A Better Covenant

 

“I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ.” (Philemon 6)

When we become believers and receive Christ as our Savior, it doesn’t end there. There is a growing understanding we need to have related to what Christ wants from us and what we have available in Him.

Hebrews 1:3-4 says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So He became as much superior to the angels as the name He has inherited is superior to theirs.”

He is above all things and seats us with Him. We have this better covenant that is based upon His blood. He has been given all spiritual authority and sustains all things by His powerful word. This covenant and all its promises are received and operated out by faith just as our salvation is by faith.

When Jesus walked the earth, over and over, people received according to their faith. Jesus asks the two blind men if they believe before healing them. Then as He touches them, He says, let it be according to their faith (Matthew 9:28-29). They were healed by their own faith in Jesus as their intermediary to this new Covenant.

We receive and operate out of spiritual gifts by faith as well. Paul says in Romans 12:6-7, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith.”

One author, Eberle, writes, “When faith releases that which is spiritual into the natural, the natural must respond, yield and change. When spiritual energy flows out of a man, it influences the natural world in accordance to what is within His heart…. The greater the faith of a person, the greater will be his spiritual influence upon the natural world.” [1]

We see God pressing the people to operate out of faith and belief even in the Old Testament under the Covenant. God sets His people free from bondage and causes them to miraculously cross over the Red Sea while it splits before them. He sends the people to claim a land that they must overcome people twice their size. The walls of Jericho fall, not by their own strength, but by their praise. The Lord takes down the wall by faith.

God is asking them to see by faith rather than the natural. He gets angry with them for operating out of the natural after witnessing His miracles. It wasn’t an okay or even a tolerated path for His people from God’s standpoint to see His miracles and then insist to walk in the natural. It was a hinderance that kept them back from living into what He had for them in His plans and purposes.

“I live by faith and not by sight, sometimes miracles take time” sings in the background.

In Hosea 4:6 the Lord says, ““My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”

In pressing His people into the miraculous, He was training His people to believe for and anticipate the supernatural operating and intervention by God. The glory continually resided with them and they were to center their entire lives around this glory in the midst of them. They were to see everything in light of this powerful God that went with them. They were charged to push out the darkness, extinguishing it, as they took possession of the land and filled it with Kingdom aligned ways.

As with the Old Covenant, under the new and better Covenant through Jesus, we have been given spiritual authority in Christ. It is a spiritual and not natural authority as we have been born again into heavenly realms. Paul says in Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.”

We see evidence of this spiritual authority manifest with the disciples of Christ. Peter, who had been given a gift of influence, operated in this gift in supernatural ways. In Acts 2:36 Peter preached the very first sermon of Jesus Christ crucified. And as he did, is says, “When they heard this, they were stung in the heart and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (vs. 37)

As the more of the glory was present among them, we also see the authority more present as well. For example, during an outpouring of the Spirit, when Ananias and Sapphira lied and turned in half the funds from their property deceitfully saying it was all they had, they were not only convicted to the heart for their sin, but they fell down and died when Peter confronted them about their lie. (Acts 5:1-10)

Just as Jesus caused the fig tree to shrivel up and die by faith when He cursed it, the natural responded to the authority of the Kingdom when Peter confronted them for their sin by his words. And this authority is released by faith. When shriveling up the fig tree, the Lord told them that they could move a mountain by their faith.

The greater our faith, the more we are aligned with the Kingdom and can pull from it. Our faith is like the channel that brings the Kingdom to earth. One author, Eberle, writes, “When people with great authority [spiritually] speak, it impacts many lives. Another person could verbalize the same things and very few, if any, people would be influenced.” He also notes that the greater a person’s faith, the greater spiritual force will be behind the words. [2]

There is something with spiritual alignment. When we are aligned with the Lord, operating with faith in what He has called us to, we have greater authority. Eberle notes that when we take responsibility for our words to be released only in alignment with the Lord, we will find that they have more power and authority that accompanies them. [3]

But, not only in words is the power unleashed, but also by actions. We see this kind of alignment and authority with Elisha as, when someone was thrown into his grave, they were raised from the dead. He had so much spiritual power that flowed through him as a result of his faith and alignment with the Kingdom of God that this spiritual power still resided in his body even after he went home to be with the Lord.

In Acts 5:16, as the presence of the Lord was powerfully with the Apostles and the church was being established, people would lay their sick and wounded on mats in the streets for Peter to pass by. By his shadow touching them, they were healed. It says that all the tormented, sick, and hurting were healed.

It brings me back to how Jesus described His Kingdom coming when he told the disciple to go tell John the Baptist in Luke 7:22, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”

As Jesus sent His disciples out two by two before He finished His time on earth, He told them in Luke 10: 9, “Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.” Then as He came back after His death, He commissioned the remaining disciples, telling them that He had all authority, and that He was giving them this authority to make disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey as He promised to be with them (Matthew 28:19).

This incredible news that we are to bring to all around the world is not only that Jesus has been crucified and risen again, but that He is available to us in the full goodness of His power. We have authority to not only speak to people about the Kingdom but to help them experience it.

And, like the Israelites that began to take the Promised Land, it was as they stayed in alignment with the Lord, operated out of faith, and progressively stepped out, more of the fullness of the Kingdom came. Eberle notes, “…The fullness of God’s power and authority has been promised to the believer. However, our experience of it is progressive as we step out, faithfully doing what God leads each step of the way.” [4]

“I’ve got miracles on miracles, count your miracles, 1,2,3,4, I can’t even count them all” sings in the background.

This song verse is so true for my life. Personally, I have seen miracle after miracle. I have a basket that I try to keep track of miracles and incredible encounters in my life. But it is hard to keep up. So many miracles in my life, one after the other. Then I hear people who have never experienced any miracles in their life and have to scratch my head on why. I come back to wondering if some people get stuck in the rational mind and natural.

“It’s a love that calls you higher, come up here” sings in the background.

Coming back to the first verse, in deepening our understanding of every good thing that we share in as a result of Jesus Christ, I believe what God has for us, is not to continue to live out our lives in the natural. How does this take faith? I believe God wants us to live and operate out of the supernatural by faith as we are partakers in His Kingdom.

As Jesus begins His return, and comes in a cloud of power and glory, I imagine His Bride will experience more of the manifest fullness of this power. We will more fully take the land and bring His Kingdom, overpowering the darkness around us and bringing many to Christ by the power of His Spirit.

As yesterday I went to a movie called, "Come Out, In Jesus Name", and saw (and participated in) mass deliverances in a movie theater, I was reminded of something I wrote some ten years ago about preparing for His return and Isaiah 25:6. In the backdrop of gloom, terror and judgment during a period of great tribulation, God poured out His Spirit preparing a [coronation] feast for His people as He brought them through darkness and difficulty, providing them deliverance. [5] As judgment against the darkness came through the theaters, it felt like such a rich feast on His goodness. Every place gave way to the Lord. I went home with such joy and dreamed I had attended this banqueting festival where people struggling in the flesh with giving their lives fully to Christ, were set free from demonic oppression (Rev. 19:17-18). Lord, You do amazing things. You part seas, turn dry bones into armies, bring purpose to the hopeless, help the blind to see, the deaf to hear and the lame to walk just to mention a few. You are nothing short of a God who makes Himself known by the miraculous. Thank You for inviting us into this amazing Kingdom! Thank you for the authority you give us. Align us greater with Your will and purposes and help us to walk out the supernatural in ways that glorify You. 1-4. Eberle, Harold R. Spiritual Realities: Powers and Activities of Man’s Spirit, Volume 4. Winepress Publishing, Yakima, Washington. 1998. 5. And on this Mount [Zion] shall the Lord make for all peoples a feast of rich things... (longingforyourmitzvot.blogspot.com)