Freedom For Today

Take a moment to read Acts 13:1-12 before reading the devotional below.

In yesterday’s post, we ended with the fact that following the lead of the Holy Spirit is a life-or-death matter. In today’s passage, we continue to see Barnabas and Saul (also called Paul at this point) rely on the leading of the Holy Spirit to carry out their mission of church planting. Recall that they have been at the church in Antioch for a year and now God is asking them to move along in their journey. I am struck by the fact that the Holy Spirit is able to communicate this message to all the leaders there while they are worshiping and fasting. And they didn’t just take that message and run. Instead they continue to pray and fast until they are all sure the message was clear.

Barnabas and Paul are led to the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea. There they encounter a sorcerer and once again we see the power of eye contact in spiritual discernment. Paul rebukes the sorcerer and strikes him blind, a unique reversal of so many miracles in which the blind were made to see. Of course Paul himself was well aware of what it was like to become suddenly blind, and perhaps his own experience during his conversion gave him an unusual authority to do the same to another who was in opposition to Jesus. The work of the Holy Spirit through Paul leads the governor of the island to put his faith in Jesus.

If you position yourself to listen, you can hear the Holy Spirit’s leading. Intentional times of worship, fasting and prayer are essential to one’s spiritual life. You will limit your ability to hear from God if you do not regularly engage in these spiritual disciplines. Living an empowered life requires you to go beyond the everyday into the supernatural. God will speak through his word to us all, but accurately discerning the Spirit must be sought after on purpose. And then a willingness is required to obey.

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Acts 12 before reading the devotional below.

Tensions are continuing to rise in the political and spiritual scenes of the early church era. King Herod Agrippa, the grandson of King Herod the Great who tried to have Jesus killed as a baby, sees that his poll numbers go up when he persecutes Christians. So he has the apostle James killed and later has Peter arrested.

You know life is getting interesting when you can no longer tell the difference between a trance and actual real-life happenings. So when Peter gets busted out of jail by an angel (who by the way had to knock him up-side the head to wake him up…), he doesn’t realize what is happening. And in one of the more hilarious scenes in the Bible, Peter goes to the home of some believers to stay hidden and when he knocks at the door, they get so excited they forget to actually let him in. Poor little servant girl, Rhoda, gets her name recorded for all of history as the one who forgot unlock the door for Peter in the most desperate of times…

Now, lest we think that these bad kings don’t get what’s coming to them in the end, Herod Agrippa’s death by worm-consumption is pretty creative on God’s part. Try to take God’s place and he’ll let you know why that’s not a great idea.

God’s plans always prevail in the end. It might look pretty bad when people start being thrown in jail or martyred, and it might seem like the evil rulers are winning. But wait long enough to read the rest of the story and you will surely see that God has his day. Your plans might fail, but God’s won’t. Earthly schemes fall apart. And any evil that does succeed here on earth will be destroyed by God’s kingdom for all of eternity. That’s a guarantee. And it is why following the Spirit’s lead makes a life-or-death difference for all of us.

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Acts 11 before reading the devotional below.

Have you ever been criticized for doing what God told you to do? (Me too. It stinks.) In today’s passage, Peter returns from his world-shaking experience in which the Gentiles were given the Holy Spirit in the same way that the Jewish people had been. When Peter gets back to Jerusalem, the Jewish believers there criticize him and question his judgment. Rather than becoming defensive, Peter shares the story of what happened in such a way that God is glorified and the others are also convinced that the Gentiles can have access to God.

The mission continues and the believers begin to travel to other parts of the world to tell more Gentiles about Jesus. Barnabas is sent to the church in Antioch and later he finds Saul and brings him back to Antioch as well. They teach in that church for a year and the Holy Spirit causes the church to thrive, with prophetic words that help the believers prepare for a coming famine.

Peter’s obedience is called into question, but God wasn’t going to throw him under the bus for doing what he was asked to do. Instead, the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of those who hear Peter’s testimony and others are inspired to go reach the Gentiles too. Peter’s obedience wasn’t just about that one interaction with Cornelius — God was doing a great work that would impact the entire world. If you have been criticized or are in a season of doubt in the midst of obedience, take heart! Jesus has already overcome the world and he will multiply the fruits of your faithful labor for the Kingdom.

Take a moment to read Acts 10:34-48 before reading the devotional below.

Have you ever been a part of something that turned out to be so much bigger than you originally thought? Maybe you felt like your starting point was pretty good, but as things unfold you begin to see that the real point was so much more than you could have ever dreamed. In today’s passage we watch Peter get blown away by all that God has been up to with this whole “good news” thing. He thought it was good before, but here it starts to take his breath away.

As we talked about in yesterday’s post, Peter and Cornelius are supernaturally led to each other and God reveals to Peter that his message is for Gentiles in addition to Jews. The story continues as Peter begins to preach again and for the first time in history non-Jewish people receive the Holy Spirit. Cornelius is baptized and they celebrate together as a spiritual family.

Peter was excited when he was preaching to the Jews and watching them come to faith in Christ. But he can’t believe what he is seeing when he begins to realize that God is able and willing to share his love with all people. If something ever seems too good to be true, it is either a scam or it is the love of Jesus. As we watch the Holy Spirit at work, his goodness continually stretches our very definition of “good.”

Take a moment to read Acts 10:1-33 before reading the devotional below.

Today’s passage involves two dramatic visions, in which the Holy Spirit leads Cornelius and Peter to find each other. Cornelius is an officer in the Roman army, occupier of the Jewish land. The Roman Empire was taking over almost all of the known world at that time, and Roman officers were there to maintain control of the land. Some of the Roman officers had interacted with Jesus and there were some who had come to faith in the Messiah. Cornelius is described here as a “God-fearing man” who was faithful in prayer. An angel appears and sends him to Joppa to go get Peter.

Meanwhile, Peter is praying and he falls into a trance. God introduces the first multi-media presentation by lowering a white sheet and flashing through a supernatural PowerPoint with animals that had been forbidden for the Jewish people to eat. Prior to that vision, the law forbid Peter from associating with Gentiles or eating their food. But God’s slideshow reveals that these foods can now be considered “clean.” With all of this undeniable supernatural intervention, Peter begins to see that God is reaching the Gentiles too.

God is for you no matter where you come from. He supernaturally communicated that message to Peter in order to make sure that the early church was not limited to the Jews. Some have claimed that God is racist or exclusive due to the parts of Scripture that forbid the Jews from intermingling with foreigners. But that was a spiritual problem, not a racial one. Foreign cultures brought foreign gods with them, and this derailed the relationship between God and the Jewish people time after time. Jesus created a pathway to God that all people could access, and the Jewish people who had faith in Jesus as the Messiah could unite with any Gentiles who shared that faith. Today we stand as one united, global church and we can rejoice in God’s goodness and mercy to all people.