We continue today our discourse on Knowing Christ and His Power, focusing on the non-negotiables set by the Lord to experience the fullness of His power, and how the apostles lived these. From the Old Testament, we note:

• Psalm 36:9,10 (TPT)—The fountain of life flows from you to satisfy me. In your light of holiness, we receive the light of revelation. Lord, keep pouring out your unfailing love on those who are near you. Release more of your blessings to those who are loyal to you.
• Psalm 36:9-10 (AMPC)—For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light. O continue Your loving-kindness to those who know You, Your righteousness (salvation) to the upright in heart.
• John 14:10,11,20 (AMPC)—Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me? What I am telling you I do not say on My own authority and of My own accord; but the Father Who lives continually in Me does the (His) works (His own miracles, deeds of power). Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me; or else believe Me for the sake of the [very] works themselves. [If you cannot trust Me, at least let these works that I do in My Father’s name convince you.]… At that time [when that day comes] you will know [for yourselves] that I am in My Father, and you [are] in Me, and I [am] in you.

Verse 20 is so critical regarding understanding what the life union the Lord spoke to is, and what that works out in us; channels communicating only what we hear Him say to us!

• John 17:21-23 (AMPC)—That they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me. I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one: I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me.
• Romans 6:3-5 (TPT)—Or have you forgotten that all of us who were immersed into union with Jesus, the Anointed One, were immersed into union with his death? Sharing in his death by our baptism means that we were co-buried with him, so that when the Father’s glory raised Christ from the dead, we were also raised with him. We have been co-resurrected with him so that we could be empowered to walk in the freshness of new life. For since we are permanently grafted into him to experience a death like his, then we are permanently grafted into him to experience a resurrection like his and the new life that it imparts.

Do we see the intimacy that’s required of each believer in terms of relationship with the Lord?
 
This permanent grafting is expressed by Apostle Paul in:

• Galatians 2:20 (TPT)—My old identity has been co-crucified with Christ and no longer lives. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, dispensing his life into mine! This same truth is repeated in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (MSG)
• Galatians 6:14 (TPT)—May my only boast be found in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In him I have been crucified to this natural realm; and the natural realm is dead to me and no longer dominates my life.
• Colossians 3:3 (TPT)—Your crucifixion with Christ has severed the tie to this life, and now your true life is hidden away in God in Christ.

So, here we are. Are you dead to the world, have you severed your tie with it? Are you baptised into His death and raised in the newness of life in His resurrection? Are you permanently grafted into Him? Only then can you begin to function like He said we would. Let’s take this season to reflect on these and seek Him until these are fulfilled in you. Shalom.



Pastor Afolabi Oladele