they grow in maturity. A release of power comes in them that heals the inside and closes the door to the outside. I love what Nehemiah, who is a type of the Holy Spirit, says to those trying to gain entrance to Jerusalem.
“But I warned them and said to them, ‘Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you’” (Nehemiah 13:21, ESV).
I picture Jesus standing at the door of my life! When Satan comes to buffet me, Jesus is standing between me and the enemy, saying, “I warned you once. Back off! You are in the wrong place. You’ve started something you can’t finish. You are dealing with somebody bigger than you.”
I picture the power of God on the wall of my life. On the inside I am clean but I hear these things lodged on the outside crying out, “You can’t stay clean.”
But I can stay clean because I have Jesus on the wall of my life, saying, “Who do you think you are, Satan? What have you to do with my son, my daughter, who is covered by the blood of the Lamb, cleansed and sanctified and made holy? Who are you to speak these vile things?”
“In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
Jesus has caused us all to be overcomers in Him!