Hal Garms eWord Messages

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’” (John 11:25-26 NASB).

Most of the church lives well below the provisions and riches of grace God has afforded us in Christ. Our cities and society in general reflect the “malnourished” spirituality and impotence of the church. Like Martha, too many of us have yet to begin to fathom the impact of the One who is the resurrection and who is the life upon our hearts and lives. In such cases this reality has not even entered the hearts of a vast many in the church (see 1 Corinthians 2:9)! This bold prophetic revelation that Jesus made and all it entails seeks to make its way to our minds and hearts to transform us. Let us not follow in Martha’s footsteps after hearing this powerful proclamation. After hearing what Jesus said, she answered Him this way: “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world” (John 11:27 NASB). Notice what she shares with Jesus. She believes He is the promised Messiah. But that is where her faith stops. Before Jesus’ proclamation, she acknowledges her faith by stating that there is a resurrection. But that too is where it stops. Her faith goes no further. What He shared would not even enter her mind let alone her heart as she runs to get Mary. Most of the church today shares this common line of faith with Martha. We believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. We believe that there will be a resurrection in the last days. Too many of us, like Martha, only get that far, and we never begin to appraise what Jesus declared when He made the proclamation, “I am the resurrection and the life!”

Ceremonial Resurrection

The spirit of religion always remembers what God did, or it always postpones what God can and will do to the future. Every Easter season we commemorate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem after He raised Lazarus from the dead. We certainly celebrate God resurrecting Jesus from the dead and immediately point to the scriptures referencing that day when the dead in Christ shall rise. Yet we rarely approach or embrace the power of His resurrection in our lives today. Now.

Yes, the resurrection of the dead is a definite spiritual reality. Scripture records the resurrection of the son of the widow of Zarephath, the Shunammite woman’s son, the man cast into the grave of Elisha, then there was the widow of Nain’s son, Jairus’ daughter, Lazarus, Dorcas, and Eutychus. That great day when the dead in Christ shall arise is a consistent prophetic promise found throughout the Scriptures. Yet our faith must not be diminished by and limited to the confinement of past and future events. Jesus declared to Martha, “I AM the resurrection and the life” (emphasis mine). He is the resurrection, and He is the life. Just as the vital elements of the past realities of resurrection and the promised future working power of God in the resurrection were present with Martha that day in the person of Christ, even more so for us. Because of “the power that works within us” (Ephesians 3:29 NASB) through the indwelling Holy Spirit of Christ, the vital elements of the power of the resurrection are ever present and afforded to us today! But what does this mean?

First, Satan seeks to rob you and me of the riches of God’s grace, He seeks to rob us of the life of God Jesus abundantly gives (see John 10:10). The enemy is determined to undermine our destiny in Christ and cancel the life we have in Jesus. Sadly, the working of this adversity is not limited to the rising persecution in our times but has been effectively working throughout the church for decades through a religious spirit and religious doctrine in what it does not reveal, teach, or instruct. The enemy is content to contain us through a ceremonial and lifeless Christianity. Such is no threat to his devices and stratagem. He is not even threatened by a form of godliness producing spiritual effects that present an image of being alive while in reality, it is dead (see Revelation 3:1-6). Satan and our flesh are determined to resist and war against the resurrection power that manifests the life of Christ in our hearts. His objective is to cause us to give up or at best make us hypocrites acting out righteousness we do not possess.

The Now of the Power of His Resurrection

The vital elements of the power of the resurrection are realized when we connect with and embrace God in what He is doing now! Hear what God’s word says, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11 NASB ). The very power of God that raised Jesus from the dead is working in you “if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Romans 8:9 NASB), and the One who is the Resurrection and the Life is just as present with you as He was with Martha “if Christ is in you” (Romans 8:10a NASB). And though our body is dead to God, our spirit is alive because the power of the Spirit of God produces the life of Christ

in those who believe will believe (see Romans 8:10). We can obtain Christlikeness; our lives can carry and reveal heaven’s most precious cargo – the life of Christ. This resurrection power “quickens our mortal bodies” as King James reads in Romans 8:11. We need not be lifeless or embrace a mannequin virtue that is merely a hollow shell of what we are not. The vital elements of the dead-raising power of God are within your reach and grasp even now.

We Have Been Given This Hope and Faith

In Greek, Mark 11:22 literally says, “Let the faith of God be in you” (The Passion Translation). God has much more for us concerning the working of the power of Jesus’ resurrection in our lives than what we have reached toward and even believed. In this case, through the Word of God, He shows us what we should hope for, and indeed we should “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering” (Hebrews 10:23 NASB). It is high time we possess and be possessed of the faith of God in Christ which lays hold of that for which were laid hold of by Christ Jesus (see Philippians 3:12). In Hebrews, we read that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1 NASB). Hope and faith work together. And when God gives us something specific for which we can hope, that hope releases faith that comes from God. We must believe what God promises and trust those things which He assures us. His Word clearly shows us that the power of God is at work to transform us, conforming us to the image of His Son. Let us possess the faith and be driven by the faith that God has destined us to become much more than the average fruitless and ineffectual Christian that mere religion produces. Through the resurrection that is in Christ, we have been raised up in Christ Jesus where we abide in Him even while He abides in us! The power of the Holy Spirit forms Christ within us. His power merges the union we have with Christ so that we become Christlike revealing the resurrected Jesus through the new life God manifests in us – His new creation!

Life Begins at the Cross

Yet our destiny into the life of Christ and the powerful working of His resurrection power is found at the very cross Jesus told us to take up. This life begins at the cross. We must realize and embrace this vital principle here.

Consider this: Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection atone for all of our sins. Through His cross, we have forgiveness, justification, and thus, salvation and all of that which the riches of God’s grace afford us. But realize this: Jesus submitted Himself to take the path which would reveal and demonstrate what He declared to Martha several days before His crucifixion. What He shared with her concerning Himself was realized and manifested on the other side of the cross even though He demonstrated His power to raise Lazarus from the dead.  But raising Lazarus from the dead was not enough to demonstrate the glorious reality that Jesus, the Christ, was Himself the resurrection and the eternal life of God. Jesus went to the cross for you and me – for our sins. Yet it was through the same cross that Jesus obtained the glory with which He asked the Father to glorify Him (see John 17:5). On the other side of the cross, He would be glorified as He triumphed over death, hell and the grave when He arose. It was on the other side of the cross where the reality He proclaimed to Martha would become sight – He is the resurrection and the life!

So it is with us. As He died, we must die, so we will live as He lives. So many of us struggle in the Body of Christ trying to be like Jesus. While there is a certain pain and suffering that accompany the cross Jesus told us to take up, there is greater misery in trying to be what we are not. In this present time, we see this misery displayed as millions turn to drugs, pharmaceuticals, and even medical procedures to stop the pain and rage that the misery of sin’s toll lays upon us. Herein we find the greater misery in the struggle as we hesitate between the two realities of what we are and what we shall become. Instead, we must resolve to take up our cross and follow Jesus where we will crucify ourselves with Him. The pain of presenting ourselves – our bodies –  a living sacrifice is but for a moment. As we become dead to sin, we are made alive in Christ as we are raised up to sit in heavenly places. The power of God working in and through our lives comes through the cross we must bear. On the other side of this cross, our mortal bodies are quickened with the life of Christ by the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead!

Life From the Resurrection

Our walk with God need not be a struggle! There is joy in knowing Jesus! Misery and living in defeat are the predominant realities on the road that goes nowhere. Digressing into the existence of a ceremonial Christianity acts like a spiritual opiate that merely masks the condition of our infirmities and sickened spiritual condition. But God wants us to experience and have more than this! The power of Jesus’ resurrection in our lives today will rock the prison doors of shame, fear, and intimidation that hold us captive. It will shake off and shatter the shackles through which sin and death master us. The sufferings of our cross do not compare to the glory which shall be revealed in us as the life of Christ is manifested in us. Let us trade the misery of the struggle here with the brief affliction of the cross, for joy comes in the morning as the dawn of a new day arises. The power of the resurrection life that is wrought in us through the Holy Spirit will reveal Jesus’ nature, character, and virtues through our hearts. This same bold power will reveal Jesus to the lost. It will minister to those who are halted or struggling in their pursuit of becoming Christlike.  Even more glorious, what we have received in liberality is to be shared and imparted to others. The areas where we struggled and where we failed are where the strength of the power of God shall be manifested and revealed in and through us. Herein is where we shall strengthen and minister to others through the power of God’s Spirit working in and through us. The life He resurrects us in is a life endued with power – power which shall reveal the glory of God – Christ in us.

Lord, we thank You for the power of Your resurrection. We seek and desire to know You in the power of Your resurrection. We desire to share with You in Your suffering. We take up our cross and crucify the areas where our flesh and its affections prevail. We ask You to reveal to us the hidden and latent sins within us. Forgive us of our sins. Arise, Oh God, and liberate us in the life of Christ. Transform us through the power of Christ’s resurrection by Your Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.