Change is inevitable – how will you handle it?
June 10, 2019
Life Keys – Part 1
September 7, 2019
Words of Wisdom
with Pastor Alphonze
GOD IN US
God has a strange way of communicating.
In every function of the work of Jesus, there is a metaphor that actually tells us about the peculiarities of that aspect. For instance, the death of Jesus is communicated in various ways and metaphors that have numerous implications in the realm of the spirit.
Jesus spoke using metaphors to give us insight into different aspects of the same thing so that we have more understanding and a holistic revelation upon which to base our spiritual trust.
He spoke of his death in many ways, let’s have a look at three of them.
HE DIED AS A LAMB
John 1:29: The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Every time you hear the phrase “the lamb of God“, it is pointing to crucifixion. Sacrifice is used as a basis for purchasing our redemption as established by the law of divine justice that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Jesus is the lamb of God through which our redemption is purchased. As a lamb he died to wash away our sins, He became the atonement for our sins.
HE DIED AS A BRAZEN SERPENT
John 3:14: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.
To destroy the devil, the old serpent, and to deal with our serpentine nature. In the garden of Eden the devil beguiled man and by reason of rebellion, partaking in the serpentine nature. As stated previously, there is need for a metaphor to reveal more of this; an indication of how God and Jesus will deal with that serpentine nature we have eaten into. That nature is the power of sin that resides in man. Any time we yield to that nature, we find ourselves living out the very dream of the evil one. Therefore God factored our deliverance from that serpentine nature by indicating to us that he had to die as a brazen serpent in order to cancel out the venom that we partook of in Adam. The power of sin that resides in us is rooted in Adams rebellion to God’s instructions.
HE DIED AS A GRAIN OF WHEAT
John 12:24: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit.
The reason why He is represented as a grain of wheat that falls to the ground is to illustrate that through death there is an expectation of life. His death imparts into us a different kind of life, Resurrection Life. When Jesus died as a grain of wheat, He is pointing out the fact that what is planted is different from what comes during germination. Paul illustrates this phenomenon much better in 1 Cor 15:36-37. In the resurrection, Jesus had a change – a configuration. Jesus was sown as a seed and he came out a quickening spirit. This means that in the resurrection Jesus had a change, he was no longer of flesh and blood but of spirit.
When you sow a seed, the elements and moisture of the earth saturate the grain. The seed you planted begins to expand and eventually explodes as the elements of the earth react with the covering coat of that grain and breaks it. The life that’s in the grain of seeds finds an outlet to come out! That was the same thing that happened in the case of Jesus when he was buried. His flesh broke and the contents came out and that content is what is called the life-giving spirit – the new nature that Jesus assumes in the resurrection. He became the life-giving spirit. The devil thought that in the death of Jesus he could take Him away from the earth, but all he really did was set Jesus free from Himself, making Him the life-giving spirit [1 Cor 15:45].
If you take a critical look of the bible you will discover that there are two BECOMINGS of Jesus. The first account is in John 1:1: The word BECAME flesh. He became flesh incarnate.
This is when Divinity came into humanity. The second account is in 1 Cor 15:45, Jesus became the life-giving spirit. That’s what he has become in the account of the resurrection
Humanity came into divinity. He has become a new substance. 1 Cor 3:17: Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.‘
He has been transformed by resurrection, He is carrying a new transfiguration from flesh to Spirit so that He can dwell in all of us at the same time. It’s not just God WITH us, but God IN each of us.
In resurrection, He is no longer trapped and confined into space and time. He can move through every restriction, He can move through walls, He is no longer subjected to any limitations on earth. Now God can dwell in you and me, by His Spirit, the quickening Spirit.
His Omni qualities are restored in resurrection.
When Jesus became the life-giving spirit on the account of his resurrection from the dead, one possibility that never existed before now exists. He can now be installed in the spirit of every man, like software! This aspect was not a possibility before, it became a possibility in the power of his resurrection where he became a life-giving spirit.
Take advantage of God in you, the great power that is in the spirit that resides in your spirit.
Everything about your Christian life – and the fuel and the energy that is going to drive your destiny – can only be sourced in the power of God that resides in you. That power that has been installed in your spirit on the account of the resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus was the only son of God.
A seed abides alone unless it falls to the ground and dies. When Jesus fell to the ground and died, he took advantage of the principle of seedtime and harvest. Suddenly He did sprout out of the ground and made possible many more manifestations of this kind by installing Himself in us as the DIVINE LIFE. And everyone that believes in Him He gives the capacity and potential to grow in spirit life and become exactly as He has been! No wonder he said, “Whatever I do they will do also and greater ”. God is in You!
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