One of the major reasons I started this blog is because I want to really live, to the FULL, the life Jesus paid for. I want to live BIG for God. I was tired of just wearing the Christian jersey but not really playing any game to help the kingdom of God win BIG here on earth. I want to be the Lord’s soldier that understands what it means to really defend territories and capture more territories for the kingdom. I really want to walk in the New Creation Reality. And I also want to see other Christians live like this. So, it’s safe to say that my posts are, first, notes to me and then…to you.
Last week, I was asked to record a children’s Bible lesson from Acts 3 and the Holy Spirit used that opportunity to increase my passion for “living Big for the kingdom.” Acts 3 tells the story of a man who was born lame but walked when he encountered Peter and John at the gate called beautiful. This lame man met Peter and John after their encounter with the Holy Spirit in the upper room.
After the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the upper room, the disciples and the early church were on fire for Jesus. They were no longer afraid. They became so bold. They preached the Gospel of Jesus and performed miracles in the name of Jesus. One of their early miracles, as recorded in the Bible, is the healing of the man who was born lame.
Jesus was the enemy of the religious leaders and they had killed Him. He died and resurrected on the third day, but the religious leaders refused to believe the story and even paid the soldiers that witnessed His resurrection events to keep it a secret. They didn’t want to hear anything about this Jesus. But, the disciples were out in the streets, again, talking about this Jesus and performing miracles in His name. Of course, the Holy Spirit was the One behind this “beautiful craziness” that had consumed the disciples and the early church. As Christians, we should all be “beautifully crazy” for Jesus, like the early church.
You should carefully read and study The Acts of the Apostles…every once in a while
I know we’re all used to calling the book “Acts” but the book is not just called “Acts.” It is actually called “The Acts of the Apostles” and that book has clear pictures that show Believers…not who we can be…but who we already are in Christ.
In it we see how the early church was so much like Christ and was given the name, “Christians.” In it we see how the disciples and the early church took the commission Jesus gave to them and just ran with it without looking back, after their encounter with the Holy Spirit. In it will get to see what the life of a Believer, when filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit, is supposed to look like:
raise the dead and heal the sick (and have even your shadow do same), discern clearly when someone is lying or when something is a lie, speak so eloquently and authoritatively before rulers and leaders and make them marvel, be stoned yet ask God to forgive your killers before you die, love so much like God so everyone in your sphere of contact feels the genuine love of God directly from you, be always available for God to interrupt your day and send you out to carry out a specific task, hear God give you vivid descriptions of things, have angels come to your rescue when you’re physically trapped, rejoice even in chains and during other persecutions and trials, rebuke demons and watch them flee, declare the Gospel of Jesus with all boldness and watch thousands come to the knowledge of Jesus…be completely and totally sold out to Jesus…no matter where you are and what you’re doing.
Everything listed above and so much more are “The Acts” that were carried out by the Apostles and the early church. They are recorded in the Bible to help us see and know who we really are in Christ.
We are supposed to continue The Acts…
As Christians, we are here to continue the events that are recorded in “The Acts of The Apostles” because that’s God’s true desire. And we have all the rights and privileges the early church had. We can’t have an updated Bible, but the record continues in heaven and I believe the early saints are cheering us on from heaven.
The disciples and the early church took the world with boldness, fierceness and audacity, and because of that, we have the Gospel of Jesus all over the world today. Daily, I want to live like they lived…don’t you? Well, if you’re a Christian you should want to live like that too because that’s how God wants us to live. God wants us to be so focused on Jesus. God wants to be able to invade our day and say,
“Dear one, rise and proceed southward at midday on the road that runs from Jerusalem down to Gaza, and you will find an Ethiopian eunuch.”
And when we get confused about God’s instructions to us to go pray for someone like Saul of Tarsus and say things like,
“Lord, I have heard many people tell about this man, especially how much evil and what great suffering he had brought on Your saints in Jerusalem; now he is here and has the authority from the high priests to put in chains all who call upon Your name.”
God wants us to, clearly, hear Him say,
“Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of Mine to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the descendants of Israel.”
“The Acts” are already in you
As fellow heirs with Christ, the Bible (when properly read and understood) shows us who we are…not who we can become. We don’t strive to become who the Bible says we are. All we need do is believe it…and if we truly believe it, we’ll speak and act like it. And whether you believe it or not…like the Apostles and the early church, you have “The Acts” in you. So, live out The Acts.
Wake up each day with the consciousness of who the Bible says you are. Spend time reading what the Bible says you are. Spend time praying (especially in the Holy Ghost) about what the Bible says you are. Refuse to accept things that contradict what the Bible says. Insist on things that the Bible says. Daily, surrender to Holy Spirit. Give Him the permission to invade your entire space and use you to the full.
“The Acts” are already in you and nothing, absolutely nothing, can change that. The Holy Spirit also knows “The Acts” are already in you, and He is just waiting on you to let Him help you live out…“The Acts.”
My pray for you and me:
I pray we get really excited, like never before, about who we are in Christ. I pray our excitement bring us to a place where we just can’t get enough of the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit. I pray we begin to see ourselves live out “The Acts” that comes with our inheritance in Christ, as the Holy Spirit enables us. In Jesus’ name…Amen.
Get in the gym, and do
Stay Spiritually Fit.
