“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” (John 14: 12-14)
The first great need of any man who has a troubled heart or his Christian life isn’t lived to its full potential is to believe, to get back to the place of believing. This sounds too simple. Yet it is what Christ told His disciples before His death, resurrection and ascension. If you believe in Me, essentially He told them “you will do the works I have been doing.” Belief also opens up the door to faith and the effects of faith in our life.
The disciples who walked with Jesus witnessed that He had rebuked a demon which had caused a sickness in a boy who was then healed instantly. Conversely, having trouble achieving similar results in their ministry, they asked Him: “Why could we not cast it out?” to which He responded, “Because of your little faith” (Matthew 17: 18-20 ESV)
After His resurrection, our focal scripture indicated that Jesus promised His disciples that they would be able to do what they cannot do now, and what He used to do for them. By His resurrection and ascension, He works in them by the power of the Spirit – to effectively bring the power of the Spirit into their action, after He has departed.
Our Lord’s departure from the world is not the conclusion of His activity in the world amidst personal, political and ideological problems that humanity faces today. He is present in our ministries to our beloved Christian friends, and to those who likewise believe and those faltering in their belief. He is continuing together with us in His redemptive work to reach out to find those struggling with a profound understanding and a lack of objective effectiveness in their particular mode of faith – whatever the culture.
He is not absent in our lives individually nor from the ministration of common grace to the countless millions of men and women worldwide who have, who will and yes to those who may come to believe on His name for salvation.
He still is an ever-present power, and though He has passed through death on our behalf, and been removed from our physical sense perception, He still operates upon the things around us and moves events to coincide with His providences according to His will in our lives. Christ is all-powerful and ever-presently working in our lives! The continuous influence of His life continues. It is a present power in all ages.
Belief in Christ as our Redeemer and faith in His active life in us via His Spirit is necessary for a vibrant and joyous Christian experience. If you are lonely, He brings companionship to the solitary. He offers calmness in calamity, gives peace while weighing the complications of our faith and our weaknesses. We must grasp that the living Christ is working in us for His Father’s glory and outreaching to each of us, forth-putting His powers of influence and ministerial energy in His church today.
Before His ascension Jesus said: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15 NIV) In Mark’s narrative, we read that “After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God” (vs. 19) As He worked with the disciples, He will work with us as we minister His word to others sharing the Gospel. “Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it” (vs. 20) At the end of our Lord’s life on earth, there were one hundred and twenty disciples in Jerusalem and five hundred in Galilee. He told the disciples greater things you will do – the greater meaning the expansion of His kingdom on earth through the promulgation of the Gospel.
Now that we understand the need for believing on His name, and on having faith to do His works of expanding His kingdom, we need also a life of prayer which confess our complete dependence on Him. I go back to our main verse: “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
In my name, means, not a rote prayer as we often may do, finalizing it with repeated words ‘in Jesus name, Amen.’ Rather it means in His character, in His same faith in His Father and our total dependent connection to Him. This unity with our Lord is exactly what we need to sense His power working in our lives with all whom we connect. Jesus prayed for His disciples and you and I, “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21 ESV) This is the secret to the continuum of believing in His work on earth — to be One with Jesus Christ via His indwelling Spirit. The parable of abiding in the vine teaches this truth: “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:15 ESV)
Believe in His operative work in you by faith; connect to the living Christ just as He depended on His Father for guidance and success in His walk on earth and for our eternal future in His redemptive work of salvation.