PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, we belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

Acts 3:12–16 (NIV)

One of the most amazing features of this encounter with Jesus at the gate called Beautiful is what Peter and John did not do. I mean, I can tell you what I would have done. I would have said, “Sir, what’s your name?” Well, actually I would have probably scraped up what change I could find anywhere around me and given it to him and moved on. Staying with my earlier answer, after getting his name I would have said, “(Name), would you mind if I put my hand on your shoulder and pray for you?” Then I would have prayed something like, “Lord Jesus, would you help (name) and bring him your help and healing and provision? Would you convince him of your love for him and help him through these difficult days of his life? Would you restore him in every way and make a way for him in this time when there seems to be no way? We are praying in Jesus’s name, amen.” 

Did you notice how this is exactly what Peter and John did not do? They didn’t get a knee and pray for this man. They actually prayed into him. They stood in the stead and in the name of Jesus himself and spoke miraculous healing into him. This scene was an encounter with the risen and ascended Jesus Messiah, Lord of Heaven and Earth. 

Something even deeper happened before the big fireworks—maybe it was an even bigger miracle. Peter and John saw this man. One of the things the text makes clear is everyone knew this man. The problem is no one saw him anymore. Here is a baby who never crawled, who was born without the ability to move his legs. Here was a boy who never played games with friends in the alleyways, who could go nowhere, and had to be carried everywhere. Here was a young man who longed for the kind of life and enjoyment others experienced but who lived in the shame-filled wonderment of what he had done wrong or what curse had been passed down to him to rob him of life. Here was a man who had become an object of pity, hardly a man at all, nameless, almost faceless, a “that guy” people felt sorry for, whom they could feel better about themselves by flipping him a coin until in time they didn’t feel anything at all. And yet they saw him every single day because a few people dutifully carried him to the very gate of the house of God—but no further—the gate whose reality for him defied its name—Beautiful. Here was a man who had nothing and nobody, no warm family, no caring community, just a man who was born into misfortune and whose God-given life had felt only God-forsaken. We can all smell him, but can you see him? 

I can’t help but think of those four friends in Capernaum who sprinted across town to carry their paraplegic friend to the house where Jesus was teaching, tearing through the roof to get him in front of the Rabbi. This scene at the Beautiful gate was shaping up to be a far cry from that one—until this happened:

Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. (Acts 3:4–5)

The bigger miracle? Peter and John saw this baby, this boy, this man, and they loved him. They didn’t see an object of pity. They didn’t see a problem to be solved. They saw the image of God. They didn’t see a nameless person defined by his disability. They saw a messianic prophecy about to be fulfilled. And they sensed the Messiah himself rising up in them with healing in his wings. Love was about to transform into power. 

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs. (Isaiah 35:5–7)

THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Lord Jesus, I am your witness. 

I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness. 
I receive your love and release my selfishness. 

Come Holy Spirit transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen. 

THE QUESTION

Are you moved in the way Peter and John were moved—by the very compassion of Jesus physically dwelling in your physical body? Will this movement become a sentimental feeling moving you to pity or the source of salvation for others flowing through you? What do you see when you hear the words, “Look at us?” Journal the complex feelings and thoughts flowing through your mind and heart now. 

THE HYMN

We are going to sing a favorite today, “This is My Father’s World.” It is hymn 19 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. 

For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt

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