The three restorations of the things taken away
Acts 1:1~8 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach. (1)
Hymn for scheduled worship: Korean/English Hymnal #499 Far, Far Away in Heathen Darkness Dwelling (#277 in previous version)
There are many times when we are faced with hardships because of financial problems, family problems and church conflicts even though we have become children of God. We do not even know how to pray or the reason we must pray even while facing hardship. This is because we cannot see the activity of Satan. Satan deceived mankind and made them separate from God, and he is even now obstructing people from knowing that Jesus is the Christ. There are three things we must restore today. What are they?
1. Imprinted with Christ
We see and listen to many things without much thought, but they get deeply imprinted within us. The things imprinted in us become the nature of our lifestyles, and this in turn influences the decisive fate of our lifestyles. We must discard the other things imprinted in us from our former lifestyles and be imprinted with Jesus Christ who destroyed the work of the devil. When we are imprinted with Jesus Christ, we can restore the kingdom of God and the power of the filling of the Holy Spirit.
2. Experience
When we discard the things long imprinted in us, grab hold of Christ alone and pray, we can experience the realistic working of the resurrected Jesus Christ. The believers of the Early Church grabbed hold of the last words of the resurrected Jesus, gathered their hearts together and prayed, and they experienced the work of the Holy Spirit on the day of the Pentecost. At that time, all of the doors of evangelism opened in the field, the Gospel and the Word that the church lost hold of was restored, and 3,000 disciples arose. In this way, the works of God arose in the field.
3. Witness
If we grab hold of the covenant of Christ and the works of devoting ourselves to prayer continue, with spiritual eyes we are able to see the field seized by Satan that we once could not see and we can give people the solution. Again, we do not see problems as problems, and inside of that, we see the door of evangelism and missions of the plan of world evangelization that God has for us. Additionally, we can see that our salvation is God’s absolute sovereignty, and we see that we are on the path of uniqueness that nothing can block.
- Do you know about the existence and identity of Satan? Deeply meditate on the name of Jesus Christ, and have a time to jot down and pray for the people around you who are being deceived by Satan. Taiwan Evangelism Conference Lecture 1 / 2012.2.1