Praise the Lord and “Happy Easter” to everyone in this great faith community.
Let us rejoice together that we do not worship a God who must go through death and resurrection every year! Jesus Christ is the Resurrected One. He is alive forevermore. He is the resurrection and the life, the same yesterday, today, and forever. This is what we celebrate on this most important period on the Christian calendar.
This Easter Season, let us lift our eyes again to the wonder of the cross, the power of His resurrection, and the victory He has secured for us. Because He lives, we have hope. Because He lives, we have peace. Because He lives, we have the promise of new life in Him, bought by His precious blood at Calvary.
The Tomb is Empty—Our Redeemer LIVES!
Easter is not merely a yearly observance. It is the great declaration that Jesus Christ has conquered sin, death, hell, and the grave. As Scripture says, “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor 15:54), and again, “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 15:57).
As Smith Wigglesworth wrote:
“Oh, the word resurrection! I wish I could say it just on parallel lines with the word Jesus. They very harmoniously go together. Jesus is resurrection, and to know Jesus in this resurrection power is simply to see that you have no more to be dead but alive unto God by the Spirit.
Oh, I tell you, there is something in pursuit, there is something in waiting. What is it? Oh, it is this—God slays a man that he may begin on a new plane in his life.We shall have to be slain utterly if we want to know that resurrection power of Jesus.”
—Smith Wigglesworth1
This is the testimony of Scripture:“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal 2:20).The cross brings the old man to an end, and the resurrection reveals the life of Christ. Paul said, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection” (Phil 3:10). This is not shallow religion, but a deep spiritual reality. We are called to know Christ not only in word, but in death to self and in resurrection life by the Holy Spirit.
As it is written,
“Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor 4:10–11). And again, “if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you… he shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Rom 8:11).
A Dead Christ Can Do NOTHING!
It’s a LIVING CHRIST we serve! So let’s celebrate with thanksgiving all that God has given us in His Son; His mercy, His grace, His salvation, and His unfailing love. In Him we are blessed, redeemed, strengthened, and filled with living hope. This is the glory of Easter: not a dead Christ remembered, but a living Christ enthroned; not a powerless faith, but the risen Saviour still working in all who believe.
Reinhard Bonnke wrote:
“Can you think about Jesus being dead in the grave? Do you think that God could do anything for us if Jesus was still there? After His crucifixion and until He was laid in the grave, everything had to be done for Him, and I want you to see that a dead Christ can do nothing for you. He carried the cross—so don’t you carry it. The cross covered everything, and the resurrection brought everything to life.
When He was in the grave, the Word of God says that He was raised from the grave by the operation of God through the Spirit, and this Jesus was quickened by the Spirit in the grave, and this same Spirit dwells in your mortal bodies. Jesus rose by the quickening power of the Holy Ghost. ‘But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies…’ (Rom 8:11).”
—Reinhard Bonnke2
As Job declared, “I know that my redeemer liveth” (Job 19:25). And as the risen Christ declared, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore” (Rev 1:18).
May this Easter be filled with peace, joy, strength, holy fire, and the presence of the Lord.
Happy Easter to us all!
Dr Alan Pateman
Apostle, Bishop & Chancellor of LICU
1. Excerpt from “Smith Wigglesworth on Manifesting the Power of God”
2. Excerpt taken from “HOLY SPIRIT Are we FLAMMABLE OR FIREPROOF?” Published by Christ for all Nations PO Box 590588 Orlando, FL 32859-0588, CfaN.org, © 2017 by Reinhard Bonnke
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