"And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied." (Acts 19:6)
The nineteenth of the first month of the quarter and I am in Acts 19. Just passing on my "food."
I know that some who receive my devotionals do not "believe in" speaking and praying, "with tongues." Some say it's not rational. Of course it's not "rational." How much of the Bible is "rational" to our limited, very finite minds? "For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God." If that is true, then the only way I can fully continue in, "the things of God," is to fully continue in the Holy Spirit, not my very, very limited understanding of how I, you, the nations, the universe "works."
On December 29, 1969, Sarah was home with Andrew when I took Stephen to the hospital for tests. It was a five hour wait. I found a phone booth, no, literally, I got in a phone booth and for that five hour time I was powerless, weak, fearful. I could do nothing but pray in my Spirit in the Holy Spirit, what our text refers to as, "they spoke with tongues." You know that six months later, Stephen was gone from us. The pain is no less today than it was then. I have apparently not gotten the message that "time heals." For me it does not. But there is keeping and sustaining power in the Words of God. "Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." This is that of which our Lord Jesus spoke when He said, "'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.' This He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given...." I shudder to think where I would be today if not for the sustaining, keeping power of the, "God-Breathed," Word.
Someone once said that "all glory is fleeting." So is joy. It does not take a whole lot to rob us of joy. But nothing can take, "with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." Life's desperations will go a long way into changing one's theology.
Father, in Jesus' Name, without you I am nothing than what a man once said, "a lonely creature in the universe, doubting [my] mastery even of my own environment;" therefore, I give draw from the only source of life---- You. Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
