Are you walking in authority and power?

1 John 2:6 (NIV) Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

This morning I was forced to take an honest look at myself and the way I live my life. I’m reading Relentless: The Power You Need to Never Give Up by John Bevere. In this book I have been challenged to look inward to determine if I am fully using the power that’s available to me through Jesus Christ.

One thing this book has challenged me to do is take an honest look at myself and the way I act, think, and see myself in Christ. This morning as I read the words of 1 John 2:6, I had to ask myself a pretty tough question. Am I living my life the way Jesus lived his? I carefully read this passage of scripture and noticed the word “must”. In his book, Bevere reminds me that this verse is not a suggestion…it’s a command. It’s true. In every translation of the Bible I’ve researched the command is clear. I must live as Christ lived.

So the question becomes, how did Christ live? In the gospel accounts we see Jesus crossing social, racial and political boundaries to meet the needs of those he came in contact with. He healed the sick, opened the eyes and mouths of the blind and deaf, delivered people from the oppression of demons, fed hungry crowds with as little as 5 small loaves of bread and 2 fish, and raised the dead.  

I know what some of you may be thinking. “There is no way I could do those things, after all Jesus was God’s son of course he had His power to tap into.” But you have power too. The same power that Christ had to perform miracles is available to us today. In fact, Christ himself told us in John 14:12 “I tell you the truth, whoever believes in me will do the same things that I do. Those who believe will do even greater things than these...”

What, we will do even greater things? YES! In Acts 3 we see Peter healing a crippled man. In Acts 5, we see the apostles healing the sick and performing other miracles. Stephen, who wasn’t an apostle at all, performed great miracles among the people (Acts 6).

Can you imagine the influence we, as followers of Christ, could have on this world if we walk the way Christ walked?

Are you living and walking in the authority and power you have in Christ? If not, what’s stopping you?

At the end of the day, are you a check the box type person?

Reading through Psalm 15, David makes it clear that only those people that live their life totally surrendered to the Lord will enter God’s Holy Tent and live on His holy mountain. I like the way the New Century Version translates this very small but powerful Psalm.

“Lord, who may enter your Holy Tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? Only those who are innocent and who do what is right. Such people speak the truth from their hearts (emphasis mine) and do not tell lies about others. They do no wrong to their neighbors and do not gossip. They do not respect hateful people but honor those who honor the Lord. They keep their promises to their neighbors, even when it hurts. They do not charge interest on money they lend and do not take money to hurt innocent people. Whoever does all these things will never be destroyed (emphasis mine).” Psalm 15:1 – 5 (NCV)

When I think about entering into the Lord’s Holy Tent or living on His holy mountain, I think about the eternity I am going to spend praise dancing with Jesus! [I can't t help but to throw that imagery out there.] We were made to worship the King and we will all be dancing around the throne in Heaven singing praises to the King of Glory. I can’t even begin to imagine what that is going to be like. I mean, I have heard songs about heaven…“Surrounded by your glory what will my heart feel? Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still?” Now I know how Bart Millard (of the band MercyMe) must have come up with the lyrics…but the fact remains it is simply hard to imagine anything like it!

Ok let me come back down to earth for a minute. I want to focus on one other aspect of Psalm 15. In the above passage I emphasized the words from their hearts. Committing your life to Christ is just that…a commitment! It is not a " check the box" thing or a "follow the law" thing. It is a living, breathing, life altering, hearting changing thing. There will be no way to spend eternity with Christ if we just try to follow a bunch of laws and check a box at the end of the day saying we managed to “color within the lines.”

Everyone is separated from God because of their sin and their sinful behavior. The apostle Paul tells us in Romans (3:23) that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Paul continues in Romans (6:23) to tell us that the wages of sin is death. But the gift of life is through the price God’s one and only son paid on Calvary for your sin and for my sin. 

Yes! 

Jesus loves us so much, 

HE paid the price so none of us have to die. 

Isn’t that wonderful news?!? This is the gift of grace. We did nothing to earn it. It’s a free gift. All we have to do is accept it. I love the way the Message sums up the gift of grace in Ephesians 2:7-10

“Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he as gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”