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 5:27–32 (NIV)
The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”
Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
CONSIDER THIS
There’s a loose thread we need to pull today. It comes from Acts 4. You know the Holy Spirit is the author of all Scripture and the master narrator of the big story. The Spirit is weaving a master tapestry. Nothing is left out and nothing is left behind. Sometimes on the Wake-Up Call we may seem to pass over a passage and leave it behind because the train of the text just keeps rolling. Today is one of those moments.
Here’s the text from back in chapter 4.
Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet (Acts 4:36–37).
His name was Joseph. The apostles had another name for him: Barnabas. It means “son of encouragement.” Now, let’s pull the thread. Behold this extraordinary showdown between the Sanhedrin, the men with all of the institutional and positional power, and the ordinary, unschooled, Holy Spirit–filled apostles of Jesus.
“We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching . . . ”
Now watch Peter’s response:
Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!
This is not a picture of defiance or insurrection against authority. It is a stunning portrait of courage.
This is not rebellion. It is obedience. It takes extraordinary courage to obey God in these kinds of situations where the people opposing you appear to be the good guys. They are standing in the positions of authority and yet they have reduced godly authority into the mechanisms of human control. Obedience is costly in the face of “good” men and women who are willing to compromise their faith in the face of institutional interests.
Where does this kind of courage come from? Peter makes it so clear:
We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
Courage comes from the Holy Spirit, but it doesn’t just come through the air. It comes from the likes of the tribe of Barnabas, the son of encouragement. Encouragement is the currency of the kingdom of Jesus and the bank of the Holy Spirit is full of courage.
It takes people, though—witnesses we call them—to write the checks.
Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet (Acts 4:36–37).
I wrote one of my all-time favorite Wake-Up Call series a year or so ago on encouragement. It was built on the rock of Hebrews 3:13. It’s now a book I know you would love (linked here).
“But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (Heb. 3:13). Here’s my working definition of encouragement from the series:
“To encourage in the biblical sense of the term, is to stand in the stead and agency of Jesus, participating in the work of the Holy Spirit, to minister grace to human beings at the level of their inner person, communicating, conveying, and imparting life, love, generosity, comfort, consolation, joy, peace, hope, faith, and other dispensations and manifestations of the kingdom of heaven as the moment invites or requires.”
Sometimes it means picking up the phone and making a call. Sometimes it means selling a field and laying the money at the apostles’ feet. Let the Spirit who gives courage, encourage you in this most essential work of encouragement. It is not a “gift” for the few. It is the calling of the many. It’s how Jesus wins the battle through the church he is building to grow the kingdom he is sowing.
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.
I receive your encouragement and release my timidity.
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
Who are you encouraging these days and how are you doing it? Ask the Spirit to give you an assignment. Be ready to fulfill it. In doing so, your Spirit-empowered obedience to the Spirit will play a key role in their obedience to the Spirit in being a witness to Jesus. Amazing how that works isn’t it?
THE HYMN
Today we will sing a rousing hymn of great praise: “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name.” It is hymn 2 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
P.S. We Need Courage!
First I want to thank so many of you who have encouraged us and this mission called Seedbed. And I want to encourage all of you that we need your encouragement. At Seedbed, we (you and us) are undertaking something way beyond us. We are sowing for a great awakening. This is not a sentimental phrase. It is a powerful calling from Jesus Christ, the Lord of the church, and I need not convince you it is the desperate need of our time. We are entering into the harvest season of the year. We don’t ask a lot (as in frequently), but when we do, we ask for a lot. The harvest season is that time for us to ask. We are asking Jesus and inviting you to ask Jesus how he might deploy your financial resources to build up this sowing mission. ENCOURAGEMENT OPPORTUNITY HERE.
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4 Responses
Often, it is easier to encourage others than be encouraged.
In-courage, faith is required.
Isn’t giving encouragement urging on, “You can do it!” Telling the doubter to have faith? Taking the next step when it’s invisible? Seems to me that encouragement is empty unless the encourager is courageous. Telling someone they can do it if I haven’t seems empty. Like giving someone a bucket with holes in it.
James said it this way,
James 2:26
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
I used to be the giver of good advice that I didn’t use.
But now, I know the best form of encouragement I can offer is my time. Hand in hand and as I walk with them.
I have found that most people don’t care what I say until they know that I care.
Staying 💪’n Christ
Ephesians 6:10
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
The Bible “Barny” was such an encouragement to people that the early Christians gave him the nickname, “Son of Encouragement.” His secret was full surrender to “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (“Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas, which means ‘son of encouragement,’ sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostle’s feet.” –Acts 4:36–37.)
Yielding to the presence of “Christ in you” empowers Christians to “encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” It enables Christians to sincerely “weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice,” so that they can experience ekklesia, the Spirit-led town hall meeting that Jesus is building.
Positional power, however, seeks to maintain institutional interests. Its focus is on organizational control and protocol, not on encouraging individuals to live their “Christ in you” life now — in the present moments of today.
I’m very blessed in that I have multiple opportunities every week to offer encouragement to a fellow brother or sister in Christ. The two weekly gatherings at a local nursing home provide opportunities to encourage both individuals and a small group to remain faithful to the end, as most of these folks are on the final stretch of their journey of faith. Every Sunday afternoon noon I facilitate what best could be described as an ecumenical class meeting at our place. Here folks are encouraged to share their joys and concerns in order that we can pray for them. Also testimonies are shared about how God has intervened in their lives or one of their family member’s or friend. The encouragement we offer is returned as a blessing of having been used by God.
“Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary” Francis of Assisi.
Sometimes it only takes a smile.