Thursday, April 9, 2009

Thurs. Devo - Setting the Prisoners Free!

Read Acts 5
This is a long chapter, but an exciting one. It starts out with the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira that lied to the Holy Spirit about how much they sold a piece of land for. It reminds me of the priests of Zadok who offered strange fire to God. They were slain too. (Interesting note, most historians think the Sadducees came from the line of Zadok.)
When God cleanses his temple holiness remains. The people were filled with fear and awe of God. And the fear of God brings the presence of God. The disciples were performing miraculous signs and wonders and word was getting around. The people brought their sick and lined them on the street so that the shadow of Peter would fall on them. People were healed and evil spirits were cast out of them.
Needless to say the religious officials were not happy. Filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles for maybe.... littering?!? They didn't even have to spend the night in jail because the angel of the Lord came and opened the gates of the jail and told them to go back to the Temple and give the people this message of life.
Meanwhile, back at the council. They went to get the apostles to question them and they were gone - without posting bail. Not only were they gone but the gate was still locked and guards had been there all night. When would this madness end? They got news the apostles were back at the Temple teaching. This had to be a slap in the face to the leaders of the religious community. They were totally losing control of their system and didn't know what to do. They had always managed to keep the people afraid of them and now the tables were turning.
So they go back to the Temple and arrest the apostles again and bring them in for questioning. "Didn't we tell you to stop preaching in Jesus name?" So once again the apostles get to proclaim the truth about who Jesus is to the council. They are furious, especially about the part where they are responsible for killing Jesus. They want to kill the apostles but take the advise of a very wise member named Gamaliel. He councils them to let God decide if the apostles are telling the truth. So they beat the apostles and send them away with a threat to stop preaching. The disciples leave ecstatic that they were able to suffer for the name of Jesus. Instead of quieting them down it boosted them to preach even more.
I can't help but associating the religious council with the council of Satan. I can see the same thing happening in the unseen world of the spirit. They had always been able to intimidate these men, but now these men have power and the devil and his demons are scrambling. They need some new strategy because things have changed. We have this same power available to us. Let's use it to set the prisoners free and arrest the devil.

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