Life in Christ Jesus Podcast

Greater Works

Greater Works Than TheseIn the Book of John Chapter 5 Jesus declares that the Father will show Him greater works that you may marvel. For many years, the idea in my heart was that we the church would do greater works than Jesus did. Later as more understanding, light and illumination, began to fill my heart my thoughts became more connected to the idea that the works would be greater because Jesus was now in a many member body. I have even heard people say that now Jesus is not just in one place, so greater works are done through the church, because He is now in many members and throughout the world. This is true, but still mostly the greater works were attributed to the healing of the sick. Look closely at what Jesus says in John 5.
John 5:19-21 “Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. 20 For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. 21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.”
As the Father raises the dead and makes the alive, the Son will make alive whom he will. Here is the greater work, being raised in Christ Jesus and made alive. This is the work that God was doing in Christ. He was bringing forth a people to LIFE in Christ. Through the Church who is His Body this bringing forth unto Life continues in the earth. The word of Life is in us and comes through us, as Christ Himself is in us.
Let us look in Joh 14:12 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” Jesus is saying those that believe on Him will do the works he does. He told them to believe that he was in the Father and the Father was in Him, and to believe for the very works sake.
Accordingly, Jesus was doing the works that Isaiah the prophet had declared as recorded in Isaiah 35 and Isaiah 61. The lame was walking, and the blind was seeing. Men and women were being delivered from oppression, from devils, from all sorts of situations. The Kingdom of God was coming forth and loosing those that were bound. This is what Jesus was saying would be done through the church. The works I do you shall do also, and greater works. We who are His Body do the same works He did because He lives in us, but we also come to His greater works.
Let me be straight, I fully believe Jesus heals the sick, delivers the oppressed, casts out demons, and cleanses those who needs to be cleansed. There is no miracle or healing that He cannot do right now through His Body, the Church. This should be a normality among believers. However, Jesus said greater works than these shall you do because I go to the Father. This greater work that Jesus spoke of in John 14 is the same greater work that is spoken of in John 5. “As the Father raises the dead and quickeneth, the Son quickeneth whosoever He will.”
Through being quickened by the Son we are raised up and seated with Him, as one, in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. Jesus is raised far above principalities and powers. We are raised with Him, seated with Him. He is seated above. We are seated above. This is the greater work that we must see and marvel. This the greater work that we must come to live out of, the work that God did in Christ Jesus. Glory to God!

The Judgement of the Cross - Because He is the Son of Man II

The Judgment of the World – Because He is the Son of Man II
When we look at judgment, we must look at the death of Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 12, "Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32 "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself. 33 But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die.” Here at the cross is our salvation. Here is the judgment we must come to.
Jesus died the death of the cross that we may be made the righteousness in Him. Jesus judged sin in the flesh and put to death sin by dying to sin. Jesus never died in sin. He died to it. It never gained dominion over Him. Paul writes in Romans 8 that Jesus condemned sin in the flesh. This word condemned is the same word used for judgment.
In John 6, John writes as the Father quickeneth the dead even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. Who did the Father quicken or make alive from the dead? He made alive Jesus Christ. He brought Him out from among the dead. Romans 6 says He died to sin once but now he ever lives unto God. Again, I say this is our salvation. This is our judgment that we must hear. In Him we are put to death in the flesh to live unto God by Christ.
“He that has the Son has life,” I John 5:12. John writes we have passed from death to life. Life is all based upon Christ Jesus. If I have Him, I have life. HE is LIFE. If I do not have Him, I do not have life. What a decision! What a judgment! Life is determined by the Son of God. It is determined by nothing but Him. To know Him is to know life.
God has given all judgment unto the Son of God, because He is the Son of Man. Another way we could say this is that everything is determined concerning you and I by Him. Everything! It is no longer determined by Adam’s death. It is determined by Jesus Christ and His life. He is the determination of the soul. He brought judgment upon the work of Adam and put it to its final death. We that come to Him have the finality of Life, and this life is out from Adam’s death.
What I mean by this is this life is in Christ. I must come to see myself put to death to Adam and raised in life in Christ. This is a major struggle within our hearts. This is how we walk by faith and not by sight. We walk in faith of the work of the Son of God, denouncing our very own lives in order to live out of His life. Luke 17:33 “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”
He has brought us to Himself. Let us see the separation and judgment of the cross. Let us walk in Him!

The Judgement of the Cross - Because He is the Son of Man

Now is the Judgment of the World – Because He is the Son of Man
We have been looking for several weeks at the Judgment of the cross, and Jesus saying, “Now is the Judgment of the World. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out,” John 12. He makes another profound statement concerning Judgment in John 5:27 “And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.”
The Father gave all judgment to the Son, because He is the Son of Man. Why did Jesus say this? The reason for this goes back to Adam in the garden. In Genesis 1, it is recorded that God gave dominion to Adam. Adam was to rule the earth. In the Book of Psalms 8:6 and 115:16 the Bible declares that man was given dominion in the earth. As Adam fell, He brought that whole creation of man under the authority of sin and death. “Through one man’s sin entered into the world and death through sin,” Romans 5:12.
So, Jesus had to come as the Son of Man to rescue us from death’s dominion. He came as a man to die the death of the cross. By becoming a man, He brought judgment upon the order of the old man and put it to death that He could bring us into His life. When He was raised from the dead, Jesus declared that all authority was given to Him in heaven and earth. This is a powerful statement, and a reality for us to come to in Christ.
The Old Man, and His order was put to death. This is the separation that is made at the cross. The old man is put to death. Jesus never died in disobedience. He died to it and was raised out from it. When we receive Him, we are Baptized by the Spirit into His death, and brought forth in His life. Everything is by Him and through Him.
He did this as the Son of Man, judging sin in the flesh. He came as a man to die the death of the cross and was raised out from that old creation. This is our salvation! We come to comprehend what He did, and live in it. His work is our provision. His dominion now rules over us.
We no longer have to fear the wages of sin or death. Jesus is our Lord. These are not our Lord. I love what the writer says in Hebrews 2, “He destroyed Him that had the power of death, that is the devil.” This is the power of the cross. Death is defeated we are living by Him. Glory to God!

The Judgement of the World IV - The Prince of the Word Cast Out

The Judgment of the World
“Now is the judgment of the world. Now shall the prince of the world be cast out?”
Who was the prince of ruler of the world? By studying scripture, I would conclude that the ruler of the world was Adam or the natural man. In Genesis 1, the Bible says God gave dominion to man. In Psalms 8, the Bible asks what is man that God would visit him. Here in this Psalm, again the scripture speaks of man’s dominion.
Man had dominion of the world, or orderly arrangement of the earth and mankind. The order of the world was through mankind. This order became plagued with sin and death. Through his disobedience all died. All men came to abide in death and darkness under the realm and rule of Satan.
Death, darkness and decay was not of God’s nature, but came into man as Adam became disobedient to God’s word. “The day you eat you shall surely die.” This is the reality of the natural man. Job said that man born of woman are a few days and full of trouble. This again is the natural man.
However, the Apostle Paul said in I Corinthians 2, that we speak wisdom among those who are perfect. Paul was speaking of the wisdom of the cross. He goes on to say had the rulers of the world known the wisdom of the cross they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. Through the cross of Jesus Christ, death, hell, Satan, and the old man lost their dominion. These have no dominion over the new creation in Christ Jesus.
Paul writes that Christ is the Head of the Body who is the church in Ephesians 1. This is a powerful statement. The head of the believer is not Satan. It is not the law or sin, and it is not death. Jesus Christ became Head. “He destroyed him that had the power of death that is the devil,” Hebrews 2.Jesus is our ruler. He is the Head of His Body, the church. This is what we must comprehend. As it is in Christ, so it is in the Body. Let this be our reality in the earth. Glory to God.

The Judgment of the World III

The Judgement of the World III
“I am crucified to the world and the world is crucified to.” This glorious judgment must ring in our hearts. I am crucified with Christ to live unto Him. This is the answer to all my problems. This is the answer to my frustrations. I am crucified with Him!
In Ephesian 2, Paul writes that we are quickened with Christ. This word means made alive. We have been made alive from the world. We are not made alive with the world but with Christ Jesus, who was raised alive out of the world. Jesus was quickened out from the dead. He was not just raised again, but He was raised out from the dead.
Paul says in Ephesians 2 that we were dead in trespasses and sins and walked according to the course of the world. The reality here is we WERE dead. We ARE made alive with Christ. Do you see the separation? In time past, we were of the world. We lived in the world. It held us. The world had its grips on us. Here is where we had our conversation.
Now through Jesus Christ, God’s great mercy appeared. We who have received Him are made alive with Him. Through God’s saving grace, Paul writes we are made alive with Him, raised with Him, and seated with Him. This reality is not set forth to be just some positional truth that we are waiting to be real some futuristick day. This has happened to us because how it happened to us is NOW in us. The how is a person, Christ Jesus the Lord.
We have received Christ Jesus the Lord to walk in Him, to be rooted and built in Him (Colossians 2). This separation or division of the cross is real, and it is made real through the person who performed the work being revealed in our hearts. Jesus did the work. He completed the work God gave Him to do. His work separated us from the world. We are in the world, but we are not of it. The world dos does not possess our souls, Christ does!
We are the church which is His body the fullness of Him who is far above all principality and power (Ephesians 1). I love this statement. He is above all powers, all authorities, all rulers, all laws, anything we can think or imagine, Christ Jesus is above. Or we can simply say He is Lord. Jesus is Lord, our Ruler, our King.
We are seated with Him in heavenly places in Christ. To get ahold of this is to understand He is above. He is seated above rulers and powers at the right hand (power and authority) of God. We that are His body are seated with Him in His glorious work to manifest Him and His completed work to the earth. This is the purpose of the church to manifest Him, whose body we are.
Let this become our hearts, let this become our identity, “the church which is His Body.” We are the Body of the Lord to express the Lord wherever we go in the earth. We are to be His expression. We are to bring His aroma into all situations. WE ARE HIS!
 

The Judgement of the Cross - The Judgement of the World II

 
The Judgment of the World II
The primary scriptures we are dealing with is “John 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. 32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” In this, we are looking at the judgement of the world as it relates to the Lord Jesus Christ. His judgement at the cross, must become a judgment that is real in our hearts as believers in Jesus Christ.
In Ephesians 1, Paul writes that Christ has been raised above all principality and power and might and dominion. Christ is the head of the church, who is His body the fullness of Him that fills. This statement must affect our deepest thought. Christ is the Head. He is above all principality, and the church is His Body. He fills the church with himself.
Now with this said, many in the church do not comprehend that Christ is Head. They do not see this judgment. He has all things under His feet, which includes the devil, sin and death. The devil does not have authority over the church, or the believer. As a young man, this was a predominant thought that the devil is continuously affecting us. The reason for this is the lack of the comprehension of Christ. If His work is not comprehended by me and real in me, I could be subject to many things, without the ability to rid myself of them.
The truth is, we are His Body, the fullness of Him. As His Body we are subject to Him, and not to the world. As we comprehend this, as HE becomes real in us, we can move forth and put things under our feet. Even this statement, our feet is loaded with understanding. We are His Body. As His Body we are subject to His feet. John saw His feet as burning brass in the Book of Revelation, speaking of the judgment of the cross.
Through the judgment of the cross we are to walk in the earth as the Body of Jesus Christ, subject unto Him and not ourselves. “As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk ye in Him.” This is the truth. This is His judgment. We are dead to the world. The prince of this world was cast out. We are seated with Christ in heavenly places. His dominion is in us, as we are His Body to be exercised in the earth.
This does not simply mean we walk around and continuously cast out devils and heal the sick. I absolutely believe we do those things, so don’t misunderstand me. We comprehend Him and live in that comprehension towards one another. If we comprehended Him, this would get rid of envy and strife in the Body of Christ. We would automatically be subject to one another. We would automatically respect, love, and be kind to each other, because we would see ourselves as His. We would understand that each of us are part of Him, and that we are not our own.
Comprehending Christ would bring oneness throughout the Body. We would minister Him to one another. This is the strength of the judgement of the cross. We are dead to the world to live unto Christ! Hallelujah!
 

The Judgement of the Cross - The Judgement of the World

The Judgement of the Cross – The Judgement of the World
In John Chapter 12, Jesus makes a statement that should challenge the hearts of all believers. “John 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. 32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”NOW was now over two thousand years ago. In Christ it is still now to us who come to see Him and understand His judgement.
What does He mean Now is the Judgement of the World? If He be lifted up, He will draw all mankind to himself? This is the Judgement of the Cross. The Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 6, “I am crucified to the world and the world is crucified to me.” Catch what He says, I am crucified. He doesn’t say I was crucified as He did in Romans 6, when He declared we died with Christ at the cross. The judgement that had come in Paul’s heart was I am crucified to the world and the world is crucified to me.
What does that mean? It means I am dead to the world and the world is dead to me. However, is that our concept of life that the world has no hold on us? Now as I say this, I have to define the world. What is the world? It is not simply planet earth. This word used for world is kosmos, (2889 in the Strong’s), which means the orderly arrangement. The orderly arrangement of the world was sin and death, the law, the pride of life, the functions of the flesh, etc. The arrangement had to do with everything in the old man.
Paul is saying that He is crucified to the world, to its arrangement and order. Then He said it is crucified to Him. Now Paul was not crucified. Even those who were crucified literally, could not say what Paul did. Only one could make this statement true and real. The one who is the Lord Jesus Christ. In Paul’s knowing of Christ, he had come to the seeing and comprehending of being dead to the world and the world being dead to him through the work of Jesus Christ, and through the reality of Christ that was in him.
The only way this becomes real to us is through the knowing of Jesus Christ and His judgement upon the world at the cross. In His powerful work of the cross Jesus took me and you with Him and He died, pronouncing judgement on the world! In this judgement we are to come in our hearts to living unto Christ and not to the world.
Unfortunately, many of us have no concept of this. We have been taught that we live the best lives we can, and someday Jesus will take us away from the world. At the cross He did just that. He took us in His death, and brought us forth in His resurrection to be a people who manifest Him and not the world. If we do not understand this, and see this by the Spirit of God, we will not manifest Him. He must be revealed in our hearts. We must come forth unto Him. Glory to God!
 

The Judgement of the Cross - He Shall Bring Forth Judgement Unto Victory

The Judgement of the Cross – He Shall Bring Forth Judgement Unto Victory
 
In Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 12:20 the scripture reads, “A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. With the idea of judgement in much of the Christian Church, what does this mean?  How would Jesus send forth judgement to victory?
 
To understand this, we would need to comprehend the judgement of the cross, and we would have to understand the cross in the reality of the Person of Jesus Christ.  At the cross much more happened than just Jesus dying for our sins.  While this is a tremendous truth, that He died for our sins and they were laid upon Him, the fullness of this is not understood by most believers.  At the cross Jesus died to sin.  He judged sin in the flesh through His death (Romans 8:3).  He brought us into His death to sin, freeing us from its penalty and bondage. 
 
John writes in I John 3:5 “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.”  This is a powerful statement.  Jesus was manifested to take away our sins.  It is fitting that John also wrote in His Gospel, “Behold the lamb of God that taketh away our Sin.”  In the seeing of this statement, Jesus not only died and forgave my sin, He took it away.  I am no longer bound to sin through His glorious work. 
 
Therefore, we must understand the judgement in the death of Christ and our union in His death.  He that is dead to sin is freed from sin.  The word judgement used often throughout the scripture is the Greek word Kreesis 2920 in the Strong’s dictionary.  It has in its definition the meaning of a decision for or against, and to separate.  The death of Christ is a separation from sin and its root.  Through the work of Christ we are separated out of sin.
 
One of the words for sin (Strong’s 264), means to miss the mark.  It is this word used in 1 John 3:6.  John states that whoever abides in Christ does not sin.  I could consider this as to mean, that we who abide in Christ do not miss the mark.  In Romans 3, the scripture tells us that all sinned and fell short to the glory of God.  We should consider the Glory of God as the mark or the goal for man. 
 
He that abides in Christ shall not miss the mark of God’s Glory.  In John Chapter 17, Jesus makes it clear that those who are His are to behold His Glory.  Read this Chapter closely.  Jesus prays to be glorified with the Glory He had before the world.  He then declares that He will be glorified in the believer, and at the conclusion of the Chapter, Jesus states that the believer will be one with Him as He is one with the Father, that they may behold His Glory.  This is through Christ being in you. 
 
Much of our teaching has robbed us from the reality of God’s Glory in a people.  The “some-day” mentality that we have been programed to believe has kept us from the reality that He is in us right now.  All Christians who are truly born again say Jesus is in my heart, but many do not understand the power of that statement.  When Paul writes “when Christ who is our life appears in Glory, then we shall appear with Him in Glory (Colossians 3),” many do not consider this as an inward appearing.  This is what Jesus says in John 17.  He declares that “they may be one as we are one, I IN them, thou IN ME, that they may be made perfect in one.”
Through the judgement of the cross we are dead to sin with Christ, and we are made alive with Him.  Here in His life we are waiting, watching, expecting His glory to appear.  This appearing is not on the outside, but it is inward, and in it we are transformed to the same image as Christ to be His expression.  Now this is a glorious judgement that brings us to victory.  Glory to God!