I Am The Resurrection

Sometimes it's such a hard place. On one hand, He is life-giver, He is healer. On the other hand, everybody here will die.

The intent is, can we walk this earth without being overcome by disease and sickness?

Can we leave this earth because God said, okay, let me stop your heart now and come home?

We want to be a people like that, to show the world that this is possible now.

Now. This will be the case when we get to heaven, but what about now?

People that are able to walk, like Isaiah 30.

Just go to Isaiah 30 in the message or, yeah, let's read it from the message.

This is not being recorded, right?

Okay, can you pause the recording then?

Can you pause the recording?

Sing this with me.

Come on, you're the God of fights.

You're the God of fights.

Yeah.

Sing this with me.

You stepped into my Egypt. You took me by the hand. You washed me out in freedom into a promised land.

Now I will not forget you, God. I'll sing of the four you've done. Death is one and not forever.

You're the God of fights.

You're the God of fights.

The most important day in your history.

Who's playing the guitar? Who? Remy.

The most important day in your history.

Why? Because when you look at it this morning, sometime this morning, Jesus walked out of the tomb.

And we need to understand that Jesus dying for his sins was not evidence enough.

Because someone who dies, anybody could have claimed that I'm dying for your sins.

But it is in his rising up that there is evidence that a sinless one died for the sins of the world and yet rose again.

If there is no resurrection, Jesus' death is kind of pointless. It would be like me dying for you.

He would have stayed dead just like I would have stayed dead.

So it's in actually resurrection that we have evidence that when Jesus walked out of the tomb this morning,

he was proving that a sinless sin bearer rose because a sinless man could rise from the dead.

Nobody else could rise from the dead.

And why was this a big deal? Haven't other people come back from the dead? Didn't Lazarus come back from the dead?

Didn't the son of the widow of Nain come back from the dead?

So why was this a big deal? Because in reality, Jesus was a sin offering.

If you read Isaiah 53.10, you're looking at a sin offering that had to be raised.

A sinless, finite man took on the infinite sin of mankind,

took on the infinite sin of mankind,

satisfied the infinite justice of God,

and rose again.

A sinless, finite man took on the infinite sin of mankind.

Every depravity, every conceivable ugly thing, we must understand something.

That sin cannot, God cannot tolerate sin. He cannot even tolerate sin.

We don't understand holiness because we can tolerate. So our holiness is measured. It's in degrees.

But this is a God who cannot tolerate sin.

The intolerance of sin is part of who he is in terms of his holiness.

This sinless, finite man takes on the infinite sin of God, sin of mankind,

to satisfy the infinite justice of God.

And then if you were to rewind 10 seconds before he rose again,

he was just a man on a cold slab inside a tomb.

And then suddenly, because it is impossible for sin to exist him, because he was sinless,

suddenly the Holy Spirit has now the ability to swoop in on him and raise him to life.

It is the Holy Spirit who raises him to life.

Jesus didn't suddenly decide, all right, time to come back to life.

No, he was dead. On that stone slab inside the tomb, he was dead.

If you could rewind and go 10 seconds before he rose again, he was totally dead.

It wasn't he who caused the earthquake.

It is the Holy Spirit who raised him. Ephesians 1.

We shouldn't think that Jesus decided, I'm going to rise up now.

No. He was confident that his father will not let him decay.

That he was confident of. He says so. Psalms had already predicted that.

But just as he was dependent upon the Holy Spirit to do everything while he was here on earth,

he is now in his deadness dependent upon the Holy Spirit to raise him.

And so because this sinless, finite man does not sin and takes on the infinite sin of the world

to satisfy the infinite justice of God, he's lying there knowing that the only way he's going to come back to life

is through the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit comes and raises him up.

This is how it works.

It's actually the most important day in our lives. It's not Christmas. It's not Good Friday.

Life begins on resurrection.

The one who... go ahead.

What would you say to someone who stopped on the first, that Jesus says, I lay my life down again,

but I can take it up again if you want to?

No. He says, I lay my life down again. Nobody can take it from me. He lays it down.

And it doesn't mean that when he died, God died. But it does mean that Jesus of Nazareth died.

And he rises up. He rises up as Christ the Anointed One, Jesus the Christ.

So it's not that God died, eh? Nor was God 33.

So it's called the hypostatic union, which is 100% God, 100% man.

But when he's lying there, he's not going to turn on a switch.

He's trusting that the Father will not let his body decay.

And then it says in Ephesians 1, 18 onwards that by the power of the Holy Spirit, he was raised from the dead.

In the death and resurrection of Jesus, you see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at work.

All three are at work.

And try not to wrap your minds around it, because I can see at least four minds right now.

I could literally see the wheels churning at high speed and getting just clogged. They're breaking down.

Because how do you compute all this, man? You cannot.

And so the best way to deal with this is to kind of begin to receive it here.

And by here I don't mean your heart, I mean receive it in your spirit.

And then let the Holy Spirit work it out in bits and pieces.

And eventually it will all come together in heaven.

It won't come together here on earth because your minds are very limited.

It would be like trying to explain hockey to a bird. It's not a question. It won't understand.

The one who rose this morning showed me the nail marks in his hands.

The picture that I found for resurrection yesterday that we're putting up on the website is Jesus with his hands like this with two nail marks here.

And this morning when Jesus rose again, he went around showing his nail marks to us.

The one who rose this morning showed me the nail marks in his hand. Why?

Because that's the price of the purchase of my body. The price.

The price of the purchase of my body.

The price of the purchase of my body.

The welts on his back, the stripes or welts on his back are for my healing.

1 Peter 2.23 says so.

This is important guys because very often we don't remember that our bodies actually are his property.

Our bodies are his property. This body is his property.

And he is a good steward of that which belongs to him.

He is a good steward of that which belongs to him. It's his possession.

One of the places I go to often when I'm sick or when I need healing is, but this is your body.

You take good care of what is yours.

It's a great way to trust God with things that you're afraid of losing, of harming, of dismantling.

Very often even with homes, vehicles that you have and you think, oh well this one's steal it or that one's steal it.

I remember there was a time when a lot of break-ins were happening at the underground parking that I used to park in

and I would feel afraid that if something were to happen to my car.

I remember telling the Lord, Father, you gave me this. This is something that I'm renting from you.

I'm just going to leave it with you. You're a good steward of what you own.

Same with this body. This body, when he shows you the nail pierced hands, he's also saying, listen I bought your bodies.

Let it settle somewhere deep in A. The deeper it settles, the less effort you have to exert for faith.

Faith, whenever it's an exertion, is simply because we do not understand.

Faith, when it's an exertion, is a result of an inability to understand it deeply enough.

When it's not an exertion, it's because, I mean, we don't have any trouble with gravity.

We're not trying to force ourselves to believe it.

This morning, recreation was at its best. This morning, recreation was at its best.

It was almost like Genesis 1. God breathes life again.

And he actually completed everything.

Yesterday, Diana sent me a song by Caroline Aaron, where it talks about this idea of, on the seventh day, God rested.

And it's the same, in a sense, today, when he rose up this morning, it was like, I'm breathing life again.

I'm recreating Eden. It is finished, was the end, as known as sixth day.

Now, he's welcoming us into this place of rest.

This morning, I love this one. This morning, death lost its sting.

This morning, death lost its sting.

This morning, death lost its sting.

This morning, it was decided that, you know, we should not be afraid of death.

This morning, it was decided that all our bodies will be raised imperishable.

This morning, it was decided forever that all our bodies, anyone who believes in him, their bodies will be raised imperishable.

Death lost its sting this morning.

No longer can death frighten any human being on earth if they want to believe.

Is death present? Yes. It's that story that many of you have heard, where a wasp or whatever comes into a car while the dad and the son are driving in the car.

A wasp enters, and the child starts screaming.

And the father reaches, takes his hand and reaches out and holds the wasp in his hand, and then releases it.

And the boy is really upset that the father grasped the wasp and then instead of holding it, he just holds it.

And the father grasps the wasp and then instead of killing it, he releases it.

And starts saying, why did you release it?

But the dad shows him the sting and says, but it can no longer sting you.

The wasp is still in the car, but it's almost like a fly.

It can do nothing.

Death is around, but it's lost its sting.

It cannot be weaponized ever again.

It cannot be used against me.

It can fly around inside the car.

What can it do? It's like a fly.

This morning, the one who rose gave himself a new title.

It was spoken of in the past, but he puts it all together.

He says in Revelation 1, 17 and 18, he says, I'm the first, I'm the last.

I'm he who lives, I'm he who lives.

I once was dead, but now I'm alive forevermore.

Then he says, I hold the keys of Hades and death.

What's he trying to say here?

He's saying that there is nobody who now has anything over me.

I'm the first and the last. Isaiah talks about it.

I'm the first and the last and everything in between.

That's how the message puts it.

I'm the first and the last and everything in between.

As in, there is nothing beyond me.

Nothing can exist.

Nothing has authority. Nothing has power beyond me.

Yes, I went through death, but I'm alive forevermore.

Every other pagan god is nothing now.

I hold the keys of death in Hades.

It takes you back to Matthew 16, 18 and 19.

The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.

I hold the keys of death in Hades.

They're mine. I lock them. Nobody can open.

I open them. Nobody can shut.

I've got total authority.

In the statement on the day he rises up again

and when he makes these statements, he's made it in Isaiah.

He's made it in the Gospels.

He's made it in Revelation 1, and now he made it again.

His statement is very simple.

Listen, guys, I just rose from the dead, and there is nothing.

There is nothing that is not subject to me.

Everything.

Everything is subject to me, and I am for you.

Everything is subject to me, and I am for you, Jacob.

Everything is subject to me, and I am for the church.

It's easy to think everything is subject to him.

It's very hard to then go from everything is subject to him.

That part we can believe.

For the church.

For me.

That is the hard part to believe.

Why is this hard to believe?

Because circumstances prove otherwise.

Who tries to stop circumstances?

Who tries to create circumstances so that this gap exists?

The world, the devil, the flesh.

They will always try to create a gap between the two.

They will always try to create a gap between who Christ really is

and who he wants to be for the church.

There will always be a gap.

There is this constant attempt to create that gap.

The one who rose this morning is elevated to the highest place.

Highest place.

Verse 2-9.

He was obedient unto death, and therefore I have now exalted him

or elevated him to the place that is the highest in the entire universe.

There is nothing above him.

He is at the pinnacle, at the peak.

Everything else serves him.

Everything else is under him.

So that at his name, every name has to be subdued, has to subject.

There is nothing.

The devil knows it.

And again, this is the problem.

Can I convince Jacob that yes,

he has all authority?

But can I somehow also make sure that Jacob doesn't translate that

into the church or his life?

And how do I do that?

By trying to obstruct faith.

By trying to have him pay attention to his circumstances.

By having him focus on his natural life, not Christ.

And this has been highly successful.

Out of this has come theologies that postpone everything to the future.

In this suite by and by, things will happen.

But here on earth, don't expect anything to happen.

I want to say that it is possible for the will of God to begin to happen

here on earth even as we wait for the consummation of things

when Eden will be restored.

People label you sometimes hyper whatever.

This is too much faith.

Don't talk like that.

Don't talk that it's possible to always be healed.

Don't talk about the dead being raised.

Don't talk about living.

I mean, we have our own cancel culture in Christianity.

We have our own cancel culture in Christianity.

And if you don't stand firm, you will soften your message.

You will soften your message.

Another glimpse, if you want to see what resurrection did, you should go to Matthew 27.

Another glimpse of what resurrection did.

Matthew 27, verse 52.

Matthew 27:52

Maybe you've read this verse but you don't remember it or haven't heard about it for a while.

Matthew 27, verse 52.

Matthew 27:52

It says, let's go to verse 51.

At that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

So that happened Friday.

The earth shook, the rocks split, and the tombs broke open.

The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.

They came out of the tombs after Jesus' resurrection

and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

So on Friday, when Christ dies and the veil is torn open,

in Jerusalem, around Jerusalem, there were tombs where some were buried ages ago,

some were perhaps buried recently, and these tombs break open.

And people that were in the tombs actually come back to life.

But the strange thing is they do not leave the tomb.

They stay in the tomb.

And they only come out of the tombs and appear to the people in Jerusalem

after Jesus rises from the dead.

According to, not history, according to the way the Jewish calendar works,

the day he rose from the dead was the day of the barley harvest.

And people would have been out early harvesting the barley

because you harvest early in the morning, not during the midday sun.

And they're coming back from their harvest,

and you'll probably see Uncle Bill and Aunt Joanna walking,

and they were dead and now they're coming.

Some must have been older than that from history.

And yet they had risen on Good Friday.

But they didn't leave the tombs.

Christ's death breaks open the tomb of death.

Christ's death breaks open the tomb of death that holds every human captive.

Christ's resurrection activates your life by the same spirit

who raised Christ from the dead.

Even in that simple scene from Matthew 27, 51 to 53,

we see an enactment of what happens in our lives.

So Christ's death ended the...

It's almost like the day Christ died,

the womb of death that covers every human being because of ages of sin is death.

The womb is broken open. The tomb is broken open.

But it's Christ's resurrection that allows that tomb that is broken open

and the people inside that to now step out into the light.

It's both death and resurrection.

Ascension does something even more beautiful.

Ascension now seats us in Christ.

Ascension now allows the Spirit of God to be poured forth.

We'll talk about that 40 days from now.

But we need to realize that this was actually being played out,

where people actually came out of their tombs.

Any questions?

Question that you probably can't answer.

What happened to all the people that...

I would suggest to you that with the ascension of Christ, they ascended with Him.

And so, does the Bible say so? No.

But were these men raised from the dead? No.

They were raised to life.

It wasn't like the widow of nine, the son being raised, the Lazarus being raised,

and they go back and die again.

Christ now risen, sins paid for.

In an odd way, and I know this is on camera,

and this can be objected to and feel free,

because I have no biblical proof to back this up,

but in an odd way, it is 1 Thessalonians 5.17,

already having taken place in a mini version much before.

Before 17.

Where people actually ascended.

Because they didn't die again.

Because the sins have been paid for.

Lazarus would die again.

Must have been freaky, man.

Tombs all around Jerusalem, many of them breaking open.

Thank God it's in the Bible, and I'm not creating this out of nowhere,

except the last part, which I have no proof for.

If you go to Isaiah 26,

Isaiah 26, Isaiah 26.19,

you see that the Old Testament actually already kind of indicated this, Isaiah 26.19.

But your dead will live, Lord, their bodies will rise.

Let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy.

Your dew is like the dew of the morning.

The earth will give birth to her dead.

Isaiah 26 has already been spoken of.

John 5.28, John 5.28.

This is Jesus speaking.

He actually kind of talks about this far ahead.

Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out.

Those who have done what is good will rise to live.

Those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.

Yes, he's talking about the end times, but he's also giving them a precursor of what will happen.

Here's another statement that really should shake us.

This is perhaps the most important, not perhaps, this is the most important day in your history,

because resurrection is not an event.

It is not an event.

It is a person.

Resurrection is not an event.

It is an event, but it is not just an event.

So we have this thing called Easter Sunday.

Part of the reason I insist on saying resurrection Sunday is,

when we say resurrection Sunday, it's already an event.

When we say Easter, it's an event that is covered by another event.

But even resurrection Sunday is an event, but it's actually not an event.

It is a person.

In John chapter 11, verse 25 or 26, he says so.

John 11:25

I am the resurrection and the life.

I am the resurrection and the life, not I am going to be resurrected.

I am the resurrection and the life.

Resurrection is a person.

So this is why it is the most important day in our lives,

because I have to learn to live this human life in resurrection and by resurrection.

What do you mean by that?

It means this human life I have to learn to live by the power of Jesus' risen life

and in the power of Jesus' risen life.

So I have this human life and what happens most of the time is,

we live our natural lives out.

We don't live by the life of another.

We do not live by the life of another.

We live our own human lives.

Every situation we face, we live out of our humanness.

We live out of the best we can as Christians.

We live by principles in the Bible.

We live by scriptures in the Bible.

But we don't live by another life that we possess.

I have to learn how to live this human life by the life of the risen Christ.

So God sometimes deliberately creates circumstances,

giving us opportunities every day to either live out the best human life a Christian can live

or to live out that circumstance in resurrection life.

Every day, sometimes it's not even the devil.

Sometimes he orchestrates circumstances saying,

Hey Jacob, how are you going to react?

How are you going to react to this?

Are you going to react with scriptures?

Are you going to react with some principle from the Bible?

Are you going to react as best as you can as a moral Christian?

Or are you going to respond with the quality of life that you possess, which is resurrection life?

Jesus had to do this every time.

Jesus would find himself in circumstances,

and he could either be living out of his moral Jewishness that kept the law,

learned the scriptures, knew God,

or he could live by the life that was in him, which was the life of the Spirit.

When you have twins and Shiloh,

when you have a new baby,

when you are going through difficult circumstances,

when there are sicknesses and diseases,

when there is a lack of money,

when there are feelings that are rising in you that you know is ungodly,

when there is a lack of faith,

when things are beginning to crowd in,

when you are scared of tomorrow,

which life are you living out of?

I am saying to you that even living by principles and scriptures is godly,

but it is in the life that you are supposed to live out of.

I am the resurrection and the life.

Which life comes out when you are diseased and sick?

Which life comes out when there is despair and hopelessness?

Which life comes out when jobs are not working out?

Which life comes out when a prophetic word or a promise is delayed?

Which life comes out?

Because there is a life that is untouched.

Let me give you the essence of this life that we are talking about.

When we talk about resurrection life, what are we saying?

We are saying that resurrection life is the

resurrection life is the private life that Jesus presently possesses,

that he shares personally with me.

Think of that for a second.

Resurrection life is the private life Jesus presently possesses.

It is his.

That is why I use the word private.

Private is not something that he does not want to make public.

Private is something that it is his.

It is his present life.

This is the life that feeds the entire universe and keeps it going.

This is the life that causes every caterpillar, every butterfly, every leaf to flourish or not flourish,

every blade of grass to live or not to live.

This is the life that causes everything to breathe.

This is the life that holds planets in orbit.

This is the personal private life that he possesses.

And he has decided that Jacob, you now, because you believe in me,

are inextricably bound into me.

And the life that he possesses is the same as the life that Jesus possesses.

And I personally give it to you.

I give it to you by means of the Spirit.

Can you live out of this life instead of living out of scriptures and verses?

Yes, scriptures and verses and faith are supposed to inform your thinking.

But you have a life that came to you before you even thought.

You didn't think yourself into salvation.

You spoke your way into salvation.

You spoke your way into salvation.

You didn't think yourself into salvation.

You spoke your way into salvation.

You used words to get saved.

Once you got saved, that life began to live in you.

And now the scriptures and the understanding of the Word of God informs my mind

so that even my mind is renewed and I begin to think the way God thinks.

But the life I possess came before understanding came.

Nicodemus struggled with this.

In this church, if we are growing in understanding, this life should be more evident.

Otherwise all we have is understanding.

Good teaching should make this life evident.

Good learning should make this life evident.

God creates circumstances to give us opportunities to deny living as the natural man

and to try and draw.

The trick is to draw from this resurrection life that is in me.

The trick is to draw from the abundant resurrection life that is in me in circumstances.

I so want to try this out.

So want to try this out in every opportunity.

When sin confronts me, when my ugliness confronts me, when wrong reactions come up,

when I want to be what the Bible says I should not be,

when I'm jealous, when I'm proud, when I'm conceited, when I'm deceitful,

when I'm angry, when I'm hurt, when I'm upset,

can this life begin to flow?

Leave alone the other circumstances of life like the cares of life,

the sicknesses and diseases of the fallen world, the opposition, the persecution.

Can this life come out?

To live like him is to be aware of two things.

One, that this life, this resurrection life,

sometimes it's hard to just say this resurrection, so that's why I'm adding life.

This resurrection is contained in jars of clay.

Why is that important?

Because sometimes when we think of this kind of life and this kind of body,

that is when we think, eh, not real.

Because when you look at the limitations of this body, limitations of sin, limitations of decay,

all the things that we're not able to surmount over the last 50 or 40 or 30 or 70 years,

so many failures when you think of how this body has reacted, how this mind has reacted,

you look at the failure and you think to yourself, no, this life isn't real.

We've got to come to grips with the fact that this body that has failed many times,

this Jacob that has failed many times, this soul and spirit,

this soul that has failed many times still possesses within it the resurrection life of Christ.

I am the resurrection and life.

He is the one who dwells in me. This body possesses him.

That's the first thing I need to realize.

Yeah, yeah.

Because if the focus shifts to the jars of clay, then you see the flaws, you see the fractures,

you see the cracks and you think to yourself, nah, failed again, failed again, failed again, failed again, failed again.

So the first thing is to recognize that, to be highly aware of the resurrection life that I have,

the second is to live my human experience of life by the power of the life of the risen Christ in me.

I think we need to go back again and distinguish between am I living by scriptural principles,

am I living by verses, am I living by faith or am I living by life?

And if you're living by life, what will show is Jesus.

If you're living by faith, what will show is faith.

If you're living by scriptural principles, what will show is moral principles at work.

Nothing wrong with it. It's still very godly.

But the difference between a righteous man in the Old Testament and a righteous man in the New Testament is life.

Yeah, you're just speaking out aloud.

Yeah, you're processing your own thoughts and you're speaking them aloud.

You're not channeling me.

No, no, okay.

Okay, go ahead.

Life is like everything you think of is a part of the life of a person.

It's a very natural, organic thing.

You can actually be a person.

And it's like, oh, he actually believes that.

His senses are telling him that this is real versus like, questions like, hang on to faith.

Is that kind of thing you need?

And I think one of the keys that you can't have on the mind is one way that I can set that cost over here is with our words.

You know, just like saying it out loud, like hearing it out loud, like he would talk to you like that.

We have to process it using words and we have to continuously process it, changing our words once we use the first set of words.

If you don't go home and do that, this is not going to help.

So I'll go, I've got a board, I'll start writing on it and then erase it, write it again.

Then speak while I'm driving in the car.

I'm having this conversation with God's sake.

So what you're saying is, and then rephrase it, rephrase it again, write it.

Why?

Because my spirit knows well but my mind still doesn't and my mind may not grasp it.

I refuse to struggle when my mind doesn't grasp it because the Spirit of God is a teacher.

I can't teach myself this.

And so if I struggle to grasp these things, I'll come to my own conclusions.

So it might take two weeks. So what?

Two weeks is such a short time to understand the sunrise.

It would be like a very crude example so I don't want to give it.

Yeah, it won't work. It'll bring up ugly.

So one of the things we need to realize is, so to live my human experience or human life by the power of the life of the risen Christ in me,

to do that I must reckon myself, this is the hardest part I think,

I must reckon myself dead or unavailable or owing nothing.

Or unavailable or owing nothing to my natural life.

Which one suits you best?

Because like I was saying earlier, circumstances will provide you opportunities to either

draw from the abundance of the risen life of Christ in you in those circumstances

or it'll give you an opportunity to live out of your natural man, informed by scriptures.

Strange thing is resurrection life does not come to the living, it always comes to the dead.

Resurrection life does not come to the living, it comes to the dead.

You have to be dead before you can be resurrected. You don't resurrect living people.

And so in different areas if I can die to the natural way I would function,

in those areas the resurrection life of Christ comes crowding in.

And when it comes crowding in, then use your faith, then call out scriptures saying, aha, this is that.

So take anything, just see how we think, don't have a job, I need a job, I need a job, I need a job.

Resurrection life, I'm your shepherd Rohi, I'm Yaira, I'm your father.

My life is in you, you belong to me.

I know how to take care of you. That life just begins to speak naturally automatically.

This is the life that runs the universe. Why is it that I'm not able to connect man?

I'm connecting mostly with my natural life and then my mind starts struggling.

How am I going to get the money for this? How am I going to pay the rent?

How is this going to work? And it begins to crowd and then what do you do?

You go into your natural self or at best you go into your best Christian self.

You don't live out of that life of the risen Christ.

It is so hard for us to even wrap our arms around it because it is so alien to us who are not able to live.

It is so hard for us to even wrap our arms around it because it is so alien to us who have the risen life in us.

This is how he lived.

Can you give us an example of how we can die to the self and then naturally like move away from the living?

Yeah.

So give me a natural, give me a circumstance. Just give me any circumstance. Anybody?

You are falsely accused.

Okay, so false accusation, circumstance.

And so now you stand falsely accused and immediately the good Christian is going to die.

Okay, so false accusation, circumstance.

And so now you stand falsely accused and immediately the good Christian that I am goes to Isaiah 54, 17.

No weapon forged against me shall prosper. Every tongue that accuses me falsely shall be spoken against.

This is the vindication that comes from the servants of the Lord.

Or my innocence shall be established as the noonday sun, Psalm 37.

Or, oh God, vindicate me. See how my enemies speak against me and silence them and vindicate me.

So these are just natural ways of living.

And then there is the risen life of Christ that when accusations come, the risen life of Christ would move one of two ways.

One, as a lamb being led to the slaughter, he did not speak a word.

And he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.

Or, my father knows me. I am not here to give witness to you. My father bears witness to me.

When they are accusing him, are you the son of God? Yes, I am.

His life deals with it very differently.

We as Christians go to preserve our life, protect our life, defend our life.

His life is always self-giving.

Everything about his life is very different from how we as Christians react.

It's very different.

In every situation you will see that we have divided our lives into Christian life.

And then there is Christ's life, the resurrected life and Christian life.

I want to stop living the Christian life. I want to live the resurrected life.

I wrote a song 10 years ago. It is called, I live the life of another.

For the life I used to live has now ceased to exist, terminated at the cross.

I live the life of another. For the life I used to live has now ceased to exist, terminated at the cross.

I work the works of another. I can't do nothing on my own.

For if I am dead, then my works are as cold as stone.

So we live out of a godly natural life. And I am saying, let's live out of a different life.

So you live the life of another, you work the works of another.

I am explaining this better than I thought I could. So that's a good sign.

So reckon yourself dead or unavailable or owing nothing to your natural life.

That's going to be the hardest part, because everything in you will kick in.

Your survival instincts will kick in, your coping mechanisms will kick in, your culture will kick in,

your ways of doing things in the past will kick in, your experience will kick in,

what you've seen others do will kick in, all those will kick in.

You don't owe it anything. You owe first to this resurrection life in you.

Then let other things inform you.

This life yearns to flow. It yearns to flow. Resurrection life yearns to flow.

This is the rivers of living water. It yearns to flow and wherever it flows and whatever it touches,

regardless of whether you want it or not, once you release it, it produces life.

Any words you speak, any tiny action that comes from resurrection life will give life.

It doesn't matter how flawed you are, it will give life.

That's the story of that South African song that I sang.

When I was in South Africa, I sang a song, didn't want to sing it. It didn't matter.

My words were clumsy, the tune was clumsy, they said I was singing in a monotone,

they said I was spoiling worship, but it gave life.

Because this life yearns to flow.

Sometimes when you're going against the grain of everything natural, thrill at it,

because perhaps you're stepping beyond the limits of how you would operate naturally

and you're stepping into the realm of resurrection life.

The more we constrain ourselves with our natural life,

the more we decide that this is the kind of life I will live because this is how I practice things,

this is my culture, this is how we do things in this church, this denomination.

I'm not holding down on just worship or anything, worship is just a tiny, tiny part of life.

I'm saying the more I am restricted by my natural life, and our natural life restricts us. Why?

Because our natural lives are natural to us.

But there are moments when you know you're going against the grain of your natural life,

and everything in you is screaming, saying sit down, one more step and you will look like the foolishest person in this room.

That is when perhaps you're stepping into that realm where another's life will begin to flow.

And when it does, you will end up looking really foolish, but someone else will live.

Foolishness for life, it's a really easy exchange.

Your foolishness for someone else's life.

When we do that, in the circumstances we are in, we will see resurrection life manifesting.

When we do that, in circumstances where we decide not going to go this way,

there's something in me that is speaking and I can hear it.

There's a different voice inside me.

There is a sound inside me that I don't even want to hear.

Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet. But it's rising.

We usually know how to shut it off and go godly.

But if you can let it go, you will realize that in your circumstances, divine life begins to manifest,

and the results are so different from what you would achieve through faith or through scripture or through other stuff.

It's very different. And you marvel at it.

Water turning into wine, the first miracle at Kena was actually a picture of natural life and resurrection life.

One was natural, the other one was supernatural.

Take six pitchers full of water, fill it to the brim and see what I will do.

And in a second, you have vintage wine and it is poured out for the guests of the master.

Otherwise, you just give water. I remember the first time I went to Derek and Don's house.

They just invited me to their apartment and they said, want anything to drink?

I said, sure. You got a Coke? No.

Okay, any juice? Don't have any juice.

So what do you have? Water.

Okay. I said, I'll have some water.

You don't have a glass.

So I said, how do you drink? Bottle.

So there's a communal bottle. Everybody who comes and drinks out of that bottle.

Thank God the boys got married.

So the first miracle at Kena was that way.

And from then on, every time I went to their house, I'm telling you the honest truth,

I would take a glass and plate with me because you never knew whether you would get one or not.

But I believe things have changed though they haven't invited me since they got married.

Here's some more things about this life when we land.

It is death-defying, meaning it cannot be overcome by death.

It is limitless, as in it will go on forever.

It is joyful because it's free.

It is unconquerable by anything because it's the life of Christ.

It is life-giving.

Next time circumstances have made you sad or people have made you sad

or things are really causing you sadness because of loss,

try to say in those circumstances, see if you can let the resurrection and the life in you

bring you the joy and the freedom that that life possesses in its very quality.

When your relationships are breaking down, and they need to be fixed,

but can you do it from a joyful, free place?

We don't even know how to go there. We start praising.

I'm not saying don't praise. I mean everything has its place.

But primarily we have a different life in us.

Everything else should be added to it.

We are using methods to get to a place, and we actually have life to be in that place.

Unconquerable.

We carry this life in a physical body,

and so the enemy uses my limitations to anesthetize me to the immeasurable capacity that I actually have,

saying, look, you failed before. Look, nothing worked. Look, you tried being joyful. Look.

Part of it is because we've been using methods constantly to get to places.

If you had a well in your house that you can dig in, every time you dig, water will come up.

Then you wouldn't use methods to quench your thirst. You would always go to the well.

Not a good example because we don't know what it is to dig a well, nor do we have wells.

This is why we need to pray Ephesians 1.18.

Oh God, please open my eyes that I might see, that my mind might be enlightened

to this tremendous resurrection power that raised Christ from the dead.

The same power is supposed to energize me, give life to my mortal body.

When we begin to think like this, a strange thing will happen. I guarantee you this, based on Romans 8,

that when we begin to live out of this life, you will find your body suddenly turning healthy

because these bodies suddenly become the container of he who is the resurrection and the life.

Instead of going to healing scriptures, and we must exert faith because it pleases the Lord,

you go to healing scriptures because of the life you possess.

The scriptures explain the life.

The scriptures give you knowledge of the quality of the life you possess.

It's beautiful man.

By the Spirit, that's how this life is brought to us, everything that God is, Christ was,

everything that Christ accomplished, the Holy Spirit now manifests.

By the Spirit, Jesus personally lives in me as though it were his own body.

Romans 6.19, by the Spirit, Jesus who is the resurrection and life.

By the Spirit, Jesus who said, I am the resurrection and the life, by the Spirit,

Jesus who is the resurrection and life lives in me as though it were his own body.

The emphasis fell on the wrong part.

But this is the first part.

The second is, so then Christ is on the throne and he who is the resurrection and life is in person in me.

So then Christ is on the throne and he who is the resurrection and life in person is in me.

He's in person in me.

Once you begin to think like this, even sinning becomes a little harder.

How do you sin when you're more and more conscious of resurrection and life in you?

It becomes a little more difficult.

Because this life is so opposed to sin that it's not even compatible.

It cannot tolerate sin.

Because I am the resurrection and life.

I live in you.

And the more you get used to this life, the harder it gets to sin because this life just despises sin.

When Christians begin to have a natural despising of sin, you know that they've stepped into an odd place of victory.

But it's no longer a struggle.

It's like, poof, that's Greek.

Smarty fans, eh?

I could tell you the Hebrew.

Because Hebrew is a little more guttural.

Isn't that true, Tuni?

I mean, he's a Hebrew scholar.

Yeah, he said it's right.

The distance between the ascended Christ and me is collapsed by the Holy Spirit.

Beautiful, eh?

The distance between the ascended Christ, he who is Lord, sovereign over all the earth, he who is King,

the distance between the ascended Christ and me is collapsed by the Holy Spirit.

And so now Christ gets to King through me.

But Christ gets to King freely through me when I live out of his life, which is resurrection life,

which is him because he said I am the resurrection and the life.

He gets to King fluidly through me when I live out of this life.

When I'm living out of scriptures and faith and all this stuff,

he just hopes that I know all the scriptures and I'm exerting enough faith.

This sounds like a dissing of faith and scriptures.

It's not.

They inform my mind and teach my heart, but I must learn how to connect with the life that I have first.

Last sentence.

Always remember with this life that the Holy Spirit, the three scriptures have come, Genesis 1 and 2.

With this life, always be ready because you know the Holy Spirit is hovering over things that are chaotic.

What's he waiting for?

He's waiting for John 6 63 to happen.

What is John 6 63?

Will Jacob, will Acts 29 begin to speak words that are spirit in life?

Speak words that are spirit in life.

Sometimes guys, spirit in life words need not be scriptures.

Sometimes spirit in life are words that come out of the essence of the nature of Christ.

Sometimes they're actions that come out of the nature and essence of Christ.

Yes, new scriptures.

Scriptures are life because God says my word is a hammer.

My word is a consuming fire.

My word is life.

My word is lamp.

Yes.

Then finally, after you know that the Spirit of God is hovering over chaos, you know that Christ is in you.

You know that he's kinging through you.

At the end of the day, one of the things he wants to do through us is bring his presence here on earth.

John 6 63, speak.

If you don't speak, this is why last week also, last Friday, I kept saying guys speak.

Speak.

You don't speak.

You are doing the king and the kingdom and us a disservice.

You're robbing us.

You're robbing the king.

You're robbing the kingdom.

And the last scripture is Revelation 4.1.

We finish speaking and then we go back and look to God.

And he opens heavens and says come up higher so I can show you more.

And then the cycle starts again.

Any questions?

So when you find yourself in circumstances this week, try practice this.

I'll be there waiting, encouraging you, saying come.

Any questions?

No?

Okay.

Let's end.

Father, why do we find out things so late in life, oh God?

Thank you for letting us find it so we can practice it with the years we have left.

I'm just talking about us who are older.

For the younger ones, wow, such a gift to be able to live like this father for years on end.

We humble ourselves, Lord, to receive, not to receive, to just acknowledge and recognize this life.

We have already received this life.

So whatever the posture of being humble is for each of us, could just be a bowing of our head,

could be kneeling, could be taking our shoes off, could be just outstretched arms.

Whatever it be, oh God.

We just want to recognize this life, this resurrection life, this resurrection, this you.

I am the resurrection and the life.

And after recognizing it, we just want to say that we want to make that our default.

We want to make that our default.

So just want to take a few minutes and do that and then we can leave, oh God.

Oh Holy Spirit, this is in the Father's interest, this is in the Son's interest, this is in your interest,

and it is certainly for our benefit.

So I am very sure that you're going to help us.

So could you pick any of the things that are spoken and applied to our lives to the extent that we can understand

and more than that, a recognition.

This is the life I possess.

Today is not an event, it is a person.

So we'll just do that for a little while, Father.

In your own ways, guys.

Whatever.

It looks like to humble yourselves to recognize this life and to say no to our natural lives

and choose this one as our default.

Just a recognition of the fact that right now I share the very life of Christ,

the private life he possesses is the life he personally shares with me by indwelling me.

That is the quality of life, the essence of life I have.

It's the only life I have.

I choose, we choose this life, oh God.

We choose this life.

This life is overcoming, this life is obedient, this life loves pleasing God,

this life flows, this life gives life.

This life is the risen life of Christ in me right now.

This life allows me to live like Jesus.

This life despises sin.

This life speaks.

Orchestrate circumstances to speak, oh God, where we can practice this life.

When you orchestrate circumstances, they are not meant for our dismantling, our defeat, our ruin.

They are meant for our excelling.

This is the common life we possess.

All of us have this life if we are born again.

It is the one table we draw from.

All of us have the same life.

It becomes easier, Father, to even relate to each other, to embrace each other with the faults and the strivings and the failures and the training that has to happen.

I embrace this life about, I give it a warm hug.

I'm a proud possessor of this life.

It's a gift that you gave us.

It is the life that you presently have before the Father as you sit at his right hand.

It is presence.

Did you have a song?

Did you have a song you were humming?

In awe of the one who gave it all, I stand with soul and heart to surrender.

All I am is yours.

I stand with arms high and heart abandoning, in awe of the one who gave it all.

I stand my soul, Lord, to you surrender.

All I am is yours.

The reason we sing it is surrendering to the resurrection and life, the Christ.

You say, here, my life is being exchanged, and on that one, here I surrender.

Surrender is to give something away, to receive something.

I stand with arms high and heart abandoning, in awe of the one who gave it all.

I stand my soul, Lord, to you surrender.

All I am is yours.

I stand my soul, Lord, to you surrender.

I stand my soul, Lord, to you surrender.

I stand my soul, Lord, to you surrender.

I stand my soul, Lord, to you surrender.

I stand my soul, Lord, to you surrender.

I stand my soul, Lord, to you surrender.

I stand my soul, Lord, to you surrender.

I stand my soul, Lord, to you surrender.

I stand my soul, Lord, to you surrender.

I stand my soul, Lord, to you surrender.

I stand my soul, Lord, to you surrender.

I stand my soul, Lord, to you surrender.

I stand my soul, Lord, to you surrender.

The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning.

It's time to sing your song again.

Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me.

Let me be singing when the evening comes.

Bless the Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul.

Worship his holy name.

Sing like never before, oh my soul.

I will worship your holy name.

I will worship your holy name.

Bless you guys as you go.

If you need prayer, please do come up and someone will pray for you.

If you are praying for someone one-on-one, call somebody else, preferably a leader,

so that they can hear what you're praying, so that it's not a one-on-one prayer that goes unwavering.

That's a snap we know.

So if I'm praying for someone, it's best to have someone else here so they can witness what I'm praying.

Make sure that when we pray here in church and it's a one-on-one prayer, you have someone else with you who can hear what you're praying,

and that's super important, so thank you for doing that.

I was going to say in Jesus' name, but I won't.

See you guys.

Thank you.

Thank you.