Philippians 3:10 … that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection… (NKJV).
In the last “Brief Word” (Issue #13 August 2010) I said that Paul WAS striving after something. He was pressing in, striving, leaning forward, to know Christ intimately but also to know the power of His resurrection. It’s interesting the pathway Paul mentions on the way to knowing the power of Christ’s resurrection.
Paul says (Philippians 3:10) “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection”, but he goes on to say, “and the fellowship of His sufferings”, and he even goes further to say “being conformed to His death”. Wow! Then he ends that thought with the clincher: (Philippians 3:11) ”if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead”.
In other letters Paul speaks of being united with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection! (See Galatians 2:20, Romans 4-6). There’s a process here and a pathway to the fulfillment of our purpose and vision that we can learn from. We learn from Paul and other Bible characters like Abraham and Joseph, about this process. We could say that in the process of the fulfillment of a Godly vision, there is its birth, its death, and its resurrection!
Take Abraham. (See Genesis 11 – 25). He was given a vision. It certainly was his and his family’s desire for a son. You may be familiar with this story. He got tired of waiting for God to move and fulfill the promise and tried to do what he could to make it happen. Ishmael, the ensuing result of the human effort, has been a pain ever since to the divine son of promise. What a lesson!
In his death time he tried to help the vision come to pass and messed things up. Trying to preempt the vision and make things happen only leads to pain. And everybody suffered. Abraham, Sarah, and even Hagar and Ishmael went through their own pain. Yet God in His amazing mercy turns even that into good, and makes a nation from Ishmael.
So when Abraham’s dream and vision had truly died, it was then that God resurrected it. Supernaturally.
Take Joseph. (See Genesis 37 – 50). What a journey of ups and downs he went through! He was given an amazing vision of all his older brothers bowing down to him. Wouldn’t that do something for your ego? But we read of his dream and vision dying. He served as a slave and was languishing in prison all those years! He even endured the joy of a promotion but then a humiliating demotion! During his death time in his vision, it was a testing for him. Here’s the point: between the word of promise and its fulfillment is testing. We read, Psalm 105:17-19 He sent a man before them – Joseph – who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with fetters, he was laid in irons. Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him. (NKJV).
Birth, Death & Resurrection!
The same applies to us. Dare I say it, (and it is hard to admit it) testing is actually good for us. God gives a dream, a vision, and before its fulfillment there is a time of non-fulfillment when it seems to die. During this death time it is a testing time for us, when our character and our relationship with God and our foundations and the reality of the vision itself are being tested. I’m very glad our cars have been thoroughly tested before they reach the production line. Otherwise we might be driving along and a suspension part breaks because it wasn’t tested to absolute extremes to make sure it can withstand the pressures of normal driving.
The Apostle Paul had a waiting time before his vision started to happen. We read in Galatians 1:18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. (NKJV). Then again in Galatians 2:1 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me. (NKJV). Did you see that – 14 years! Have you ever thought what it was like for Paul to carry such a revelation as he had, for 14 long years! That would have been a testing time!
I believe that in the plan of God, the process of birth, death and resurrection of a vision happens to us so that we will not rely on our own ability to fulfill His plan, and, so that we will come into the dimension of His power, His ability. We will have been tested and proven so that the vision and the dream – which always involves the blessing of others and the extension of His Kingdom – will happen by miraculous power, and not our own and will mean that God gets all the glory.
We may mess it up because of our impatience doing things ahead of time. The result is pain. But even there God is able to redeem and bring good from it and make something of benefit to the Kingdom from that mistake. And the waiting time is like a crucifixion and death. It is painful. But it is the pathway to the resurrection! Resurrection always comes after death!
If we trust God in the midst of the pain of waiting, we will know the joy of resurrection of our vision! We know that the resurrection is supernatural. It is miraculous. It is what only God can do. It is best to let God do what He has said He will do; He did it for Abraham, He did it for Joseph, He did it for Paul, and He’ll do it for you and I!
So Paul pressed in to know Christ, AND the power of His resurrection! Because he knew something of the miraculous power of resurrection, and that if he trusted God’s grace and timing, he too would experience a resurrection. No wonder he said in his letter to the Ephesians, Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power (“DUNAMIS”) that works in us. (NKJV).
