Jesus had been with the disciples with the sole purpose of ensuring they begin to learn from Him so as to be able to produce all that He produces even when He is no longer around. He took them to every place He went to and they were a part of all He did.
It then got to a time He needed them to start putting to practice all that they had seen Him do. He called them together and gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and diseases. The disciples must have been excited to finally go out and do as Jesus had always done. They had the power. And Luke also recorded how the disciples did mighty things with the name of Jesus.
However, shortly after that, a man brought his mentally deranged son to the disciples Jesus’ absence; Jesus had gone to the mount with Peter, James and John. These guys tried all they could to pray for the boy but all to no avail. The boy’s father must have been disappointed and his hope dashed. As soon as Jesus came down and He was sighted, the man quickly moved towards Jesus to plead his case for deliverance on behalf of His boy. Immediately, Jesus cast out the demon and the boy became perfect.
The disciples became worried on the reason they could not cast out the demon. So, they asked Jesus, and His response was that they had no faith. But these were the same guys who had been awesome on an outing demonstrating some powerful works of God.
Now, this is it: the first time they went out and came back with results was by the word of Jesus. They had that resounding confidence of the fact that Jesus Himself gave them the word to go. They were acting on an instruction. This is faith in action. Faith operates on a substance which is the word.
“And, faith comes by hearing; hearing by the word of God”. Faith does not happen without the presence of a word. Faith is not abstract, neither is it boldness. It acts upon a word that already exists by revelation. Hence, they could go out and perform based on the word given to them. But now, this is a case they never knew was going to come their way. There was nothing to ignite their faith. The master had gone on a journey. They could not perform without the physical presence and instruction of the master.
As at that time, they couldn’t live in that realm of perfect belief in God as Jesus was yet to be glorified. Power became useless in their hands because of unbelief. They needed Jesus around to do anything spectacular. They needed Him to tell them “you can heal that boy, go ahead and do it”. They needed a word that could breed faith in them.
Being with Jesus is different from “He” being in us. The former produces temporary result, while the latter is never ending. After the death and resurrection of Jesus, the disciples began to operate on a different level. They entered into the realm of never ending results. Nothing was too much for them to handle.
That is the advantage you also have now. There is nothing that should be too much for you to handle. It’s the advantage the death and resurrection of Jesus brought. It made the whole of difference. All that they couldn’t do before the death of Jesus became easy for them. They didn’t need to fight hard to believe in Jesus. It became a natural ability by the Holy Ghost.
Peter who still denied Jesus before His final death now began to do great exploit. There is no limitation in Jesus. He has made everything available to us. His death was all that was needed for faith to be birthed in men.
The word is now living inside of you. He is not on the mount of transfiguration anymore. He is now resident inside of you. You don’t need to look for “faith” anywhere to do the miraculous. He is right inside of you. Since the resurrection of Jesus, man now has the full capacity to believe in Jesus without any form of doubt. The ability is restored in Him. No more fears of facing any situation.
As you start the new month, take every issue on…you have the advantage in Christ…just speak to the situation, no fears of if your faith would be capable of handling it. The Word that breeds faith is now fully resident in you.
Take charge!
Be Innovated
Olufemi Ibitoye
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