Great And Mighty Things Which Thou Knowest Not... Part 1
First off, if anything good can be gleaned from this 2 Part #BibleStudy, all glory goes to Jesus, anything that is a bit off I take responsibility for. I'm doing my best!
“2 Thus
saith the Lord the maker thereof, the Lord that formed it, to
establish it; the Lord is his name; 3 Call unto me, and I will answer
thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
- Jeremiah 33:2-3 KJV
Let's start with a Bollywood song!
No Life Without Wife lyrics from Bride and Prejudice
Bride and Prejudice - Trailer
I really enjoyed this culturally
enriching Bollywood film based off the original book “Pride and
Prejudice” (Thank you Netflix! Check it out if your household permits! ^_^). You are probably wondering
what in the world does this Bollywood movie tie in with the bible
verse..... Hold your horses! One of the things that this Bollywood
film (based off the book) reminded me of is the fact that all too
easily we as humans, no matter the culture or time frame, get too
busy focusing on the the natural level. Completely ignoring the
spiritual side of this life on #Earth getting lost in all the
craziness, maybe if Dad Adam had remembered this in the Garden of
Eden.... Moving on!
For me personally as an Apostolic individual, my motivating factors are different for a reason and when I first heard this fun song, my background thought was 'There's no life without Jesus... He's the only one we really NEED and He did a bunch of cool supernatural stuff. So that's kinda factually inaccurate according to the Apostolic Doctrine...' #LOL Yeah, yeah, I seek to learn and understand other cultures and the world around me as best I can, but most importantly I focus on Jesus' will for my life. It is what has carried me through the most uncertain times of my Apostolic #POTSWarrior4Jesus journey when no one but Jesus understood what it was like for me. Which caused me to press deeper into truth. So! With that, let's get to #BibleStudyTime.
For me personally as an Apostolic individual, my motivating factors are different for a reason and when I first heard this fun song, my background thought was 'There's no life without Jesus... He's the only one we really NEED and He did a bunch of cool supernatural stuff. So that's kinda factually inaccurate according to the Apostolic Doctrine...' #LOL Yeah, yeah, I seek to learn and understand other cultures and the world around me as best I can, but most importantly I focus on Jesus' will for my life. It is what has carried me through the most uncertain times of my Apostolic #POTSWarrior4Jesus journey when no one but Jesus understood what it was like for me. Which caused me to press deeper into truth. So! With that, let's get to #BibleStudyTime.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He
that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and
greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”
- John 14:12 KJV
Honestly, the pursuit of seeking out
these greater works requires a look at what
was going on at major points within scripture of supernatural
occurrences not only on the positive side, but also the negative
side. Along with how best to connect this to life in our current time. Let's
start with the positive!
“And when
the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in
one place. “ - Acts 2:1 KJV
These key scriptures are a major part of the
foundational truth of the Apostolic Doctrine, leading up to.... You
guessed it: Acts 2:38 KJV which states:
“38 Then
Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost. “ - Acts 2:38 KJV
The Repentance of Sin, Baptism in the
Name of Jesus (In fully submerged water!), Baptism of the Holy Ghost
(With evidence of speaking in an unknown tongue to you!) is required
by Jesus. It's why He died on a cross. Sometimes, you have cases
though where Jesus just moves and the Holy Ghost falls fast like in
the case of Peter and the Gentile household of Cornelius. Let's look:
45 And they of the circumcision
which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because
that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.46 For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter,
47 Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.” - Acts 10:44-48 KJV
In my humble opinion, Jesus allowed the Holy Ghost to just fall on the Centurion and his household for a number of reasons. One that stands out for me was to confirm to Peter that this Apostolic truth was for the uncircumcised Gentile households at all levels and not just a select few “special” Jews. Awesome.
That being said, there are times when an extra teaching push or prayer/praise push is required for some to understand and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Like natural labor, some are super simple, others are bit more complicated. Like natural like spiritual. Birthing some souls into the Kingdom of God is quick, others a great deal of labor is needed. I've witnessed it over the course of my own personal Apostolic life, again Home Missions, enough said. When this case occurs it's important to know that intense teaching, prayer, and praise can be instrumental in getting the job done when the individual is earnestly desiring to breakthrough and fulfill scriptural requirements. Encouragement to keep going via the power of the Holy Ghost in someone else is vital some cases. In this case, I am encouraging you if you don't have it yet, you keep pressing, praying, and praising for the Holy Ghost! Jesus will move for you, don't give up!
I personally believe that during the first time the Holy Ghost fell hardcore on the day of Pentecost and the people were gathered together in one accord as stated in Acts 2:1 KJV, they weren't just doing nothing in one accord.... In my humble opinion they were hard down praying to Jesus. Some within the Apostolic Faith might refer to it as “Tarry”, “Tarrying”, or to “Tarry for the Holy Ghost”. When looking up the word “Tarry” in this really cool Biblical Greek dictionary site (https://billmounce.com/greek-dictionary/diatribo) it comes back at me with this: διατρίβω or GK Number: 1417
And the definition reads “pr. to rub, wear away by friction; met. to pass or spend time, to remain, stay, tarry, continue, Jn. 3:22; 11:54; Acts 12:19; 14:3, 28”. When reading this definition the scripture that comes to mind is:
“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. “ - James 5:16 KJV
The key part for me in this case
pertaining to the subject of tarrying for the Holy Ghost being
“fervent prayer”. To me, this denotes some sort of
press against resistance. Now it's not imperative to agree on HOW an
individual receives the gift of the Holy Ghost, the REQUIREMENT is
that you do receive it with the initial evidence of speaking in an
unknown tongue/language to the individual the first time.
And then don't INTENTIONALLY (because Jesus checks intent!) attack anyone else on how they received the Holy Ghost. Be it just falling, tarrying for the Holy Ghost, hardcore worship, coming up out of the baptismal water speaking in an unknown tongue/language, etc. To me it's even worse if you came into the Apostolic Truth across the “tarrying” route and firmly burn the bridge behind you by saying it can't be done or that it's totally wrong. For those who didn't get in the Apostolic truth that way, I don't hold it against them at any level not understanding. God winks at legit ignorance, but it ain't bliss. I don't say this in arrogance or anything, this is stated with much prayer. It's pretty simple and plain to me. God's not mocked. That's why I'm willing to teach you about this from my humble blog post while there is still time and the rapture hasn't happened! ^_^ This concludes Part 1, if I haven't lost you yet, continue to Part 2!
And then don't INTENTIONALLY (because Jesus checks intent!) attack anyone else on how they received the Holy Ghost. Be it just falling, tarrying for the Holy Ghost, hardcore worship, coming up out of the baptismal water speaking in an unknown tongue/language, etc. To me it's even worse if you came into the Apostolic Truth across the “tarrying” route and firmly burn the bridge behind you by saying it can't be done or that it's totally wrong. For those who didn't get in the Apostolic truth that way, I don't hold it against them at any level not understanding. God winks at legit ignorance, but it ain't bliss. I don't say this in arrogance or anything, this is stated with much prayer. It's pretty simple and plain to me. God's not mocked. That's why I'm willing to teach you about this from my humble blog post while there is still time and the rapture hasn't happened! ^_^ This concludes Part 1, if I haven't lost you yet, continue to Part 2!
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