Too many times we see God doing something and we want to attribute it to a person, but that is dangerous. That is why any leader must keep their heart pure in their intent and in the realization that we are just a vessel used by the one true God to follow His leading. God does show up at times and do great works through a leader who believes totally in what He is doing. All of this work of the Lord has to be done with a pure heart or that leader will go off the rails and begin to believe they have some special power themselves. We have no special powers ourselves, but totally rely on the power of God and we must keep ourselves bent toward that same attitude at all times.
The people of Iconium heard Paul and Barnabas preach with great power as their belief in the message of the gospel came through as sincere, yet heartfelt. Many came to faith in Jesus and the effect was so noticable that some Jews spurned the teaching and poisoned the minds of those listening. All of that still did not keep Paul and Barnabas from preaching and God showed up in an incredible way in signs and wonders. God was moving. When God begins to move and lives are changed because of the living message of God another player comes into play. Satan. The enemy wants to spread dissension among the ranks to stop the message from being preached and that is exactly what happened in this case. The following scripture picks up the story in Acts 14: 1The same thing happened in Iconium. Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish synagogue and preached with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers. 2 Some of the Jews, however, spurned God’s message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas. 3 But the apostles stayed there a long time, preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord. And the Lord proved their message was true by giving them power to do miraculous signs and wonders. 4 But the people of the town were divided in their opinion about them. Some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles.
As you can see, when God's message is preached boldly lives are changed!! Satan poisons the religious leaders minds and then they become agents for him. God shows up in power through his faithfulness and continues to make it possible to preach the living message of hope. The religious leaders, made up of Gentiles and Jews, decide they are going to kill the message by killing the messengers and plot to stone them! They hear about it and flee to another region called Lycaonia, where the town of Lystra and Derbe are located.
Paul and Barnabas are in Lystra and they come upon a man who had been crippled from birth, and the man was listening to the preaching of Paul. Then Paul looks straight at the man and told him to stand up. The man jumped to his feet and started walking and the people thought they were being visited again by the gods and proceeded to try and honor Paul and Barnabas by saying they were Zeus and Hermes. Legend had it that Zeus and Hermes visted Lystra years ago one time and they were welcomed by and old couple and they gave them great blessings in wealth before they left. They thought Paul and Barnabas were surely those two gods and wanted to get in on the blessings themselves. To their surprise, Paul and Barnabas tore their clothes in remorse and asked them why they would equate them to any gods. Paul took this "teaching moment" and lifted up the name of God and reminded the people that only God has true power and not them. Paul and Barnabas turned away from letting the people's worship be for them at all. Paul stepped back and lifted up the name of the Lord so there would not be any confusion about who was doing this work.
It seems we are always wanting to put skin on people who are serving God and this should not be. We should never lift up people who are serving Jesus to the point that we act like they are gods and have any power themselves. The power of God is the POWER OF GOD, not human gods!! Which is why all praise and all honor is given to God alone and He is worthy. Never confuse who you follow and make sure it is the Living God, Jehovah. We have no power on our own and there are no other gods like our God!! Here is what God says about the whole thing in Isaiah 44:6 This is what the Lord says—Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies: “I am the First and the Last; there is no other God. God was using Paul and Barnabas in a very real way to speak the message of the gospel, but they had no power. The power was in the message. Isaiah 45:5 I am the Lord; there is no other God. I have equipped you for battle, though you don’t even know me.
Paul and Barnabas were going to need that equipment for the battles ahead and God is faithful, and remained faithful and powerful in their lives as they shared the gospel. Remember, we have no power except the power of God, but we must never deny the power of God exists, because it does. GOD'S POWER, NOT OURS!!
Vesselogical Out,
David Warren
Comments