By Your Spirit I Will Rise 4-15-26

This morning’s song was such a blanket of warmth in itself, it pulled me up out from under the fabric ones draped over me and my bed… “By Your spirit I will rise from the ashes of defeat, The resurrected King is resurrecting me. In Your name I come alive to declare Your victory, The resurrected King is resurrecting me”. The pressure at the back of my head will not keep me in bed. A picture is forming in my mind as I get up to get my laptop, reminding me of a teaching I heard on Colossians 2:15 where Paul compared Jesus’ victory fought for us through His death and resurrection  “when He had disarmed the rulers and authorities [those supernatural forces of evil operating against us], He made a spectacle/public display of them [exhibiting them as captives in His triumphal procession], having triumphed over them through the cross” (amp) to a Roman military procession.

The picture is of a conquering general who returns to his own realm with captives in tow, chained and paraded through the town in a victory procession where the captives are put on display as defeated foes. Jesus did that for us, winning the war for us through His “obedience unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8) and then parades OUR defeated spiritual enemies (because “we battle not with flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and forces of wickedness in high places” Eph. 6:2) in front of us as spectators standing on the sides of the street as we cheer Jesus on. He shows us our enemies are defeated, powerless and no longer a threat to us - “in triumphal procession” because He WON the battle for us!

Another part of the song comes through and gives an exhilarating revelation: “The fear that held us now gives way to Him who is our peace. His final breath upon the cross is now alive in me.” His breath is now in us, because “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28) Fear? Defeated! Shame? Defeated! Guilt? Defeated! Sin? Defeated!

We, who were once the captives, are freed and given the opportunity through Christ, to see our former captors beaten, disarmed, chained and “perp walked” in front of us, proving to us we no longer have a reason to be afraid. We can now “breathe easy” - His breath is in our lungs as we praise Him! We cheer for Him because He gave us His victory! And He is worthy of every praise we can give Him!

John couldn’t have been more clear in 1 John 4:17: “By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgement, because as He is, so are we in this world.” In the same way God rolled the stone away and robbed the grave in raising Jesus from the dead, He did for us! The grave we were in, “dead in our transgressions” (Eph. 2:1) has been emptied by our Savior and we are free! 

The song’s intensity ramps up with this timeless truth: “The tomb where soldiers watched in vain was borrowed for three days. His body there would not remain, our God has robbed the grave - our God has robbed the grave!” It’s time for a victory dance! Time for us to WALK in the knowledge and understanding of what He did for us - and share it with those who don’t know, who are still unaware of the freedom that is waiting for them! Declare the victory!