Christmas celebrates the time when God’s Gift came into the world to love the world and restore to it love and hope. Whereas the Enemy robs mankind, the Father gives gifts to those who receive Him.
‘That is why the Scriptures say, “When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people’ Ephesians 4.8 NLT.
People receive the most life and the greatest wholeness when Jesus is pursued for Himself. When the glory of Jesus is unveiled simply for who He is, people are set free and ennobled. With Christ incarnate in them by the Spirit they develop as whole persons as sons and daughters of God. In union with Jesus alone people are the Bride of Christ. Now they birth people and projects that are bursting with the life of God.
Only Jesus is life in Himself. Nothing else. No one else. The multiplication of Jesus for Himself produces the Kingdom of God. Sons of God in the authority of Christ release life into individuals, families, businesses, churches, towns and cities. The new creation is the life of Jesus burgeoning in science, commerce, business, education and medicine. The new creation is the whole earth being filled with Christ’s glory. As Christ-gifted people we would accomplish more for God if we were more focused on releasing heaven on earth than going to heaven.
It is necessary to multiply Jesus for Himself because anything else is pollution. Paul called the ‘everything else’ waste, garbage, dung. The Kingdom of Jesus Christ is the life of the Spirit manifest in the earth. It is God’s will being done on earth through those whose life is Christ.
There is unlimited power in Jesus. He is resurrection and life and hence the undoing of all that is tired and dead. Jesus is Christmas fun and abundance multiplied in the world. The gifts of the Spirit are for the Kingdom of God and not for the kingdoms of men. Jesus is not a package. He is a Person. Signs, wonders, life all spring from His side. From His Face emits vision and discernment. From His hands comes love, healing and fruitfulness in abundance. His feet bring peace and reconciliation. His back produces perseverance and joy. His being and person in us multiplies resurrection and life. How’s that for a sack of excellent Christmas gifts?
When people learn of the gifts of the Spirit and the greater life called life in the Spirit they are learning of Christ and not new and novel abstractions and methods. Let no one attempt to use the Spirit-filled life to build their own careers and empires. The Holy Spirit is not a church growth strategy. The power of God is not to enhance the influence of man. Don’t make the mistake of thinking to rob God’s house to build your own. The Holy Spirit is not another church growth method or an arm of the Christian Industry.
A sure way to cause the anger of Christ to burn against us is to market religion and become a modern version of the temple money changer. Jesus didn’t live for Himself. Neither do His disciples. They live for Jesus. His power lives in them and will not be counterfeited by the flesh. Plant Jesus and you will harvest sons of God. Use Jesus to plant anything of self and you will plant weeds. Have a merry Christ-mass and multiply His Presence in you!
‘Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me’ John 6.57 NIV.
Keith Allen
