Welcome back! I’m grateful you’re checking in this week!
I took a little extra time to finish up refining what I’ve mined from our study text this time, and I’m glad I did. God’s Word is so packed with treasure—let me tell you about what the Holy Spirit showed me as I dug into the cross-references for Acts 1:8.
Last Week’s Work
CROSS-REFERENCES
Working through the cross-references for Acts 1:8, I was first drawn to what was written about the Holy Spirit coming upon people. I didn’t find any specifics about this process, but as I’ve been studying this text, I’ve been thinking a lot about my salvation experience. I’m convinced that was the moment the Holy Spirit came into my life, because a power surrounded me that I can’t explain. That moment was the first of many miracles: a new career, an avoided accident when my car died, then miraculously restarted itself in time to avoid collision with a fully-loaded dump truck, dozens of in-the-right-place-at-the-right-time moments, all growing or benefiting me in some way. I can’t help wondering, though, is that really the kind of power the Spirit supplies—all about me?
I’m not sure. What I did find is plenty of instances where the Holy Spirit came upon people and empowered them to advance the kingdom through:
- Life. In Luke 1:35, power accompanying the Holy Spirit enabled Mary to give birth to Jesus while still a virgin.
- Prophecy. Filled with the Holy Spirit, John the Baptist’s father prophesied (Luke 1:67). So did Jesus in the power of the Spirit in Nazareth (Luke 4:17-21).
- Signs and wonders, such as fire (Acts 2, prophesied by John the Baptist in Luke 3:16 and Jesus in Acts 1:5), Jesus’s endurance of forty days without food (Luke 4:1-13), and the disappearance of Philip immediately following the Ethiopian eunuch’s baptism (Acts 8:39). And Paul indicated his words and deeds, signs and wonders, were accomplished by the power of the Spirit of God in Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum.
An interesting story appears in all the synoptic gospels, though. When Jesus tried to perform miracles in Nazareth, His power was curbed (Luke 4:23-24, Mark 6:5-6, Matthew 13:58). Matthew attributes this problem directly to disbelief. I also observed belief required for miracles in my 2023 study of the healing of the Centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5-13).
Friend, this gave me pause. Where the cross-references indicated the Spirit of God came upon the men of Galilee and Paul for the benefit of others, my own experience was more that the miracles helped me. Then the Spirit reminded me of the other promise in verse 8—the men would be Jesus’s witnesses to the world. He brought to mind a phrase often heard in a megachurch I used to attend: “we’re blessed to be a blessing.” I was spared and favored, though I certainly didn’t deserve it. Yet those experiences gave me a testimony and a conviction to help you personally find treasure in God’s Word—treasure you can mine and, with the help of the Spirit, refine and align your life to its principles.
I hope that’s what I’m doing here now. If there is any way I can help you do that, please let me know through my contact form or jen@jencason.com. I appreciate your feedback and will do my best to respond appropriately to it!
Dig-In Challenges
It’s hard to believe we’re almost done with another study. This week, let’s
- Read the prayer we created in Step 1.
- ALIGN: Review our study notes and other work, focusing specifically on what we’ve learned.
- ALIGN: As we consider those “lessons learned,” notice what the Spirit is using to convict you in this study. In other words, where is He showing you misalignment between what you’ve discovered and how you practice your faith?
- ALIGN: Next, we’ll think about a part of this study that offers us a way to correct that misalignment. For me, this has often—but not always—been a verse either from the study text or from one of the cross-references.
- ALIGN: And finally, we want to reflect on how we can change our walk or talk (or both) to align more closely with God. To really make this work, I commit to changing something and do my best to act on that commitment everyday for at least three weeks.
That may seem like a lot to consider in one week, but my experience has been the Spirit often leads me through steps 2-5 very quickly (though sometimes I have to pray about it more than a couple of times during the week). If you’re working with me, just do what you can. Any study done with the Spirit is good study, my Friend!
I’m looking forward to sharing what the Spirit reveals next week, as well as a preview of the next series I believe God is laying on my heart, and the first study text in that series. I hope you’ll stick around and keep digging into Scripture with me!