Acts 3:1 One afternoon at three o’clock, the hour of minchah prayers, as Kefa and Yochanan were going up to the Temple, 2 a man crippled since birth was being carried in. Every day people used to put him at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, so that he could beg from those going into the Temple court. 3 When he saw Kefa and Yochanan about to enter, he asked them for some money. 4 But they stared straight at him; and Kefa said, “Look at us!” 5 The crippled man fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Kefa said, “I don’t have silver, and I don’t have gold, but what I do have I give to you: in the name of the Messiah, Yeshua of Natzeret, walk!” 7 And taking hold of him by his right hand, Kefa pulled him up. Instantly his feet and ankles became strong; 8 so that he sprang up, stood a moment, and began walking. Then he entered the Temple court with them, walking and leaping and praising God! 9 Everyone saw him walking and praising God. 10 They recognized him as the same man who had formerly sat begging at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and they were utterly amazed and confounded at what had happened to him. 11 While he clung to Kefa and Yochanan, all the people came running in astonishment toward them in Shlomo’s Colonnade.
12 Seeing this, Kefa addressed the people: “Men of Isra’el! Why are you amazed at this? Or why do you stare at us as if we had made this man walk through some power or godliness of our own? 13 The God of Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Yeshua — the same Yeshua you handed over and disowned before Pilate, even after he had decided to release him. 14 You denied the holy and innocent one, and instead asked for the reprieve of a murderer! 15 You killed the author of life!
“But God has raised him from the dead! Of this we are witnesses. 16 And it is through putting trust in his name that his name has given strength to this man whom you see and know. Yes, it is the trust that comes through Yeshua which has given him this perfect healing in the presence of you all.”
These young men are growing up. The transition from those times of little trust to being filled with the Holy Spirit, we see a level of maturity that should serve as an inspiration to us all.
They were regular people with regular lives doing regular things. They were nobodies in the religious circuit and really just wanted to live peaceably the best they could. Frustrated with the government, sure, but they could figure out how to navigate that like everyone else. Getting together and complaining about it then heading home to live -- a little uncomfortably, but at least they weren’t being persecuted, right?
Yet, here they are…in the Temple courts…healing a crippled man and calling people out for their murderous ways.
This is the first recorded miracle facilitated by the disciples. They didn’t claim to be the ones doing it themselves, but instead used it as a tool to testify of Yeshua. They were using every opportunity that came to point back to Yeshua and made no qualms about speaking the truth in the ears of them all.
How could they do this? Better question, how did they know they could do this?
Right here, right now, what is the difference between Peter and John, and you? Most of us assume we have taken a similar path to the disciples in our walk with God. But have we?
Our walk may look a little like this:
I’m going to stop here in our progression because anything else ends up with us becoming complacent and trying to find ways to weave together the Kingdom and the world so we can have our cake and eat it too. Not to mention our masterful self-deception surrounding judgment and unforgiveness of others. Yeah, let’s just stop at #6.
The question I have is whether the disciples followed this progression themselves. Based on what is recorded in the Gospels, it isn’t.
The church has done a good job of convincing you that, as a believer, the Holy Spirit is within you. Believing is enough of a qualification for His Spirit to come and fill you with the fruit of said Spirit.
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.
But look around. How many believers are actually producing that fruit? In my experience, not many. Myself included.
People can produce this fruit in microbursts (meaning short periods of time around others) but stay with someone long enough and you see that it is not a part of who they are. It’s just something they can do. Fruit of their spirit, not His.
And our spirit is weak. We can’t sustain longevity with our charades. So we retreat back into the shadows after wowing everyone with our spirituality. Job well done, right?
What about the disciples?
If we map the progression of the disciples we see a slight difference in their path than the one we have absorbed for ourselves:
#3 for us is #6 for them.
“Oh, that’s easy…the Spirit wasn’t even available until Pentecost.”
Really?
John 20:19 In the evening that same day, the first day of the week, when the talmidim were gathered together behind locked doors out of fear of the Judeans, Yeshua came, stood in the middle and said, “Shalom aleikhem!” 20 Having greeted them, he showed them his hands and his side. The talmidim were overjoyed to see the Lord. 21 “Shalom aleikhem!” Yeshua repeated. “Just as the Father sent me, I myself am also sending you.” 22 Having said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Ruach HaKodesh! 23 If you forgive someone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you hold them, they are held.”
This is 50 days before Pentecost. Besides, does it make sense that you would be given the Spirit of God without knowing anything about Him? Would that kind of power be given to someone that has no idea what He wants done with it? I’d argue it takes trust to be entrusted. Trust is gained through intimacy. And vice versa.
If you give a 15 year old 100 million dollars, what will happen? It doesn’t take much creative thought to see where this ends, huh? Do you think they’d use that money for Abba’s purposes? Maybe some of it, but only after self-serving has taken place -- buying anything and everything they want whenever they want it. We always come first.
Let’s make this personal.
Assume you were paralyzed from the neck down and you had a billion dollars. Would you surrender that fortune in order to be restored? I think most of us would answer ‘yes’. The same Spirit that rested upon Yeshua that allowed the paralyzed to walk, that’s the Spirit we’re talking about here. Value that goes miles beyond any financial windfall you could ever hope to receive.
If you understand only one thing about the Kingdom, it’s that the Holy Spirit is worth far more than any amount of money or power available in the earth.
This is why teaching new or immature believers to seek prosperity is foolish. You need to experience Him and have your will aligned with His before you should ever be put in charge of the Master's account. And I’m pretty sure He knows this.
I am going to walk delicately here. Instead of analyzing, I’m going to leave you with a few questions to wrestle with on your own:
If you have the power of the Spirit within you, why don’t you use it to heal people?
Why don’t you use it to set people free?
Meditate on how Peter responded and see if you can find the answer yourself:
“But God has raised him from the dead! Of this we are witnesses. 16 And it is through putting trust in his name that his name has given strength to this man whom you see and know. Yes, it is the trust that comes through Yeshua which has given him this perfect healing in the presence of you all.”