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Tag: Resurrection

The Practical Work of the Holy Spirit

Posted on by Bob Christopher

Apart from God’s Spirit, we do not have the power to live the Christian life. But with Him in our lives, we can experience Christ’s life in abundance. Here are six key ways that He makes this a reality for you.

  • God’s Spirit makes you alive in Christ.

Titus 3:4-5 (NIV)
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

  • He assures you that you are a child of God.

Romans 8:16 (NIV)
 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

  • He, as your comforter and counselor, guides you into all truth by taking the things of Jesus and making them known to you.

John 16:13-14 (NIV)
 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

  • He gives us the power to understand and experience the love of God.

Ephesians 3:16-19 (NIV)
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

  • He works in you to will and to do of God’s good pleasure.

Philippians 2:13 (NIV)
 For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

  • He expresses the fruit of His life through you.

Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
The disciples recognized that what happened to them at Pentecost was, as JB Phillips wrote: “…quite plainly the invasion of their lives by a new quality of life altogether. They do not hesitate to describe this as Christ living in them.” You have received the same gift. God’s Spirit is alive in you, and manifesting the life of Christ through you.

First Life, Then Change

Posted on by Bob Christopher

I was sitting at my desk one day, doing my normal work stuff, and the phrase,”first life, then change,” popped into my mind. Most thoughts I have during a day race through my head and then quickly disappear. This one stuck. It turned out to be one of those “aha” moments for me.
First life, then change is the process God works in our lives.
So many of us short circuit the process. We leave the life part out of the equation, and focus merely on the change we hope and pray God can bring to our lives. In other words, we view Christianity as a self-improvement program. God is there to help us better our lives. At least that was the way I viewed Christianity. Like so many, I cried out to God time and time again for His help, but nothing changed. If anything, my feeble efforts made matters worse. I didn’t know that I needed life.
However, Scripture is very clear. I was dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1). Not just me, you too were dead in sin. This is the spiritual condition that was passed on to you by your mom and dad. This ancestry trail traces back to Adam and Eve. They forfeited spiritual life in exchange for the chance to be like God. The decision plunged them and all of mankind into the realm of sin and death.
We hear the echoes of this reality at times. We sense deep down that something is terribly wrong, or feel emptiness inside, or experience an unexplained restlessness. All of these are symptoms of spiritual death. Some ignore these indicators. Others charge out to find that one thing to fill the void. But money, power, prestige, fame or anything else the world may offer are never enough. They leave us still wanting. Death needs to be turned to life.
Calvin spent much of his life trying to fill the emptiness of his heart. He had tried almost everything imaginable, but nothing worked. He turned to drugs and alcohol to mask the underlying pain and emptiness. Even then, he could hear the echoes. Something was wrong. All his prayers seemed to go unanswered. His struggle to change led him to a point of desperation. He turned on his radio hoping to find answers. Scanning the dial, he landed on the station that airs our program in his area. Something caught his attention. He picked up his phone and called our toll-free number.
You could hear the weariness in his voice. “I’ve tried to do the right things. I pray for God’s help night and day, but I keep going back to my old ways. Is there hope?”
I had the privilege of sharing with Calvin God’s process, first life, then change. It struck a chord with him. Thousands listened in as he expressed his heart of faith through prayer. That day, God raised Calvin spiritually so that he could live in the newness of life. I could hear the power of what was happening in his voice. Calvin, just minutes before was dead in sin. But now he was alive in Christ.
The offer of the Gospel is life. Jesus made this abundantly clear throughout His teaching ministry. Listen to His words: I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Once we are alive in Him, the change begins.

10 Insights from Conference 220

Posted on by Bob Christopher

Here are several things that struck me from Conference 220. I wish all of you could have been there. It was a powerful conference. We plan to do it again next year. Stay tuned for details.

conference220

  1. Love benefits others at the expense of self. Sin benefits self at the expense of others. Frank Viola
  2. We need to pray for a new, fresh revelation of Jesus Christ. He wipes everything else off the table. Frank Viola
  3. The Christian life is becoming what we already are. Frank Viola
  4. Jesus is our forgiveness once and for all. Jesus is our life moment by moment. Andrew Farley
  5. The New Covenant invites us to be obsessed with Jesus Christ. Andrew Farley
  6. We participated in Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating at the right hand of the Father. Andrew Farley
  7. Christianity is not a self-improvement program. Bob Christopher
  8. Jesus lives in us. With Him in our lives, we should have great expectations concerning the Christian life. Bob Christopher
  9. When we die to human effort, we come alive to the fullness of God’s love and grace. Bob Christopher
  10. It is easier to trust someone when you know that they love you. Pete Briscoe

What Happens When He Calls Your Name?

Posted on by Bob Christopher

Mary went to the tomb early in the morning. It was still dark. She was surprised by what she saw. The stone had been rolled away and Jesus’ body was gone.
She thought that someone had taken it. She ran to tell the disciples. Peter and John ran to the tomb to see. When they arrived, it was just as Mary said. The tomb was empty. Peter and John left while Mary stayed.
She wept outside the tomb. She did peer in and encountered two angels. They asked why she was crying. She told them the same thing she told the disciples, “They have taken my Lord away.”
She turned from the tomb and saw someone in the garden. Mary thought it was the gardener. He asked her who she was looking for. She thought this man may have taken the body. And then a single word from Him changed everything for her.
“Mary.”
The mention of her name penetrated the clutter and confusion in her mind. She recognized Him. Jesus was alive!
She wanted to cling to Him, but He had other things to do. She returned to the disciples with the good news, “I have seen the Lord!”
How personal the Lord is that He would call Mary by name. But isn’t that what He does with each of us? We do not have the privilege of hearing Him face to face like Mary did. But through His Spirit He calls us out individually. He speaks our name.
When He does, our confusion disperses and we know. He is alive. It is that moment everything changes. Like Mary, we become witnesses of the most significant event that has ever occurred, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Every day, Jesus tenderly calls out the names of others in this world. He uses our voices to do so. When a person responds, they are added to that great chorus of believers declaring the greatest news of all, “He is alive!”

First Life, Then Change

Posted on by Bob Christopher

I grew up reciting the Apostle’s Creed every Sunday. “The third day He arose again from the dead”; I affirmed this statement with reverential gusto. But outside the confines of the sanctuary it had little meaning to me. I had never reasoned that God actually had power over death, my spiritual death. Quite frankly, I didn’t even know that I was dead in sin.
The summer before my seventh grade year, the death of Jesus overwhelmed me. It was the last night of church youth camp. The pastor graphically portrayed the crucifixion. My heart ached and tears rolled down my cheeks as I realized Christ died for me. Right then and there, I knew I needed Jesus. I prayed and thanked Him for dying for me.
I asked Him to come into my life to help me become the best person I could be. The irony is that my life got worse. Temptations and peer pressures got the best of me. I wanted to be God’s guy. I tried valiantly, but life kept spiraling out of control. The things I wanted to do, I couldn’t. The things I didn’t want to do, I did. I wondered, “Why isn’t God helping me be a better person?
Jesus wasn’t interested in making me a little better. He was not marketing the latest self-improvement program. That is what I was looking for, but self-improvement is not what I needed. Jesus’ work is this: to take someone dead in sin and make him eternally alive.
News that a close friend had taken a drug overdose stirred a sense of desperation in me. I was on the same path. Something had to change.
I started attending a Bible study in Atlanta. Dan DeHann was the teacher. I liked him, and I listened to what he had to say. His message on Colossians 2 answered my heart’s cry. It was so clear that I wondered why I had never seen it before. Here was the verse that connected: “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins” (Colossians 2:13).
What this verse taught me boggled my mind. And it still does. God made me alive together with Christ. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead, God directed toward me. I was raised spiritually to walk in the newness of life. Until that moment, Paul’s words to the Colossians were meaningless to me. I had made mistakes, committed sins, but still I was basically okay — a good kid, just off track. My hope was that Jesus could help me get back on track and make me the person I wanted to be. The problem was that the “me” I wanted to improve was actually dead in sin.
Admitting my spiritual death lifted a huge burden. I no longer had to try to fix something that was unfixable. However, this admission was frightful. Death is final, the end. It is unchangeable. No amount of human effort or ingenuity can reverse this sinister state. Mankind has tried, but to no avail. Dead is dead, and that is what I was spiritually. Control of my destiny was out of my hands. Life had to come from another source.
The Bible declares that God has power over death. That first Easter was a glorious, earth-shaking demonstration. This truth authored a belief inside of me that God could raise me to life. And He did. Resurrection is Jesus’ story, and through faith in the resurrected One it became my story.
Change wasn’t what I needed. I needed life. In my mind, it was first change, then life. God’s ways are not ours. With Him, it is first life then change.
You may be tired of the struggle to improve, to make your life better. You’ve asked God a thousand times or more for help, but nothing changes. Perhaps it’s time to step into the faith of Abraham and experience the reality of resurrection.