Acts 21:4 (KJV) Spiritual Gift of Discernment

Acts 21:4 (KJV)
And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days: who said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem.

It happens frequently that I have some sort of impression about a particular decision either I or someone else is making and I have learned, by more than 30 years in the ministry, that more often than not, that impression is accurate. I believe it to be the spiritual gift of discernment. It carries no Biblical authority and I cannot make people follow my impressions. Most often I find it is more sensible not to even tell people what my impression of their decision is. Still, I have had maybe hundreds of opportunities to observe that these impressions prove true.

I see this passage in a similar light to that of my impressions. It was the Holy Spirit who gave these disciples the sense that danger awaited Paul in Jerusalem. Out of love for Paul they expressed what the Holy Spirit told them would be the outcome of his trip. But they were not authorities over Paul’s own leading of the Spirit. Paul was responsible to follow the Spirit’s leadership in his life and not theirs.

Albert Barnes expresses the same understanding when he writes:
“…In solving this difficulty, we may remark:
(1) That it is evident that the Holy Spirit is meant, and that Luke means to say that this was spoken by His inspiration. The Holy Spirit was bestowed on Christians at that time in large measures, and many appear to have been under his inspiring guidance.
(2) It was not understood by Paul as a positive command that he should not go up to Jerusalem; for had it been, it would not have been disobeyed. He evidently understood it as expressive of their earnest wish that he should not go, as apprising him of danger, and as a kind expression in regard to his own welfare and safety.”

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Acts 21:4 (KJV) Spiritual Gift of Discernment

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Acts 20:16 (KJV) Our Spirit and the Holy Spirit

Acts 20:16 (KJV)
For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.

Acts 20:22 (KJV)
And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:

We witness in this chapter the marvelous melding of man’s will and God’s:

• Paul was “bound in the spirit” to go to Jerusalem therefore 
• Paul had determined to do it before Pentecost 

I note that “spirit” is lower case. The reference appears to be of his own spirit. He had to go because his spirit seemed forced to go.

But it is difficult to distinguish between the spirit and the Spirit. Paul could have easily been bound in his spirit because he believed himself to be bound by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem. (The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit.[1])

We ought not determine we will do a thing unless we are certain it is the leading of the Holy Spirit. Once led of the Spirit we ought then to be determined to obey regardless of cost or consequence.

[1] Romans 8:16

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Acts 20:16 (KJV) Our Spirit and the Holy Spirit

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Acts 19:1-2 (KJV) Observations and Questions

Acts 19:1-2 (KJV)
And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

I think it was Torrey who speculated that Paul questioned that these disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost because there were only twelve of them. Torrey fell into the same trap as most in that he equated numbers with the presence of God’s power. This idea has, in my opinion, created the environment of worldly compromise we see in churches today.

The more common error springing from this passage is that of the Pentecostals and Charismatics. They see this passage as instructing them to urge people who do not speak in tongues to be filled with the Holy Ghost.

The two errors are similar in that they both look for some outward evidence of an inward work. I believe the lesson of the passage is much more basic. Paul approached a group of professing believers and asked them questions to determine how he might most effectively help them.

The ministry ought to be about taking people from where they are spiritually to somewhere else. Whether it was the heathen philosophers of Athens or these would-be believers in Ephesus, Paul made observations and asked questions so that he might best determine how to preach to them and to help them spiritually.

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Acts 19:1-2 (KJV) Observations and Questions

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Exodus 25:17 (KJV) An Appropriate Picture of Jesus

Exodus 25:17 (KJV)
And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.

I was struck with the term mercy seat. It is here called “a mercy seat” as if it was something that Moses would have been already familiar with. Not “the mercy seat” but “a mercy seat.”

The phrase means something like “a propitiatory covering.” Think satisfying. The law, the authority, the experiences both good and bad are all covered by something magnificent and beautiful.

It is a seat. That implies rest. Being satisfied, God’s judgment rests. He is no longer in a position to strike out against enemies but in a seated position to hear from His friends.

The mercy seat is an appropriate picture of Jesus.

• He satisfied God’s righteousness 
• He covered man’s wickedness and
• He invites us into God’s presence

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Exodus 25:17 (KJV) An Appropriate Picture of Jesus

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Exodus 23:32-33 (KJV) The Downfall of This Generation’s Believers

Exodus 23:32-33 (KJV)
Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.

God makes a promise in this passage we ought to pay close attention to. The promise is that if we compromise with the worldview of the lost, it will be a snare to us.

• It’s not a threat
• It’s not a danger
• It’s not even a real potential 

It is a promise. If we entertain the ideas of the unsaved, spiritual or otherwise, it will trap us. We will sin against God (or else the compromise itself is the sin) and do us in.

The downfall of this generation of believers has been our friendship with the world.

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Exodus 23:32-33 (KJV) The Downfall of This Generation’s Believers

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Acts 18:14-17 (KJV) No Business In Church Business

Acts 18:14-17 (KJV)
And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you:But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters.And he drave them from the judgment seat.Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of those things.

Gallio demonstrated both a strength and a weakness in his handling of this conflict.

He was absolutely correct that his authority did not extend into things that had to do with the Word of God and a believer’s understanding and practice of it. Some much evil has been committed because of this very thing. Government has no business in church business.

On the other hand, Gallio had every reason to intervene in the beating of Sosthenes. No religious entity has authority to punish an individual or to coerce them in spiritual matters. Faith is a matter of the heart and the spirit. Religion has authority to persuade through ideas – the preaching of truth as they understand it. It has no authority over the body.

Government ought not judge over doctrine and practice but must judge over the rights and protections of individuals.

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Acts 18:14-17 (KJV) No Business In Church Business

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Exodus 18:23 (KJV) Just Counsel

Exodus 18:23 (KJV)
If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace.

I have generally read this verse to mean that Jethro “ordered” Moses to obey his counsel with those words, “…and God command thee so.”

It is more likely that Jethro gave the counsel and then left it to Moses to discern God’s command one way or the other. Moses’s following of this counsel is not an indication of Jethro’s influence over Moses but of the wisdom of Jethro’s counsel. Moses followed the counsel because he had confirmed it with the Lord.

For any adult counsel is just – counsel. It might be wise counsel and counsel which we ought to follow but in the end, it is our responsibility to take all counsel to God for confirmation or denial.

• If God’s Word is opposed we should reject the counsel no matter who it might offend.
• If God’s Word confirms it we ought to accept and follow it no matter who it is that provided it.

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For this and more than 3900 earlier Daily Visits with God visit http://bit.ly/18XDiAs. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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Exodus 18:23 (KJV) Just Counsel

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Acts 16:1 (KJV) You Never Know

Acts 16:1 (KJV)
Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek:

Paul’s first visit to Lystra ended with his being:

• Drug out of the city
• Stoned and
• Left for dead

Paul did not die and, when he revived, returned into the city. He then left to preach the gospel in Derbe. Having done that he went through Lystra, Iconium and Antioch once again, confirming the churches in those cities.

He is now on his second missionary journey and, passing through these cities once again, meets with Timothy. This young man becomes his “son in the faith” and a right hand man to the Apostle, Timothy was a fellowservant of the Lord and future pastor in Ephesus.

We can never tell what fruit God might produce out of the most difficult of circumstances.

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Acts 16:1 (KJV) You Never Know

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Exodus 15:2 (KJV) God Gave A Song

Exodus 15:2 (KJV)
The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

Surveying the defeat of the Egyptians at the Red Sea and reflecting upon how it was accomplished, Moses and the people burst into singing (I imagine that Moses composed the song under inspiration of the Holy Spirit and then taught it to the people. The power of music is how quickly we can learn it). The opening statement gives a threefold alliteration. God was their:

• Strength 
• Song and had become their
• Salvation 

The salvation referenced is not from sin.[1] This is deliverance from a trial. Salvation, in reference to sin, is more accurately represented in the Passover.

Saved people find strength in God. He steels our emotions. He encourages us in hardship. His Word gives hope in our darkness. We are weak but He is strong. When we have God’s strength we find it easier to sing. Though there are always hurdles to overcome our faith finds reasons to rejoice.

And as we walk our path in this life, strengthened by His might and rejoicing with the song He puts in our hearts, we invariably witness again and again how He defeats our enemies.

[1] Though 1 Corinthians 10 draws a very tight correlation.

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For this and more than 3800 earlier Daily Visits with God visit http://bit.ly/18XDiAs. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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Exodus 15:2 (KJV) God Gave A Song

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Acts 14:15 (KJV) Like Passions

Acts 14:15 (KJV)
And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:

The people of the city were just about to offer sacrifices and proclaim Paul and Barnabas gods.

These two were so far separated from the:

• Character
• Nature and
• Worldliness 

of the citizens of the city that they were inclined to see them as better than they. They could not imagine a human being capable of such concern for a fellow human being and of such an effective ministry.

Paul interrupted their worship with a basic truth. Both Barnabas and Paul were subject to the very same passions as these souls:

• The same urges
• The same temptations 
• The same desires 
• The same hopes
• The same fears

As different as they seemed to be, they were no different, save this one thing; they had turned themselves and those passions over to the living God.

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Acts 14:15 (KJV) Like Passions

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Exodus 13:2 (KJV) Tools To Remember By

Exodus 13:2 (KJV)
Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine.

God gave Israel so many different memorials; tools, both to remember what He had done for them and to instruct their children and children’s children concerning those things God had done and what they meant.

The majority of these memorials had to do with deliverance fro Egypt:

• The Passover
• The firstborn and later
• The altar at the side of Jordan River 

I am reminded how important it is to not only tell our children what to do but to tell them why.

We are:

• To refresh our memories through the memorials of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper and to see that our children witness these and that we teach them to them. 
• To set up family altars that we use to teach our children what God has done for us. 
• To display passages of the Bible that have been life changing for us. 

These are instruments train up another generation to follow us as we also follow the Lord.

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Exodus 13:2 (KJV) Tools To Remember By

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Exodus 12:2 (KJV) It’s A Big Deal

Exodus 12:2 (KJV)
This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

We celebrate the Fourth of July every year. It’s a big deal. More than two hundred years ago now, a hand full of men dared to declare this land independent of the king of England.

It was no easy task to accomplish. Just saying it didn’t make it so. They had to fight off the British and to do that they had to convince a sufficient number of their countrymen not only to agree but also to fight and die for it.

We celebrate the Fourth of July every year. But we don’t set our calendar by it.

Israel did.

God has made the Jews unique to the whole world:

• Unique physically 
• Unique nationally
• Unique in their months and
• Unique in their years 

God made Christians to be unique from the world. We live in this world but we ought never be like it.

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Exodus 12:2 (KJV) It’s A Big Deal

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Acts 11:17 (KJV) Our Mission

Acts 11:17 (KJV)
Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?

All of us have our prejudices. If it is not the color of one’s skin then it is:

• The religion they grew up in
• The social level they were raised with
• The standard of living they have embraced Or
• The character they possess 

I have met a number of people who refuse to help a ministry that attempts to help the prisoner or the addict.

But the Bible is clear. God loves even those whose actions He hates. Christ’s death on the cross is sufficient to save them and all who come to Him will in no wise be cast out. Who are we to withstand God on this matter?

Our mission, should we accept it, is to go (into all the world and to every creature) and teach them, baptize those who believe and teach the believers to observe all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded.

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Acts 11:17 (KJV) Our Mission

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Exodus 8:24 (KJV) Pesky Things

Exodus 8:24 (KJV)
And the LORD did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies. 

The wording makes it sound as if,

• Worse than frogs
• Worse than the lice

were the flies.

These pests are not loud, not poisonous and not malicious in nature but they become grievous because of their persistence. They just never quit. They get on everything. They never stop. They fly from here to there and then here again. We swat them away but they return immediately.

They live short life spans so they die – everywhere. One the floor, in containers of food and drink, in light fixtures (they wouldn’t have had them in Ancient Egypt, I know) no doubt they would have died in the oil based lanterns, spoiling the fuel for their lights.

Some flies do bite but even those that don’t are bothersome as they land on the skin and scalp.

Pesky things are sometimes more grievous than painful things.

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Exodus 8:24 (KJV) Pesky Things

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Exodus 7:1-5 (KJV) God Made Moses a God

Exodus 7:1-5 (KJV)
And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land.And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

Note the contrast between Moses as a god before Pharaoh and the Lord Himself:

• Moses was made to appear as a god
• Moses was appointed this by God
• Moses was not respected though a god
• Moses was only able to do as God commanded

In contrast the Lord:

• Made Moses a god
• Commanded all that Moses did and eventually 
• Destroyed Pharaoh because he did not reverence Him

Men make for themselves many gods but none of them measure up the LORD.

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For this and more than 3800 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Pastor Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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Exodus 7:1-5 (KJV) God Made Moses a God

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