The Acts of God are in and with People like You and Me
4 And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. 7 There were about twelve men in all. Acts 19:4–7 ESV Read More
Sometimes it happened at the mention of His name. Sometimes it happened with the laying on of hands and prayer. Sometimes it happened before, during, or after baptism in water. Sometimes people spoke in tongues or prophesied, and one time they looked like they were on fire.
The Holy Spirit doesn’t seem to play by any rules or patterns, but when He shows up, people start changing. The Holy Spirit is the perfect sign of how the New Covenant in Christ is different than the Old Covenant under the Law of Moses. Salvation has always been by faith, but how you walked out and expressed that faith is what has changed. In the Old Covenant, you expressed your faith and lived out your faith by obeying a written law. Sacrifices, food restrictions, all of those things kept you separate from a sinful world and thinking about a Holy and wonderful God.
Now, a new creation has been set in place in which God dwells with people by living in people. This new creation is happening by His Holy Spirit. Whereas the Law would scare you from sin, the Holy Spirit offers guidance from your thoughts to help you not want to sin. Sure, He is gracious enough to let you sin if you want too, but for those that will listen, He is giving guidance in righteousness.
Some teachers have called this book the “Acts of the Holy Spirit” instead of the “Acts of the Apostles” but that takes away the really beautiful thing God is doing. God isn’t just doing things spiritually. That’s Genesis 1 stuff. God is doing things in people. It’s people doing the activities because that is how God wants to save the world.
Nowhere in the scriptures does God withhold His Spirit from anyone that believes in Him. There is no straining, convincing, bargaining, etc. to receive the Holy Spirit. (Well, one guy offers to pay for it, but it doesn’t work out well for him.) Let’s pray that we would have more influence of the Holy Spirit in our lives today. Romans 8:26 says that He’ll actually help us pray that! Let’s pray for ourselves, our families, our leaders, and our neighbors because those are all of the kinds of people in which God wants to do His acts.
You can get the Daily Bible Readings via email every day by visiting Feedburner and clicking ‘Get Daily Bible Readings delivered by email’ over on the right side of the screen. Join the discussion online on Facebook or Twitter.