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 4:8–12 (NIV)
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is
“‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
CONSIDER THIS
The story of the Acts of the Apostles, I am more fully realizing, assumes so much of its readers that is simply untrue. For instance, Acts assumes we know the Prophet Joel and King David and Psalm 2 and 16 and 118 and Daniel 7 and the difference between a Sadducee and a Pharisee and my gosh—on we could go. We (and I include myself in that we) don’t really grasp all this massive backstory and its imperative importance. Therefore, we tend to read Acts like a teenaged boy watching an action movie. Plot matters but it’s not the most important thing. Origin stories are fine but if they don’t have sufficient special effects we will quickly begin scrolling Tik Tok (or pick your poison) and asking you what’s the point of all these genealogies. How are they relevant to my life today?
It’s easy to read stories like these without any backstory at all. It would be like starting the Lord of the Rings movies with the last one: The Return of the King. That’s about where we come into the story of Scripture, which is the story of the world and the story of God. The problem is we want to know what this has to do with me. And if that doesn’t present itself pretty quickly, we are heading back to Netflix. This is one of the reasons I appreciate The Chosen and the work they are doing to draw us into the story of Jesus in ways that make us long to know more of the back story and future state.
It bears rehearsing here at Acts chapter 4 that we are coming into a six-season series at season 5.
Season 1: Creation—The Beginning
Season 2: The Fall—Eden to Babel
Season 3: Israel—Abraham to Exile
Season 4: Jesus Messiah—The Great Reversal
Season 5: The Church—The Age of the Outpoured Spirit and the In-breaking Kingdom of Heaven
Season 6: The Return of the King and the New Creation
If we are not learning, relearning, and learning again this storyline of Scripture, with all its characters, backstories, ever thickening plot, and prophesied resolution we will invariably turn the story of God into a christianized self-help manual. The question when reading the Bible is not how is this relevant to my life, but how is my life becoming relevant to God’s story? The application is always deeper immersion into the story. A character makes no sense outside of their larger story. Acts intends to quickly orient us with our character in the story. It is not the disciples or the apostles. They aren’t even playing themselves in this story anymore.
If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.
Our character is Jesus. As we consecrate our lives unto him, offering to him our literal, physical bodies, he fills us with his Spirit. This becomes a furnace of transformation whereby he forges our lives together into the shape of the cross. Indeed, the stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. As it was with Jesus, so it will be with us. And this, my friends, becomes a fiery demonstration of holy love, a burning bush—on fire but not consumed—as we discover Jesus is actually playing our part. This is not “my best life.” It is a life of glory.
And this is why it is said:
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” Galatians 2:20.
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
How are you learning, relearning, and learning again this epic story of God? Are you ready to ask better questions about the story? How is transformation taking effect in your life at this time? Journal this out today. Your emerging crucified-with-Christ self thanks you.
THE HYMN
Today we will sing one of the great anthems of transformation: “Love Divine All Love’s Excelling.” It is hymn 88 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
P. S. Are You Following the Healer?
Today marks the release of a book I have looked forward to for a decade. It is written by my favorite professor and practical theologian, Steve Seamands, and is entitled, Follow the Healer: Biblical and Theological Foundations for Healing Ministry. We have also produced video teaching to accompany the resource, as well as church kit with sermon outlines and group guides—find that here. Finally, there will be a lot to process as you’re learning and practicing healing ministry, so you can explore writing that down in the journal. Use the space provided to prayerfully log what God is awakening in you, and how he might desire to enlist you as an ambassador of his healing love and grace.
I will be doing a launch conversation with Steve today at 10:30 CST on Facebook. Watch here live or later.
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3 Responses
“How is my faith life experiencing transformation, what is my part in the Story of Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven?” First of all, I’ve come to know and embrace that every true believer who has been called to faith in Christ and received their gift of salvation, has also been called to be an ambassador for the Kingdom. How that works out depends on one’s Spiritual Gifting and life circumstances. Secondly, every local assembly of Christ followers must come to realize that they are literally a missional Kingdom outpost. And thirdly, all these diverse missional assemblies, if they are truly in Christ must strive to live in way to fulfill Jesus’s prayer for unity found in John 17:20-23. There is only one body, one Church. I realize this won’t be easy, but in my opinion, failure to do so will impede the next Awakening. With man it is impossible, but with God nothing is impossible.
Beware of the Backstory of the Chosen
The Bible begins with creation and the Creator is the eternal, almighty God. However, there is a religion that disguises itself as Christian but hides the fact that it doesn’t believe that God is the Creator. That religion, Mormonism, is strongly involved in the production of the Chosen. Dallas Jenkins openly states that Mormons and Christians believe in the same Jesus, but that’s not factual.
Mormonism believes that their god did not create the heavens and the earth. Their god, the god of planet earth only, is an ordinary man who was promoted to the status of being the god of earth. They believe that the billions of planets around the universe either have their own god or will one day get a god. The god of each planet is (or will be) an ordinary man who has been promoted to godship.
Mormons believe that their Jesus is the physical son of the god of planet earth — that he was conceived sexually. They clearly don’t believe that Jesus is the Creator of all that exists and who was conceived by the Holy Spirit to become a human being. Thus, they believe in a radically different Jesus than Christians do.
The fact that there are several videos of Dallas Jenkins, the producer of the Chosen, making the deceptive statement that Mormons and Christians believe in the same Jesus is troublesome. It should be a major warning about the Chosen’s inaccuracy (false stories being told about Jesus) and mistaken theology (a false definition of who Jesus is).
We need to heed the warning of the true Jesus — Immanuel, “God with us,” the Creator in human flesh — and like He said: “Beware of false prophets.” When “another Jesus,” is being promoted, we need to avoid that trap no matter how entertaining and inspirational it may be.
Thank you for this warning, Steve.
I was unaware.