{"id":20301,"date":"2021-07-07T09:49:02","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T13:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20301"},"modified":"2021-07-07T10:31:41","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T14:31:41","slug":"acts-knowledge-on-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20301","title":{"rendered":"Acts: Knowledge on Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b7Tl2tn5KIA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In Luke\u2019s Gospel, the Holy Spirit is fully bestowed on Jesus, the beloved Son who acts with God\u2019s power, speaks with God\u2019s authority, and loves with God\u2019s love. Through the gift of the Spirit given to Jesus, God\u2019s justice is announced and demonstrated as Jesus travels from Galilee to Jerusalem, freeing the sick from their illnesses, liberating the enslaved from their sins, and enriching the poor with the good news of the messianic banquet open to \u00a0 \u00a0all.<\/p>\n<p>In the Acts of the Apostles, also written by Luke, that same Spirit is bestowed on a body of God\u2019s sons and daughters who<strong> surrender their own lives to God\u2019s love<\/strong>. Jesus tells his disciples, \u201cYou will receive power when the Holy Spirit overcomes you, and then you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and \u00a0even to the ends of the earth\u201d (Acts 1:8).<\/p>\n<p>The spiritual truth is this: there is a difference between knowledge \u201con ice\u201d and knowledge \u201con fire.\u201d For many Christians, their belief is often just knowledge \u201con ice,\u201d not experiential, firsthand knowledge, which is knowledge \u201con fire.\u201d Even though we call them both faith, there is a difference between intellectual belief and real trust. There is a difference between <em>talking<\/em> about transformation and God\u2019s love and stepping out in confidence to live a loving life. Only the second is biblical faith: when our walk matches our talk.<\/p>\n<p>The Spirit teaches us this new walk. When Jesus died, the apostles didn\u2019t have a Spirit-filled faith. Though Jesus\u2019 mother Mary and Mary Magdalene stayed, all but one of the men deserted Jesus on the cross. The apostles were demoralized. They lacked conviction. They had no aim or purpose. But shortly afterwards, they were transformed. Changed from within, they acted, lived, and walked in a new way. These lukewarm followers began to act like people \u201con fire.\u201d Or as Acts describes them, they are \u201cthe people who are turning our whole world upside down\u201d (Acts 17:6).<\/p>\n<p>Brian McLaren writes about the need for the fire of the Spirit today:<\/p>\n<p>In the millennia since Christ walked with us on this Earth, we\u2019ve often tried to box up the \u201cwind\u201d [of the Spirit] in manageable doctrines. We\u2019ve exchanged the fire of the Spirit for the ice of religious pride. We\u2019ve turned the wine back into water, and then let the water go stagnant and lukewarm. We\u2019ve traded the gentle dove of peace for the predatory hawk or eagle of empire. When we have done so, we have ended up with just another religious system, as problematic as any other: too often petty, argumentative, judgmental, cold, hostile, bureaucratic, self-seeking, an enemy of aliveness.<\/p>\n<p>In a world full of big challenges, in a time like ours, we can\u2019t settle for a heavy and fixed religion. We can\u2019t try to contain the Spirit in a box. We need to experience the mighty rushing wind of Pentecost. We need our hearts to be. \u00a0 made incandescent by the Spirit\u2019s fire.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Young, Sarah. Jesus Calling Morning and Evening Devotional <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>TRUST ME IN ALL YOUR THOUGHTS. I know that some thoughts are unconscious or semiconscious, and I do not hold you responsible for those. But you can direct conscious thoughts much more than you may realize. Practice thinking in certain ways\u2014trusting Me, thanking Me\u2014and those thoughts become more natural. Reject negative or sinful thoughts as soon as you become aware of them. Don\u2019t try to hide them from Me; confess them and leave them with Me. Go on your way lightheartedly. This method of controlling your thoughts will keep your mind in My Presence and your feet on the path of Peace.<\/p>\n<p>PSALM 20:7; Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.<\/p>\n<p>1 JOHN 1:9; If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.<\/p>\n<p>LUKE 1:79; to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Luke\u2019s Gospel, the Holy Spirit is fully bestowed on Jesus, the beloved Son who acts with God\u2019s power, speaks with God\u2019s authority, and loves with God\u2019s love. Through the gift of the Spirit given to Jesus, God\u2019s justice is announced and demonstrated as Jesus travels from Galilee to Jerusalem, freeing the sick from their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20301"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20301"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20309,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20301\/revisions\/20309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}