I was reminded recently that although you and I are mortals, in the sense of our residence being that of a physical body that is vulnerable, slowly decaying, and will one day cease to function, we who have been born from above by the Spirit of God are not mere mortals. We have God Himself dwelling in us and walking among us (2 Corinthians 6:16). This causes us to become supernatural beings. Think about it…when the end of our days comes (we know not when), although our human bodies will fail us and we will no longer be alive in terms of humanity, we will certainly not be dead for the Bible teaches us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We are ushered into the kingdom of heaven and only supernatural beings can dwell there. Does that make you want to go and jump from a tall building? Please don’t do that. We aren’t invincible just yet, but when we find ourselves gathering with the saints who have gone before us around the throne of God, there will never be a moment more beyond the natural than that one.
Until that time that we transcend humanity and take a ride “on that good ole gospel ship”, we have inherited an assignment. For you see, when we were born again by the work of the Spirit of God, we were born into a war between two kingdoms – the kingdom of righteousness and the kingdom of darkness. Ever since Lucifer acted upon his desires to be higher and greater than God, there has been a war between the two kingdoms. Now, I am not giving away the secret ending of the story when I say it has been eternally settled that God’s kingdom will rule supreme over the kingdom that is marked by darkness, hate, confusion, anxiety, and sorrow. You and I were born into the right kingdom! And yet, the conflict continues until the consummation of the age. You and I have been given an assignment to extend the message of the kingdom of God and the gospel of the King into all the earth. No, we cannot reach “all the world,” but we can reach all the world that God puts in our path and provides opportunity to engage.
When I was a boy, my daddy would send me to the convenience store around the corner to go get a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk. When he would send me, he would give me the power to get those things and bring them home. What was that power? Money. You can go into a store and pick out some items that you want to take home, but if you don’t have the power to purchase said items, you will walk out of there empty handed…or be arrested for shoplifting. Just like my daddy, God doesn’t send us on an assignment without the power to accomplish the mission.
When you think about the mission we were born into, it can be a daunting one. We are sent to a whole society of people who were born into sin and have languished in a construct of darkness, misery, depression, and self-centeredness. We want to see them transferred from the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved Son (Colossians 1:13), which is marked by love, joy, peace, contentment, and right standing with their Maker. Now, there is no amount of cajoling, debating, or convincing arguments that can move a person from one kingdom to another. It is a supernatural problem that can only have a supernatural solution. Therefore God sends us to the “store” equipped to come home with the assigned target.
Luke the physician wrote not only the gospel that bears his name, but also the Acts of the Apostles. He begins the Acts with this statement.
“In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.”
So, the book of Acts is a continuation of all that Jesus began to do and teach. The word “began” indicates the teaching and ministry of Jesus continued and continues through the vehicle of the church. What Jesus began, we continue. As Jesus began to leave the disciples some parting instructions, they did what a lot of people do today – they began to focus on the consummation of the ages, or in this case, the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. Jesus told them what a lot of people need to hear today when He told them,
“It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority.”
The word He used “but” indicates the drawing of their attention away from the eschatological leanings of His disciples and focusing them on what is important now and for the foreseeable future.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you …”
Therein lies the power to “go to the store” and bring back the assigned “items.” He was telling them (and you and me as well) that we did not have the power to accomplish this mission, but we would when the Holy Spirit did His work in and on us. The Spirit-Filled Life Bible concludes that,
“The Book of Acts is the story of the disciples receiving what Jesus received in order to do what Jesus did.”
Ordinary people were going to be equipped to do extraordinary things. This can only happen by the power of the Holy Spirit. “You shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you.”
It is interesting to note that the word used by Luke for “has come upon you,” is the exact same word the angel Gabriel said to Mary when he told her, “the Holy Spirit will come upon you.” It is a word that means to supervene, or to come upon something or someone and add something that was not there before and would therefore not be intrinsic to that person or thing. When the early church was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, He imparted something that was not a naturally occurring or residing attribute. It was the supernatural power they (and we) needed to accomplish the assignment they had been given. Jesus promised this to them earlier, maybe they remembered and maybe they didn’t, but He wasn’t taking any chances. Near the end of Luke’s gospel (I’m sure Luke had to think about this as he heard the Lord speak), Jesus said to them,
“And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24:49
And what exactly is this power and why do we need it? I am sure most of you have heard at some time or another the word “dunamis.” It is the word here translated “power.” It can be defined as the inherent power that is residing on and in an individual. It is inherent only after having been imparted by the Holy Spirit. We get our word “dynamic” from this original Greek word and “dynamic” means something other than usual. Bible commentator F. B. Meyer said it this way.
“It is power. It is His power. It is great power; nothing less would suffice. It is exceeding great power, beyond the furthest cast of thought.”
Another way to translate the word “dunamis” is the ability to accomplish something. Without the ability that belongs to God’s Spirit, we could never go to the earthly store and bring back “goods” for the heavenly kingdom. Jesus recognized the inability of all people to perform His mission, thus He sent the Holy Spirit to bestow the inherent ability to accomplish the task.
Why did He impart this power/ability to us, His church? He gave us that answer when He said, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” We are the carriers of the message of the kingdom of God and we have the supernatural ability to engage with fellow humans to see them freed from the bondage to sin and to become born from above into this kingdom in which we all serve. The apostle Paul wrote the god of this world has blinded the unbelieving in this world. He has purposely strategized so that they could not see the light of the gospel. But then here we come, God’s not so secret weapon, and Paul continues to proclaim God has shone in our hearts for the purpose of our giving the Light to these spiritually blind people. As I stated earlier, no amount of arguing, debating, pleading, condemning, or reasoning will facilitate them seeing the light of the gospel. But through the supernatural impartation of the Holy Spirit ability, somehow their eyes are opened and as the old Hank Williams song says, “They see the light!”
When God called the apostle Paul this is what He told him in His commission of (then) Saul.
“…I am sending you…to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God…”
Acts 26:17b – 18a
Missionary Herbert Jackson tells the story that upon reporting to a new assignment, he received a car to drive that would not start without someone pushing it. He devised a plan by going to a school nearby and asked to borrow a few students for just a few minutes to give him a push to get this car started. He would strategically park on a hill to facilitate starting the car where he would not have any help.Sometime later, poor health required him to relinquish his missionary assignment and a replacement was sent in. When he began to explain his arrangement to get the car started (somewhat proudly) to the new missionary, before he could finish the new missionary said, “Dr. Jackson, I believe the problem is this loose cable here.” He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, and it started right up. Dr. Jackson had been jumping through hoops for two years dealing with this car that would not start with a push, and discovered the power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept Dr. Jackson from putting that power to work.
We have the supernatural power available to us to accomplish our divine assignment in this war between two kingdoms. Sometimes we are powerless because we have lost our connection or allowed something or someone else to cloud our thinking or divert our attention. The power is there all the time if we but access it.
After Peter and John administered healing to the lame man at the Beautiful Gate, the Jewish leaders were “…greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.” They arrested them but even they themselves couldn’t resist the question.
“By what power or by what name did you do this?”
You and I know it was by the inherent power they received from the Holy Spirit that enabled them to operate in a natural situation with supernatural ability.
J.B. Phillips paraphrases Ephesians l:19-20, “How tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God.”
Expect God to provide opportunity for you to engage with those in darkness with the light of the gospel, allowing the Spirit of God to do His work, as you embrace the supernatural assignment given to you and the supernatural power available to you to “bring back the goods from the store.”
By what power did you do this? We know…
