The Power of Jesus Christ

II Cor.5:17 - Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

One of the most revealing manifestations of the gospel is the life changing effects it has upon those who believe. I personally can attest to that phenomenon since I was a drug addict and dealer, a violent man, and a very promiscuous person before Christ saved my soul. Since then I have never been sinless, but for sure I am not what I used to be and it is all because of the power of Jesus Christ.

And I am blessed by hearing of that same power working through others of my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. These are but three people, two of them with Christ today, that are a testimony to what Christ can do for anyone who truly believes and surrenders.

David Berkowitz was a man who was a loner and who became a demon possessed man. By his own testimony he was a Satan worshiper who heard voices and was in league with other devil worshipers. He participated in several random murders and was caught and sent to prison for life. During those first years he would howl at night and was generally an inmate filled with the demonic. Ten years into a lonely and troubled prison sentence, an inmate gave David a pocket New Testament with the Psalms..

One night in a cold prison cell, David was reading the Psalms and he came across an account of a man who cried out unto the Lord and God delivered him. David cried out to Jesus Christ and that night he became a believer. David would never be the same. Today, the man who was known as the “Son of Sam” is a humble minister within those prison walls. He knows he will never be set free, but David walks in a freedom that prison walls cannot restrict.

Karla Faye Tucker was an extremely troubled young woman who lived for drugs. Her mother led her into drugs and prostitution, and she became a very violent woman. She walked in depression and would lash out at anyone who got in her way. One night while on a drug induced craze, she and another man viciously murdered two people in an apartment. Karla bragged to others that she experienced a sexual satisfaction each time she had stabbed those people.

She was eventually caught and sent to prison and given the death sentence. But while in prison she met Jesus Christ and her life was miraculously changed. She never denied what she had done, but in the Spirit the old Karla died and a new creature had been born. She began to hold Bible studies and help other inmates find the saving peace she had found in Jesus Christ. The State of Texas and then Governor George Bush denied her appeal for a commutation to a life sentence and she went home to be with Christ on Feb. 3, 1998.

Jeffrey Dahmer was a deranged individual by anyone’s standards. Troubled as a young boy, he eventually morphed into a murderer who was gay and preyed upon gay males. And he often preserved his victim’s corpses and ate some of their bodies. He was obsessed and possessed and murdered many people. He eventually was caught and sent to prison for life.

While in prison his father still loved him and sent him Christian literature. Jeffrey read every page and eventually became a born again believer in Jesus Christ. He requested a minister to come to the prison so he could be baptized, and indeed he was. Although Jeffrey was extremely sorry for what he had done, he became an outspoken follower of Jesus Christ and even sought spiritual counsel over whether he should request the death penalty for himself. He was murdered on Nov. 28, 1994 and went home to be with Christ.

These are just thumbnail sketches of three lives that were transformed by the power of Christ while incarcerated for unspeakable crimes. I am convinced that some of the most humble servants of Jesus Christ live behind prison walls and manifest the life saving and life changing power of our Wonderful Savior! We are so often tossed to and fro by the secular media and the carnal perspectives of other believers. We are so quick to demand retribution and justice, and slow to pray for redemption and glory.

One of the reasons God has laid this post upon my heart is because of a young woman named Casey Anthony. I believe she had a part in her little girl’s death and that the verdict of not guilty was flawed. However, I pray that her conscience will so torment her that she has no rest. And I also pray that God will bring some believer into her life and that by God’s Spirit she will come to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. After reading the three testimonies I offered, how can you be skeptical about God’s power to accomplish such a thing?

May Jesus Christ always be high and lifted up, and may those of us who have been taken from our dunghill and placed upon the Eternal Rock always desire redemption for the vilest sinners among us. By the way, I read about a murderer who fervently rejected Christ and was aggressive in his persecution of Christians. His name was Paul and he wrote at least 13 of the books of the New Testament. Praise the Matchless Name of the Risen Christ!!