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rl69
02-01-2017, 07:42 AM
Greater Works Shall You Do

“Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.” (Acts 2:22)

Jesus did all of His miracles as a man, not as God. Let that sink in. This is a profound truth that has major implications for you and me. It changes everything.

Pastor Bill Johnson writes: “Jesus could not heal the sick. Neither could He deliver the tormented from demons or raise the dead. To believe otherwise is to ignore what Jesus said about Himself, and more importantly, to miss the purpose of His self-imposed restriction to live as a man.

Jesus said of Himself: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does (John 5:19-20).” In the Greek language the word ‘nothing’ has a unique meaning — it means NOTHING. Just like it does in English! He had NO supernatural capabilities whatsoever!

While He is 100 percent God, He chose to live with the same limitations that man would face once He was redeemed. He made that point over and over again. Jesus became the model for all who would embrace the invitation to invade the impossible in His name. He performed miracles, wonders, and signs, as a man in right relationship to God… not as God.

If He performed miracles because He was God, then they would be unattainable for us. But if He did them as a man, I am responsible to pursue His lifestyle. Recapturing this simple truth changes everything… and makes possible a full restoration of the ministry of Jesus in His Church. “[1]

Jesus said you and I will do even greater works than He did. “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12-13)

The question for each of us is, “How dependent and obedient to the Holy Spirit are we so we can experience this same power?”

[1]Bill Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth, Destiny Image, p. 29, Shippensburg, PA 02003

square butte
02-01-2017, 08:40 AM
Thanks for the good start to this morning rl69. Good stuff to meditate on today

USMC87
02-01-2017, 10:04 AM
We are fully empowered by Gods Holy Spirit, Amen.

Blackwater
02-01-2017, 01:14 PM
What a wonderful post. Thanks. Christ is STILL our best model, because he WAS fully human. He faced temptations greater than any of us will know, and yet, lived a sinless perfect life. We do not. It's theoretically possible that we COULD, but we CHOOSE not to, because our free wills are so inundated by the winds and storms of temptations, that appeal to whatever "weak spots" we have within us. Satan always targets our "weak spots," wherever and whatever they are. This is why God deemed it necessary that His own Son would have to submit Himself as a blood sacrifice for all of us. It's paradoxical in the extreme that God would choose to do this, from our "human" perspective, or that Christ would submit Himself to such a thing, and yet ...... there it is. It really happened.

This, I think, should be our hallmark clue for all time and for all people, that God is SO much greater and wiser and loving than any of us could EVER be, that we cannot ever, probably, really "KNOW" Him, but can only "see" just enough of Him to know right from wrong and to know our proper place in this realm He created just for us. So many wild paradoxes, and yet, all of them are true. They defy our human senses of "logic" and "nature," and yet .... there they are, and all 100% true.

God is SO much greater than we can imagine, in our wildest dreams! And yet, He gives us just enough of a sense to "see" this, and to know our place and what is right in it all for us. What other "god" is so great, so loving, and so wise? There is none. ONLY our Christian God is a real, abiding, loving, caring and generous God. All the others are imposters, or maybe even demons pretending to be a god. Ours is the real thing, in spades! What a wonderful God we worship and serve!