Jesus
gave His disciples, and us as His co-heirs, the authority to make disciples. We
work in His place as His Ambassadors to further His Kingdom in the earth,
imploring people on Christ's behalf to allow His Spirit to reconcile them to
God (2 Corinthians 5:20; John 14:12).
Acts 16 provides us with a bird's eye view
of many of Paul's ministry opportunities, trials, and victories in that season
of His life.
Paul
certainly made the most of his authority in Christ (Acts 16:18). We enjoy this
same redemption, resurrection and confidence in Christ that Paul exemplified.
In Jesus' name we can do everything that He calls us to do (Philippians 4:13-17).
We
are seated with Jesus, even now, in Heavenly Places (Colossians 3:1). We are no
longer limited to the confines of this world. We focus on the fruit of God's
Spirit until they replace our earthly tendencies (Galatians 5:22-23).
With His authority given to each of us, there is no need to feel apprehensive about stepping out and sharing with people as God's Spirit leads us. When I see someone in a store more than once, I know that God wants me to tell them that He loves them and has a perfect plan for their life.
Every checkout person gets greeted by name (I look at their name tag), asked if they are having a good day, and given a promise to pray for God's blessings on the rest of their time at work. We are not responsible for the results, simply the witness.
If people I greet live in my area, I tell them we would love for them to visit our church and check us out. Often, I also give them a Bible tract or our business card and tell them I'm always available if they ever need a friend with whom they can chat.
We do all of this with no fear, by the direction of God's Spirit, because He already gave us His authority to do so. We
do not allow our culture to force us into its pattern; but we emulate Christ in
us as He works through us.
We also cooperate with God's Spirit as He renews our
mind, transforms our emotional responses and behavior, and gives us the nature
of Christ to replace or carnal one (Romans 12:2; 2 Peter 1:4).
Prayer:
Father
God, thank You for giving us Your authority, as well as Your boldness not to
allow this world to press us into its mold. We devour Your Word, and set our
affections on things above, not on things of this earth (Colossians 3:2-17). We
no longer have two masters (Matthew 6:24), because we have learned to despise
this world and to love You, Your precepts and Your will for our life.
We
focus on Your presence in our life right now, as well as our future with You in
eternity (Colossians 3:3-4). Our deepest and most motivating expectation is a
life filled with all of Your fullness (Ephesians 3:16-19, Amplified Bible). We
focus on Your will for us, to the exclusion of our own plans, goals and dreams.
We prefer Your perfect plans over anything we can work for or even wildly
imagine (1 Corinthians 2:9).
Thought
for the Day:
Our
citizenship is really in heaven, not on this earth, and we enjoy the presence
of God's Trinity within us, make use of the fact that everything and everyone
on this earth is under God's control, and eagerly anticipate Christ coming for
His Bride when we receive our glorified body so that our Salvation will be complete
in spirit, soul and body.
-
Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 5:23
