Supernatural Power In The Gospel!

It’s About Jesus And The Gospel, Not Your Spiritual Gift!

Recently, I’ve been working to teach other Christians in Brazil to minister in God’s power. God spoke to me in 2021 and said “I have a new normal for the church-that should have been normal all along. It’s a ‘normal’ in which regular Christians do the works of Jesus.”

Several people around me have now seen miracles through their own hands for the first time. However, one of the obstacles that need to be removed is the big misconception of “spiritual gifts.” Many Christians have basically been taught that God distributes different superpowers to different people, and you just don’t know what superpower you might get. Maybe you get the superpower of healing but not of prophecy.

What happens because of this is first that people make a disconnect between the so-called “gift” and Jesus. I want people to see Jesus, but they get distracted thinking it’s about a spiritual gift and they miss the revelation of Jesus. In fact, directing attention to a “gift” is one of the tactics of an antichrist spirit to blind people from seeing Jesus.

The other thing that happens is that people disqualify themselves from dozens of scriptural promises based on a poor understanding of scripture because they think they might not have that gift. Those who think this way say to themselves “Jonathan has the superpower of healing, but I didn’t get that one, so I can’t do what he does.” But if it’s really about Jesus manifesting Himself, then everyone who is in Christ has the Spirit of Christ and can do the works of Christ.

A few years ago, we made the case that the “Spiritual Gifts” are for all Christians and we explained how badly this topic is misunderstood in Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of “The Misconception of Spiritual Gifts.” Today, I’d like to share several scriptural promises that are true for all Christians and are the basis for works of power in my life. When I minister to people, it has nothing to do with a special superpower I’ve received that makes me different than any other Christian! It’s all about Jesus and the gospel!

We Become Participants In God’s Nature Through His Promises!

2 Peter 1:3-4 (RSV) His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature.

Even before I understood these ideas better, I quickly became frustrated always looking and hoping for more impartation, a special anointing, or a spiritual gift. I wanted solid promises I could grab onto now, and I found them in scripture!

Promises For A Walk Of Power!

Many times as I was praying and thinking about these promises of scripture, I began to feel God’s word physically manifest as power on my face and hands. There were a few times that I screamed or fell backward. What I’m about to share is the way I think that is behind so many miracles in my life. What I experience is different because I think and believe differently. That’s why it feels a bit frustrating when local Christians say “Jonathan has a spiritual gift.” They don’t get it! I see the glorious message of the gospel with its great and precious promises, and I want to help other Christians to understand it. But many don’t have eyes to see or ears to hear, and they miss the point by thinking as if the person living a life of miracles has some spiritual gift that they don’t!

All the following statements are right out of scripture. I’m not going to quote them, but I’ll link to many of them so you can click and find a relevant verse if you’d like.

I am spiritually rich. Everything I need for life and godliness is available to me in the knowledge of Jesus. I have an abundance of grace and peace in Christ, more than enough to meet my needs and whatever need is before me. If God didn’t withhold his own Son, but gave Him up for me, how much more will He not also give me all things? God loves me with the same love He has for Jesus and has given me the same glory that He gave to Jesus, in whom the fullness of God dwells bodily. It’s that glory that drives out demons, heals the sick, and manifests heaven’s reality on earth. I am complete in Christ, lacking nothing. Nothing will be impossible for me if I believe, and God can do immeasurably more than all I can ask or imagine according to His power at work in me. Since I died with Christ and by His resurrection was seated with Him in heavenly places, I am in a position of authority over every power, authority to tread on snakes, scorpions, and all the power of the enemy. I have authority over demons and diseases because I’ve been raised with Christ. I have full access to the Father’s presence. The torn body of Jesus is my open heaven, and I have been given every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. Every so-called “spiritual gift” is a spiritual blessing touching and changing the natural world, and there is no spiritual blessing that I don’t have access to in Christ.

In Jesus are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and He is my wisdom, so I can expect wisdom and knowledge from heaven in abundance as I walk in communion with Him. I am His sheep, and I hear His voice! The gospel is the power (Greek “dunamis”) of God for salvation, and I have the gospel! It is the same “dunamis” that flowed from Jesus and all who touched Him were healed! The nature of the God I’m in communion with is to heal, and I’m a member of the body of Christ so His nature is revealed through me! It doesn’t matter if you’re a finger, a toe, or an arm, the whole body of Jesus, even His cloak, is loaded with healing virtue! Jesus lives in me, and I am in Him! If Jesus sends me and I go to a house, Jesus Christ is visiting that house. If they receive me, they receive Him! When I stretch out my hand in obedience to Christ and touch a sick person, Jesus is touching that person!

These beliefs based on the promises of scripture produce the manifestation of heaven. When I went to a neighborhood called “Anhanguera 2” in an Uber, I believed “Jesus is going to visit the houses in Anhanguera 2 tonight.” When I encounter any kind of sickness, injury, or oppression, I tell myself “You are rich, so give away the riches of heaven. You have what this person needs and so much more. If you believe what the Bible says you have in Christ, act like it’s true!”

Do You Believe The Full Gospel?

A lot of Christians will agree doctrinally with the statements above, but not many really believe them! Most act like they aren’t true.

When you really believe something, you act accordingly! Grab onto the incredible promises of scripture and act like they are true. I ask myself if I am acting like the promises of scripture are true, and when I see that I’m not, I’m happy because unbelief has been brought out into the light and I can challenge it. One way to do that is to act according to the truth even if you don’t feel like it’s true. Choose to act like someone who is spiritually rich, who is immeasurably rich, and give away God’s riches to the world.

If you really understand how rich you are in Christ, it will manifest in a lot more joy and excitement than a worldly person would feel if they just found out that they won the lottery!

In the next post, we talk about how impartation and having fullness in Christ seem to be contradictory. Then we’ll talk about how impartation works within the understanding that we have received fullness in Christ. This is something I’ve been waiting to write about for a long time, and I think I’m ready now!