“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” – Ephesians 2:1
LIGHT FOR NOW: You cannot have faith in Him and not know yourself.
Acts 1:8 says, “But ye shall receive power; after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me…” The Lord Jesus before His ascension gave the church a supernatural assignment or work. Remember He said, “… Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). He left us with this assignment, but not without a supernatural enablement – His spirit. He had earlier said in John 15:5,”… for without me ye can do nothing.” And today, the new creation is indwelled by the spirit of God. This implies that we’ve been lavishly furnished with the maximum load of God. “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13). The believer has inherent power in him to cause changes. At salvation, we received the supernatural ability, effectiveness and efficiency for the work of ministry. “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God” (2 Corinthian 3:5). God isn’t looking at what you can do through your own human ability; rather, He’s looking at what He, by His spirit, can do through you. Every believer is called; no believer has an independent call. Along with the call to salvation is the call to ministry. “There is one body, and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). And the call to ministry is not anything spectacular but SALVATION. At salvation, we became able ministers of the New Testament (2 Corinthians 3:6); but our own commitment to ministry makes us good and faithful ministers (Matthew 25:21). As believers, our priority is different from the world; because you are in Christ, what moves you should be what moved Christ. What shall make us ashamed at His coming will be that we didn’t fulfill our ministry (I John 2:28).
The word quickened in our theme text means to be made alive. “And you (he made alive)…” (Ephesians 2:1 AMP). This is the consciousness God wants us to have as His children. We’ve been made alive in Christ; God, in His spirit and by His spirit has taken abode in us. The life of Christ is at work in us. The lives of the apostles bore ample testimony to the extraordinary enablement of the encounter they had on the day of Pentecost. They became mighty instruments in the hand of the Almighty God. We all must live our lives to show that Jesus Christ came alive in us at salvation; therefore, live up to His dream because that’s the essence of the new life in you.
INSTRUCTION: Acknowledge that you are alive in Christ.
PRAYER: I affirm that, the spirit of Christ in me isn’t vain because I am a good and faithful minister of the New Testament – Glory
QUOTE: The life of Christ is at work in us.
DAILY READING: MORNING: COLOSSIANS CHAPTER 1; EVENING: EPHESIANS CHAPTER 1
LIGHT FROM THE WORD 