Wednesday, March 12, 2014

MANIFESTING CHRIST TO OUR WORLD

The greatest need of the world today, as ever, is to see the living Christ! They have been hearing about Him, some have even been talking about Him and others have been trying to figure out if He is real or if at all He ever existed. Therefore, if the world is not seeing Christ today there’s a problem somewhere and I believe that problem is from the Church. When I say the Church, I’m not referring to physical buildings or auditoriums, but to you and me (the New Creations in Christ)! Our No.1 goal as Believers in Jesus Christ is to manifest Him everywhere we go. This is top priority! We seem to sit indoors claiming to be waiting until we’ve advanced more spiritually before taking action, while we leave out our ultimate responsibility to manifest Christ to a sick and dying world! We stay in our ‘closets’ instead of stepping out to reach a confused world with the Gospel and power of the resurrected and living Jesus! We are so indifferent and still wonder why the world keeps getting deeper and deeper into unthinkable perversions and policies by the day. All through Scriptures, we see God’s earnest desire to manifest Himself to the world through men. He started this out by coming into this world Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came to reveal the Father fully to the world (Heb.1:1-3) and before leaving the earth, He transferred that responsibility to the Church! During Jesus’ days on earth, He expressed His desire to afterwards manifest Himself first, to men and then through men. We must understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is not just the Son of God but the Pattern-Son of God! God has Jesus Christ as a pattern for all His sons. He wants to see many JESUSES all over the world. Sure! That’s what God wants. Romans 8:29 tells us “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” This is the ultimate goal of Christianity! Besides all that Jesus Christ came to earth to accomplish on man’s behalf, the Father sent the Lord Jesus Christ to come and exemplify what the life of a man anointed of the Holy Spirit should be like here on earth. This is the reason when any man truly meets Jesus Christ Himself by revelation, he cannot but become a different person. The whole idea of Christianity is manifesting the Christ to the world! The word ‘Christian’ simply means ‘like Christ’. I know the Church has made great efforts in the area of good Christian living and conduct but there’s more. We must understand that there’s more we’re yet to venture into and it is now in urgent demand. As Christians, we are called to manifest Christ both in life style and in power! For so long we seem to have just been content with having just the form of godliness while denying the power thereof. We are so thrilled when we see ‘few’ manifesting the life and power of Jesus Christ, whereas, that’s the mandate from Jesus Christ Himself to every Believer. Jesus said “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.” (John 14:12). See, until we awake to the fact that we are meant to manifest Christ fully, we’d remain incomplete ambassadors for Christ! It’s absolutely abnormal for a Christian not to have an appetite for the Supernatural. It’s abnormal for the Christian not to walk in the Supernatural! The New Creation is born Supernatural! The Church of Jesus Christ needs to wake up! We need to wake up to the power of God available to us to help our world. It is not only available to some select few, but to all that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ! In Mark 16:17 Jesus declares “And these signs shall follow them that believe;…” Believing in Jesus is the basic requirement to walking in the miraculous! Wait a minute; Jesus wasn’t referring to some ‘mega’ faith here. He was referring to that same faith that got you saved (See Mark 16:15-17). The moment any man believes and is saved he immediately becomes God’s potential agent for manifesting the miraculous, releasing the Kingdom of which he is now a part of – The Kingdom of God! That is what the Great Commission is! The Great Commission is about manifesting Kingdom Dominion through words AND deeds, not just good behaviour but also power demonstrations (1Cor.4:20). Praise God! During His earthly ministry, Jesus’ ultimate focus was to manifest the Fathers Person, nature, love, character, etc. The Word of God tells us “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38). Today, in that same way, our mandate is to manifest Jesus Christ, the express manifestation of the Father (Heb.1:1-3, John 20:21). That’s our commission. Jesus showed us how to go about it. It all begins with having a personal revelation of the Person of Jesus Christ. It all begins with meeting Him by revelation (John 14:20-23). The question is: Have you met Jesus personally for yourself? Have you encountered Him through the Word? There is something about meeting Jesus for yourself (that is, experiencing Him) that I find so difficult to explain. It’s a deeper place of fellowship. It is my prayer that this would come to you as a revelation, not just as mere words. This is the mind of the Holy Spirit for the Body of Christ. We would never know what God could do through us, that God could use us in a certain degree until we step out in faith. This is a call to action! We can’t keep looking to ourselves and expect to manifest Christ. We must look to Him! Just as Moses saw the glory of God and reflected it, when Jesus manifests Himself to us, only then can we manifest Him to our world (Exo.34:29-35). As we behold Him, we become like Him and manifest Him to the world. We look to Him by paying attention to the Word and the Holy Spirit. The need for more Supernatural labourers after the order of Jesus Christ is so urgent (Matt. 9:37-39). This is about expressing the Christ – the Anointed One and His Anointing – everywhere we go and everywhere we are, whether at work, school, business, market, neighbourhood, etc. That’s the first reason we are there. Manifest Christ!