How well I remember the years I sought for power with God, prayed for power, and read every book I could find that would tell me how to get it.
One day Phil. 2:13 opened up to me. I was reading it in the Twentieth Century Translation. "For it is God who is at work within you, willing and working His own good pleasure."
I wondered why I had never seen it before. I had the Power House in me. I had the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, and I had never recognized Him!
I found that I had been governed by experiences. I believed that power would come if I had a certain kind of experience. I sought for that experience. I found that I had more confidence in the experiences of others than in the Word.
Then I saw that if God's ability were let loose in me, it would perform the prodigies my heart was set upon.
I had never majored the fact that I had God in me. I had never majored the fact that the Word on my lips would do the same thing that it did on the lips of Jesus and the disciples.
Then I saw this truth; the Holy Spirit was in me to give me the ability to use the Name and the Word.
This Name has all authority in it. You remember Jesus said, "Whatsoever you ask of the Father in my Name, He will give you."
And again, "In my Name ye shall cast out demons, speak in new tongues, lay hands on the sick and they shall recover."
Notice this carefully, "that whatsoever ye ask in my Name I will do it."
The miracle working ability of God is in that Name.
I had never before heard anyone preach on it. I will never forget how timid I was when I tried that Name the first time. How thrilled I was when I saw that it worked. It did the thing.
After a while I dared to stand before a congregation and in that Name set the people free from Satan and see them intelligently accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour.
I did it at first with individuals, and then with an entire congregation. How easy it became to give the invitation. It seemed as if I had lifted a cloud that hung over them.
I saw that I was dealing with supernatural issues. I had dominion over the forces of Darkness in the Name of Jesus. I did not need to pray for power, all I needed was authority, and that authority was in the Name.
Then one day 1 Cor. 1:30 dawned upon me with a new clearness. "God made Jesus wisdom unto us." The ability and wisdom Jesus used in His earth walk was mine.
No one had ever taught us the difference between wisdom and knowledge. No one had ever told us about the authority that the Father had vested in the Name of Jesus. No one had ever preached on our rights and privileges as sons and daughters, and of our right to the use of His Name.
All of this time there was an undercurrent in my life, a sense of unworthiness. The Adversary seemed to delight in making me conscious of unworthiness.
I tried everything that man had taught. I sought the "clean heart," "entire Sanctification," "Second Work of Grace," everything that was preached. I was blessed for a while, but it would all fade away. I wanted something that was permanent. I knew I could find it in the Word.
I was reading Romans 3:26. I knew that the key word of Romans was "Righteousness," but I had no definite interpretation of Righteousness. I had always thought it meant right conduct, right living. I did not see the Pauline significance of it.
In the Pauline Epistles we see that the word Righteousness means the ability to stand in the presence of the Father without any sense of guilt, fear, or condemnation; and in the presence of Satan without any sense of inferiority or fear.
The problem was how to get that righteousness.
Romans 3:26 solved that issue. Let me give you the American Revised Marginal Rendering of it. "That He might Himself be Righteous, the Righteousness of him who has faith in Jesus." Strange, I had never seen it before. God himself was to become my Righteousness the moment that I accepted Christ and confessed Him as my Lord.
Then I remembered Romans 10:10 "For with the heart man believeth unto Righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
Then 2 Cor.5:21, "Him who knew no sin God made to be come sin that we might become the Righteousness of God in him."
I couldn't believe it at first. I struggled for days and days on this scripture. I knew that if I became the Righteousness of God in Christ that I would never again depend upon experiences.
I had arrived. The thing that my heart had craved was here, but it would never become real to me until I confessed it before the world.
That Sunday morning, when I dared to say "I am the Righteousness of God in Christ," was when I experienced what it meant. A strange quietness filled my whole being. A joy that I had never before experienced, filled my heart.
I said unconsciously, "I have arrived. I have it. Now I can approach the Father without the sense of unworthiness. I can face the Adversary as a master.
I remember that afternoon, we had a service. As I was coming up the steps to the church, I said, "Satan, at last you are my servant. I am your master."
I had never had that consciousness before. I had been preaching for many years, but I had never known that I was the Righteousness of God in Christ. I had never realized what I had in me.
Now I said, "Father, I am going to let the Spirit loose, He shall be free in me."
Now I could use this Word, the Sword of the Spirit, as I had never before used it.
Then it was that I saw the very genius of Christianity. God had Recreated me. He had given me Eternal Life. He had made me His Righteousness in Christ, by imparting to me His own nature.
I had never realized it, never understood it, consequently I had never taken advantage of it. God had greatly blessed my ministry, He had marvelously opened the Word to me, but this avenue of ministry had never dawned on me. Why? Because no one preached it. No one told us about it. We had unconsciously locked Jesus, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, up in our Creeds and Doctrines.
Now I had a living Word, a miracle-performing Word on my lips.
I will never forget an experience I had. I was called to a neighboring town to pray for an insane man. When I went into the room where he was, his mother introduced me to him. He turned his back to me and would not speak. Like a flash, the truth dawned upon me. I was the Righteousness of God in Christ. I had the superiority over the forces of darkness. I stepped up to the man, and in the Name of Jesus, I demanded the demons to come out of him, and never return.
It wasn't a minute before he grasped my hand, and we had the sweetest fellowship the rest of the visit.
How his mother rejoiced. In the Name of Jesus her son had been set free.
I had the ability to use His Name, and had never before realized it.
A few days later I was called to pray for a young man who had been injured in the first war. I sat by his side opening the Word to him. When I was ready to leave, he asked me to pray for a pain he had in the back of his head.
I again used that Name. I remembered what I was in Christ.
The next day I went back and found him sitting up in a chair. I prayed again for him for perfect deliverance. I knew nothing of his condition. I did not ask him to get up, I prayed for him and left.
The next night I was attending our prayer service. As I entered the door, a young man spoke to me. I greeted him and started into the building. He called me back and asked if I didn't remember him.
His face was familiar, but I did not place him. He said, "I am the fellow you prayed for yesterday. I was shell shocked in the war and hadn't walked for years. Look what I can do now." Tears filled my eyes, as I watched him jump and bend his body in every direction with no pain. He was perfectly healed.
You see, I had found my level. I had seen a great many people healed before that, but at last I had found my place in the program of God.
I was the Righteousness of God in Christ. I had the legal right to the use of His Name. I had Him inside of me who was greater than any force that could come against me.
A few days after that, I was invited to go to the hospital and pray for a woman. This woman had been a teacher in Unity.
I unfolded the Word to her and she accepted Christ. I prayed for her and left. The next night she was in my services, perfectly healed. She became one of our strongest helpers.
I had learned how to take advantage of what I really had in Christ, dedicated to E.W kenyon