Acts 3
v. 12; ... why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?
v. 16 ... 16And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
Sometimes people will marvel in us when we share something God has given us ... but it has nothing to do with us ... it is not by our holiness or our will that we got God to give us understanding to share something ... We should marvel at God who shares with humans!... I always marvel that God will given me personal information to help me to know what to do! It is amazing to me that HE will do this!
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v. 22 ...HIM shall ye hear in all things whatsoever HE shall say unto you.
Diligence to pay attention to Holy Spirit ... not letting word slip away ...
HE is life ... and light
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v. 23 ... And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
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v. 26 ... God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
I rejoiced in Holy Spirit who shows me when I am going wrong way and turns me and protects me divinely.
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Acts 4
I get so excited when I read these chapters in Acts ... and I find so much of it humorous ... consider following
v. 1-4 ... 1And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, 2Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide. 4Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
The goal of the Sadducees was to stop the spread of this doctrine ... But what really happened is this: First there was Jesus speaking ... then after he ascended into heaven, the Holy Ghost was given to the apostles and they were on fire ... also the Holy Ghost was given to the 120 in the upper room (Acts 1) and they were on fire ... and when you are on fire by the Holy Ghost you speak ... then as a result of their speaking others believed and were given the Holy Ghost and they were on fire and spoke ... and in verse 4 we see the number of the men was now about 5,000 ... all with Holy Ghost, on fire and speaking ... and on and on ... they would speak and more would believe and be on fire! I laughed at the idea that anyone could think they could stop this spreading!
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v. 10 & 12 ... 10Be 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...12Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Only by Jesus Christ are any of us made whole ... Most of us realize how crazy we were before we were born again, going in our own way and our own plans ... Then God spoke to us and gave us HIS Spirit and we were changed from that which we had been and now we have a sound mind and bit by bit the other things which we had been are uprooted and wholeness takes their place ...and all our life things get better for us in wholeness as we are conformed to HIS image situation after situation ... till the end of us is far better than the beginning because of HIS work in us! Exciting.
But it is only in HIS name that we are made whole ... HIS name / THE WORD .. It is the Word that comes to us in each issue pertaining to this life that gives us wholeness in the situation and causes us to go in HIS way ... That is soundness ... true soundness ...
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v. 11 ... This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
Again this makes me laugh ... these "wise" men didn't consider Jesus to be important enough to matter and yet Jesus ended up being the head of the corner in the whole building.
We, who follow the Word, are often discounted and considered not worthwhile by people ... Yet when Jesus returns we will be there with HIM and they will be shocked to see us with HIM ... for they thought us contemptible on this earth ... they missed everything ... we have everything.
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v. 17-20 ... goal is to stop that doctrine from spreading among the people ...
17But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. 18And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. 19But 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. 20For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
Peter and John tossed the rules of man out the window in order to follow God ... This took enormous courage for not only would the men in charge be displeased with them but those same men had power to take the lives of Peter and John. Most of us today only risk approval of men. They might fire us but for most of us they will not kill us today, although there are still parts of the world where they could kill over these things.
In 1980's I was on radio ... in Seattle at door of meeting room, the radio station manger was waiting for me. When I arrived, he said, "Joan ... you have many good messages. Just speak those messages. If you speak the messages you are currently speaking (about evil in ministries), I don't know what will happen to you. We may have to put you off the air."
The Holy Spirit gave me word to speak to George and that word defined the rest of my life in ministry. I said, rather the Holy Spirit said through me: "George ... if I don't speak the message I believe to be from God then I don't have a message and I may as well be off the air."
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v 29 ... And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,
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v. 31 ... and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
The power to be a witness and speak is there by the Holy Ghost that is in us and speaks through us. I thought of the times I have heard a word from God and been set on fire anew by that word and that word came forth through me with intensity. This happens over and over through the years. And until I leave this earth I believe that will happen ... I'm filled anew by the Holy Ghost through that word that burns in me, though the Holy Spirit lives and dwells in me continually.
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v. 33 ... And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
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Acts 5
v. 5 ... 5And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.
It is such a good thing for the church to have a fear of God and fear of what the Holy Spirit says. God speaks to each of us by HIS Spirit ... a healthy fear of God is good ... a respect for what God says is good.... paying close attention is good.
God doesn't say: "I am God ... listen ..."
Rather there will be a thought, often gentle, which is from God by HIS Spirit ... It is up to each of us to recognize that thought is from God and to really pay attention.
I think I have a fear of the Word of God ... it is good and healthy to have such.
A recent example: Pam Padgett was writing something and she had a thought of how to write it by putting the scripture in bold print and the word added by the translator in italic print. But Pam immediately reasoned that she could not do that. She had a mistaken idea that there was a "rule" that we had for the blog that scripture had to be put in bold/italics ... (We have never had such a rule but Pam got it into her mind that we had a rule because this is what we always do.) ... So Pam wrote the writing and when I saw it, I called Pam and said what she should do is put the scripture in bold and the addition of the translators in italics to make it clear what the translators had added. Pam was very confused and said: "But how can I do that?" That confused me. Then Pam talked about the "rule" and I was further confused for we have no "rule". Finally we got the issue resolved and Pam ended up doing what the Holy Spirit had told her to do in writing this. The problem is Pam did not recognize it was the Holy Spirit speaking to her when HE spoke.
So we have to hear the Spirit ... establish it is from the Spirit ... and do what the Spirit says to do.
The Fear of the LORD is critical also. All rules of man can go out the window when the Word of the Lord says otherwise.
In Acts 5 there are examples of the rulers of the temple commanding the apostles not to speak in the name of Jesus ... As we see, the apostles continued to speak the Word of God to the people
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v. 9 ... How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?
The Holy Spirit brings thoughts to us ... Devils bring thoughts to us ... We must be able to know the difference. We must not conspire with devils to tempt the Spirit of the Lord.
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v. 11 ... And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.
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v. 12 ... they were all with one accord
Eph. 4:3 ... Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
We do not keep peace by ignoring the troubling issue among us. Rather we confront the issue and bring it out into the open and depend on God to bring us to one mind. We would never be of one mind by ignoring the issue. The world tries to ignore things. We confront the matter and depend on God because we are one Spirit in God and can approach difference this way and arrive at unity because we believe in God and have the same spirit.
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v. 17-19 ... 17Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation, 18And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison. 19But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, 20Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. 21And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning, and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. 22But when the officers came, and found them not in the prison, they returned, and told, 23Saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within. 24Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow. 25Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple, and teaching the people.
26Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. 27And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, 28Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. 29Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
This is such an important example ... The ruling people say one thing but it is opposite from what the Spirit of God said ... What do we do ... ?
It is important to understand this.
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v. 19 ... Angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and told them to go speak the Word in the temple ...
When I was once going through terrible persecution from those who called themselves Christians, an angel of the Lord came to me in the night while I was sleeping. It was as if I had shotgun holes all over my chest area (where my heart is) ... I was really injured ... that angel had a type of salve (balm) and he took that salve and applied it to each hole and it felt so good and the next morning I awoke completely healed from the persecution.
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v. 38-39 ... if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: 39But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it;
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v. 40-42 ... and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. 42And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
Example here: man commands one thing ... what did apostles do? They did what God commanded. Seems simple. We must do same. One thought comes ... another thought comes contrary to first thought ... which thought is from God? which thought is from devil?
Sounds simple to say must obey God. Everyone would say of course must obey God.
But I see people, even people among us, failing to do that.
Each of us are responsible for ourselves ... It is so important to think on this.