Let’s See The Power!

It’s reported that an Islamic group here, in Australia are soon to take out a series of national TV commercials to promote Islam. Supposedly they’ll feature several excerpts from the Koran to show that Muslims share similar values to Christians.  Apparently it is the same group that erected billboards across the nation, with the message, “Jesus is a prophet of Islam.”  Quote: “We thought it best to, for a lack of a better term, hijack Islam back and show you what Islam is really all about……..We hope that a campaign that seeks to build bridges, foster community across mainstream Australia and deal with misconceptions to achieve greater social understanding (such as this one) would be generally well received.”

That message, “Jesus is a prophet of Islam” is in line with Islamic beliefs that Jesus was/is not the Son of God (God manifested in a human body). In other words, Islam teaches Jesus Christ to be a mere man – a prophet, and not God Incarnate.  Islam also denies that Jesus died on a cross.  Therefore, if He didn’t die on the cross, neither did He rise from the dead; so Islam denies the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ too.  There are many other denials taught against the gospel of Christ, but these two are sufficient enough; they show us that Islam is fundamentally and irreconcilably opposed to biblical Christianity.

Interesting word, ‘misconception’ it means: an erroneous conception; mistaken notion.  I find it odd that the spokesperson seeks to address “misconceptions about Islam” without giving thought to his/her erroneous conception and mistaken notion about Jesus Christ.  Islam is not the only religious organization to deny and devalue the biblical Lord Jesus of course; Judaism refuses to acknowledge anything of the Lord. But, The Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons), The Church of Scientology, The Jehovah Witnesses, Bahai faith; these use Jesus’ name somewhere in their teaching, usually to make comparisons with their own leaders.

What I find most remarkable about these religions whether engaging in advertising and promotional campaigns or otherwise; to elevate themselves, they have to tear down Jesus Christ in the process.  In any man’s language that’s called criticism – and when an individual personally and negatively criticizes another individual, it simply shows up the gross insecurity of the critic.  In other words, it appears these religions can only stand if they make Christ fall.  There’s another insecurity showing up here too – the biblical Lord Jesus Christ is a threat to them all.  If that were not true, He would get no more attention from them than they give to the tooth fairy.

I am so grateful for the apostle Paul telling us in the Bible that, “….my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the (Holy) Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” 1 Corinthians 2:4.  Again, “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power” 1 Corinthians 4:20.  And again, “For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost……” 1 Thessalonians 1:5.  What does this mean?  For me, it means I am not interested in your mere words … Show me your spiritual power.  Let’s put it to the test.  Where is your spiritual power?  Let’s see the power!

There’s not a religious system in all the world that’s not full of words – volumes of words … they couldn’t survive without them.  But not so, biblical Christianity, it only requires a few words … “In the beginning God said, ‘Let there be…. and there was … Let there be….. and it was so.”  How’s that for power? “And He (Jesus) cast out the (evil) spirits with His word.” Matthew 8:16.  How about this? “God….has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being in the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things (the universe) by the word of His power, when He had purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…..” Hebrews 1:1-3. Not Herculean power, simply word power!

I have no doubt that right across the entire world there are some Muslims looking at Christians, and they too are saying to us, “Show me your spiritual power. Let’s put it to the test. Where is your spiritual power? Let’s see the power!” And too many Christians can’t deliver because they’re caught up in words … volumes of words – none of which are coming with any spiritual power because there’s not an ounce of Holy Spirit-anointing in them or on them.  They smile, they appease and placate, they talk about their desire for love, tolerance and compassion etc, and in all of it they are compromising the biblical Lord Jesus, who by now has turned His face from them … along with the Muslims.

So what power should a Muslim expect to see being expressed from a Christian? Answer – the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ as it is ministered through us under the anointing of God the Holy Spirit.  People say the Muslims deny the Trinity of God.  I say never mind what they say, they’re just using words, let’s forget about words and start operating out of obedience and faith to God and they’ll then see for themselves who’s right and what’s wrong.  Just like people caught up in those religious cults, most Muslims live in fear of God and that’s why we Christians need to demonstrate by our lives that, in Christ, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7.

Under the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ, Muslims should expect to see Christians demonstrate their Christ-given “authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and that nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Luke 10:19. There are no greater enemies in any person’s life than demonic spirits of fear, worry, anxiety, religious oppression, sickness and disease.  As Christians, we’ve been mandated to cast those things out!  We’ve been told by the Lord Jesus Christ to go, “lay hands on the sick and they will recover.” Mark 16:18.  Hardly anyone in the world is seeing these things, no wonder Jesus has been reduced to a mere prophet – Islam or otherwise.

The New Testament gospels show us that wherever Jesus went preaching the kingdom of God, He also healed the sick.  In other words, not only was He interested in healing the souls of people but their bodies as well. “Do you want to be made well (healthy, sound, whole)?” He asked in John 5:6.  A gospel that preaches the forgiveness of sins, as breathtakingly glorious as that is, is still only half a gospel Psalm 103:3; Matthew 8:16-17.  The Lord Jesus Christ is more willing to physically heal a person than most Christians are willing to believe.  It was as the Healer that the Lord first revealed Himself to me … conviction as a sinner came after that.

I can attest to the same thing happening to quite a few people on the streets when I was out there too.  They were not always ready to accept the truth of Who Jesus Christ really is, or accept His gospel of repentance, but it was a different story for the gospel of physical healing.  I praise God for that too, because back then I used to pray for healing and then finish my prayer with, “if it be Your will, Lord.”  In other words, even with a faithless prayer, God honored it.  What could He have done with a faithful prayer!?  Besides, too many unbelieving people question the love of God when all we can talk about is the need to repent.  But they don’t question that love when they experience His healing power!

Muslims should expect to see Christians demonstrating the reality that Jesus is the High Priest of our confession and just like His words, ours too are faith-filled, alive and full of power.  Why not?… it’s the same Holy Spirit granting them.  In fact, under the anointing of the Spirit, we are the voice of Jesus Christ on this earth.  Jesus wasn’t disturbed by what others thought of Him; He wasn’t moved by other people’s beliefs and opinions that didn’t line up with the Scriptures; the Holy Spirit was upon Him, the word of God was in Him and every religious person knew that, regardless of how much they denied Him, hated Him or killed Him.  That’s why He’s still a threat throughout the world today – again, Islam or otherwise.

Islam has only one vision and that is to conquer the world and bring it under subjection to Allah.  Biblical Christianity has no such vision.  We are called to simply go into the world and tell the people about the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done for us, then, the Lord Himself takes out of the world a people for His name Acts 15:14.  Based on the dead spiritual state of the church today it is clear that too many Christians have got nothing to tell.  They are not opening their mouths for Jesus.  But they are opening their ears to Islam and they are afraid of what they hear just as much as God-hating, Jesus-hating, Bible-hating are people afraid.  They know this is true and Islam knows they know.

So, for a Christian who will go into the world, what is it that we can tell a person about the biblical, resurrected Lord Jesus.  Resurrection is the key.  We can share the Living Jesus, not a dead one.  We can share that our sins are all on the cross of Jesus, washed from us by His shed blood and never to be held accountable to us ever again.  We can tell that person that we have eternal life right here right now and that they too can have it by trusting Christ with their lives.  We can tell that person that we are at peace with God and He’s at peace with us.  Nobody but a Christian has divine peace. So grand is it, that it cannot be described Philippians 4:7.

Continuing on; we can tell that person that as a result of our personal relationship with God we have been delivered from Satan’s kingdom.  In fact we are dead to it in spite of how it might otherwise look.  Same goes for religious law-keeping; we’re dead to that too.  We are delivered from self, which means we’ve been crucified as well; we only stink with religious self-righteousness when we take ourselves off the cross.  We’ve been delivered from the sinful nature – we are new creatures and all the old things have passed away from us.  We no longer think on a natural plain, we’ve moved up to the supernatural!

And should the person we speak to happen to be a Muslim, we can also tell him/her that as a born-again Christian, we have no need to conquer the world, because just like our Living Savior, Lord and Master, we already have!  We are delivered from the world too. Let’s see the power, you ask … there it is.  It is not the world you have to conquer, it is yourself.  But that’s not possible for you without the spiritual power of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (God Incarnate). “All authority has been give to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age….” Matthew 28:18-20.