Acts 3:1-16
3:1 Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; 3 who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. 4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, "Look at us." 5 So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Then Peter said, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." 7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them--walking, leaping, and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God. 10 Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
11 Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed. 12 So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: "Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. 14 But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. 16 And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
NKJV
HEARD this awesome testimony by Joyce Meyers. And have thought about it here for days. And I thought on this scripture from Acts 3 about the lame man from birth asking alms.
First:
Joyce told how she was at the beginning of finding Jesus full on. She told of her desire of the
Bible studies in her home and how they grew. She told what her own life was like as she had been and lived. As we have heard her testimonies, and she has some awesome things to speak about God's goodness and love. We surely have heard them before in one or two of her conferences and seen those programs where she teaches and answers questions by those who are seeking God and His ways. Although I have never been to one of her conferences, I try not to miss some of her televised teachings. She diligently studied, did not go to any Bible College. God, the Holy Spirit taught her! Of this teaching, she told about the scripture and Noah and Abram.
She taught on the "Rainbow" and the "Circumcision".
Genesis 9:12-17
12 And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."
17 So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth."
NIV
Genesis 17:9-14
And God said to Abraham: "As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; 11 and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. 13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant."
NKJV
Second:
Joyce told about in the ministry God was building through her was a lot like the two examples you see here. She said she saw so many people getting the "Rainbow" and how she would hear their testimonies of how God was blessing them early on in "their" ministries. Yet, she was seeing in her own life the circumcision of the flesh. Yes, she certainly made people laugh and I was one of them, but boy, she was right on about the two things. For we certainly can see those who are the blessed so rapidly and the other is, "Let's take some flesh off of you, child!" Yikes!
In hearing her testimony, I too, thought on the part when she said she had attended no Seminary. I too have not attended any Seminary nor did I go to any Bible College. It is the Lord Who has taught me every step of the Way! And I went back to Acts 3...."such as I have, give I you, in the name of Jesus, rise up and Walk."
Yes, Peter and John are going up to the temple for prayer. And at this gate, a man had been laid. So any people who entered might see the lame man and give him alms. When this lame man saw Peter and John, he spoke. He asked a question. Although I am thinking he did not make eye contact with them, for Peter said, "Look at us." When the man had given attention to them, hope had risen in his heart, Peter spoke. And in the name of Jesus........he spoke and he took the man's hand to rise and walk. Of the witness of Jesus rising from the dead..........Peter gave a testimony of about the power was not of them or their own power, but was from and through Jesus to the lame man. Yes, faith that came through Jesus gave the lame man now wholeness........perfect soundness in the presence of all people present in that place. Jesus who was denied and disowned by those He came for, had continued to raise people up from their weakened state, from that which brings one captive to sickness, weakness, lameness and the broken. It was in that which was strengthened to be used as God intended.
Look on us.........Look on what we speak...........in the Name of Jesus.....that Authority still continued. That power from on high still availed and was seen in those who believed on the name, were open to receiving that which was of the unseen, and gained strength and healing. Silver and gold would not help other than for a short time, but God was wanting the whole man healed and back to living life as was intended.
In reading this time and again, I always wonder how many people just walked on by him, never giving him any attention, just walking by and maybe flipping some coin in the cup or container to hold the "handouts" given him. What he gave attention to when asked, he got an answer.
When needing something, and asking alms, he got what he asked for. But what if God desires our attention for something greater, something bigger?
What if God desires to bring us up from that which is lameness to us and to what He is desiring to do? What if we stop looking down at the circumstances, and say, "yes Lord, I know of this rut I am in, this____________, but I would like to rise out of it. Today I give you all my attention to not be lame anymore and not stay in this rut that has caused a lameness in me not moving forward with life. I too would like to bring people to gather much like the "lame" man when he attached himself to them by holding on...........to give glory to God, to give praise and jump for joy." "That is the way I want to live my life, Lord!"
In what we see like in Noah, he spent a some 60 or 70 years building an ark for safety to those who believed. In the end, they saw the "Rainbow" in the sky. What a site, to come through hearing all the unbelief and probably cursing and joking against Noah and his family. Then to see the flood take the life of people and animals and then see the amount of time for the flood waters to recede. Still their focus, had to be one when "will we get off this ark?"
I remember traveling many times with our daughter. She had gone with me to visit family on the East Coast. And in one fall time of year, we flew. It was good going, and we had good visit, but on the way back, I could see she was ready to do something else. And flying at 36,000 feet does not give you much choice of the things to do on an airplane. So when we were flying over the "badlands" of the Dakotas, she was ready to disembark. She was ready to jump with a parachute of course. But I told her I could not do that, for the "badlands" get too much snow and severe cold. "No thanks, I will continue on here."
So she would walk the aisle. She would stand awhile, watch a movie for a little bit, and then walk the aisle again. Yes, she was done!
The family of Noah had to keep watch for the first sign of life after the waters started to recede.
As for Abram, well, he had to leave the family. Yes he had to leave Haran. He had to repent of dead works, could not worship idols and follow God only. In his quest to follow God, he found a lot of hardship, and that which so many couples desire: children. In his journey of life, he kept that hope alive. But to keep that hope alive he had to see it. Our eyes can truly see, but they have no voice. Abram and his wife came to that place. In living in that tent, that place could isolate one indeed, but it had no real fortress of walls, but could confine only by shutting everything else out.
That which came to Abram we read in Genesis 15. In verse 1 we begin..........and see that in a vision we were told, "Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great."
In lamenting toward God, Abram said, "O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" And Abram said, "Since You have given no offspring to me, the one born in my house is my heir."
In the Amplified it reads like this: verse 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This man shall not be your heir, but he who shall come from your own body shall be your heir. 5. And He brought him outside [his tent into the starlight] and said, Look now toward the heavens and count the stars---if you are able to number them. Then He said to him, So shall your descendants be. "[Hebrews 11:12] 6 And he [Abram] believed in (trusted in, relied on, remained steadfast to ) the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness (right standing with God) [Romans 4:3, 18-22; Galatians 3:6, James 2:23] 7 And He said to him, I am the [same] Lord, Who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land as an inheritance.
God got Abram outside the "tent" to take a look. And although his eyes could not see, yet the voice he heard was God speaking............look and count, and see............these are the number of your descendants.
We need to stop looking down at the same "stuff". We need to get out like our son-in-law does. Get out and look into the sky and watch for those things that orbit the earth and give that light that there is more going on than down here on these five blocks, two big cities, or even up and down the Columbia River. As our son-in-law points out to those satellites and the space station, we can see with our eyes that activity is going on outside our realm. We can see and speak..........give voice that what God has for us is above and beyond that of this earth. It is heaven on earth. It is life that was meant to glorify God and in all His awesome deeds.
Yes, circumcision must take place to remove that which does not need to be in our heart (in our soulish nature). Things must be removed from us that would hinder us. Taking our eyes off the situation and moving them to God give us the ability to move outside anything that might separate us from that which would be freedom for us, health to us, ministry and a testimony of faith that God is with us and He is for us! Move outside of you today. Move and look toward that which God has and is giving as a blessing.
We have great teachers like Joyce Meyer who can and will show us how to get that flesh under control. They have the testimony of faith that comes by hearing God and obeying. Allow the Holy Spirit to teach you today and move from that cup of lameness into God's great power for life!
Father, we pray in Jesus' name to not have any limitations . We pray to be set free from anything that might represent a closed tent, a closed door, to bring us to isolation. We saw this lame man who even thought that by being laid by the Gate called Beautiful was anything but beautiful to him. He had to give attention to that which was coming by way of life in the Name of Jesus Christ. Help us to see and not fall victim to that which would be blocking as to our walk and seeing the promises fulfilled for us.
Grant to us to see with eyes and give voice to that which is life and power to us through Your Holy Spirit. Please help us to be renewed to that which was given to us in our youth. Help us to see that fear and doubt are of no help to us, Help us to see that we have been enabled to run as in our youth, that we are the awakened to the great miracles as we saw in the lame man and who Jesus our Lord and Savior has apprehended us to His life of love, attention to us, and His great desire for us to live a life of peace on earth as it is in Heaven.
Father, please bless teachers like Joyce Meyer. Give them continued strength to keep up that walk and race of life with expectations that You are not through with them or their lives. Help them and us as well to grow in the grace and knowledge of You Jesus. We have no future without You our Lord. Amen.
