There are so many things I love about the Christian faith and gospel. One of the things I appreciate the most is the power that it brings to change lives from situations of hopelessness and despair to situations of breakthrough, victory and life! When Jesus launched His ministry, he read from Isaiah 61, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom the the captives, and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
This powerful passage was the cornerstone of Jesus’ life and ministry. Jesus came to bring good news and hope to those without it! Now, of course, He didn’t just preach a message of encouragement; His ministry and message was endued with life transforming power. Miracles punctuated His every word and every action! When Jesus came with good news, He backed it up with power!
Isaiah 61 goes on to say so many wonderful things, but the one I want to focus on today is where it says in verse 3 that God would “bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” In life’s toughest moments, it’s most desperate situations, its worst predicaments; the Gospel comes, bringing the best of Divinity to the worst of humanity.
Jesus’ own life demonstrates this truth so powerfully. He was forsaken by His followers and left for dead. He was crucified alongside common criminals. He was thrown onto the scrap heap of life. His life was ashes and ruin, then something powerful began to rise up out of the ashes when Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus was the embodiment of the Word of God and the Gospel. No power can keep the Truth of the Gospel down forever.
The Gospel carries within it the seed of the indestructible. It rises from the ashes! Today, you have that wonderful indestructible seed of the Gospel on the inside of you. You may be feeling like your life is in ruins and you will never come back from the ashes you find yourself in. Today I want to remind you and encourage you, that if you continue to believe and put your trust in Jesus, He will turn your ashes into a crown of authority, victory and beauty.
When Jesus rose from the dead, He was sending the world a message; that this Gospel we preach is an unstoppable Gospel. Today because of Jesus, you are unstoppable! Now the enemy may have tried to destroy you and ruin you and put you down, but you will always rise because you have resurrection power inside of you!
Paul said it like this “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
(2 Corinthians 4:8-10)
Paul wasn’t running from the harsh and difficulties realities of life and the spiritual warfare he was in, but he understood that as he went through these times of hardship and suffering (tough times) that something powerful was being worked into him. He was coming closer to Jesus in His death and in His life. He knew that when his own life was in ashes, the wonderful resurrection power would manifest at some point and bring deliverance, life and hope.
And what about those who died in faith surrendering their very lives for the cause of the Gospel? One of the early Church Fathers Tertullian said “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” He had witnessed the persecution the early Church had undergone and its prolific growth as a result. There are countless accounts of the blood of God’s precious children being the catalyst for mighty revivals and harvest in the ensuing years.
Even if you lay your very life down for the sake of the Gospel, something powerful will rise from the ashes. Some feel or have the sense that their sin is too great for God to forgive, or their situation too hopeless for God to fix and intervene in. But God says, “No, I specialize in ashes.” I will trade your ashes for beauty, your mourning for joy, and your heaviness for a garment of praise.
Today I want to encourage you, that even if it feels like your life is in ashes and ruins, something is about to rise from the ashes. God is about to demonstrate His power. You are about to see the glory of God is your situation, because you are His child and no power in heaven or earth can hold you down!
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