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THE KING’ S BUSINESS
be shaken by the power o f their word. But something vastly more important than the earthquake happened, "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” That happens again and again today when men pray to God for boldness. There are some, nowadays, who tell us we ought not to pray for the Holy Spirit, since Pentecost, but against all their ingenious arguments on this line we put the plain words o f Jesus Himself, “How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him (Luke 11:13). And we further put the experience o f what occurred here in answer to prayer, namely, the fact that the Holy Spirit was given in answer to their , prayer even though Pentecost was long past and the Holy Spirit had already been given to the church as a whole. What is here recorded of the praying apostles is repeated again and again in the experiences o f many praying believers today. The result o f their being filled with the Holy Spirit was not, as far as the record goes, any ecstatic experiences Or trances or visions or gifts o f tongues or anything o f that kind, but simply that “they spake the word o f God with boldness.” Their testimony was to a risen Lord Jésus, thus proven to be the Son o f God and the Christ. The resurrection o f Jesus does not occupy the prominence in modern preaching that it did in the apostolic preaching and testimony. Their Spirit- filled testimony was with “great power,” as Spirit-filled testimony always is. Fur ther than this “great grace was upon them all.” This “great grace” upon them was manifest in great love among them. Selfish ness was banished from their hearts. No man looked at his own property and clinched*it fast and said “this is mine, mine, mine.” No, houses and lots and lands were sold and all the money put into the hands o f the leaders to be used for all according to the enimently Christian prin ciple “as any one had need.” The letter Thursday, October 26. Acts 4 : 32 - 37 .
philosophers; the world rejects Him as prophet, preferring human priests, and even laughs at the precious sacrificial blood He carried into the holiest o f all ; the world rejects Him as King, saying as o f old, “we will not have this man to rule over us.” The world is just the same today as in the days o f Herod and Pontius Pilate. There is the same conspiracy against God’s Christ. Have you a part in it ?_* The apostles were not in the least ter rified by'the threatenings o f their enemies. Not that they had any confidence in them selves, but they asked God to look upon their threatenings and to give them bold ness. They trusted Him to do it and He did it. It was not boldness in vaunting self o f proclaiming their own opinions that they desired, but boldness in speaking God’s word. There is great need o f bold ness along that line today, when so many proclaim what the scriptures say in such a timid, apologetic way. While they spoke the word with boldness they looked to God to work miracles. The apostles were not kept waiting very long for an answer to their prayer. As soon as prayer had ceased “the place where they were gathered together was' shaken.” God seldom gives a sensible token like this, but often in a very real sense the place where the true prayer is offered is shaken by the power o f God. Oftentimes when I have been in prayqr with a company o f true and earnest believers, there has been a Very clear mani festation o f the presence and power of God. There has never been a physical shaking o f the room, but there has been a very clear shaking, none the less. It was most fitting on this occasion that there should be a literal shaking o f the room, for they had appealed to Him as. the One who made the earth against the present rulers o f the earth, and He in answer gave a token o f His power over the earth by causing the earth to shake. It was also a prophecy o f how-the whole earth would Wednesday, October 23. Acts 4:29-31.
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