Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

Paul went down and fell upon him, and embracing him said, “Don’t be troubled, for his life is in him.”
Acts 20:10 (emphasis added)

Three people were raised from the dead in the Old Testament—one unintentionally. Jesus raised three in the New Testament, and both Peter and Paul raised one. This doesn’t count Jesus, who was resurrected and not raised—an important distinction. Or the “many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised” (Matthew 28:52) that happened when Jesus died. While this may not seem like a lot, really think about it. How many people do you know have been raised from the dead? It still is extremely rare and hotly contested. While it is clearly not tagged to the Age of the Apostles (which some hold ended when the New Testament was completed and sealed), it is also clearly connected to people who were highly anointed of the Lord. So maybe not everyone can do it, but you don’t have to be an apostle to participate in this miracle—just highly anointed of the Lord. How does that happen? It happens when we are close to the Lord. When we are grounded and rooted in the Word. When we live it and breathe it and move in it. When the Lord is number one and no one and nothing comes before Him. We can be simple janitors or globe hopping evangelists. The Lord anoints those who have a heart for Him—look at King David.

Paul was well within his rights to expect the boy in question to come to life. They had been having a meeting. Paul had arrived, they had gathered to break bread together, and he was due to leave the next day. As you do, they got to talking. Or Paul got to talking anyway. And talk he did. He gave a speech before the meal and kept going and going. Long into the night. He spoke until midnight in a well-lit upper room. And then he spoke some more. Poor Eutychus fell asleep, but he had been reclining in a window. Once he was fully gonzo’d, he fell out. It says in verse nine (9) that he was “taken up dead”. The man writing the book of Acts and present at the time was a medical doctor. He’d know death from life. Everyone was naturally upset. Paul ran down and fell upon him. He said the boy was still alive. Then Paul went back upstairs. Then they ate. And then he kept talking right until the morning. At dawn he left. What about the boy? Verse 12: “They brought the boy in alive, and were greatly comforted.”

This incident did not derail Paul. He was there to impart things to the believers at Troas. He’d been with them seven days and this was the first day of the new week. It was the last day to speak to them as Paul was going to travel by land to Assos. He had already done his teaching and preaching. This was the last meal together. But this was also his last chance, so Paul was John Fifteening them. What’s that? It’s one of my favourite moments in scripture. At the last supper, after Judas had left, Jesus was speaking to His disciples. At the end of the meal. At the end of the night. It was all over. John 14:29-31, right at the end of the fourteenth chapter: “Now I have told you before it happens so that when it happens, you may believe. I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world comes, and he has nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father commanded me, even so I do. Arise, let’s go from here.” Jesus immediately keeps speaking for three chapters and eighty-six verses.

Like Jesus, Paul was taking the last opportunity he had to get some things into these people. We aren’t told what it was that he said, but he was dedicated to saying it and they were dedicated to hearing it. Who hasn’t been at an event and the speaker was going on a bit long. If it was before the real part of the event—the film, the concert, the food—they get hurried along. Paul wasn’t hurried along. They gathered for the evening meal, probably around seven or so, after the sun went down. Paul got up to talk before the meal and kept going for hours and hours. They didn’t stop him. They didn’t cough semi-politely into their napkins repeatedly while pointing at the food. They didn’t start playing music and cut off his microphone. They were interested in what he wanted to say. Even young Eutychus. Until he fell out the window anyway. But the important thing is, this was a blip to Paul. Paul had been sharing Jesus. JESUS. Death wasn’t going to stop Jesus talk. But that doesn’t stop the enemy from trying.

“So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Hearing the Word is a vital part of the believer equation. Hearing the Word on Jesus preached and preached with TRUTH. We hear the Word and things happen. It strengthens our faith to hear it, but that’s just one thing. It renews our mind (Romans 12:2). It is life to us (John 6:63). It births us into new life (James 1:18). It is a seed for our endurance (1 Peter 1:23). It births reverence and knowledge (Proverbs 2:1-5). It is our food (Matthew 4:4). It guides us (Psalm 119:105). It heals us (Proverbs 4:22, Psalm 107:20). It helps keep us from sin (Psalm 119:11). It is a helmet for us in spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:17). It is a living thing within us (1 John 2:14). It sanctifies us (John 17:17). It sets us free (John 8:31-32). It keeps us from stumbling (Psalm 119:165). It is our refuge and our shield (Psalm 119:114). It preserves our life (Psalm 119:25). It never fails because it can do the impossible (Luke 1:37).

The Word is more than that. The Word is imbued with the Power of God. It reveals to us the unknown things that happen in the Kingdom of God (Genesis 1-2). It equips us and gives us the grounds to refute ungodly teaching (2 Timothy 3:16-17). It is the seed that grows us in amazing ways, giving us roots that keep us strong, healthy, and focused on the Lord (Luke 8:11-15). It gives us a lodestone that our souls naturally gravitate to, keeping us always turning back to the Lord (2 Peter 2:25). It recharges and renews us in times of trouble, restoring us to where we belong in Jesus (Psalm 138:7). It is a reward for us and a vehicle by which we are richly rewarded by the Lord (Hebrews 11:6). It helps to ready us for the things that are coming (Luke 12:40) because Jesus (who IS the Word) uses it to tell us what we need to know so that we don’t fall away from the Truth in times of upheaval—regardless of how our feelings may be doing feels—holding fast to what He said and believing that it is truth (John 14:29).

With all of that at stake, don’t you forget that the enemy is invested in robbing us of that. Preventing us from receiving that. Distracting us from it. Trying to keep you down on their level. If you want to have distractions upon distractions upon distractions, you take a serious deep breath and go to study the Word. It is amazing the stuff that will come to mind. Things about the area you are sitting. Things that you meant to do but haven’t done yet. People calling, emailing, or texting you. Fights that you had seventeen years ago come to mind—with the perfect comebacks and pithy points to win it. Past sins will kick up. Shameful and embarrassing memories. Personality faults. And even demonic distractions by manifestations. Anything to keep you from hearing and receiving the Word. Especially anything to keep you from applying and acting on it. In Paul’s case they killed a kid

Having a member of your audience die is usually a good way to throw a speaker off their stride. Death can affect all of us at the best of times. When you’re trying to be focused and really get across what God has laid on your heart, death is kind of a buzz killer. But Paul didn’t miss a beat. Stopped talking, went and dealt with it, came back to eat and keep talking. That is smooth. That is not being distracted. Paul was able to keep the Word flowing because he had the Word inside him. Perhaps Psalm 121 came to mind: “I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper. The LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all evil. He will keep your soul. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forward, and forever more.”

The Lord knew what was going to happen. The angels of the Lord were there. Why did they even let the kid die at all? I don’t know. My best guess and rationale is that the Lord seized a teaching moment. For the believer, death has no sting (1 Corinthians 15:55-58). It is nothing. It is like closing your eyes to sleep. It has no power over us at all. If you die, you can come back if that’s what you and the Lord want. And I am not saying this as someone untouched by death. I’ve lost a child. I’ve lost relatives. I’ve lost friends. I know about wanting someone back. But unlike Paul, my faith didn’t have ‘coming back’ on the dance card. It never crossed my mind. But recently an acquaintance died in a State I could not get to. I’d been praying for them for a while. I had a heart for them, but they didn’t stay. First thought I had when I heard of it was whether—if I could make it to the funeral—we could pray to bring them back. If anyone would join me in faith or try to stop me. I wondered if the family would gather around. And I seriously considered it. I didn’t go because I wasn’t called to. These were all ‘me’ thoughts. But I realised there had been a shift of my thinking. Death was no longer a player on the field. It was just something that existed. Like changing buses on a long journey or changing clothes before a wedding. My faith in this area is strengthening. The Word is changing me.
Paul had already been changed. He went and dealt with it like you would a heckler at a show. He went to the boy. He checked the boy. He assured the onlookers that everything was okay. He continued on with the evening and with his talk to his friends. Paul stayed focused and continued the assignment that he had from the Lord. He had been called to do this, he was empowered to accomplish it, and he did not let anything stop him — he used the empowerment. We know Paul had an assignment because Acts 16:6 shows us that there were places the Spirit didn’t want him to go and he obeyed. Therefore, anywhere he was he was called or at least allowed to go. Paul was called to travel and preach (Acts 13:2). When God calls us He equips us to succeed. We have to obey and not let things move us aside, no matter what the things are.

This doesn’t mean that people are going to drop dead when we go to talk about Jesus. And it doesn’t mean that if someone does God will raise them from the dead. But the possibility is on the table because God is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34-35). God is the God of the impossible (Matthew 19:26). When we work WITH Him (Mark 10:27), when we give Him permission to do what He wants, when He wants, and how He wants, then the impossible will become commonplace in our lives. We might want to see the dead raised, but not have it happen. We might want to get as much out as we can before the brunch service ends, and have God lengthen time for us. The impossible happens on His scale, not ours. Small impossibles are as great as large ones. The other day I was swapping out water jugs in our cooler. We had just purchased a new jug. My son noticed water on the floor where it had been sitting. There was a trail through the house. There was also a pool under the now 1/4 empty jug sitting on the counter waiting for me. I put it in the shower stall, cleaned up the water (soaking portions of a towel and picking up a now wet small throw rug), and grabbed the old jug—which was the same size. I poured the water from one into the other—spilling some. But when I was done, the second jug was full. I had to re-check the jugs but they are the same volume and shape. I ended up with no loss of water even though I had picked up a fair bit. You can argue with me if you like, but I know what I experienced. There was water loss without water loss. Impossible? Yes. It was a small impossibility. But I was as grateful as I would be for a big one. It was yet another example of the Lord providing just because He wanted to.

If God can do small miracles of impossible, then God can do big miracles of impossible. I can ask for anything I want, but He is only going to move in the ones and in the ways that He wants. I don’t monitor His wants on a scale of success. It isn’t a failure if I pray for a body and it doesn’t rise. It isn’t a success if I ask for the gas in my vehicle to last until payday and it does. God does what He wants, when He wants, and how He wants. Anything He does is a success—whether my mind sees it that way or not. My job is to give Him permission to move in my life in any and every way all of the time. My job is to get into the Word and make sure I am hearing it. Steadily hearing (by reading or listening) both the Word itself and the Word as interpreted by reliable preachers and teachers. Every day in some way. The more the merrier, but even ten minutes a day is enough to change your life. Don’t let distraction rule, but use the Word as a weapon to drive the enemy from your mind (2 Timothy 1:7). Use it as the rock you stand on to firmly choose to listen and receive the Word. The enemy will try and choke it out of you, keep it from you, and turn your mind to other things. It is your duty to stay focused on the Word and hear it. The Word helps and equips us for that battle (Ephesians 6:10-18). We can win it. In Jesus, we have dominion. Through Jesus, we are equipped. And by Jesus we will overcome. Hear the Word. Believe the Word. Receive the Word. Amen.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: James 1:22-25

Inspirational books. Uplifting commentaries. Cute memes that really make you think. All of them are designed for feel-good moments. Nice. Engaging. Inspiring. But ultimately unhelpful. Nothing you hear is useful if you don’t apply it. Years ago I saw a clip from an animated cartoon where a normally fit character had been drawn enormously obese. They were eating the contents of a box of chocolate piece by piece while smiling, laughing, and commenting to a friend on the phone that ‘I looooooooove chocolate, but I can’t have any because it makes me fat.’ This is inspirational literature to us. We love it. We enjoy it. We tell others the quotes. But if we aren’t doing anything with it, it does us no good. The endless lists of 10 things every mother should know, 14 ways to change how your child learns, the seven effective steps for peopling, or the 3 simple habits to lose 1,437 pounds in a month. They’re all just so many words if they aren’t applied. The Word is the same way. Our faith is the same way. Who cares how strong yours is if you never apply it? Read every printed word about people in the bible who have been raised from the dead. Meditate on the verses. Read commentary about them. Picture yourself doing it until it seems normal. Get it into you so much you’re dreaming about it. Every dead body in every television program is an opportunity for you to visualize yourself there beside it praying — in order to get your mind around the concept. Read, study, meditate, and then pray. Pray about it. Praise the Lord that all things are possible to those who believe. Claim the promises of Jesus. Get yourself so worked up and charged with it that you’re absolutely positive with no doubts whatsoever that if a dead body so much as comes near you it’s coming alive. And then do nothing. Go nowhere. Pray for no one. It won’t do you any good, will it? We aren’t called to keep our light hidden (Matthew 5:15-16). We need to do. Faith without works is dead because faith that does nothing is faith that isn’t empowered for anything. A vehicle fully gassed up with a charged battery that never leaves your driveway is a four thousand pound paperweight. Faith not discharged is gas in a pillowcase, not helium in a balloon. Faith discharged is faith used. Faith used builds you up. Reminds you who you are in Jesus. It reminds the world who Jesus is. It is a beacon to the blind. A siren to the deaf. A tsunami of unshakeable truth to the doubter. It is that which lets people know there is not only a God, not only a God who moves, not only a God for whom time and space and reality are not barriers, not only a God who is real, but a God who wants interaction with them. And He wants it today. Faith unused is forgettable, pitiable, and pointless. Faith in action guided by the Holy Spirit is a dynamo, a light show, a certifiable shout of praise to our living, breathing, moving, Almighty God.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.