‘Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him’. Acts 3:8-10
When you have an encounter with Jesus your life will never be the same again! It will change the company you keep, how you use what God has given you and it will turn you into a person of praise! This is precisely what happens in the next part of the story as we see how the lame beggar responds to the power of Jesus in his life. Firstly he followed the disciples. Once he was healed and restored his first choice was to be with the disciples and for the first time he was able to come into the temple. He is no longer left at the gate, on the outside, watching life pass him by. He can now be part of the new community of faith.
Secondly, look at what he is doing. He is walking and leaping. He is recognising how he has been restored and he is taking full advantage of this new life he can now experience. Notice he isn’t hobbling along, or stumbling. The Lord has fully restored this man and he is making sure everyone can see. The man everyone was used to seeing sitting stuck in one spot was now leaping around!! And finally what reaction did this result in? He praised God! He knew above anything else that there was no other explanation for his healing. He had had an encounter with Jesus. His life had been completely transformed and it will never be the same again. This is what will happen in our lives when we say: ‘what I do have I give to you’. We will see people who have been living on the outside, on the edge of church, feeling like an outsider in life, living on the fringes, on the edge, not belonging. These people will suddenly want to join you, they will find a place in a loving community where they will have their dignity restored, where the right hand of friendship will be offered to them, where they will be treated as an equal.
When you say: What I do have I give to you …you will find people lifted out of their brokenness and despair and suddenly embracing the gifts that God has given them, finding freedom in life and being healed of their pains both physically and emotionally. And more than this people will turn to the Lord. They will praise God and they will enter into a life of praise and give thanks as they see what they have been saved from and what life they now get to walk into. Now this transformation does not just affect this man. It affected the entire community. The people who saw him everyday as the lowly beggar now stand in awe and wonder! They praise God, they magnify him. They are captured by the greatness of his power and majesty! This one act affected an entire community,These events pointed to Jesus. No matter what they had heard no one could now argue with what they had seen with their eyes and people now had to decide how they would respond.
There are people in our worlds today, they are watching from the outside, they are looking at your life. They see your joy, your peace, the transformation in your life. They maybe see that job opportunity that has come out of the blue. They saw you bound in depression and now they see you living with hope and a confidence about your future. They saw you crippled with pain and now they see you walking pain free. Whatever God has done in your life, choose to give it away. share it with those around you. What you do have, give to them. Allow those streams of living water to flow through you and see Jesus transform the lives around you with his grace
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Unshakeable Hope Series – Exchange Church Belfast 2021