July 22, 2013
John 14:12

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

As we talked about in the last blog, how is it that we can be Jesus Christ – the incarnation of God come in the flesh – is this old world?  It is because Jesus – when He walked upon this earth – lived as a man, a human being, totally empowered by the Holy Spirit.  He did not live and act out of His own God-being and power during His three and a half year ministry.  Yes, He was fully God, as well as fully man.  But all that He did – even all the miracles and healings He accomplished – Jesus did as a man fully given to and empowered by the Spirit within Him.

Jesus said in John 8:28, “…I do nothing of Myself; but as my Father taught Me, I speak these things.”  As the Father had taught Him, He spoke, He acted, He did His mighty works.  He was totally dependent on the Holy Spirit within Him.  It is written in John 3:34, “…He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure [to Him].”  Jesus was given the fullness of the Holy Spirit without measure!  He let Himself be continually directed by that Holy Spirit in everything He said and did.  It was not just concerning the cross that He practiced what He prayed in the Garden:  “…nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.”  It was everything He said, did and thought!

It was by living in submission and by the direction of the Holy Spirit that the Lord overcame all temptation and lived His life without sin – in complete obedience to God.  He did not have the fallen, sinful nature with which we struggle.  He had the same sinless nature that the first Adam had when created.  But Adam – even with that sinless nature – succumbed to temptation and sinned.  Jesus did not!  Still, all the trials and temptations the Lord experienced were real, and He resisted them in the power of the Spirit.  In Hebrews 4:15 and 16 it says:

    For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,
    but was in all points tempted [tested] as we are, yet without sin.  Let us therefore
    come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to
    help in time of need.

He experienced all that we can go through – all the trials and temptations of life, in one form or another.  And He invites us to come to Him to receive His help and grace to overcome whatever we are facing.  It is as if He says, “I know what you mean.  And not just because I am God, and God knows everything!  I have been there and done that – and overcame!  I can help you do the same.”

The point is this:  Jesus lived as a human being totally relying upon God.  He lived by the power of the Holy Spirit in everything He did.  He was victorious by that same Spirit.  All He did – His total life and ministry – was done with simply the same resources that God has made available to us!

We receive that same Holy Spirit to reside within us when we ask Jesus to come into our hearts and lives.  He comes in to take up permanent residence in us.  It is by that Holy Spirit in us that God reveals to us His mind – His will, His way – and then gives us the power to carry out whatever He directs us to do – just as the Father filled His Son Jesus with the Holy Spirit and directed His life.

If it was not true that Jesus lived His life as a human being with the same resource that is available to us – the Holy Spirit – then He never could have said to us “Follow Me” (Matthew 4:4).  And certainly He never could have told us in John 14:12:

    Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will
    do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to my Father.

We cannot follow Jesus!  We cannot do the works He has done!  We cannot……IF He lived His life out of the power of Him being God!  We are not God!  But if Jesus lived His life as a man empowered by the Holy Spirit, then we can follow Him, we can do the works He directs us to do!  We can be the continued incarnation of God come in the flesh upon this earth!

Let us realize the resource that we have, God in us by His Holy Spirit, and let Jesus Christ live out His life through us!