Feb 21, 2023
The men and women who were headed for the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost (see Acts 1 and 2) loved Jesus dearly. They had been taught in the school of Christ by the Lord himself. Some had performed miracles, healed the sick and cast out demons. They were compassionate and soul-loving, but they weren’t yet qualified to be his witnesses.
They had been nearby when he sweat drops of blood, seen him hanging on the cross, and stood at his empty tomb. They had even watched in awe as he ascended into heaven! Yet they still were not ready to represent him. Why? Because they needed the power of the Holy Spirit to face down the fearsome, corrupt religious leaders of the day.
The Upper Room experience – the day the Holy Spirit fell on the apostles and other followers of Jesus – made all the difference.
Hear Peter’s powerful statement to the chief priests: “And we are his witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him” (Acts 5:32 NKJV). Through the words of the Holy Ghost speaking through Peter, the priests “were furious and plotted to kill them” (Acts 5:33).
Stephen came next, filled with the Holy Ghost, confronting the Sanhedrin court just before his death. “’You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you’…When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth” (Acts 7:51, 54).
When you emerge from seeking God full of his Spirit, you can stand boldly before anyone, and your witness will provoke one of two reactions. They will either cry out, “What must I do to be saved?” or they will resist and challenge you. You will speak words that cut to the heart.
Miracles don’t reside within the walls of a church building. The mighty wind of the Spirit blew all the people out into the streets, into the marketplace. Had we been in the Upper Room looking for revival, supernatural wind and tongues of fire, we would have been directed outside to 120 witnesses on the streets, preaching Jesus in the power of the Holy Ghost. That’s where the revival is. That’s the outpouring. The wind, the fire, the Spirit — it’s now in God’s witnesses!
Feb 20, 2023
Paul faced a choice when he found himself in the midst of a storm. He was most likely chained in the bottom of the ship, as was the common practice for transporting prisoners. When he warned the people not to undertake this journey, he was scoffed at and scorned. The voice of truth is constantly set aside as bigoted and out of touch. Eventually it is locked away in the same way that Paul was relegated to the bottom of the ship.
Imagine the unspeakable hardship that Paul once again faced. Nevertheless, in the midst of it all, Paul chose in his heart to forgive these men. He stood before them and said, “For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told” (Acts 27:23-25, ESV).
Isn’t that amazing? Paul, once an intolerant Pharisee who hauled people out of their homes and tortured them to get them to blaspheme the name of Christ, was now moved with compassion for his oppressors!
We must have the compassion of God flowing out through us. How do we get to such a place? Not merely by study. We might wish we could take a Bible course somewhere and come out compassionate, but it just doesn’t work that way. Compassion comes by allowing the one who already won the battle for kindness to do his work in and through us.
I am well aware that I cannot forgive or love with that kind of divine love, and neither can you. Human effort cannot produce the kind of compassion required to reach a perishing world or the kind of forgiveness that the greatest depths of depravity demand. It is supernatural and must be worked in us by God. Try as you might to love people in your own strength, you will find that words of grace and forgiveness will not be in your mouth unless they are supernaturally put there by Almighty God.
Learning to love the unlovely requires a change of heart and a molding of character that God must work into your life by the Holy Spirit.
Feb 17, 2023
The only time God’s patience with us runs out is when we refuse again and again to accept how much he loves us.
Many Christians today have been turned back into a wilderness of their own making. They have no joy, no victory. Looking at them, you’d think God had forsaken them years ago. No. He has simply turned them over to their own complaining and murmuring.
Think of the disciples! They were men of power and vision because they knew they were precious to God. Thank God they followed Christ. They stood as green trees in God’s house until their dying days. You also are precious to the Lord, despite your problems and failures. You can be a green tree in God’s house just as the apostles were. Simply stand on what God promises in his Word! It is packed full of assurances that we are priceless to him, and we can live secure in his love and devotion.
“He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me” (Psalm 18:19 NKJV).
“The Lord your God is in your midst, the mighty one, will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).
“Because your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you” (Psalm 63:3). “For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he will beautify the humble with salvation” (Psalm 149:4).
“He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love” (Song of Solomon 2:4).
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? …For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35,38-39).
This is the foundation of true faith!
Feb 16, 2023
The church and the synagogue are two separate and opposed things. There is a barrier between the church, the synagogue, the Gospel and Jewish people. The first of what we call “church” was in Jerusalem. The leader was James. He wrote one of the earliest epistles. James 2:2 says, “If a man comes into your meeting, into your assembly, …” The word here for into your assembly or church is synagogue. That’s where we get the word synagogue from. The first churches were in synagogues. The first church in Jerusalem was in a synagogue and that is the mother of all churches, the synagogue. We have to remember the Gospel is to the Jew first; we have to pray for the Jewish people; love the Jewish people. Salvation came to you from the Jewish people; you are part of something Jewish. If you are born again, you’re a child of Abraham. You are of the commonwealth, a citizen of Israel. So be blessed…the first church was in a synagogue.
Feb 14, 2023
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV).
If you lived to be 500 years old, you would not live long enough to please God by your own works. It doesn’t matter how hard you may try to clean yourself up. Your flesh is not accepted before God; it can’t even be reformed. All flesh was done away with at the cross. Now a new man has come forth: the Christ man. True faith is having confidence in what Christ has done for you.
You may say, “Oh, I can believe that God delights in faithful pastors. They pray and spend so much time in his Word. I can believe that elders are precious to him. They have endured sufferings, tests and trials, and have come out victorious. However, I find it hard to believe that a troubled, failing Christian like me could be precious to God. He is surely disgusted with me because my life is so inconsistent. I have problems I can’t seem to get through. I believe he still loves me, but surely he is disappointed in me.”
Please understand Isaiah’s wonderful prophecy of grace when God said, “But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine.’” (Isaiah 43:1). This was spoken to a people who had been robbed, spoiled, snared and cast into prison, all because of their own foolishness and unbelief.
In the following chapter God emphasizes his message. “For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring” (Isaiah 44:3-4). This is not a God who withholds from those he loves!
God wants his children to hear this clearly. He pointedly says to them, “Now, after all your failures, I come to you with this message of hope. And it’s only because you are mine!”
