We all know Peter, right? One of Jesus’ main men, the one He called the rock in which He’d build His church? The one that walked on water? The one that DENIED JESUS? *face palm* Yeah, him.
There is so much about him that intrigues me. He was merely a fisherman. I say merely because he wasn’t a known rich person or anyone that people would consider “esteemed.” The boy just liked to fish. Then comes Jesus, a stranger physically, who tells him to drop everything and follow Him. Um, ok. Would you have done that?? But that shows me that Peter was searching, he was willing and he was obedient. It also tells me there was something about Jesus spiritually that Peter could sense and was comfortable around. More on that in a sec.
After becoming a disciple, Peter got to walk with Jesus everyday, see Him do miracles, SEE ELIJAH AND MOSES (Matthew 17), walk on water, but yet He still had fear when his life depended on it and denied Him…three times. You’ve never been ashamed to stand up for Him have you? Mmhmm.
But, God. He knew Peter would deny Him. He knew the kind of person he was at heart. And He knew the person he could be. Imagine the amount of growth Peter had to have done from the time he denied Jesus to the time of Pentecost. I probably would too if I just watched the Man I denied go through the worst death humanly possible. Can you imagine the guilt? Then Jesus comes back to life – after telling His disciples this was going to happen – and they were still in awe. Jesus then asks Peter three times if he loves Him, and Peter gets hurt that Jesus asks him so many times. (John 21:15-17) Dude, you just told 3 different people you didn’t know Him, and this was after Jesus told you that you would! (John 13:38) I’d be triple checking as well. But Jesus, in all His grace, reinstates Peter as the rock in which He’d build His church and told Him again to follow Him.
I believe after Jesus went back to heaven, Peter had a new fire lit under his booty. I think having Jesus ask him if he loved Him over and over, was a turning point for him. He now had to lead by example. He was, after all, one of the few people that had witnessed the God of the universe in the flesh. He had to make a decision right then and there to choose to live life differently.
Before Jesus ascended back into heaven, He told his disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit by which they would receive power. (Acts 1:8) The first verse in Acts 2 says the followers of Jesus were all together in one place when Holy Spirit showed up. This tells us that they met and waited together. After receiving the Holy Spirit, the church of Acts experienced healings and miracles daily. They saw angels on the norm. They walked through portals (Acts 8: 39-40). They miraculously escaped prisons. They had power.
So what’s the difference between the early church and the church today? We both serve the same God. Why did they experience all these miraculous things on the norm and we don’t?
In Acts 5:15, it says:
“So that they [even] kept carrying out the sick into the streets and placing them on couches and sleeping pads, [in the hope] that as Peter passed by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them.” AMP
What Luke is saying here is that these people knew there was something about Peter that if they just got close to him then they could be healed. The Spirit of God rested so heavily upon Peter that he could just walk by people and heal them. People just wanted to be near him in hopes that they would be changed. His SHADOW healed people. His actual shadow. The presence of the Holy Spirit shifted the atmosphere around Peter so much so that people just had to be near him to get healed.
So what happened to the guy that had denied Jesus and lost sight of Him while trying to walk on water? He accessed the power that was given to him (and to us!) by the Holy Spirit.
Part of living life on the frontline is knowing Whose power we possess. We are called to do the very same thing the early church did. The more you feed your spirit, the bigger it will get. Just like the more you feed your body, the bigger it will get! It will grow “fat” – the one part of you that you actually want fat! If we are feeding our spirit with the Word of God and prayer, we allow it to grow and become bigger than we are physically. How much more affective in the kingdom of God would we be if our spirits were bigger than our bodies?! Demons would scatter in fear by us merely walking into a room. I believe that’s what Peter saw in Jesus when Jesus first told him to follow Him.
We sit in our churches once a week and expect God to use us like that. The early church spent days waiting for the Holy Spirit at the time of Pentecost. They spent hours in prayer. Do we do that? Do we honor the feasts and festival times that God told us to? Do we allow the Holy Spirit to come and direct every facet of our lives, at home and at church? We are called to walk in power and authority here on earth and to do what the early church did. We’ve got to get away from “religion” and back to our First Love. It’s not about the signs, wonders and miracles. It’s about Jesus. We’ve got to start feeding our spirits and look like the bride Jesus wants to come back to get. This is not the time to be wrapped up in good music with cool lights or a funny hip pastor that will keep our attention. IT’S ABOUT JESUS. Become a walking house of prayer. Don’t seek the anointing; seek the Anointed One.
Do you want to live a life full of power? I do! Praise God with your heart and mind and sing love songs to Him. The more praise you give the Father, the less hold the enemy will have on you. He hates when God gets glory. You gain ground on the frontline by accessing the power the Holy Spirit freely gives while praising the name of Jesus the entire time. The enemy has stolen power from us for too long, but Jesus took the keys back when He rose again. Don’t let the enemy keep stealing from you! Stand your ground, push forward in power by releasing praise and worship, memorizing scripture in your heart and proclaiming the name of Jesus. If you have Christ in you, YOU ARE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE ENEMY.
So let’s put our old selves behind us like Peter did and move forward in power and truth! Let’s make our spirits and the flame in our hearts bigger so the world will see the Spirit in us and want to just get near us! Talk to Him, tell Him you’re willing and obedient, and let’s gain some ground back for the Kingdom!
Lavah Ministries 