Heralds Digest

  ““ You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth .” Acts 7 : 51 , 54 NKJV Naturally, except at the instance of hardness, the Holy Spirit convicts every heart that responds appropriately to the goodnews. For example, the audience of Stephen were privileged to be exposed to a great disclosure of the historical perspectives on the mercy of God upon the Israelites. But at the end of his scriptural revelation like their fathers did, the Holy Spirit revealed their resistance to the goodnews. Even today, hardened hearts do readily scorn and spurn all scriptural disclosure of the mercy and grace of God through resistances to confession and forsaking of all forms of unrighteousness. Therefore, believers are encouraged to be consistent in their pleadings for the spirit softening, even up to the possible endurance of o...

  “ For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. ” Acts 7 : 25 NKJV The experience of Moses with his brethren during the dispensation of unequal understanding underscores the basis of common crisis in most relationships. While Moses supposed that his brethren would have understood, God was waiting on Moses to be ready as the evangelist. It is always not enough for believers to be fully convinced about God’s vision and mandate as the divine purpose of their existence. A successful mission on godly visions must accommodate the dynamics of unequal understanding of the people on the field. Unfortunately, most supposed servants of God would get mad with both God and the people for their unequal understanding, leading to loss of focus, faithfulness, and fruitfulness. Whereas, Moses had to spend 40 years in Midian to deal with the concept of unequal understanding until God revealed “I have surely seen the ...

  “ Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. ” Acts 6 : 7 NKJV The reality in life is that the spirit spread and stone spread are almost the two sides of the same coin; but mostly treated by men as isolated events. For Stephen, the spirit-inspired spreading of the word of God  invoked the throwing of stones and persecution from the synagogue of the freedmen. And although the eventual stone spread resulted in the martyrdom of Stephen, the word of God continued to spread exponentially with increasing spreading of stones in the early church. Even today, and over the past 2,000 years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the persecuted saints in the 10/40 windows are still responsible for spreading the greatest and widest gospel of salvation across the globe. It is readily established that when believers graciously allow all manners of stone spread in their family, ...

  “But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, “Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.” ” Acts 5 : 19 - 20 NKJV In societies where everything goes, insane and unlawful activities are bound to grow beyond the leaps and bounds. Therefore, restrictions and regulations through administrative locks and government policies are often put in place for checks and balances. Unfortunately, human nature and godlessness have shown that these restrictions are mostly applied against the spread of the gospel of salvation than the desired regulation against ungodliness in the land. In the early church, the religious leaders in the sect of the Sadducees and the high priest were indignant to the gospel of salvation. Even today, there are numerous gates against the mandate to go into all the worlds and preach the gospel of salvation through every believer’s daily lifestyle. But whether gated through abuse by principa...

  “ And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness .” Acts 4 : 31   Relativism and the concept of shades of grey have become the normal people’s plots and the acceptable standards of living in our society today. But in the early church, the words of God are spoken in absolute truth with boldness. For example, Peter confronted Ananias and Sapphira with this power play; and God’s immediate judgment against the people’s plots brought great fear upon the people of God. Notwithstanding, power play today is still the game of the Holy Spirit, exposing the secret things in human affairs and speaking the absolute truth with boldness. When we allow the power play again in all our interactions with the people at homes, workplaces, and the general societies, there will be boldness to promote integrity, justice and honesty towards a successful project execution. ...

  “ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. ”” Acts 4 : 12 NKJV If reputation in names can count against temptation, trial, and tribulation in life, a man after God’s own heart and a favourite in replacement of the anointed king Saul would ring a bell. However, king David couldn’t stand against the temptation that led him into the sin of adultery with Bathsheba. Even today, without absolute confidence in the grace of God that brings salvation from sin through the anointed name of Jesus Christ, we have seen the fall of princes, politicians, principals, and priests to the venom of temptation, greed, and all forms of unrighteousness. Unfortunately, paupers are more readily admitted to fall under the power of the cross than those who are tempted to hide under the popularity of their acquired names.  Whereas, these names haven’t delivered their bearers from confusion and condemnation, needless to ment...

  “ Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.” Acts 3 : 6 - 7 NKJV Understandably, “ Silver and gold I do not have” is not an attractive status expression in our competitive world. Unfortunately, those who are deprived of physical strength in life ((like financial strength, political prowess, academic intelligence, and social sagacity, etc) have no voice in the scheme of things. Perhaps, the likes of Peter and John of today wouldn’t have been permitted to even access the beautiful gate of the temple; needless to mention the inadmissible decoration of the gate with an impotent man. Notwithstanding, the emphasis here, and which rests in “ what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth” , is the superiority of the spirit strength in believer’s day-to-day...