Acts Part Two Dive

FULL OF IT

Welcome to your second week of Acts. We hope you are loving reading the Book of Acts. Take your time to really enjoy everything that this book contains as we will be reading it for another week.

Notice the cheeky title? Just wanted to catch your attention. Honestly, a more accurate title would be ‘Full of Him’ but hey, that’s not as catchy. Let me explain:

Have you noticed the golden thread that runs through the Books of Luke-Acts? In my Bible, I decided to highlight the Holy Spirit, any moments where people are empowered by the Holy Spirit or when the word Spirit appears throughout the books of Luke-Acts. It was amazing to see how Luke has threaded the Holy Spirit as the divine link throughout his books. Like a beautiful gold thread, it highlights, holds and links the whole text together.

Let me show you, grab your Bible and highlight these scriptures:

L 1:15 ‘...and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born’ – John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit before he was born.
L 1:17 ‘And he will go on before the Lord, in the Spirit’.
L 1:35 ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you’.
L 1:41 ‘...Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit’.
L 1:67 ‘His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied…’
L 3:21 Jesus is baptised in water and the Holy Spirit.
L 3:21-22 Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Key note here: don’t take the devil on without being ‘full of the Holy Spirit’.
L 4:14 Jesus returned after facing off with Satan ‘in the power of the Spirit’.
L 4:17 Jesus’ first statement in the synagogue was quoting Isaiah 61: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me,because he has anointed me’.
A 2:1-13 The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost.
A 4:8 ‘Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit…’ (do as Jesus did!)
A 4:31 ‘…they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly’.

And this is just the first couple of chapters.

I remember as a youth pastor joking around about Luke 4:1, ‘Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit’ and then ‘Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit’ in Acts 4:8. I said that I wanted that to be my middle name, Katie ‘Full of the Holy Spirit’ Haldane. I wanted everything I did to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, that is how Jesus did it and then how the disciples did it–that is how I want to do it.

Why do you think Luke threaded the Holy Spirit throughout his books? I think Luke has a purpose in all of these Holy Spirit moments in Luke-Acts, firstly to show us that from the beginning to the end of church history the Holy Spirit is within, through and empowering everything we do.

My second thought is found in Luke 4:18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ Don’t waste what you have been given. The Holy Spirit was on Jesus for a purpose and the Holy Spirit is on you because you have a purpose, a calling and He is in you ready to fulfill all that He has for you.

As we read Luke-Acts, we see empowered people doing incredible things for God. It calls us to action, it activates the dormant callings in our lives. Don’t leave your life at the first sentence, ‘The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me’, keep going… write the sequel to your salvation history, jump into the Book of Acts for your life. Ever wonder why the book is called Acts–it is the ‘doing’ part of the journey. What acts are you going to do with your life? Raising amazing children, being a fitness instructor, serving at church? It’s our turn to go beyond the salvation message of Luke and be a part of the Acts of church history, full of the Holy Spirit and ready to change the world!

Acts Part Two Dive

FULL OF IT

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