RIGHTEOUSNESS, PURITY AND POWER_FROM FAITH TO FAITH
(mr 02/09/18)
OLUBI JOHNSON

As the Church attains and manifests the glory of God, Christians will raise the dead but do so without noise, with no fanfare. We will do great miracles and say, ‘Don’t tell anybody’, and then just go back to Church and serve God! We will leave the vicinity while people are still wondering what happened!

Christians will give large sums of money without publicity or seeking recognition, desiring only to do what God says and to be a blessing. People will ask, “Are there people like that?” It is the miracles, gestures and selfless acts like these that will attract people to the Church.

The scripture says in:

Romans 1:17 KJV: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (17) For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

In this context, God is telling us that His emphasis is from faith in rightstanding to faith in rightdoing. The rightstanding is very important: it is the foundation that must translate into rightdoing. Faith for rightstanding is by the Blood of Jesus (Rom. 8: 10) which gives access to the life of God that flows from God into the human spirit when it is born again, and from there into the mind, will, emotions, body and circumstances to produce rightdoing. This is the righteousness that the world is waiting to see; not man’s righteousness, and certainly not a legalistic kind of righteousness: it is God’s righteousness! The world will see Christians who are behaving like God, thinking like God, feeling like God, acting like God and so will be prompted to say, “This is our God, we have waited for Him” (Isa.25:9). It is not a righteousness that is based on physical works, but one that is wrought by faith! First of all, faith for rightstanding; then by rightstanding, that is  having access to the power of God that will give power to act like God, to do the right things by the power of God.

This righteousness will produce an internal purity that has to do with purity of thought and motive. It is a ‘heart’ thing!

Matthew 5:8 KJV: Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

God wants us to be pure in all our thoughts and thinking! We may have an impure thought, but that is not the problem. The issue is what we do with such. If the thought comes but is never conceived: accepted by the will and desired to be acted upon by the mind and emotions, its effect will not manifest physically. We can control our thoughts only by the power of the Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 10:5 KJV: Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

When divine righteousness, the foundation of rightstanding and rightdoing, releases the life of God and the power of God from the Holy Spirit into the human spirit, it goes into the mind, the will, and the emotions. When the life and power of God from the Holy Spirit is reigning, dominating the will, the mind and the emotions, every foreign thought that is not of God; a lust, a contrary desire that assails your mind, your will, and emotions, the power of the Greater One that is inside will dominate the contrary impulses coming from the outside (1Jn.4:4; Eph.2:1-2) and make and keep you pure! This condition can be attained and maintained constantly (1 Jn. 1. 7-10; Heb. 13.20-21; 1 Jn. 2.5; 1 Jn. 4.12-13; Jn.7:38-39).

It is sad to see how the Church has emphasized tongues only for power, external miracles and such things. The primary purpose of tongues is to make you pure (Lk.11: 2-3) by releasing the power of God to enforce the kingdom of God, and so purify our mind, will, emotions and flesh, BEFORE we subsequently release the power of God for physical miracles!!

The power of God is first to be used to enable us think like God, to feel like God, to act like God, by enforcing the kingdom of God: the dominion of righteousness, peace and joy (Rom.14.17) by the power of the Holy Spirit! In fact, the degree to which we use the power of God to become like God is the degree to which there will be no hindrance to using the power of God to get physical miracles for daily sustenance. Sadly, the Church has put the cart before the horse! We want to use tongues to bind and incapacitate the devil and his cohorts, and there is nothing wrong with that; but the first application of the power of the Holy Spirit is to make us pure like God! Then praying for and seeing miracles come to pass will become easy! The daily bread will flow, and we will not walk into temptation; we will be delivered from all evil! If we fail, however, to enforce the kingdom, other blessings will be difficult to attain. The Lord Jesus said:

Matthew 6:33 KJV: But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Most Christians do not habitually pray for righteousness. It is true God wants us to have all good things, but the way to get them is first of all to use the power of the Holy Spirit for righteousness. The reason why we have not seen any appreciable measure of great financial and material blessings in the Church obtained in righteousness, is the prevailing lack of righteousness and purity in the Church! We have seen a little blessing, but what we see is just a drop in the bucket compared to what God really wants to give us. The reason why God cannot give many of us great wealth is that we do not manifest a pre-requisite level of purity and righteousness in conduct. If God were to give His Church great wealth and power as the Church is now, it would simply destroy us! 

Proverbs 1:32 KJV: For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

Solomon, as great as he was, with all the blessings of wealth and the wisdom that God gave him, did not use the wisdom for the attainment of spiritual excellence. He asked for wisdom to build a house, a garden and to rule; everything was for acquisition of physical possessions and applications. In spite of all his wisdom, Solomon finished badly (1 Kings. 11.1-8)! If he had first of all used the wisdom of God to develop himself internally, the prosperity would not have destroyed him (Deut.17: 14-20). He would not have married any of the daughters of the east country and brought their abominations inside the temple. God has determined that such would never happen again! That is why a greater than Solomon is here (Lk.11: 31): Christ in you, the Hope of glory (Col.1: 27)!

The Lord Jesus that is in us by His Holy Spirit is the One that will give us first, righteousness and purity, and then the prosperity that is greater than Solomon’s!

From faith to faith: from rightstanding to rightdoing. We must never be satisfied with rightstanding; as important as it is, it is just a beginning, a foundation that must translate into a righteousness that people can see and bear witness to; a righteousness that produces internal purity!