August 12, 20147 … Surrender Power
Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please go this video link to hear Chris Tomlin singing the his contemporary classic How Great Is Our God, proclaiming the power of God in any/all who believe and surrender to His Spirit.
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Highlight Passage - Acts 6: 8, … 10 [NKJV] …
8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. …
10 And they [the people] were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.
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Highlight Passage [Context] - 2nd Timothy 2: 1-7 [NKJV] … GO TO THIS LINK
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Reference Passage #1 - Matthew 5: 16 [NKJV] …
16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.
Reference Passage #2 - Acts 1: 8 [NKJV] … Jesus declares …
8a And you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will become witness to Me in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the utmost part of the earth.
My Journal for Today: In this morning’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, the author told of an incident in 1891 where the people of the Southwest were having a severe drought and needed rain. So the people of that area brought in someone who had a reputation of explosive techniques to bring rain. But all he did was make a lot of noise with various types of explosions with dynamite and other sources of explosive power. However, no rain came.
The story from the book of Acts at the outset of chapter 6 however, showed a different kind of power; and it was the type of power spoken of earlier in Acts [see Acts 1: 8] when Jesus ascended into heaven, promising that the very power of the resurrection, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, would be unleashed in believers to allow them to be powerful witnesses to and for God in the early church times. And when we read about this power being unleashed by Stephen and other witnesses in the early church, it was impressive. And this witness of God’s power in the faithful, like Stephen, caused many to surrender and be converted.
But was that power spoken of in Acts 6: 1-10 or earlier in Acts 1: 8 only for the early faithful believers; or can this power be on display among Christians today? And the answer is that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow; so, if others are not seeing the power of God in Christians today, where do you think the problem lies? … Duh!! … It wouldn’t be a lack of faith, would it?
The type of Spirit-filled faith which Stephen (and other early church leaders) had is not on display today because we Christians of today are not filled with the same degree of surrender to God’s Spirit as was Stephen. The Spirit is the same; but our degree of faith and surrender is not.
So, today, my prayer is for a powerful filling of God’s Spirit in my life so that I can be what Jesus called me to be in Matthew 5: 16 and Acts 1: 8, a powerful light and witness, … one who can shine God’s light through my life into an every darkening world.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, I pray that I go out and shine Your powerful light through all I think, say, and do to be a powerful witness in my world for Your glory. ... Amen
Blogger Note: Every day during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread [TGIF], distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK; on the date of my blog, you’ll find a link to read the Our Daily Bread blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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