The life of the believer
The life of the believer
(Proving the resurrection)
David Wilkerson
And if Christ be not raised, your faith [is] vain;
ye are yet in your sins.
1Corinthians 15:17
Paul says,
“We as Christians know about the resurrection
and believe and receive it by faith.”
… also ye are risen with [him]
through the faith of the operation of God,
who hath raised him from the dead.
Colossians 2:12
You rejoice in the resurrection because of faith
But where did you get that faith?
You’ve got that faith from your knowledge of God,
from the knowledge of the Word.
You’ve got it from preaching.
You’ve got it from reading this.
And the Holy Ghost confirmed the Word to you.
Have you and I today rejoiced in alive Christ
who sits at the right hand of the Father?
ye are the epistle of Christ,
written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God;
not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
(2Corinthians 3:3)
They don’t have a Bible on your job.
They don’t have any preaching that they would listen to.
But they do have something that they can read.
They read you, and they read me.
And this is the only epistle that can prove
the resurrection of Jesus Christ this last day.
The only epistle.
It’s written in your heart.
If you believe in Jesus and you’re His child,
you are a testimony and everything you say and do
preaches to this world.
Ye are our epistle and read of all men:
(2Corinthians 3:2)
They read you.
Preaching to your kids and not living that life at home
is not gonna work.
Having your conversation …
(which is in the original Greek behavior)
honest among the Gentiles
that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers,
they may by [your] good works,
which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
(1Peter 2:12)
If you’re going to be an epistle,
he said, of Jesus Christ proving the resurrection
you dare not indulge in the covetousness
that has this whole society in its grip.
This whole society’s gone mad for covetousness.
He said, “You are not to go after to these things.
They’re not to be the very center of your life.
They’re not to possess you, your thought and your thinking.”
And folks, what is in your heart,
whatever rules your heart is gonna rule your lips,
your tongue, and you’re gonna speak
that on the job wherever you are.
And they’re gonna know.
People around that work around you,
they know whether you’re covetous or not.
Here is what the Scripture says.
If ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Colossians 3:1
Set your affection on things above,
not on things on the earth.
Colossians 3:2
On the job they see a quiet, resting spirit
that is fully trusting in Jesus
thanking God for what you already have,
not grasping of rich and not jealousy.
Folks, these little things that seem so little,
they destroy our testimony
of the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.
People’re reading your life and they’re reading my life.
According to James,
some Christians’ behaviors are a lie
against the truth, a real lie.
But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts,
glory not, and lie not against the truth.
James 3:14
That which is in your heart toward someone
is really not toward someone.
It’s toward Him.
Remember they murmured against Moses
and they had bitterness in their hearts
toward the man and they were ready to stone him.
They said, “You brought us out here to kill us.”
Moses goes to the Lord.
He said, “Lord, they’re about to stone me.”
You know what the Lord said.
Very clearly.
“Their murmuring’s not against you.
They’re against Me.”
It’s really not toward the individual.
The Lord takes it personal.
He said, “That bitterness is toward your Father in Heaven.”
Because you don’t want Him
to rule over this area in your life.
You don’t want to yield this one thing to the Lord.
You’re bitter towards your boss?
Why don’t you go after him or her on your knees?
God, help us to be that living epistle,
a pure, quite, trusting and restful before our fellowmen.
I pray about that everyday in my life.
I want that meekness of Christ they can see,
that concern that you have for their needs.
That’s proving the resurrection.
Otherwise all of our talk about the resurrection is in vain.
Lord, I want to be a testimony to the power of Jesus Christ.
Jesus, help me to live honestly and righteously.
Help me, Lord Jesus, in my family to be a testimony
to the power of Jesus to deliver and set free.