And Jesus ...baptized...the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. Mt.3.16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. Rom.1.16,17
The true
gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, brings with it the power of God.
The good news of Jesus is not just about forgiveness of sin. That is the
part that positions us with God to receive and experience His power upon
our lives to carry out His purpose for mankind on the earth.
Jesus came
to seek and save the lost, sick, and dying. That is His purpose. The way
He did this was to first be filled with the Holy Spirit so that His ministry
was carried out in the power of the Holy Spirit. To the degree the Holy
Spirit is allowed to have His way, will be the degree of and the amount
of the supernatural manifestations of God for the benefit of mankind.
Jesus was
anointed by God "with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about
doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was
with him" (Ac.10.38). Jesus was filled with and led by the Holy Spirit
in a perfect way, and we see what He did. As we follow Him, we will do
the same.
The good
news is that Jesus takes our sins away and empowers us with the
Holy Spirit and with the power of God, to enable us to fulfill all the
good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power (2Thes.1.11,12).
This is how we are to fulfill His purpose of reaching every person on earth
with this life-saving message of Jesus Christ.
Jesus'
name is Emmanuel--God with us. God is with us by His Word and by His Spirit.
He has not left us alone to try to carry out the Great Commission the best
we can. He has promised to be with us and enable us with supernatural power
to be a most effective and convincing witness of the reality of the resurrected,
reigning Jesus Christ.
John the
Baptist came preaching, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the
sin of the world...which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost" (Jn.1.29,33).
This is a two-fold work. Jesus came preaching "Repent: for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand" . He then called men to follow Him, and He would
make them fishers of men. Then, He went about healing all kinds of sickness,
great multitudes of people, even healing all that came to Him, showing
the operation of the kingdom of God through the power of the Holy Spirit
(Mt.4.17-25). This is why He takes our sins away and baptizes us
with the Holy Spirit--so we can be an instrument through which He can work
to reach the masses.
The gospel,
the good news, brings forgiveness of sin and the fullness of the Holy Spirit,
with a demonstration of that power in the lives of those who need the
touch of God. Any gospel that does not line up to this, is not the
true gospel. If our lives fall short of this, we need to "repent...and
believe the gospel" (Mk.1.15) until we are experiencing and demonstrating
that which He has made provisions for us to have. That means there's a
bunch of us who need to be in a state of repentance and faith so we can
come to that experience in God we need to be. This righteousness is revealed
as we go from faith to faith unto living by faith. (See the text in Romans
1.16,17 above).
They had
it in the book of Acts. It fell away over the centuries. Now it is being
restored to us. Let us be bold to come to the throne of grace and humble
ourselves before God to receive and live in the experience of all that
He has for us today.
Souls depend
on hearing and seeing the good news of Jesus Christ. Let us be faithful
to God to be those vessels through which He is able to reach out and touch
those who desparately need His touch today. We must have the power of God
manifested in and through our lives if we are going to effectively reach
the world for Jesus today.