…I believed and therefore I spoke, we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you (2 Corinthians 4:13-14).
Now please, do not miss this principle. Now that we know the vital principle and the mental disposition of faith, that faith speaks what it believes in the present tense’ Paul said we speak what we believe knowing that what God did for Jesus, He will do for us. The God who raised Jesus up from the dead also will raise us up. What was he saying? We know that what God did for Jesus, He will also do for us.
Everything God does, he does by faith. Jesus was resurrected because He did what I am teaching you; the power that was available for Jesus’ resurrection was made available because Jesus exercised these principles. God, the Father, raised Jesus up using these principles. We can see thin in John 10:17-18. Jesus is speaking and He says, “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” Here Jesus is saying, “No man takes My life; I lay it down. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. This command I have received from My Father.” In other words, Jesus is saying that because His Father said this to Him, it is the Father’s Word, not Jesus’ word. The Father told Him He had the power today it down and the power to pick it up again. He is saying it because the Father said it to Him. Jesus is speaking His Father’s Word concerning His own life. Understand that no one hand ever done what Jesus was about to do. At the moment when Jesus says, “I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again.” He does not actually have that power in manifestation. At that moment, He says, “I have the power,” but He does not possess it at that moment, because He does not need the power at that moment.
Jesus knows that God will supply all His need. Although He does not need the power to lay down His life at that moment, He knows He is going to need the power in the future. Therefore, he says He has the power now. When He gets to the situation where he needs the power, it will then be too late to say, “I have the power.” He says he has it before He needs it, so it will be there when He does need it.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is struggling in His humanity to lay down His life. As he struggles in his humanity, He prays, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me…” (Matthew 26:39). In other words, if there is any other way to accomplish what needs to be done, then I would like to do it that way. In that instance, Jesus does not sound to me like someone who has the power to lay His life down. He is struggling with laying it down. He is fighting to keep Himself from going the route that the Father has commanded. But, remember, before He got there, he had put into effect the vital principle of faith (faith speaks what it believes). Before Jesus arrived at the moment when He needed the power to lay down His life, He spoke, “I have power t lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:18). Because He had spoken it, when He got to the place where He was struggling, His confession of faith met Him in the garden and the power of God was released on His behalf. This is how Bible Faith works: It speaks what it believes.
Notes to Remember
"If it's not being spoken, it is not faith yet."
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"If it's not being spoken, it is not faith yet."
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