Instruct the wise, and they will be even wiser
The gospel has power to transform our lives, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes (see Rom 1:16). If you’re born again, you’re a new creation and there should be an instinct in you that the power of the gospel has created a new motivation in your heart, mind, and life. You should have a new motivation, where you say, ‘I want to know God, his word, and what’s just happened to me. I’ve received the Lord; I prayed a prayer with someone or read a book or something happened where I put my trust in the Lord Jesus’. Whether you know it or not, you were translated from the power of darkness into the power of the kingdom of God. The gospel message is the power of God to salvation. What does that mean to you? The Bible says don’t be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. In other words, it’s time to renew your mind with the word of God. Get rid of your old way of thinking and think of God’s love and faith and all the good things of God.
Christ revealed what He came to give us. “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
Jesus is speaking about the thief. The thief is referring to the power of darkness and the things of the devil. When we get born again, Jesus comes to live in us. The purpose of this reborn new creation is that you would have life. That means you didn’t really have it before. You were biologically alive, but you were spiritually cut off from God. But when you got born again, the power of the gospel came alive in you and translated you out of the power of darkness into God’s Kingdom of light.
The purpose of the gospel message, which has power to salvation, is to give you life and that you may have it more abundantly. This is what we should be expecting and pursuing in our lives and our walk with God. We should be desiring to know him and what’s available to us as his children. So many people are paying too much attention to the thief and not to God, and many times religion even has made God to be the thief. God is not the thief. He is not harassing your life. God is not stealing from you. He is not making you sick. God is not putting you through trauma, that’s the enemy. God came that you might have abundant life. Anything evil is from the devil. If it’s good, it’s from God, because every good thing comes from God. “16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures” (James 1:16-18).
There’s a vast difference between the power of darkness and the kingdom of God. It’s only the power of the gospel that can put you in God’s kingdom. Only believing this Word of Life and having faith in the resurrection of Jesus on your behalf can put you there. Believe that he died for your sin and rose again and defeated death. He defeated sin and Satan, and he did it because he loves you. That should create something new within us. That should enliven us to pursue and want to know who this God is, who loves us so much and gave himself for us. And yet, so often we spend more time listening to the thief than listening to God or pursuing the things of God.
" The gospel should be building you up in faith and setting you free. So, if you're in an environment that’s only sowing doubt into your life, then you’re not hearing the gospel. "
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were confronted by the enemy in the form of a serpent who came to deceive them. The first words out of the enemy’s mouth was: Has God said, did God really say? Satan was sowing doubt and even today it’s still a huge weapon of the enemy against Christians. Many times, it even happens in Christian environments, and in many churches. Sadly, they’re sowing more doubt than faith in the believers. They’ll question whether healing is for today, the baptism of the holy spirit is for today, and if the gifts of the Spirit are for today. It’s just doubt after doubt after doubt: sowing doubt all the time. That’s the work of the serpent, the devil. That’s not the work of God.
The power of the Gospel is going to bring you from faith to faith and not from unbelief to unbelief. Therefore, if you’re in an environment that’s only sowing doubt into your life, you’re not hearing the gospel. The gospel should be building you up in faith and setting you free. The gospel should be increasing your joy, peace, love and faith to believe God. Any message that’s stealing your faith is from the thief, it’s the serpent. Don’t spend your time listening to the serpent. Spend your time getting into the word of God and finding out what he has for you.
Romans 8:11 says, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you”. This verse says that the Holy Spirit will quicken our mortal bodies. The word of God is powerful. It’s not just limited to your spiritual regeneration. The power of God’s word should touch your mind, emotions, your will, and body. That’s when you know that you’re truly encountering the real power of the gospel. That’s when you can begin to believe and walk in health and healing.
If the messages you are hearing are only producing negativity and stealing your faith, then that’s not the gospel. If the messages are leaving you with uncertainty, with thoughts like ‘the future is up in the air, and whatever is going to happen, is going to happen,’ then that’s not the gospel, that’s just unbelief clothed in religion. The gospel is a message that has come to set you free. It has come to empower you, to give you God’s thoughts, and something which is good, acceptable and perfect. The gospel is to give you God’s life, and that which is exceedingly, abundantly, more than you can ask or think. That’s the power of the gospel.
Have you really been introduced to the true gospel? If there is no change and your life is still a mess, then the power of the gospel’s experience hasn’t been discovered, developed, and released into your life. However, that’s available through this message that I’m conveying to you. The gospel is more than a belief system. It’s not just a belief, but the gospel is the power of God to salvation. That means everything you need: spirit, soul, and body, is available. Whatever you need is available through the incorruptible seed of God’s word by which you got born again. That gospel power is in God’s word, but has it been released, and discovered? And is it being fed, growing, and increasing in your life continually? Make sure it does by continuing in His word.
