Doing The
Works of Jesus
It had been a wonderful evening of
fellowshipping with friends in the neighborhood, but it was getting late and I
decided to call it a night. After arriving home I headed to the bathroom to go
though my usual hygiene regiment before retiring to bed.
After brushing my teeth, I washed my face. As
I was drying off my neck, I felt a lump underneath the hand towel. When I
lifted the cloth, I saw what appeared to be a growth beneath the skin about the
size of a large grape. It had no discoloration or pain but it was nevertheless obviously
abnormal.
Instead of being gripped with fear, a sudden surge
of anger came over me and I quickly placed my right hand on the lump. I was in
the process of saying, "You foul lump, I command you to leave me now, in
Jesus' name," but I barely got the first two words out of my mouth when I
suddenly heard a "bloop" sound and the lump instantly disappeared.
Afterwards, this whole episode seemed
surprising to me in many ways. First of all, I didn't know when the lump first
came up. Secondly, I didn't know what it actually was. Thirdly, and the most
perplexing of all, I was amazed that the lump went away before I could get the
whole sentence out or even speak Jesus' name.
Sometime later I was reading the story in
the 9th Chapter of Acts where the Apostle Peter prayed for a woman named
Tabitha who had become sick and died.
Beginning at verse 40, the scriptures
record,
"And turning to
the body he (Peter) said, 'Tabitha, arise.' And she opened her eyes and when
she saw Peter she sat up."
I noticed here that Peter never used the
name of Jesus. Rather he simply exercised the authority Christ had given to the
Disciples when He told them in the 14th Chapter of John ,
"Most assuredly, I
say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also;"
Farther along, in John 17, after praying for
His Disciples, Jesus prayed to God regarding everyone else who would ever
believe in Him for generations to come.
20 "I do
not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me
through their word; 21 that
they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in
You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent
Me. 22 And the
glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are
one: 23 I in
them, and You in Me;"
So then, Jesus drew spiritual power from His
union with God and we, through our union with Christ, have been granted access
to that same mighty power which enables us to do the same works Jesus did. And at
times, we may even be so filled with His Spirit that we operate on an
especially high level of spiritual authority.
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