Daily Bread - FEB/23/07

Acts 4:31 - "And they having prayed the place was shaken in which they were assembled and they were all Holy Spirit filled and spoke the word of God with boldness."

Jesus told His disciples on the night before His death, "in that day you shall ask nothing of me;" rather, they would make their request to the Father in His name (John 16:23, 26; 15:16). This is an example of their obedience to the instructions of Jesus. Their prayer was very focused on their desire to see the name of Jesus glorified. The disciples had been threatened by the rulers of Israel to no longer speak in the name of Jesus. So in order to deal with this problem the disciples asked God, in effect, to increase the magnitude of the miracles. The reason they were in trouble in the first place was because a man who was born crippled was healed. Yet still they were crying out to God that He would do even more miracles by His Holy Child Jesus. The prayer was immediately answered and they were filled once again with the Holy Spirit.

An awesome picture of how things work in the Kingdom of God is developed in this event. The disciples, who are God's representatives on earth, ask the Father, whose purpose is to glorify His Son Jesus, to perform miracles and, as a result, the miracle power fills them once again by God the Holy Spirit. If we are to speak the word with boldness and effectiveness then we too must have the same kind of commitment, the same kind of prayer, and the same kind of empowerment (Ephesians 6:19-20).

Blessings,

Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
abidingplace.org