Praying the Benefits Of The Death And Resurrection Of Jesus Christ Into Manifestation In Your Life

Introduction

I welcome you to the month of April, 2023. May this month deliver all you are expecting to you, in the miracle working name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Focus

In history, this week is regarded as The Passion Week; it starts with the triumphal Entry of Christ into Jerusalem (Luke 19:28-44).

For the purpose of this write-up, let me go straight to the high point of the events of the week – The Crucifixion, death and resurrection of Christ and the benefits for you.

First, let me clear the misunderstanding surrounding the time period that Jesus Christ spent in the grave:

The Crucifixion and Death of Christ

While I watched a programme that looked more like a “Debate” Kind of presentation to me about 8 years ago, between two Clerics – A Christian Cleric and a Moslem Cleric, on Cable Television, over the 3 days that Jesus Christ said he was going to spend in the grave, that would climax in his resurrection, my heart became burdened and I was stirred up to make the presentation here below as I was unsatisfied with the outcome of that programme which of course is a product and result of incomplete teaching or lack of proper teaching delivered to us over several years.

This incomplete teaching gave the Moslem Cleric the opportunity to speak against the Crux of the Christian faith which has to do with the death and resurrection of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. He insisted that if what the Christians believe in and teach is that Christ died and was buried on Friday evening, and resurrected early Sunday morning, it was therefore one day and one night rather than the three days and three nights that Jesus himself declared that he was going to spend in the heart of the earth and as such, either the Christians were lying or Christ was lying! Thus he asserted that what must have happened to Christ was therefore not “cruci-fixion” but “cruci-fiction”.

My presentation:

Understanding the Sign of The Prophet Jonah

In Matthew 12:40, Jesus declared:

“… as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”

To have a clear understanding of how God designed days to function and the measurement of days, we must get back to the beginning of creation.

In Genesis 1:5, the scripture states thus:

“God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day”

We must therefore understand that proper and accurate analysis of days must be done according to NIGHT and DAY (evening and morning); not DAY and NIGHT!

This system is totally different from what we have today where in many nations and locations, people count day and night rather than the reverse. Truly, a complete day is night and day and that is to say that a day runs from 6pm till 6pm of the next day, giving room to 12 hours of the night and 12 hours of the day, completing the 24 hours that make a full day. (If you will observe the Seventh Day Adventists, you will discover that they still keep to this in regulating their worship times). Therefore, let us clear from our minds the idea that a day actually starts at 12 midnight. This is wrong from Bible perspective.

If Jesus was crucified and buried on Friday evening as many of us were taught, then there is no way that would constitute three days and three nights. At best, it would be something a little more than a full night and a full day.

To understand this, again, we must go back to the Old Testament to look at the Feasts of the Lord.

For the purpose of this write-up, three of the feasts will just be mentioned as they occur together and they include:

The Feast of Passover
The Feast of Unleavened Bread, and
The Feast of First fruits.

NB: We will not also go into details of these feasts here.

In studying the events that led to the crucifixion of Christ and their chronology, the Gospel of John gives clearer insight into the correlation with the feast of Passover – he mentions that Jesus was actually crucified on the afternoon preceding “a special sabbath”:

“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished.” He bowed his head, and gave up his spirit. Therefore the Jews, because it was the Preparation Day, so that the bodies wouldn’t remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a special one), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away” John 19:30-31 (WEB)

“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away” John 19:30-31 (KJV)

“It was the day of Preparation of Passover week about the sixth hour …” John 19:14 (NIV)

This special Sabbath was the first day of Passover, not the Saturday Sabbath. It was a special feast day. It was a “high day” – the first day of unleavened bread.

“In the first day [of unleavened bread] ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein” Lev. 23: 7

No work was to be done on this special Sabbath. It was not a Saturday Sabbath, but was observed as a special Sabbath. It was to be observed on whatever day that it falls. So on this very week, we observe that there were two Sabbaths – The special Sabbath and the regular Saturday Sabbath. Jesus’ body was laid in the tomb shortly before sunset on Wednesday as the first day of unleavened bread commenced at sunset.

Jesus was laid in the tomb at sunset that Wednesday evening which by Bible way of counting days was now the beginning of Thursday. In this way, Jesus spent in the grave:

Wednesday evening to Thursday evening (One full day)

Thursday evening to Friday evening (2^nd full day)

Friday evening to Saturday evening (3rd full day)

When did he rise from the dead?

“Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went early, while it was still dark, to the tomb, and saw the stone taken away from the tomb” John20:1

Do you now understand this? Anytime from 6pm on Saturday was now the 1^st day of the week. Note that John says: while it was still dark – the dark part of the 1^st day remains Saturday from 6pm till 6am of Sunday morning. Therefore, anytime within this frame, Jesus rose from the dead. Hallelujah! There is no confusion to this.

In his resurrection, he became the first fruit of those who rise from the dead.

“That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead …” Acts 26:23

“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept” 1 Cor. 15:20

With the issue of how long Jesus stayed in the grave settled, let me give a summary of 2 more issues in this write-up:

Why did Jesus come to the earth?
Did Jesus fulfill his purpose of coming to the earth?
Why did Jesus come to the earth?

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” Matt. 1:21

Adam’s sin initiated and brought sin and death upon the whole world.

The only way to get us back to God had to be through the process of “buying us back” – That was what Jesus accomplished through the process of redemption.

Pray like this:

Every sin that wants to hold me down, to make me unfruitful to God, be destroyed now in the name of Jesus Christ my redeemer. Amen.

Did Jesus fulfill his purpose of coming to the earth?

“In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” Colossians 1:14

Yes, he did. Redemption has to do with “buying back”. That’s what Christ did, He paid the price for our sin and breaking the barriers of sin, brought us back to God. So, he made the payment for our sins on the cross, this in effect brought about or resulted in the forgiveness of sins etc.

By his death he completed his earthly assignment and destroyed all the power of the devil. We are liberated from all forms of bondage and subjugation.

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” John 10:10

“… For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” 1 John 3:8

By his death, the works of the devil over our lives have been destroyed.

Pray like this:

Jesus has destroyed the works of the devil over my life, therefore, anything that still wants to hold me back, be destroyed in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Anything that wants to stop me from fulfilling the plan and purpose of God for my life, be destroyed in the miracle working name of Jesus Christ. Amen

The works of the devil have all been destroyed in my life therefore nothing is permitted to go wrong in my life henceforth, in the miracle working name of Jesus Christ. Amen

1. We have redemption through his blood

“In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” Colossians 1:14

Adam’s sin initiated and brought sin and death upon the whole world. The only way to get us back to God had to be a process of redemption.

Redemption has to do with “buying back”. In Christ, God bought us back. He paid the price for our sin and breaking the barriers of sin, brought us back to himself.

This entails a payment. The payment of our sin was made on the cross, this in effect brought with it: the forgiveness of sins, healing etc.

2. His resurrection assures us of eternal life

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” 1 Cor. 15:19

By his death and resurrection, he got the highest name of which he has given us power to use it over sickness, diseases and over all other powers of the enemy.

“Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole … but peter and john answered and said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of god to hearken unto you more than unto god, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” acts 4:10,19-20

By his resurrection, God displayed his greatest power – to raise a man from the dead to never die again forever. This confirms that there is no impossibility with God therefore as he calls things that are nonexistent into existence, everything that seem to challenge us, amount to nothing before him.
By his resurrection, we now have direct access to God

“Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many” Matthew 27:50-53

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” Heb. 4:16

May you receive grace and find mercy from God anytime you need them, in the miracle working name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

This month, pray the following prayers:

Dear heavenly father, I pray, may Jesus manifest to me in a new way this month in the miracle working name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear father, I pray that my expectations for this month of April be met and may every power of fear, limitation and intimidation from the devil threatening me be destroyed in the miracle working name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
By the authority in the name of Jesus, I pray now, let every evil situation negatively confronting me be destroyed.
May the power of the resurrection turn everything around for good in my life, in the miracle working name of Jesus Christ. Amen.