Resurrection Ordained
Lisa Cooke
“. . .that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection. . .”
For several years now I’ve had Philippians 3:10-11 rolling around in my heart. I have prayed it many times over family members, friends and strangers. It is my standby prayer when I hear the sound of a police car or fire truck siren for the folks involved in whatever situation warranted that siren. There is a longing in my heart for people to “know Him” and all that the knowing entails, and so I find myself speaking this scripture often in prayer form.
Today I’ve been quickened about the “power of His resurrection” part and have had some thoughts concerning this portion of that scripture passage that I want to share.
Here is Philippians 3:10-11 in the Amplified version:
For my determined purpose is that I may know Him, that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly, and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection which it exerts over believers and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed in spirit into His likeness even to His death in the hope that if possible I may attain to the spiritual and moral resurrection that lifts me out from among the dead even while in the body.
I’m stuck on “that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection which it exerts over believers” part. I’m intrigued by the visual word picture of “power outflowing from His resurrection” and I want to know that power in increasing fullness in my own life.
Ephesians 1:19-20 also in the Amplified says:
And so that you can know and understand what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places…
We are allowed the privilege of knowing Jesus, of understanding the unlimited and surpassing greatness of God’s power outflowing from His resurrection in and for us who believe in Jesus. It is His will and desire for us to know and understand this incredible strength of God in the working of the Holy Spirit in us as Romans 8:11 (AMP) describes:
And if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then He who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal, short-lived, perishable bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you.
Notice the contrast between our “mortal, short-lived, perishable bodies” and “the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassingly great power” of the Holy Spirit that dwells in us! Our weaknesses have never been a hindrance to His strength working in us, but our lack of knowledge and lack of faith creates a resistance to all He wants to do in us. Whatever we do is to be done by the “quickening” or restoring to life by the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, not in our own strength anyway.
We get to offer and yield ourselves to God as though we have been raised from the dead to perpetual life (by His resurrection power), and our bodily members and faculties to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness. (Romans 6:13 AMP) We can do this as we accept by faith and grow in our understanding of all that was accomplished in the resurrection of Jesus by God through the Spirit.
I like to think about how His resurrection triumph can be lived and expressed through our mortal bodies, about the spiritual and moral resurrection that lifts me out from among the dead even while in the body because We have been raised from the dead to perpetual life. God has given us eternal life in His Son, and He that has the Son has life… (1 John 5:11-12)
What I must remember is that Christ in me by His Spirit is the resurrection and the life; I am not my own “resurrector.” I can of my own self do nothing, and the beauty of all of this is that it is no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me. This is the glory of dying with Christ, through His resurrection by being in Christ, we become a new creature with all things becoming new, and all things are of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-18)
How much we can miss of the full power outflowing from His resurrection, even when we are new creatures, just by being oblivious or even uninterested in the invitation to experience the fullness of all God has done in Christ on our behalf. I know I have missed so much in my years as a Christian. But here are a few of the things I’m thinking about these days in the context of the outflow of power from His resurrection.
- It is resurrection ordained that perfect love casts out all fear, and Christ in me is that Perfect Love. Therefore when fear presents itself, I will allow the power of His resurrection in me to cast it out. In fact, as I allow that outflowing power in me to confront all that comes against me, whether person, emotion, physical weaknesses, fears, and demonic activity, His resurrection triumph over all things will manifest itself in my life.
- It is resurrection ordained that I have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. (Colossians 1:9)
- It is resurrection ordained that the peace of God which passes all understanding, shall keep my heart and mind through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)
- It is resurrection ordained that I can do the things God asks me to do through the strength of Christ in me. (Philippians 4:19)
- It is resurrection ordained that we are raised up from the dead with Christ and seated in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.
- It is resurrection ordained that our lives will expand and deepen by means of His resurrection life now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God… (Romans 5:9-11 MSG)
- It is resurrection ordained that we are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life [in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and reach full spiritual stature]. (Colossians 2:10 AMP)
- It is resurrection ordained to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man so that Christ might dwell in our hearts by faith. (Ephesians 3:16-17)
It has been very enlightening for me to see the mercies and gifts of God to us in the light of being “resurrection ordained” because of our union with Christ in His suffering and death. He wants and has made it possible for us to know the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of His love for us, exceedingly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us…the power outflowing from His resurrection.
