Thoughts From Acts 2:14-47

Prayer

As I studied Acts 2:14-47 this week, I discovered or rediscovered several thoughts that requires specific action from me. I call these required actions application because these are ways to apply God’s Word to my own life.

My application for this week comes from a familiar verse. Acts 2:42 (in the NASB) says, “And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” There are several aspects of the Christian life that are highlighted in this verse, however prayer caught my attention this week.

First I looked up the meaning of the word prayer and found out that for the early church, prayer had two aspects. There were the formal prayers involved in the practice of Judaism, and the spontaneous prayers of thanksgiving and worship. The formal prayers were the prayers the apostles would be continuing to say as they worshiped in the temple. The disciples didn’t give these prayers up; they continued to worship according to the Old Testament, seeing and understanding them more accurately now that they had the Holy Spirit to help them.

From the time I was a young Christian, I came to believe that formal, recited, repetitious prayers were anti-Christian. So I rebelled against remembering and saying them. This was still true as I listened to my colleagues in AA say that they prayed the 3^rd, 7^th and 11^th step prayers every day. I have held back from engaging in that practice. However, I’m second thinking that this week. Those prayers are full of truth and insight, and if I pray them from my heart they are as good as my spontaneous prayers.

The 3^rd step prayer goes as follows: “God, I offer myself to Thee – to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!”

The 7^th step prayer: “My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I prayer that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen.”

The 11^th step prayer: “Lord, make me a channel of thy peace – that where there is hatred, I may bring love – that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness – that where there is discord, I may bring harmony – that where there is error, I may bring truth – that where there is doubt, I may bring faith – that where there is despair, I may bring hope – that where there are shadows, I may bring light – that where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted – to understand, than to be understood – to love, than to be loved. For it is by self-forgetting that one finds. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen.”

I’ve printed those prayers out and posted them by my computer. I plan on praying them each morning as I start my day. Of course, I’m not going to stop praying the spontaneous prayers, either. The formal prayers just give me focus for my day and remind me why I’m on this earth.

Thoughts From Acts 2:1-13

Baptized and Filled

In Acts 2, we are introduced to the promised Holy Spirit. This promise is found in Acts 1:5 when Jesus tells the disciples, “for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Jesus promised that His followers would be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit would settle in each believer and bind the believer to Christ forever. There are several passages of Scripture that talk about the role baptism with the Holy Spirit plays in the life of a believer. One of those roles is baptism with the Holy Spirit. Baptism places every believer into the body of Christ. Every person who believes is baptized with the Holy Spirit. It marks us as Christ followers and it is by the Holy Spirit that each of us is sealed into the family of God forever. It does not involve an action on our part. It’s automatic once we believe in Christ.

However, the Holy Spirit also plays another role in believers and it is something believers should seek after. Being filled with the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2:1-3 the sealing of the Holy Spirit is described, i.e. the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But in Acts 2:4 it says the followers of Christ were filled with the Holy Spirit (“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance”) That’s a separate role for the Holy Spirit and it has a specific purpose: power to proclaim Christ throughout the world (Acts 1:8). The filling by the Holy Spirit allows us – no propels us – to be of service for Christ.

I liked the way McGee, a theologian, explained the difference between the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit:

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a command given to us. It is not an experience. It is an act of God whereby the believer in Jesus Christ is indwelt by the Spirit of God, sealed unto the day of redemption, and placed into the church, the body of Christ, by the baptism of the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit of God is the enablement for service. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit.

So, what does this mean for me? It means I should be seeking and working towards the filling by the Holy Spirit in my life. As I thought about what the filling of the Spirit of God would look like in my life, I realized that it means I would be involved in meaningful service that would proclaim Christ in the world. That I would receive power and I would be His witness in my area of the world and in the world as a whole. That’s based on Acts 1:8. I haven’t been doing much of that lately. I need to pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit and be open to the service opportunities God places in front of me.

It’s not enough to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. I need His power through the Holy Spirit’s filling to be of meaningful service to Christ.