By REV. TIMOTHY L. MELTON, PASTOR
(Transcribed by Myra D. Colgate)
Cherokee Pentecostal Holiness Church
Read Acts 4:23-31; Proverbs 21:2-3, Ephesians 3:12, Proverbs 28:1, Matthew 29:16.
The Church has been largely silent while the world has gotten much more noisy. There was a time when the Church was more highly respected, but we seem to have largely lost the world’s respect through our lack of boldness, courage and our confidence.
In this chapter of Acts, we see the Apostles Peter and John, as they were making their way daily into the Temple area near the Gate Beautiful. This day, they felt such compassion for the man crippled since birth. The lame man they probably had seen there many times before. They were led by the Holy Spirit to see his condition as one that had become unacceptable to him and to them. Stopped there by the Holy Spirit, they sought to help him receive a real miracle as his feet and ankles were immediately strengthened and healed in the instant he reached up to receive their help to stand up. He received his miracle of healing with great joy, praising the Lord for his grand and merciful healing.
Preaching in the Name of Jesus, there is no other name greater, they also declared the lame man’s healing was through the Name of Jesus. Reminding the priests of the trial and crucifixion they had been a part of, they had chosen to make them (the priests) uncomfortable enough to cause their own arrests.
(The world still uses His Name to show their disrespect of Him and all His followers. They probably remembered how He’d been beaten and roughly treated. Jesus even told us that since we may also go through His same sufferings, we will also participate in His Glory later.)
We don’t need to resist trouble with a gun. We don’t even need, at such a time, a prayer closet or anointing oil. In the face of a threat, He wants to help us go through it by remembering His promise to go through it with us. Asking in prayer, we can ask Him for more boldness and confidence to help us by doing this for us, giving us the access of boldness, with courage and confidence and having it flow strongly into us. Let Him rise up inside of us and then tell them what He says. We are to be bold people even if arrested. If we suffer for the Name of Jesus, we can still choose to love each other, and remember that suffering will get us doubly blessed as we encounter Him. We each can be as bold as lions.
“And now Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal: and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.” (Acts 4:29-31 KJV)
You have seen the way many Christians are now suddenly being treated in Afghanistan. We have had word that many have been slaughtered and will meet Jesus today because they would not deny Christ. In Psalm 116:15, David wrote, “Precious in the sight of Lord is the death of His saints.” Overcoming by the word of their testimony, it can be said now, “So they threaten us with going to Heaven?” Corona virus? Not unless it is your time. Read Matthew 6 and be bold as a lion, people. According to Paul himself, in Acts 28:28-31, he was able to dwell for two years preaching with all confidence.
Read Proverbs 28:1. “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.”
As we become overcomers by the word of our testimony, we literally obligate God. By applying our faith to what He has said to do, He obligates Himself to His children. Jesus is the only born child and that means, we, whom He has chosen also to adopt, are handpicked by Father God. God provides miraculously through the Holy Spirit. Rise up and let Him. He has told us, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
