Today we will learn 5 lessons from the book of Acts, which was written by Lucas in the form of a letter to his friend Teófilo. In it the author deals with themes such as the beginning of the church, the story of perseverance of our first brothers in the faith – among them the missionaries Paul and Peter stand out – amid persecution and the care of God with his servants. In Acts we see the action of the Holy Spirit, guarding His people which has resulted in the salvation of many lives.
1. Pray before making important decisions
Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen, to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs”. Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.
Acts 1: 24-26
In this chapter, Peter who assumes the apostolic leadership of this new moment in the church, presents the need for the appointment of a new apostle to the place of Judas Iscariot and then, after praying and asking for God’s direction , Matias is appointed. This passage teaches us the importance of praying before making important decisions, because our Lord knows everything and always has the best direction for each person’s life.
2. Do the will of God
So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us”. All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
Acts 6: 12-15
One of the most prominent deacons in the Early Church was Stephen: “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit”, he was a powerful man in God and announced the gospel of Jesus Christ, but that caused many religious leaders to rise up in opposition to him.
They even paid bribes for false witnesses to file blasphemy statements against him. Even so, Stephen stood firm and did the Lord’s will. We must always remain in the Father’s will, even though in the eyes of others it may seem “crazy”, because our greatest desire must be to please God and not men.
3. Be sincere when they accuse you
While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Acts 7: 59-60
In Acts 7, Stephen begins to talk about the history of the Israelites since Abraham and God’s promises made to him. He also highlights the hardness of the people’s hearts in the past and the present, and accuses them of murdering all the messengers that God raised up to announce his will.
They stoned him who had the same attitude as Jesus on the cross and pleaded with the Lord to forgive those who took his life. However bad the circumstances may be, we must be sincere, God is for us, nothing happens without His permission.
4. Rejoice when you receive an exhortation
You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell. So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message.
Acts 15: 29-31
In this passage are given some rules and recommendations for the church in Antioch, which must be followed up to the present day and the text shows that religious leaders were happy to receive the exhortation. Whoever exhorts you, loves you and wants you to follow the right path and not the one that leads to condemnation, so we should be happy to be exhorted, however difficult it may be.
5. Fear not!
But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.
Acts 27: 22-25
God is on the boat with you! In Acts 27, God gave Paul an absolute guarantee that no one on the ship would be lost. However, Paul told the centurion that if the sailors left the ship, their soldiers would lose their lives. In this way, according to what Paul had said, the soldiers prevented the sailors from leaving the ship and everyone arrived ashore safely and God kept His word and His promise through Paul’s warning and the choice the soldiers made.
We often know that we don’t need to worry or be distressed, but we still let the spirit fall. This passage reminds us that if God is telling you to trust Him, trust Him, for He is faithful!
To recap …
We must pray before making decisions, always seeking to do the will of God, also as children of the Creator, we need to be sincere when we are accused of something and rejoice when receiving an exhortation, because who exhort loves. Finally, do not fear, our Lord is faithful and our trust must be in Him!
God bless you!
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Praise the almighty father of heavenly kingdom
Amen!🤗
Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful! What a Beautiful Godly Message to all of Us!!! May God Bless you all!!
Hi Nicole, good article, well done. I have to say though that praying before a big decision is useful only to people that God favors. I have never received any response from God or Jesus, just silence. If all you receive is silence then it is useless to pray before the big decision as you won’t get an answer. As far as God being faithful is concerned I would have to say that God isn’t faithful. The Bible says that God will give graciously and abundantly to anyone that asks for wisdom and knowledge. I have prayed for those things only to not receive anything. That doesn’t sound like our Heavenly Father is faithful to me. I truly want to believe that God is faithful, but He has proven otherwise. 40 years of nothing. 40 years and still trying to get a a Yes answer to my prayers. 40 years of heartbreak like this is very hard to deal with, but I keep coming back to have my heart broken again and again and again and…… I am glad for you that God doesn’t treat you the same as He treats me. I just prayed that you never have to experience the heartbreak of God’s unfaithful treatment. Thanks and may God Bless You, in Jesus name, Amen
My friend the age of miracles is past. Supernatural evidences of God’s existence no longer occurs as it did in the books of Acts. that was a special time and in a particular place. We now live in the modern technological world scientific logical, rational . Oh there are a great number of charlatans and frauds in the Christian world today who claimed the power of miraculous healing. As well as other spiritual abilities. But you know that is not true nobody creates miracles today. Except of course scientific and medical miracles.I am sure you had to endure certain medical problems that have been rectified by the scientific method not by prayer as the scripture says “if one is sick let him be anointed with oil and the elders pray over them”. Many foolish people following that admonition have wound up dead.I know of certain preachers who boasted that God would protect them from the coronavirus so they ignored precautions and they are now dead. We as human beings living in the modern world we must use our rationality, our logic to cope and survive today’s world without the hope of God’s intervention. To expect some divine recognition of our lives from a distance and unknowable God is irrational and and it will cause great disappointment and discouragement as you are now experiencing. It can also create mental disturbances, many hyper religious people are mentally ill. The problem is maturity. One must grow up and accept the world as it is not as they wish it to be. The only value I find personally in faith and in the Holy scriptures is the belief in the ethical teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Love your neighbor, overcome evil with good. Quite frankly my friend the Christian church today is an absolute mess literally tens of thousands of different denominations all claiming to have the truth. That fact in itself proves the unreliability of trusting in miracles and supernatural occurrences. If God were directing the Christian church today there would be unity throughout the world. Only through logic rationality maturity and a stoic attitude towards life can one hope to find a modicum of happiness. Cheer up do something good for your neighbor.
Check and read the book “The Wonders of Prayer by John Hagerson, kevin Ha
Hi Kenneth. I’m sorry to hear that God does not communicate with you. Notice I say “communicate” not “speak”. I disagree with the learned author and her response to you. God could speak to you, if He so choose. Miracles do still happen this day and age though less than before. (Her argument is valid in that even when God clearly performed miracles people still did not believe. So He should not have to perform miracles for you or anyone to believe.) I know , personally, multiple people who have been spoken to directly by God. Most of these are (former) Muslims in the Middle East. (And they were usually ‘sorely afraid’.) However , most of us are with you — God does not speak to us directly. But He does communicate — whether through the voice of a friend, a sign in nature, or -unfortunately- a consistent denial of our request. I’m sorry, again, that your prayers have not been answered. I don’t know why that is. It is a comfort to me to remember that even the Apostle Paul asked for the thorn to be removed from his side -3x (that we know about)- and yet God chose not to remove it. If God could deny such a plea from a great example like Paul, for reasons we won’t know until we get to heaven, I can endure God not answering mine, even though that’s hard. The Bible indeed says that He will answer our requests when asked for earnestly, but He does not say how. It is a common misconception these days that many believe they will “prosper” or experience (only) good things if they just believe. Unfortunately, the only promise God makes is that we will experience hardships while on Earth, and that our reward awaits us in heaven. We are not for this world. I will pray for you, that you may experience God’s grace. I pray He brings somebody/something in your life to comfort you. I pray He lets you experience now some of the goodness in store for you in your eternal future.
I hardly see such a challenge to God as this. What in the world have you been asking for 40 years without any reply? God is faithful whatever happen to us, something must have gone wrong somewhere. Read Lamentation 3 meditatively.
I love to know more about your case.
Dear friend I totally understand how you feel, we have all gone through heartbreaks and it is really not easy to believe that God esiste, today’s article is so amazing and simple and goes right to the point.
1. Praying before decision making is very usefull to everyone, remember Jesus is the same of yesterday today and forever, whatever he did in the past he will do today, he loves us so much, in the silence of our hearts is the still voice of God, just stay calm and you will hear him , he might do it through a preaching of a paster, there are so many ways God speaks to us , he is never silent
2.God is faithful and he gives abundantly to those who seek Wisdom and knowledge, read the books of proverbs everyday if you think you are not gaining Wisdom, the bible is his word and it guides us in all we do
Heartbreak , am sorry Dear but it’s all based on bad decisions, harsh decisions and ignoring the still small voice of God that speaks to us,
You see the enemy is roming about seeking whom he may destroy, and when he sees that we want to change and depend on God, he does all he can to distract us.
God is faithful and he loves us so much that he sent Jesus to die for us so we may have eternal life,
Pray , read his word and follow his word, be obedient to his word and you will withness the faithfulness of God
AMEN
Miracles happen everyday. Remember not all lepers were healed or all dead raised to life by Christ in his time on earth. That none has happened to you does not mean miracles do not happen. I personally is a living beneficiary of God’s miracle.
It’s important to daily submit & keep our CREATOR 1st in ALL things…Relationship with Abba with a pure heart focused on God provides room for growth without limitation, for His Spirit leads & wills His PURPOSE! It’s a beautiful thing to be still in Him & to willfully allow His Grace to culminate His PURPOSE above our comprehension. Then he puts persons like yourself in our path to remind us of His goodness! TY for being a part of what God is doing & i pray His face to continue to shine upon you in His BELOVED SONs name. Selah 🕆 WE ALL have room for growth & proper instruction…I’m privelaged to be under his chastisement & positive change ✡Best yet to be His child!
Amen! Thank you for this timely word.
Amen
Good Godly advice, in everything pray to God.
Wow! Very informative and annointing words. God bless this Ministry 🙌
Thanks and glory be to God Almighty. He first loved us and He patiently wants all of us to be saved….
Amen, thanks for the word it’s so encouraging God bless you.