SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/13/2018 9:58 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “Confirmation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
19:11-12
Message of the verses: “11 God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.”
We have been looking at the power of God’s Word as we
work our way through these thirteen verses in the nineteenth chapter of the
book of Acts.
Paul spent two years in Ephesus and during those two
years I have to believe that through the preaching of God’s Word that many
people were saved, not only in Ephesus, but in all of the surrounding towns
around Ephesus as we read earlier “This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia
heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks (Acts 19:10).” In our study today we will learn that God
would use great miracles in order to show that His Word, that is the things in
His Word, especially about salvation, can be seen as true. Paul would preach to the Ephesians about how
they can be saved, and then we read that extraordinary miracles would be done
by the hands of Paul, and this would confirm that what he was telling them was
true.
These kinds of miracles were a standard feature of
apostolic preaching. So one may ask why
we saw these great miracles, which by the way were called “sign gifts of the
Holy Spirit,” during this time period. The sign gifts only lasted until the
completion of the New Testament, and as the church age began we saw many of
these gifts being performed through the apostles, and as the church age grew,
and as time went on they were seen less and less. In one of the letters that Paul wrote in his
later life to one of the churches he spoke of one of his friends who was sick,
and near death, and yet God raised him up from the sickness, but this was not
done through a miracle through Paul, but through prayers from the saints. I have written this before, but it bears repeating
and that when I was a very young believer and head all about what we call the
Charismatic movement and was talking to the friend of mine that was mentoring
us and he simply said that God cures us every time except the last time. This made perfect sense to me and so that is
how I still understand things like this.
As we look through these two verses we see some of the
miracles that Paul did, things like healings and curing diseases and then
casting evil spirits out of people.
These are things that were done through the power of the Holy Spirit
through Paul and as one my suspect they got the attention of people during that
time period showing them that the Word of God was true. We now have the entire Bible and we can read
about these things that happened, and we can read about how a person who is
born a sinner can be saved through believing that Jesus paid it all.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: There are times
when I wish the Lord would take care of problems that I have with my EBS, but I
suppose as I look back on these things that God has taught me to trust Him
more. 7/17/2023 10:02 AM A month or so I began to take a product to
help my food digest better and this has taken care of most of my EBS
problems. PTL
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord with these issues, that as He
promised they will bring glory to the Lord.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
Today’s Bible
question: “Did the prophets of Baal
bring down fire from heaven?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/13/2018 10:42 AM
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