“Filled With The Holy Spirit To Speak For The Lord!”

“Filled With The Holy Spirit To Speak For The Lord!”(Acts 4:5-22).
With Pentecostal power and grace Peter and John healed a crippled beggar to the amazement of the people. Peter told the people that what they have done is in the name of Jesus. They told the people, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord…” Many who heard the message believed and the number of believers swelled to about five thousand.
But as it is, not everybody appreciates a new thing. They were brought before the council who questioned them, “By what power or what name did you do this?”
We recall that Jesus had told them, “…But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth”(Acts 1:7-8).
We also recall that Jesus also told them that when they arrest them, they should not worry about what to say or how to say it. They will be given what to say, “for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you”(Jn.10:19-20).
So on this day, when questioned before the council, “Peter, filled with Holy Spirit” told them that Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom they killed is the name and source of their authority and action. He told them that Jesus is the stone the builders rejected but which has become the capstone. And that “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved…”
The council then “commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, ‘Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
There is always that decisive moment when a Christian must choose to obey God or man! The ongoing directionless war is making hypocrites of us all. One day it is separatists gunning down an innocent citizen in a bar or anywhere, another day it is a military officer gunning down a citizen who refuses to hand his phone over to a military man. We are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, yet we are expected to decide. When you decry the atrocities of the Ambas you are a sellout and when you decry the excesses of the military you are an enemy of the state.
We end up talking only in hushed tones while dieing in silence.
We have just been empowered by the Holy Spirit; we should allow him to speak through us the word of truth. Whatever is going on, “No army ever won a war against its own people and when liberators become enslavers of their own people, they are shooting themselves on their legs. Weapons are tools of violence. And violence is never a solution; but nonviolence is the way of peace. To pick up arms against an armed person is to agree to fight the enemy on his terms.
Christ says “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give it to you as the world gives”(Jn.14:27). The world uses arms to force silence, then turns around to say there is peace. Peace is beautiful when it is the result of love reigning as a byproduct of justice. May we be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we can tell the rulers and elders of the people the futility of violence; and the blessedness of love, justice and peace!
Prayer: Holy Spirit fill us so that we cannot help but obey God rather than man. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.