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 23:31–35

So the soldiers, carrying out their orders, took Paul with them during the night and brought him as far as Antipatris. The next day they let the cavalry go on with him, while they returned to the barracks. When the cavalry arrived in Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor and handed Paul over to him. The governor read the letter and asked what province he was from. Learning that he was from Cilicia, he said, “I will hear your case when your accusers get here.” Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod’s palace.

CONSIDER THIS

It’s been a momentous week in the Acts of the Apostles (a.k.a. the Acts of Jesus by the Holy Spirit). Let’s begin by remembering the plot of the forty zealots to ambush Paul.

1. They conspired together to commit premeditated murder.

2. They made a solemn oath—a hunger covenant of sorts—to see this crime through.

3. They went to the leading officials, not of the state, but of their faith community and recruited them into the conspiracy by urging them to misrepresent themselves (a.k.a. lie) to the officials of the state government and all of this to facilitate a trap to carry out this hit.

I could be describing a jihadist roadside bombing plot to assassinate a military general with an improvised explosive device somewhere in Afghanistan. With a few tweaks, these facts could paint the picture of a gangster-style mafia hit in Chicago. Heck, take out the religious dynamics and it starts to look like the Jack Ruby takedown of Lee Harvey Oswald on live television.

The problem is that I’m describing the state of affairs with the so-called people of God in first-century Jerusalem. The bigger problem: these guys apparently had no idea that what they were doing was pure evil. It looks to me like everyone thought it was a good idea . . . except the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit had another plot in mind. He always does. The Holy Spirit devised a conspiracy to deliver Paul from evil.

To the naked eye, Paul appeared like a defeated man, beaten up, locked down, and in the custody of the imperial authorities of the empire of Rome with no way out. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

When we see the scene through the eyes of the Holy Spirit, which is to say when we see the unseen reality, the view is breathtaking.

Paul has on the full armor of God. He’s wearing the body armor and breastplate of the pure and undefiled righteous goodness of God. A belt of invincible truth holds it all in place. On his head, we see the helmet of salvation. On his feet, we see the gleaming power of peace. In his hand, he holds faith that appears as an impenetrable shield of protection. In his other hand—something akin to the light saber of a Jedi Knight—is putting off a form of light so bright it can’t be looked upon. It carries the blinding luminosity of a welding torch. Yes! It’s the Sword of the Spirit, the very Word of God.

It gets better.

I suspect if we could see what the Holy Spirit sees, we would behold legions of angels surrounding Paul. Look closer and you see him, the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Son of God, Jesus Christ himself, standing right next to Paul.

To the naked eye, Paul is completely vulnerable. In the eyes of the Holy Spirit, Paul is perfectly protected and thereby totally invincible.

Complete vulnerability—a stripping away of everything not ultimately real—until there’s only the bare image-bearer of God. Honestly, I think that’s what it requires to really put on the full armor of God.

Isn’t that a picture of the cross? In the eyes of the watching world, Jesus, the Son of God, is completely vulnerable. In the eyes of heaven, Jesus, the Son of Man, is totally invincible.

I think when the Lord said to Paul, “In your weakness, my strength is made perfect,” this is what he was talking about.

He means the same thing when he says this to you and me.

That’s the power of the cross: completely vulnerable. Perfectly protected. Utterly invincible.

THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Lord Jesus, I am your witness. I long to be like you. 

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 JOURNAL PROMPTS

Invite the Holy Spirit to give you the capacity of a holy imagination to conceive of the bigger reality beyond the reality we perceive with our earthly eyes. We see a valley of dry bones. God sees an army. Fill in the blanks with your present situation and scenarios: I see ______________. The Holy Spirit sees_______________. 

THE HYMN

Today we will sing “Be Still, My Soul” (hymn 346) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. Get your copy here. 

For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt

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