It's Personal!

Permit the length of this piece, wish it could be shorter.....

They called them back and warned them that they were on no account ever again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus But Peter and John spoke right back, “Whether it’s right in God’s eyes to listen to you rather than to God, you decide. As for us, there’s no question—we can’t keep quiet about what we’ve seen and heard.”
Acts 4:18‭-‬20 MSG

Deep words that go to the root of who we are and our understanding of who we belong to. When powers that be want to dictate what you should do, how you should behave and where you should go, how do you handle such? This warning to the apostles was given by authority, backed up by law. You can argue for respect for constituted authority but when the choice of life and death, or standing and compromise come up, how would you react? If a law is made today that goes contrary to all you have held on to, what would you do?

You cannot determine what kind of rules authorities would make. You can only pray for Godly leaders. What if you get leaders who don't know how to lead right? We are in a godless world, daily moving to the precipice of destruction. At a time, it was not permitted to talk of homosexuality: now the law of some countries back it up. If you can't support, then you must not oppose it. Slowly and steadily, we are breaking the bounds of morality and decency, and authority is backing up this abnormalities. In the face of all these, what should I do?

Peter and John gave a response that is eternally significant: we won't legislate for you what you should do. We won't tell you what kind of laws you should pass, but the one thing you cannot keep quiet or kill is the strength of a personal experience of God. When you meet a man or woman who has met with Christ, nothing you do or say can shake that experience. Check out the response of the three Hebrew men to authority: 'we are not careful to answer you on this matter.' We have made a choice to follow the God we know, you can choose to make the laws you please. Daniel knew a law on godless prayer had been made, yet as was his custom, he opened his window and prayed, inviting doom. These were men who had experienced God firsthand, and knew that governments come and go; only God remains. Daniel served at least 3 kings, yet remained unshakable, because he had met God. Recall that both Daniel and the Hebrew men were in a foreign land, in captivity. Who would know if they blended in? God would know, and that was all that mattered. You must get to a point in your life when people's expectation of you is not as important as nurturing your relationship with God. You can speak well, be moralistically upright, yet be empty of that personal touch that makes all the difference. Remember the testimony about these same apostles earlier in the same chapter: 'Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.' Acts 4:13 KJV. You cannot hide the experience; it is a personal one first, but it becomes a loud testimony of who you know and who you belong to. When the issue of your identity is settled, the question of your impact is also settled. Whether you are on the far side of the desert like John the Baptist, or you are the city slicker like Paul, a man/woman with the right message will always command an audience. Whether you are banished to an island like John, or constantly residing in prisons like Paul, be sure of the contents of your life. When God knows you and calls you his own, you carry within you every PROVISION you need for the vision God has given you.

I must be able to answer this eternal question: have I met with God and has he met with me? It is not a question to be answered flippantly; it is not a question to be trivialized. You don't give an answer that pleases the crowd, or one that is deceptive. Forget the world and its allure; forget power and its transient deceit of grandeur; forget education and its inability to provide simple answers to the complexity called earth; forget possessions and their inability to fill that God-shaped vacuum that is in all men. Until God fills it, you will make noise and the world will applaud; but when God fills it, even your silence will speak and testify that indeed, you have met with God. Peter and John were unlearned, ignorant men who shook the world of the Pharisees, Sadducees and the teachers of the law in their time, not because they knew much, but because they knew the only One who mattered. Do you know Him? Does he know you? His time of favour is here.