When God Says …
“Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.” (Luke 9:1-2 KJV).
These passages talk about power (dunamis in Greek from which this was translated), or "the right to effectively act" and authority (exousia in the original Greek version) or “the moral right to exercise”, something that belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is His for having done the work in creating and sustaining the universe. It is His out of His loving obedience and sacrifice to redeem us on the cross. It is His by virtue of His resurrection from the dead. All authority is His - to command, to execute and to give. This He gives to the apostles to demonstrate to us that He is the source, we are His vessels. Any authority we have is based on the Lord Jesus' grace to give it to us. This truth takes all the selfish pride or arrogance from us. To the Lord Jesus belongs all the glory and the power for any good thing we are entrusted to bear fruit with, and for any intrusion of the enemy in the lives of those in bondage that have been banished because of us, being used as channel of the Lord’s message of the Gospel of the Grace of God.
We have a mission to accomplish in this limited realm of living we are in. We are not placed here just to slide through untouched. So, let us seek Him and not seek power for its own sake. In honoring Him by our faith in Him, we will find ourselves useful to others as an instrument of the Kingdom of God no matter how the Lord chooses to use us or to empower us by His authority.
The Lord Jesus says these words to the apostles, to the disciples and to us all who believe and receive His gift of salvation, by faith. We are saved and chosen to bear fruit by grace not by religious red tapes and rituals. It is written, the Lord Jesus declares: “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” (John 15:15-17 ESV).
And I say, AMEN!
Daily reflections by:
F. A. Frias
PFC Ministries
When God says... I say, AMEN! is a provocative reflection of the Lord's holy Word. It intends to challenge every seeker of truth to dig deep into the core of the Word of Life to point every being to Christ Jesus - the author and finisher of our faith, and to draw revelations for change, for nourishment and for strength of every soul.
Partners For Christ Ministries, INC
P. O. Box 773716
Ocala, FL 34477
Touching lives in Cambodia, The Philippines, The Middle East, The USA, and... other countries.
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