"But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God," -Acts 7:55
I remember one time while sitting through a prayer meeting. A man's prayer request was for the church today to be made ready for persecution. He posed the question with the assumption that the church is not ready to withstand persecution. He posed it in such a way that it left the impression that the answer to this question could only be found in prayer. I told him we need not look any further than the life of the first persecuted believer, Stephen himself. By looking at Stephen and the way he dealt with persecution head on we can know if we are on the right track ourselves. Stephen was in service, in the word, and in the Spirit before persecution came, because of this he was able to keep his head up (literally) when the stones were hauled against him. I believe if we are serving the Lord like Stephen who stepped up to the plate when a need arose in the church, and he served humbly with his hands, we will be able to take on whatever comes our way. I believe if we are in the word like Stephen obviously was, seeing as he dedicated a whole chapter to a killer history lesson on Israel by memory, we too can withstand those that come against the word! And most importantly I believe that if we are in the Spirit like Stephen was and walking in faith we will be able to do great things for God, not to mention keep our head up even if the whole world is against us! So keep your head up and serve the Lord, be in the word, and let the Spirit use you! This is a killer combination that will stand against any enemy or foreign nation.
- WHEN ARE YOU MOST VULNERABLE TO THE ATTACKS OF UNBELIEVERS? WHAT CAN YOU DO TO CHANGE THAT?
- "He had lived like Christ, he had spoken like Christ, and now he would die like Christ." -Kent Hughes