Acts 12:7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

Your first encounter with the God of the impossible is when he saved you. I am sure that for as long as you live you will not be able to explain it. All you know is that God changed you and your life has never been the same since.

Many times since you believed, God has moved in your circumstances though you may have not realized it. God’s favor is part of your heritage.  The time does come however when you will be faced with the impossible and if the Lord God does not intervene, the change or deliverance you need will not come. These experiences come to bring glory to God’s name and strengthen your faith in him.

Take a look at Acts 11:29 thru Acts 12:1-19. A perfect storm, as they say. The political climate in the Roman Empire under Claudius was far from ideal but the church of God in Antioch was growing even in spite of persecution. King Herod ordered the execution of James the brother of John. He had Peter arrested and put in jail under guard of 16 soldiers, two of whom were chained to him. The plan was to bring him to public trial after the Passover.

What King Herod did not know was that an all-night prayer meeting was in progress at Peter’s church “earnestly praying to God for him.” Understand the gravity of the situation – There is no way in the natural that Peter can get out of jail and there is no such thing as a “fair public trial”. Such trials are always a sham because the verdict will always be according to the vehemence of the crowd. So I’m sure Peter knew well that his life was over. But the God of the Impossible had other plans, Hallelujah!  All it took was for his people to pray earnestly – they joined their faith together. I challenge you to pick a truly impossible situation in your life right now and gather with others of faith to pray about it. See what God will do – even if it takes an angel to do it. The Holy Spirit reminds us:

“That is why when you pray, it is important to believe. I am a God who hears and answers prayers. Praying is not speaking for its own sake. When my children pray, they tap into my divine source of power. It releases the forces of heaven and earth to do my bidding. Pray in faith believing that my ears are opened to your cry and change will come.”

2 Chronicles 30:27 The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people and God heard them, for their prayers reached heaven, his holy dwelling place.

The purpose of prayer is to acknowledge the deity and sovereignty of Almighty God. On the average we think of prayer in terms of asking for things much the way we would approach a Santa Clause. Seldom do we stop to think about what God wants us to know about him or what he desires to do in response to our requests. We simply want what we want.  Don’t misunderstand me – God is our Father and he desires to give good gifts to his children but we also have to realize that there is divine order and wisdom and God can be approached for that reason alone. So prayer includes “not my will but yours, O Lord.”

In 2 Chronicles 29 we learn about King Hezekiah who became King in Jerusalem when he was 29 years old. He decided to reign in righteousness as David had done. He cleansed and repaired the temple. He called on the priests and Levites to restore practices of temple worship which had ceased during the prior years of ruin and devastation. In short he called the nation to prayer and repentance. He also revived the celebration of the Passover and invited all the tribes of the children of Israel to participate. Some mocked while others heeded his call to come to worship. There was a great gathering and much sacrificing of animals as atonement for their sins and Hezekiah prayed for them. In Chapter 30 verse 20 we read that “The Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people. In verse 27 “The priests and Levites stood and blessed the people, and God heard them for their prayers reached heaven.”

If we study these two chapters we learn much about the posture adopted by Hezekiah and the people who heeded his call. It is all about repentance, praise, and honoring God. All this should precede our requests. It is in this atmosphere that we move the heart of God.

Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

We are watching a drama being played out. The Israelites have exited Egypt and are on the way to the land of Canaan which God promised to give to them. Indeed God had said to Moses: “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.” (Numbers 13:2). The way to Canaan is not uninhabited however, there are people living in the various territories which are overseen by their kings. As words spread about this approaching mass of people, fear spread among the kings and the inhabitants. The Israelites, led by Moses, began to take territory one by one. The first King to fall was Arad in the Negev, then the Israelites head off for Moab camping at various sites along the way. At the top of mount Pisgah they could see the territory of the Amorites. Messengers were sent to ask Sihon their King to permit the Israelites to pass through but the request was refused. As a result he and his kingdom were taken by force. The kingdom of Bashan ruled by Og was next. The Lord said to Moses, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have handed him over to you, with his whole army and his land. Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites who reigned in Heshbon.” (Numbers 21:34)

The next scene in this drama is very curious indeed. Balak, the king of Moab is terrified by the news that the Israelites are coming so he sends messengers (with a fee for divination) to Balaam, a man of God with the request: “Now come and put a curse on these people because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the country. For I know that those you bless are blessed and those you curse are cursed.” (Numbers 22:6) Balaam sought God’s wisdom in the matter and at first was obedient in not going because the Lord told him, “Do not go with them. You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed.” (Numbers 22:12) Balak sent higher ranking officials next with a promise of great reward. This time when Balaam asked what to do he was told to go but to say and do only what God permitted. Little did Balaam know that God would show his displeasure with the whole thing by letting his donkey rebel, speak to him and delay him! In the final analysis, although Baalam assisted Balak to prepare and offer sacrifices from three different locations prescribed by Balak, God would not allow his people to be cursed. Rather, in Numbers 23 and 24, the Lord affirmed a blessed future for his people and destruction for their enemies. The Holy Spirit assures us:

“I never speak and then not fulfill. That is why I am God. I have the ability to orchestrate change in any set of circumstances so that my children should never doubt that I can deliver and so interrupt the designs of the enemy to wreak havoc in your lives. I am the I AM. I am in charge. My promises are yea and amen.”

John 6:51 “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

In the preceding blogpost I indicated that when Jesus declared himself to be the bread of life he caused much anger on the part of the Jews and consternation for his disciples. He stated: “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:53-54) In explaining this, Jesus was careful to indicate that this would only be accepted by those whom the Father has drawn to him (Jesus) and that the words he had spoken to them “are spirit and they are life.”

It is recalled that in John 4:24 Jesus taught that “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” I believe that some of Christ’s teachings cannot be analyzed and comprehended with the mind, it is spirit to spirit. The Apostle Paul also made clear that: “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)

To the degree that you must consume food and water daily to sustain your physical body, in the same way it is necessary to accept the fact that the broken body and shed blood of our Lord was for you personally. This is the sustenance for your spiritual life. Lose sight of that and you will not find the energy to daily take up your cross and follow Jesus. This is why the repeated observance of Holy Communion is valuable. It helps us remember Jesus and the sacrifice of his body and blood.

Jesus’ disciples, though they loved him, considered his teaching about being the bread of life as difficult to accept, perhaps because the Holy Spirit had not yet been given to them. But the Holy Spirit is now with us so we can ask him to lead us to acceptance of this truth. Some years ago while I grappled with this concept of Jesus being the bread of life, it was the Holy Spirit who opened my understanding with the following:

“My words are mysterious only to those who refuse to believe that I am who I say I am – the very Son of God. To those who believe they will understand that because of my love, I gave up my body, my earthly form that I might win them to the Father. In giving up my body and blood, it freed me to redeem them and return to my Father from whence I came, to now make intercession for them. So, in saying that they should eat my body and drink my blood, it signifies that they too can come to God and be partakers of His divine nature. The natural man has no part with God, only the redeemed who having accepted my sacrifice for them have a direct path to God.”

John 6:66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

John Chapter 6 is very long and it outlines for us several encounters Jesus had with his disciples and crowds which followed him. At the outset it records the feeding of the 5,000 by the Sea of Galilee, followed by the account that Jesus walked on water that night to rejoin his disciples on the boat they had taken earlier that evening to go to Capernaum.

The crowd followed them by boats the next morning and during that day they had many questions for Jesus. He observed that many of them came after him not because they had seen the miracles but instead because their hunger for food had been fully met. Jesus wanted to bring them to a point where they would be more interested in knowing and doing the will of God so he said: “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On Him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” In response to their question: “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

It was in this setting that Jesus also declared himself to be the bread of life: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” As he expanded on this idea, the Jews took offence at the claim – “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They grew even more incensed when Jesus said: “This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” and “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

At this point even Jesus’ disciples were perplexed as they remarked: “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it? Although Jesus explained it further to them and indicated that the words he had spoken “are spirit and they are life” he observed that some still did not believe him. So he said further, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”  Verse 66 then records that “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” The ability to continue following Jesus is a gift from God. The Holy Spirit encourages us:

“It is my will that my children look for my footsteps which are ahead of them. I will not take you to any place I have not been. No matter what you face I have already endured. My grace is sufficient for you. So my children be not weary, move forward and when my footsteps fade, listen for my voice for I am with you. I have said so in my word and my word shall be true to the end of time.”

Hebrews 13:1-2 Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

We generally think of a stranger as someone you do not know, with whom you are unfamiliar or essentially a “newcomer”. Today that person could be a transplant from any corner of the globe. The natural reaction can sometimes be to ignore the individual, but the subject is important enough for the writer of Hebrews to address it, and in this case he is speaking to believers.

If you live in city like I do, you realize that every time you set foot outside your door you become part of a mob of total strangers. In that setting, there are codes of behavior which allow for peaceful coexistence. If these codes are not practiced, mayhem can develop very quickly. In this mob however, or any other setting there is often the possibility for one on one interactions. And this is what the writer is addressing – how to treat this new person you are encountering. He is putting the onus on you to control the quality of the encounter. My goodness, this can be so intimidating, especially if the individual comes across as not being approachable.

The writer instructs us to entertain strangers. That essentially means honoring them as you would an invited guest in your home – listening to them and caring about what they need in the moment, and if at all possible, meeting that need. It also means that in new encounters we should reserve judgment on a person’s character because we do not know their history. A kind word or action can greatly affect that person’s outlook and, equally, could change the course of your life. This is why the writer refers to entertaining angels without being aware of it. Many personal success stories are the result of chance encounters. Many names come to mind when I think of individuals in Scripture who encountered angels: Sarah, Hagar, Samson’s mother, Abraham, Moses, Gideon, Mary, David and many more. Those encounters changed their lives and put them on a path to fulfill their divine destiny.

In addition to all this, in the illustration of how judgment will proceed when the Son of Man comes again in his glory, Jesus made this point “Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come you who are blessed of my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. (Matthew 25:34-36).

Matthew 19:17 Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”

Recently I visited a friend who had been ill for some time. We talked about many things. Half way through my visit I anointed her with oil and, with three of us in the room, I prayed for her healing because I have seen God answer such prayers. Why is that? I believe that not everyone who is severely ill is meant to die at that particular time. I also believe it is God who has the last word and he decides who lives and who dies and when. So to the extent that his Word instructs us to pray and believe that he will raise up the sick and forgive their sins, it is incumbent on us to be obedient and intercede for them. (See James 5:14-16). The Scriptures record repeatedly that  Jesus healed people on the basis of their faith or the faith of those who brought the sick to Him. It is the restoration of the “hopeless cases” that brings the most glory to God’s name.

Before I left my friend that day she had a question: “Why do good people suffer? In retrospect, I know I fumbled the answer. So let us go to the Bible and see what Jesus had to say about being good. Matthew 19:16-22 records an encounter between Jesus and a rich young man who had similar questions. You will see that Jesus took the position that there is only One who is good, that is God. (See the New King James Version of the Bible). Jesus’ response left the young man totally dejected and he went away disappointed to learn that all his good deeds so far, and they were many, would not assure him a place in God’s kingdom. Jesus’ disciples were equally stunned by the discourse as they exclaimed: “Who then can be saved?” (See verses 23-30). Are you stunned too?

The position Jesus took was not new. The prophet Isaiah summed up our condition before a Holy God: “All of us have become unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” (Isaiah 64:6).

This condition of ours, my friend, is why Jesus went to the cross. The shedding of his blood covers our sins. Once we accept that he took our punishment, God credits us with His righteousness. The good we then begin to do is God-ordained and therefore is of value in his  sight. (See Ephesians 2:8-10).

If you are still holding out on the idea that “good people” shouldn’t suffer, consider Jesus. What did He do to suffer as He did? “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him and put him to grief.” (Isaiah 53:10). “God did not spare his own Son, but gave Him up for us all…” (See Romans 8:32 and study Chapter 8 in its entirety).

Matthew 18:3 “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Do I have the mindset of a little child? Do you? It is humbling to me that Jesus would choose a child as one having the capacity to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. How radical is that! In Matthew 18:1-5 Jesus surprised his disciples when in answer to their question: “Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” he called a little child to stand among them. He then replied: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.”

So what characteristics does a little child exhibit that brings delight to the heart of God?  A little child still has the capacity to be humble and is teachable. A little child who is loved and cared for will display faith – a constancy in believing that what the caring parent or care-giver says is true, right and beneficial for him/her; trust – a willingness to abandon cares and fears of what will happen next to the parent’s ability to protect; reliance – the belief that the parent will provide for his/her needs as they arise; covenant love – a child may not be able to put a name on it, but he/she lives with the assurance that when that parent makes a promise, it will be kept without fail.

Do you see where this leads us?  If you are being honest, you will admit that this creates a crisis for you right now as it did for me. It is not about whether you are saved or not, hopefully you already believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, your sins have been forgiven and you are connected to God through the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. But this is about the measure of faith! Can we display the characteristics of a little child and abandon ourselves to God on an ongoing basis? The Lord God has shown himself to me to be completely trustworthy for so long and in so many ways, and especially this last year, that I feel compelled to be like a little child before Him and surrender to his unending care, faithfulness and Majesty.

Luke 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.

This was the voice of an angel of God, together with a great company of the heavenly hosts, breaking in upon the shepherds as they watched over their flocks in the night. Like us, they were just doing what they normally do. And here we are again at Christmastime doing what we normally do, running around frantically trying to get to every item on a mighty long to-do list in the next few days leading up to December 25^th. We live in a society so consumed by doing that we no longer take time to just be.

When the Christ child was born, there was no room for him in the inns of his day. His father Joseph and his mother Mary had to settle for shelter in a stable. No one provided a warm, safe place for them to be. We sometimes think that if we had had the opportunity, we would have behaved differently. Don’t be so sure, because we are the most distracted generation that ever lived. We can no longer even lift our eyes up from our numerous electronic devices to look at or listen to each other or carry on a decent conversation. So if an angel of God appeared to you, would you even stop to pay attention? You would, but only because you would be compelled to recognize someone majestic and greater than yourself.

Well, Christ has come! Have you paid any attention to him? He has been calling you into a deeper relationship with himself and his Father. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” (John 15: 9-10).  Make time and room for his glorious presence this Christmastime.

1 Samuel 10:6 The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you in power and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.

The Spirit of God has always been at work in the world. Genesis 1:2-3 records the following: “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”  And God said: “Let there be light,” and there was light.” Where the Spirit of God is there is endless possibility for light, life, movement, energy and unity. The Spirit of God is the supreme change agent. He demonstrates that which is awesome. It was God’s Spirit that transformed Saul into a different person on the inside just after he was anointed by Samuel to become King of Israel. That empowerment led Saul to prophesy along with the other prophets and redirected the course of his life.

Prior to his crucifixion Jesus told his disciples (in John 14) that He would ask the Father to give them another Counselor who would be with them forever, the Spirit of truth. He also referred to that Counselor as the Holy Spirit and described for them what he would do when he came. After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to them and reminded them – “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day; and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:46-49). That event called Pentecost is described fully in Acts 2. Change was immediately evident in the disciples and all the believers gathered with them.

The Holy Spirit came and has stayed busy in the earth since then to work in the Church and in the lives of individual believers. Have you experienced a move of the Spirit? How has He impacted your decision-making or refocused your desires, or corrected your dealings with others? By now you should have developed an awareness of His presence as your guide, teacher and Comforter. He will also inspire your worship whether you worship alone or in a group.  Always welcome him. He is the source of the miraculous.