Studies by Book
02 Acts 06 08-15 STEPHEN, FULL OF FAITH AND POWER 01 Acts 06 08 Life full of faith and His Holy Spirit
📖 Acts 06:08-15
01 – 27Jul2023 – *Life full of faith and His Holy Spirit* - _Acts 06:08-15_ - STEPHEN, FULL OF FAITH AND POWER - Bible reading: _Acts 02:42-43_
“Lord Jesus, we surrender to You completely, both individually and corporately, to walk in faith in Your Holy Spirit. In Your name, we pray. Amen.”
We have completed the study of _Acts 06:01-07_ which we had titled, THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL AS THE CHURCH LEARNS TO SERVE. This study was of 15 lessons. We now move to the next passage for our study which is _Acts 06:08-15_, which we will title, STEPHEN, FULL OF FAITH AND POWER.
_Acts 6:8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people._
Stephen being a Hellenist Jew would have been held with contempt by the Hebraic Jews in the society. Nevertheless, Stephen had the experience of experiencing oneness in the church and he was serving people. This caused Stephen to connect with people around him.
Stephen was full of faith, the Holy Spirit, a good reputation and wisdom _(Acts 06:03, 05)_. As we will see in _Chapters 6 and 7_, Stephen was articulate and courageous as he spoke to his audience of religious Jews, both from the Hellenist as well as Hebraic backgrounds.
Serving people as a deacon had prepared Stephen to be a powerful witness of Christ. This is an important combination and correlation that we must embrace. _I Timothy 3:13 For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus._
When we serve people with the love of Christ, then we are able to see people as the Lord sees them. The Lord saw people with compassion and that was how the Lord saw that the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. _Matthew 9:36-37 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. (37) Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few._
The Lord is asking the disciples to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send more labourers, who will connect with people, into His harvest. _Matthew 9:38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."_
As the labourers of God, we must see people the way the Lord saw them. To see people in their true state, it is needed that we come close to people by serving them. We must be among the people, just as Stephen was among the people, in the church and among the people outside the church.
As we serve people, something happens within us. We are able to connect with people meaningfully. We will understand their pain and then we will be able to present Christ to them in the most effective and relevant manner.
Stephen was full of faith and power. Stephen was connecting with the people and through him, great wonders and signs were being done among the people.
This was the norm in the life of the early church. _Acts 2:42-43 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. (43) Then fear came upon every soul, and *many wonders and signs were done through the apostles*._ / _Acts 5:12 And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's Porch._
We see this happening with Philip, who was also a deacon along with Stephen. _Acts 8:6-8 And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. (7) For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. (8) And there was great joy in that city._
In our times, we do see miracles, signs and wonders taking place through the hands of certain people of God and in certain churches. But we do not see wonders, signs and miracles as a regular part of the life of all His church in our times. These are occasional experiences for us. Why is this so?
I believe the answer to this question is a personal response from each of us. Each of us will have to seek to know from the Lord as to where we are falling short of His expectation of us.
How would we compare with a person like Stephen? Are we people full of faith and His Holy Spirit? Is our life being completely (thought, word, and deed) driven by His Holy Spirit? If we are, then I believe there will be power in our lives. I think that the brand of Christianity that we practise is ambiguous.
We receive answers to our prayers, we see people coming to faith and obedience to Jesus because of the word that we present and we do hold a testimony of being called a committed Christian from people around us and we are satisfied. Yet, there are pockets in our lives, where we yield to the flesh. That life full of faith and the Holy Spirit is still elusive.
How would our churches of today compare with the early church? Is there oneness among us? Answers to these questions would lead us to be the church that witnesses miracles, signs and wonders, as was taking place at that time with the early church.
```The Lord is calling us to a complete surrender of our lives to Him both individually as well as corporately as His church.```