for the sake of the gospel. But when he speaks of the power of Christ’s resurrec- tion, Paul not only refers to his own ulti- mate bodily resurrection that he antici- pates because of Christ’s bodily resurrec- tion; he is also referring to the power that raised Jesus from the dead being at work in his life and ministry at that moment. That same power is available to us today. In Ephesians 1:19-20, Paul clearly connects power for daily living with the power that raised Jesus from the dead:

I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms (NLT).

It is this resurrection power that regenerates us at the moment of conver- sion. Because of resurrection power we have been given a new life. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:4-6:

God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heav- enly places in Christ Jesus (NASB).

The prerequisite to this regeneration is confession and repentance. We must choose to lay down our old patterns of living, thinking, and speaking, and allow the Holy Spirit to give us a new heart that totally transforms our lives from the inside out. This is resurrection power in action from the beginning of our walk with the Lord!

We experience more power when we receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit as an anointing for ministry. After Jesus’ resurrection, He told His disciples, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be wit-

nesses to Me” (Acts 1:8 NKJV). Part of the process of receiving this power is coming to the end of our self-reliance and recog- nizing our need for the fullness of God’s power to manifest in our life and ministry.

Lay It Down

In order to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, Paul laid down everything that he had invested his life in—everything that had once given him purpose and significance. Like Paul, we must first be willing to lay down our lives. We must empty ourselves of our- selves so we can experience the infilling of His quickening power.

to make it happen. But at some point, God will allow that vision to die and it will seem like all hope is lost. Then we are tempted to try to take matters into our own hands. We want to pull in favors and make things happen until we can somehow resuscitate the vision. But we have to take our hands off the situation and call out to the Lord. When we do that, and at just the right time, God in His sovereignty will bring the vision back to life, and it will be obvious to everyone involved that God did it, not us. With all of my heart, I believe God wants His church to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. He wants to

“THE RESURRECTION PERTAINS NOT JUST TO LIFE AFTER DEATH, BUT TO LIFE BEFORE DEATH AS WELL. WE HAVE

ACCESS TO RESURRECTION POWER

EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY OF OUR LIVES AS BORN-AGAIN BELIEVERS.”

Resurrection takes place only after a death. You can’t have Easter Sunday without first having Good Friday. You can’t experience an empty tomb without a rugged cross. Because of this, so many people are unwilling to do what must be done to experience the power of His res- urrection. An unwillingness to let go of our past accomplishments (or mistakes) and completely die to ourselves will stop us from knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection.

Several years ago, a minister told me that when God gives us a vision, the vision has to go through a cycle of birth, death, and resurrection. When the vision is born in us we have zeal and a passion

speak life to our purpose and passion. He wants to awaken the dreams that He has placed in our hearts as His people. This is true of our churches, our families, our businesses, and our private lives. But we must be willing to abandon our tendency to want to impress God with our creden- tials. We need to lay down our resumes and lists of accomplishments and instead completely depend on the power of God to work in our lives. Then, and only then, we will experience the power of Christ’s resurrection for ourselves.

J. Ben Wiles is senior pastor of River of Life Ministries, a Church of God congrega- tion in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

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