The Great and Humble King (2)

This is a little extra bit relating to The Great and Humble King.

As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.

Acts 5:15

I thought this verse was really cool because it is what Jesus said in John 14 taking action.

Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

John 14:11-14

We can’t deny this fact. When Jesus says something you can be assured its true. Throughout all Jesus’ time on earth people drew near to Jesus. At the most people would have said something like, ‘if I could just touch his cloak I would be healed’. Then we look at Peter and people are saying, ‘if Peter’s shadow would just fall on me I would be healed.’ Now I’m not making up anything here. Read it for yourself. But I feel this next bit might sound very odd.. Peter had greater works that Jesus. This is something that people struggle to believe. ‘It can’t be! Jesus was God.’ Well it’s true and Jesus said it himself in John 14. Do you actually believe this scripture? Because I look about the place and we should have more than a few people that have greater works than Jesus but I look about and I don’t see it. I look at myself and I don’t see it. Our faith is so weak. Like if it only takes a mustard seed’s worth of faith to move a mountain then my faith must be smaller than a mustard seed.

Again I don’t want this to put Jesus down in your sight. We need to understand that we aren’t greater than God. If you’re reading this and still haven’t read the Great and Humble King post then read it now. Because you really need to understand that Peter isn’t greater than Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit that does these miracles and it is Jesus that is with the Father and it is Jesus’ name that we ask these things by. Peter’s miracles were only greater than Jesus’ because of Jesus.

Again this just fills me with awe of a creator so humble that he would let others do greater works than he did when he was on earth. His humility is humbling and inspiring. But at the same time it makes me question my own faith. I know people always use the excuse about the different gifts the Spirit gives and that not everyone can do miracles. But when I read the John 14 text I see the words ‘WHOEVER BELIEVES’. Not ‘whoever believes except the ones that aren’t gifting in that area.’ As usual, the problem is with us. I feel a need to go and spent time to pray. I feel the need to pray for faith and the Spirit to help me with this. And I think you should as well.

Lastly, our lack of these greater miracles might be because we seek his Spirit for our own needs. His Spirit wasn’t sent to us so that our names could be glorified and praised but it was sent so ‘that the Father may be glorified in the Son.’ So maybe it’s because were so self-obsessed and we want things to satisfy our own ego and pride. Have you ever thought that just maybe, this could be you? That you could be praying, ‘Lord heal this person so your name may be praised,’ and God listens to you and hears, ‘Lord heal this person so I can be praised.’ I’m not saying this is you but it could be. Pray that his Spirit would show you if this is you or not. I don’t want you to go away and let this verse destroy your faith, but instead I pray that this would drive you to have a passion for your life to be all about Christ. After all that’s what it’s all about anyway.

True Fellowship

Fellowship is always something that we say were always doing. We meet up with our Christian friends and always call it fellowship. How many of them times do we actually have true fellowship?

Acts 2: 46-47

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

 

The fellowship they had was in their houses together. They met up every day to break bread in their homes and to praise God. This assumes that the people haven’t met up for a chat about random stuff but instead they talked about God. It’s something at doesn’t happen that much. How many times have you met up with a group of friends and it’s just been random talk?

Although it is what fellowship is about we can have fun and talk about other things. A good example is the camping trip I was on for the pass two days. Today was very good and there was the usual slagging, messing around, talking about random things and general just having fun. But alongside this we had serious talks. It was great to be able to walk along and chat about different topics, this being one of them. We stopped off and brought the Bible out and read it together and moved on. All of this was fantastic and really made the whole trip.

Unfortunately I can look at my life and many times and I do not see this. There have been times within the youth when we meet up for two weeks and then we failed and stopped meeting. It’s always a set time for fellowship and then all the other times we meet together is for fun. I’d love to see a time come round when the two cannot be separated, with times were everyone is having general fun and talking about God alongside it. A time when the fellowship I enjoyed today, is always enjoyed by everyone. Unfortunately it is something that is experienced very little but it’s up to you and me to make it happen a lot more.

God came to me and told me something a few years ago. He said, ‘Let us share in our victories and defeats as if we were one. In this way we’ll grow stronger.’ So let us get together and not only talk about God, but also share about how our relationships are with him. About how our Bible readings are going and how our prayer life is. About things we’re struggling with and need help with. The Bible talks about all of the believers being one body. We should be sharing our victories and defeats because we are one body, and as this happens we will become stronger. We will get stronger together and more people will be added to the church as the strength of the church arises from the gift of fellowship we have. The strength will not be from us but from the Spirit, as we pray together and help each other out with the experiences we have already gone through.

Again we have so much power in our hands because of Jesus yet we fail to use it. It’s up to you and me. When you’re with your Christian friend’s next will you fail to talk about God and faith issues, or will you step up to the challenge for a truer fellowship and a stronger church?