One recent Christmas, all four of my adult kids, their spouses and I went to the old, downtown, renovated Franklin, Tennessee, movie theatre. What did we see? Well, of course, It’s a Wonderful Life! It really is one of the great classics. It is filled with stories of angels sent on assignment, supernatural activity and how significant one single life can be. You are always left with warm fuzzies when you watch that extraordinary movie. You just can’t wait till the end of the story when a bell rings on the Christmas tree, signifying that an angel just got his wings.

It really is a wonderful life! Especially when it is filled with the supernatural activity of God in normal, everyday ways. So let’s go on a journey together and let’s write a script about the Christian life—one filled with wonder and awe. One filled with supernatural assistance. One where God is alive and well and angels really do get their wings. Let’s go on an adventure together to discover a supernatural lifestyle.

Laying a Firm Foundation

Any exploration of the supernatural life must begin on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ, because God has an enemy called Satan, and he is supernatural too. Satan is not as all-powerful as God, because he is an angel, one of God’s created beings, who rebelled against his Creator and was banished from heaven to earth (see Luke 10:18; Isa. 14:12-17). But Satan is an enemy nonetheless, and he—along with the other supernatural beings who fell with him—seeks to undermine the reality of the life-bringing kingdom of God in the lives of believers.

One of Satan’s favorite tactics is to confuse people about the supernatural life of the Kingdom. He wants people to forget that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He wants people to remain ignorant of their access to the glories of Kingdom life.

It is time to wake up! Unless we, as the sons and daughters of God, make a purposeful decision to live in the river of God’s new life and learn about the Kingdom, we can be led astray into false loyalties and held captive to deceptive, dark spirits. We can be deprived of our birthright, which includes, while we are still on earth, multiple tastes of heaven and multiple encounters with the power of the living God, which are at the heart of a supernatural life.

Jesus Christ is the Light who overcomes the darkness (see John 9:5). He is the only firm foundation. When you walk in His light, you can experience—truly experience—the real, true, untainted supernatural glory and power of God.

Each time you treat someone with love, exercise a spiritual gift, surrender to the Lordship of Jesus, seek guidance from God— not to mention each time you pray for (and receive) a miracle or achieve a victory over the power of darkness—you are living the supernatural life that Jesus won for you. Through you, the kingdom of God is making inroads into the kingdom of darkness.

We Live in a War Zone

Throughout the ages, the struggle between light and darkness has raged. Whether you like it or not, when you gave your life to Jesus, you were reborn into a war zone. The prizes of battle are individuals and even whole nations.

You cannot remain neutral in this war. If you remain neutral, by default you fall prey to the occupying forces of darkness. At the least, you will remain confused and disoriented, seeking counsel from wrong sources and building your life on a wobbly foundation. At the worst, you will sell out to the other side, turning away completely from God’s love and wisdom, and trusting deceitful spiritual counterfeits.

Living in the war zone can be confusing. It is easy for people to call evil good and good evil. This happens not only in the world at large, but also within the walls of the Church. Then people consult psychics or buy into the latest pseudo-Christian philosophy. They take classes in how to read tarot cards or they watch paranormal demonstrations of people who “cross over” to visit dead relatives and bring back messages of false comfort. Media celebrities lend their names to “spiritual” causes that lead their fans astray.

Because of the Cross

The work of the cross of Christ made it possible for believers in Him to receive right standing with the Father. Jesus’ righteousness be- came theirs. They could now enter into fellowship and favor with God. Satan had been deprived of his one great weapon. The people who put their trust in Jesus could be forgiven for their rebellion against God (see John 1:12). This is worth a shout of praise already!

In one master stroke, God accomplished three things:
1) He defeated Satan (see Heb. 2:14). 2) He took away Satan’s legal authority to rule over the human race.
3) He restored the blessings that Satan had stolen from the human race.

Through ordinary human beings like you and me, people who become naturally supernatural when they receive new life, Satan’s darkness will be exposed to the light. He loses ground every day that the kingdom of God advances through the body of believers on the earth.

Inasmuch as it was Jesus’ job to expose and destroy the works of the devil (see 1 John 3:8), that same job is now ours as His representatives in the world. Through believers, individually and col- lectively, His Spirit continues to expose the darkness by turning on the light of the completed work of the cross. By faith, we enforce the victory that Jesus Christ has already won. We are enforcers of His great victory!

Even if in our short lifetime we do not see every enemy fully under Jesus’ feet, we do not give up. We learn from every setback and we continue to grow and to flow with new life. Here we are, ordinary men and women, walking around with a supernatural God living inside us. You and I live and breathe and have our being in Him (see Acts 17:28). The more intentional our walk in the power of the One who set us free, the more naturally supernatural we will be.

Boasting in the Cross

The cross of Jesus Christ is the intersection of the natural life and the supernatural life.
If I am going to boast in something, I want to boast in the significance and power of the cross. Jesus’ cross is central to our salvation. Without it, the entire human race would be stumbling in darkness, hopeless and helpless. Because of the cross, the Light can shine. Light always overpowers darkness.

The crucifixion of Jesus—the death and burial and subsequent resurrection of the Son of God—is a physical, historical fact (see Matt. 27; Mark 15; Luke 23; John 19). Jesus’ friends and followers wrote careful accounts of what happened: A man named Jesus of Nazareth was arrested by the authorities. It did not take long for the hastily convened court to convict and sentence Him to death on a cross, which was the Roman method for torturing and executing criminals.

A few hours after being nailed to long pieces of wood alongside two lawbreakers, He died. Grieving, a handful of His friends retrieved His bloody remains and buried Him in a borrowed tomb. Three days later, by which time the rest of the city had resumed its normal affairs, His tomb was found empty. As the days turned into weeks, He Himself was spotted several times, and He spoke with those who had known Him before He was killed.

This really happened. It is not good fiction. It is not a fairy tale. It is an accurate, historical account. Jesus rose from the dead!

Eventually, He stopped appearing to them, leaving each one of His friends and followers (and all those who would later believe, including us) with a deposit of His Holy Spirit in their hearts.

Jesus’ followers could see how the cross had become the intersection of heaven and earth. The supernatural traffic between heaven and earth could flow freely through this intersection, and every individual who assented to Jesus—not just the super-special priests and prophets—could experience supernatural life. It is available to you and me!

  1. Exchanging Punishment for Peace – Isa. 53:5
  2. Exchanging Sickness for Healing – Isa. 53:4-5
  3. Exchanging Sin for Righteousness – Isa. 53:10, 2 Cor. 5:21
  4. Exchanging Curse for Blessing – Deut. 28:15-68 for Deut. 28:1-14
  5. Exchanging Poverty for Wealth – 2 Cor. 8:9
  6. Exchanging Threefold Death for Threefold Life – Heb. 2:9

He tasted death in three successive phases: (1) He was cut off from union and fellowship with the Father; (2) He was cut off from physical life; and (3) He was banished from God’s presence like a scapegoat, carrying sin away.

He was crucified and buried; He descended into Hades and rose again so that our redemption could be complete. In exchange, the gift of life to every believer is also a threefold one: (1) union and fellowship with God; (2) physical resurrection life in our mortal bodies; and (3) resurrection and eternal life in God’s glorious presence.

7) Exchanging the Old Man for the New – Rom. 6:6; 8:10; Col. 2:11; Gal. 5:17-24

What an exchange! This is not just a dream of something in the future—it is a present tense reality!

Walking in the Privilege of New Life

Because the cross means the Devil’s defeat, it means victory for all who name the name of Jesus. Sharing in the victory that He won through His death on the cross and His resurrection, we share in the glorious privileges and blessings of eternal, supernatural life. It is better than any TV game show. Everyone is a winner!

It is our honor to be ambassadors of Christ in the world. It is our joy to let His light shine through our lives. It is our privilege to manifest the signs of the kingdom of God wherever we go. Jesus said, “These signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well” (Mark 16:17-18).

Those signs are supernatural. They are part of your birthright. The supernatural God who never changes has restored them to you. Hold out your hands to receive all that He wants to give you as a born-again, Spirit-filled follower of Jesus Christ.

Let’s Enforce the Victory of Calvary!

James W. Goll

(This article is an excerpt from James’ latest book Living the Supernatural Life chapter One. For more on this subject see the book and the related study guide Walking in the Supernatural Life.)