Philippians 3:8-11 “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
If your prayer is to know the Lord Jesus Christ, this is a prayer that God will answer. To know Him is to spend time abiding with Him in a personal relationship. He will reveal himself when we trust Him, obey Him and follow in His footsteps. When we abide with Him and become His humble abode [Christ in our heart], the tabernacle of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter will come along beside us and will teach us all things pertaining to the knowledge of His will.
The power is not in His crucifixion, for all men have an appointment with death. Everyone is deserving of death because the wages of sin is death and all have sinned as a result of the sin nature we all inherited from Adam’s fall. A perfect, sinless life is what God intended, however, only Jesus Christ lived a life without sin. This makes Jesus the only acceptable Savior of the world, and because of His atoning sacrifice as payment for our sins by the shedding His innocent blood in exchange for our guilty blood, we who have repented and by faith confessed Jesus as Lord, having believed that God raised Him from the dead [conquering sin and death], are made the righteousness of God in Him. That is the power of the resurrection. This is “saving faith” and is one of the conditions of salvation.
As we follow our Lord Jesus Christ, we will partake in the fellowship of His suffering and baptism. Through the trials, tribulation, and testing of this life, the Lord will teach us what it means that He may increase that we may decrease, casting all our care upon Him, for He cares for us. In the midst of the heat and pressure of life, He will prove His quality within us. for the melting pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but God purifies the heart. For tribulation, the pressures of life, works patience. Perseverance and long suffering, and patience worketh experience. Proven character of God in Christ within us, and proven character that yields hope … the hope of the resurrection and eternal life, and hope makes us not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.
In Galatians 5:16, 24-25, the Apostle Paul instructs us us, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Even though we will stumble in this life, for we continue to carry the sinful flesh nature in my flesh and in it dwells no good thing. When we’re tested and rely on the Lord, He will deliver us from the Evil one. He will teach us through the trials of life that even though he may not deliver us from the storm, he will deliver us through the storm. The knowledge of Christ is through the power of the resurrection. And through the power of the resurrection, God has conquered the power of sin, guilt, shame, condemnation and death. In the fellowship of the resurrection, we can live in the newness of life in Christ. The power of the resurrection is the power of God’s Holy Spirit, the power of the Spirit of the life, of Christ in me the hope of glory.
Your brother in Christ, Michael
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