THE HANDS OF GOD (Part III)

THE HANDS OF GOD (Part III)

You are a designer original, so none of the seven billion people on Earth can possess your unique hands and fingerprints.  Human hands are powerful, figuratively and literally, but our strength pales in comparison to the omnipotent hands of God!  Thus, no human being can honestly boast of self-actualized success.  Ultimately, we are products of the handiwork of GOD. (James 1:17) 

Arguably, approaching the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, HIS HANDS became increasingly significant.

Jesus before Pilate:           

“I find in him no fault at all.”  As a matter of fact, Pilate concluded, I am washing my hands of the innocent blood of this man. (John 19:4)

Jesus before Sanhedrin:   

“Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the RIGHT HAND of the power of God.” (Luke 22:69)

Jesus at Calvary:

It was not insignificant or accidental that the ENEMY sought to pierce THE HANDS OF JESUS!   You see, CHRIST’S HANDS are literal extensions of CHRIST’S ANOINTING!   And Satan will do everything that he can do to attack our anointing!  In the words of Jesus, “The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy.” (John 10:10)

Nevertheless, Satan was unaware of God’s secret plan to undo his world system and to institute His Kingdom.  So while he was plotting and planning the persecution and pain of Jesus, he was actually setting up Christ for the full release of His power!  Likewise, our personal pain is merely a set-up.  Our pain and pressure are preludes to the fulfillment of God’s promise of power, productivity and promotion.

Satan simply did not know what he was doing when he scammed and schemed to get Jesus on the cross!  Scripture confirms this fact.  “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would NOT have crucified the Lord of glory.” (I Corinthians 2:7-8)

ONLY GOD could devise a plan in which the ONLY ONE in the universe who ‘could’ CONDEMN US was the ONLY ONE who was ready, willing and able to DIE FOR US!  So we find Jesus, at His hour of death, fully at peace, and declaring with power, “Father, INTO THY HANDS I commend my spirit.” (Luke 23:46)  In other words, ‘Satan, you have not taken my life.  “I LAY IT DOWN!” (John 10:18)

Jesus’ pronouncement was a borrowed plea from the Psalmist David (Psalm 31:5), but on the cross, Jesus transformed the frantic cry of humanity into a full-fledged statement of faith:

Father…I am in Your hands!’   My life and times are in Your hands!

I come, Father, both as Priest and Sacrifice, as One-with-God and as one-with-man!  

I come, Father, in the volume of the Book that is written of me, and I delight to do Thy will!  

I come, Father, once and for all, as the unblemished Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’

So JESUS experienced the agony of the cross and bore the awesome burden of humanity’s collective sins.  He took the power and penalty of sin into HIS HANDS…and He died for us. 

HOWEVER…on the third day morning…JESUS rose with total victory, saying “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Matthew 28:18)  ALL POWER…is IN MY HANDS!  “I am he who lives and was dead…and behold, I am alive for evermore…and have the keys of hell and of death.” (Revelation 1:18)

Jesus at His Ascension:

“So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the RIGHT HAND of God.” (Mark 16:19)

Right now, Jesus Christ is our “High Priest, passed into the heavens,” One who can be “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” (Hebrews 4:14-15)  Right now, Jesus Christ is “the one Mediator between god and men” who is seated “on the RIGHT HAND OF THE POWER OF GOD.” (I Timothy 2:5 – Luke 22:69)  And now,  “he ever liveth to make intercession” for the people of God! (Hebrews 7:25)

That’s precisely what the writer of the Book of Hebrews referenced when he said: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.  And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands.” (Hebrews 1:1-3;10)

We are FOREVER IN HIS HANDS.  Therefore, we must give Our Creator permission to Use His Hands to Shape Our Hands into “His good pleasure,” so we can be equipped and empowered “to do His will,” so we can be effectively USED BY GOD! (Philippians 2:13 – II Thessalonians 11:1 – Hebrews 13:21)           

The Hands of God are at work all through our lives!  Therefore, we should never become alarmed or fearful due to temporary pain and pressure.  Indeed, “we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, THAT the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.” (II Corinthians 4:9-10)

LORD, our very lives are in Your Hands!  Our total surrender to YOU is the position, place and power of covenantal blessing. (II Corinthians 1:20)  Therefore, our constant cry is simply this: HAND-LE US LORD!  HAND-LE US…so that we might be true ambassadors who will reflect and reproduce YOUR KINGDOM in the earth!  Sisters and brothers, be continually blessed!