Shake Me Lord!

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
Acts 4 (click the link)


KEY VERSE:
²⁹ Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. ³⁰ Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” ³¹ After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (Acts 4:29-31, NIV)

THE BIG IDEA:
A man has been unable to walk all his life… Peter and John, through the Holy Spirit, heal him… and now THEY ARE IN JAIL???  

I’m sure during these early birthing days of the church there was tremendous confusion and this new “occupy” movement was making everyone crazy.  Jesus had said that the world would hate them, even persecute them.  He had warned them and now it was happening.  All the known governing authorities both religious and civil in power at the time converged together to try to stop them from preaching about this resurrection from the dead and miraculous healing power. 

Again, just as they questioned Jesus they were asking the same thing now… “By whose authority do you do this”?   Peter, “full of the Holy Spirit,” began to preach and directly answer that question for them.  It was the power of Jesus Christ… and he didn’t stop there… He proceeded to tell the authorities that they were the ones who put Jesus to death and rejected salvation for the nation…  That salvation would now only come from one place… one person… Jesus… the resurrected Jesus. 

It’s one of those moments I would like to have been a witness to this transaction.  Can you imagine the anger from the authorities… mthese ridiculous people should have been begging for their lives… instead they accused the authorities… to their face… of crucifying their only hope of salvation.  That is bold Holy Ghost COURAGE!!! 

As a result they were freed.  Bold truth and a miracle shut the mouths of all.  As a result of what happened, the church began to pray for more COURAGE and more BOLDNESS.  The scriptures say that after they prayed for those things the PLACE they were in was SHAKEN and a new filling of the Holy Spirit took place.

REFLECTIONS:

I have never been in a place that was shaken like that due to prayer… where God himself manifests himself as incredible power.  I thank God that he has allowed me to be filled a few times with the Holy Spirit.  But I wonder what it would be like to pray like that? 

I’m not sure I would have the boldness to pray in the face of such opposition.  I want to.  I want to see miracles like that.  I want my faith to believe like that.  I want God to get my heart to the place where I can say truly and with boldness… “That I didn’t love my life even to death.”  The scriptures say that that’s how the Devil is defeated. 

Jesus did his part… he did lay his life down for me… I think he is waiting for me and you and a people in the earth to once again rise up and say… “We cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

POINT OF ACTION:

Pray with me for courage and strength to lay down everything that would hinder God doing a miracle in and through me.  Pray that you and I would be bold in the face of a world that needs God’s Love desperately.  Pray that God would manifest himself to us and shake the place we are in!!!!  I want to see it, how about you?

WHO AM I?

I’m June Criner and my favorite thing is playing with my Granddaughter Emily Grace.  Next in line would be laughing until it hurts with my husband Barry.  He cracks me up.  I also like ice cream and a good meal around a table with my family or friends!  I have a continuous love /hate relationship with ICE CREAM!!!   When I get my resurrected body I will be a perfect size 6, until then I can dream…