This past week, I have been meditating on Acts chapters 4 and 5.
As Acts 4 begins, Peter and John have been brought before the religious council because of an extraordinary miracle. God had just healed, through Peter, a man who had been crippled since birth and was now over forty years old. For the first time in his life, this man could walk!
The religious leaders, instead of being overjoyed by what had happened, had Peter and John arrested and began to scrutinize the miracle.
They demanded to know by what power, or in whose name, they had done this. But Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, did not shrink back. He boldly declared that the man had been healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ, the One they had crucified and whom God had raised from the dead.
The healed man was standing right there among them. They could not deny what God had done!
The religious leaders threatened Peter and John and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. But their threats did not silence the disciples. They continued speaking about Jesus with boldness because of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
When they returned to the other believers, they did not ask God to remove the opposition or make their lives more comfortable. They asked Him for even greater boldness to proclaim His Word.
As they prayed, the meeting place shook. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued preaching the Word of God with boldness.
The believers were united in heart and mind. They freely shared what they possessed so that there were no needy people among them. Barnabas (who would later accompany Paul on his mission trip) sold a field and brought the money to the apostles. This was a genuine act of surrender flowing from a heart devoted to God.
Yet soon afterwards, we see the tragedy of pretence in Acts 5. Ananias and Sapphira also sold a piece of property, but they held back part of the money while claiming that they had brought the full amount.
Their sin was not that they kept part of the money. The property and its proceeds belonged to them, and they were free to give whatever they chose. Their sin was their deception. They wanted the appearance of wholehearted surrender while hiding the divided condition of their hearts.
But the Holy Spirit revealed the truth to Peter. Their hidden deception was brought into the open, and both Ananias and Sapphira fell dead under the judgment of God. Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone who heard what had happened.
In the presence of God, there is no pretence, no manipulation. He is the ultimate judge of the human heart, and He will bring every hidden motive into the open.
As I sat with these chapters, the Holy Spirit drew my attention to one key verse. This verse reveals the unmistakable difference between those who merely profess to know God and those who have truly been with Jesus. I pray this ministers to you as deeply as it did to me.
Acts 4:13: The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.
Human Effort or the Work of the Holy Spirit?
There is a distinction between something that is produced through human work and effort and something that comes as evidence of the working of the Holy Spirit.
A person who depends on works draws attention to themselves and tries to look good and take the glory for themselves. They have a divided heart and mind. Their motives are self-centered.
They invest their energy in maintaining an outward appearance and may even try to discredit those walking in the Spirit. They attempt to judge and understand the work of God through limited human reasoning alone.
Those walking by the power of the Holy Spirit make it their life mission to do the work of God in reverence and holy awe. They are not bothered about human praise and, in response to flattery, point others to God. They do not cling to earthly treasures but willingly share what they have with those in need. Their hearts and minds are united to serve God and their earthly treasures pale in light of their faith in God.
The fruit of the Spirit, which is evidence of the working of the Holy Spirit, is not produced by effort! We cannot will ourselves, through striving, to produce this fruit. It is the natural fruit of a life fully yielded to the Holy Spirit.
Worship in Spirit and in Truth
This distinction between human effort and the work of the Holy Spirit can also be seen in the way we seek and worship God. We can appear deeply spiritual on the outside without having truly encountered Him within.
When we seek God only through outward bodily actions, our knees may bow, our hands may be raised, and our mouths may sing while our hearts remain untouched and unsurrendered. That is religion without life.
Jesus describes this kind of outward worship in Matthew 15:8:
“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Their mouths were saying the right things, but their hearts remained far from God.
When we seek Him only through our emotions and physical senses, we begin to measure His presence by what we feel. We chase an experience instead of pursuing God Himself. That is emotionalism.
But when we seek Him from a spirit made alive and led by the Holy Spirit, firmly anchored in the truth of His Word, that is worship born of true faith!
Jesus tells us in John 4:23-24 that true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
True worship brings our whole being into surrender and alignment with God. Our bodies are yielded to Him, our minds are renewed by His truth, and our emotions come under the leading of the Holy Spirit. We are no longer performing outwardly or chasing a feeling. We are responding to God from the depths of a heart and spirit fully surrendered to Him.
But before we can worship God from within, our spirit must first be made alive by the Holy Spirit. This is the miracle of regeneration.
Regenerated by the Holy Spirit
Here is the thing: we all walked according to the flesh at one point in our lives.
Ephesians 2:2-3: 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
But God in His grace and mercy has saved us from the wretchedness of sin and depravity of a divided heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Titus 3:5 says this: “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”
There is a regeneration that takes place.
Ezekiel 36:26 says this: God removes a hard, unresponsive “heart of stone” and replaces it with a living “heart of flesh.”
That is a totally new heart. A new way of life. A fresh way of doing life that is diametrically different from that of those walking according to the flesh.
In John 8:15, Jesus refutes the Pharisees, saying: 15 You judge me by human standards, but I do not judge anyone.
Jesus’ disciples were fully focused on doing the will of God just like Jesus was.
People around them knew they had been with Jesus.
What Do People Encounter in Us?
Friends, if people were to encounter you, would they find you powerfully moving in the Holy Spirit as you abide continually in God, testifying about Jesus wherever you go? Or would they encounter the kind of divided life seen in the Pharisees and in Ananias and Sapphira, appearing spiritual on the outside while hiding what was truly within? Jesus fully exposed what was in the Pharisees’ hearts. The Holy Spirit exposed the true motives of Ananias and Sapphira.
In 2 Timothy 3:1-5, Paul warns Timothy with these words:
You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!
A World Driven by Self
My friends, we are truly living in the last days. Our world is increasingly driven by the self.
People want more traction on social media, more likes, and more impressions. There is a surge in narcissism and the love of self, just as the Bible warns. Many of these patterns have even crept into the modern church.
We see worship songs focused more on the “self” and vainglory than on Jesus. We see sermons being preached on practical topics centred on the self instead of on weightier matters such as God’s holiness, reverence for Him, and repentance.
Too often, when new believers enter some modern-day churches, they are presented with grace separated from the truth that calls people to repentance. But Jesus came full of both grace and truth. When truth and repentance are removed, the gospel is reduced to a sugar-coated message. Such a message brings the values of the world into the church instead of sending the church into the world with the transforming truth of Jesus. And we must remember that you and I are the church!
In some churches, the power of the Holy Spirit is emphasized without His purity. In others, outward purity is emphasized without dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit. As a result, people strive to appear “pure” on the outside without submitting to His inward work.
We have treated God as a convenience, as an aside in our lives, instead of beholding Him as the Holy One with reverence and holy awe.
Many people say religious things but do not submit to the purifying work of the Holy Spirit. They reject the pruning that is painful yet essential in the continual work of sanctification by the Holy Spirit.
We see an increase in people who have a form of godliness but deny the power that makes one godly! There is a show of religiosity but no abiding in the One who makes this godliness possible.
Friends, without Him, you and I can do nothing.
I write these words today with deep anguish. Oh, how far we have fallen! Yet even now, He is calling us to return to Him.
Friends, His call to return is not rejection. It is His mercy!! The One who exposes what is hidden within us is also the One who cleanses, restores, and makes us new.
Abide in Him
God is calling us away from a life of self, striving, and outward religiosity and back to abiding in Him. We must focus on Him and allow Him to lead.
We do not abide passively. We actively do what He has given us with reverence for Him and with diligence, as those who delight in Him, for He has given us all things for life and godliness through the knowledge of Jesus.
God is asking us to pursue Him. Wisdom for this life is found in Him. True wisdom is not found in books alone. It begins with revering God.
Colossians 2:3 tells us that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him (in Jesus).
Even Job, who had been through immense grief and sorrow despite being righteous in the sight of God, declares in Job 28:28 that the fear of the Lord is true wisdom and that forsaking evil is real understanding.
The Narrow Gate
Matthew 7:13-14 says this:
“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.”
Jesus warns us that many will enter through the wide gate. Even many who profess to know God may choose this path. It is easy. There is no laying down of self on the altar. We are free to live like the world and as we please, with little discomfort to our lifestyle.
However, the narrow path is one of continually abiding in Him, going where He says to go and doing what He says to do. Our boldness as a result of the Holy Spirit may lead to pushback, accusations, and suffering, just as it did for the disciples.
But even in those conditions, we will remain joyful, hopeful, and full of love and peace because we are deeply anchored in Jesus and do not love our lives more than we love Him. Even when our own bodies are broken, we continue to serve Him.
This kind of life is rare, and what sobers me is that very few find this path. My prayer, dear friends, is that when you read this today, you will not harden your hearts but turn to Him, the true and living One, who is worth following with absolute abandon.
The same disciples who once argued about which of them was the greatest, carrying a “What is in this for me?” attitude, became powerhouses on fire for Jesus when they received the Holy Spirit.
Will you ask Him to fill you afresh with His Holy Spirit so that deep, fresh springs of Living Water will flow from within you to everyone your life touches, bringing healing, deliverance, and transformation to those around you and setting them free?
Will You Allow Him?
God wants to heal the insecurities, bitterness, and pain we carry, and give us a new heart of flesh and put His Spirit in us so we may serve Him wholeheartedly and with delight.
Will you allow Him to be the Lord of your life?
Can it be said of you that you are a man or woman who has been with Jesus?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, You are calling, and I am here. I choose to put off my selfish desires and choose to follow You, Jesus, with all my heart and mind. Remove this stony heart within me and give me a new heart that delights to do Your will.
Fill me with Your Holy Spirit so that I will be single-minded in my desire to serve You and point others to You. I ask that You not only give me the power to be a bold witness but also purify my inward parts by Your Holy Spirit. So I can be and others will see that I am a man/ woman who has been with You, Lord Jesus.
In Jesus’ name, amen.