Excerpt from The Church: First Thirty Years, chap. 9 Principles for Church Growth, context acts chap. 3 Everything in creation, including the human race, is dependent on God. Human beings, including Christian human beings, are not endowed with the power to create anything. Even though the Holy Spirit of God changed the man, both body and soul, Peter still took his hand and helped him to his feet. God uses means and instruments to bring about the glory due His name. After the healing, the man expressed his faith in the name of the one who healed him. So many people today believe that there is healing power in faith. Faith does not and cannot produce anything. Faith does not have the power to create. Just as regeneration of the soul, by the power of the Holy Spirit precedes faith, so the power of God as the cause of healing also precedes visible manifestation of the healing. Acts 3:16 is often misunderstood and there are several reasons for the misunderstanding. First,Christians do not study words carefully. Second, they do not understand that for every effect there must be a sufficient cause. The disabled man was healed; that was the effect. The cause was Jesus Christ, but the people did not realize what Christ had done. The people mistakenly attributed the entire event to the Peter’s alleged power to heal. Christians may see effects, such as little or no interest in serious Bible study. When you see such a few people in worship, you see the effect. Christians tend to look more at outward circumstances, than inward change. If the Holy Spirit changes the heart, the believer should act differently, just like the disabled man walking about and praising God (Acts 3:8).
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 13:42:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015