Spiritcode

FREEDOM OF FAITH  Acts 15:1 While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers that unless they adhered to the ancient Jewish custom of circumcision, they could not be saved. Paul and Barnabas argued and discussed this with them at length, and finally the believers sent them to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local men, to talk to the apostles and...

THE FIVE SENSES OF THE SPIRIT  Just as we have five physical senses we also see those senses mirrored spiritually as spiritual senses of blessing and faith. The eyes of the Lord go to and fro…I have stretched out my hand to you…These Old Testament sayings were from a pure Spirit God without a body (Yet to come in the form of Jesus) THE SENSE OF SMELL  Philippians 4:18 I have received from Epaphrod...

DEATH TO LIFE Paul and Barnabas continue on their journey without John Mark, and they travelled down to Iconium and preached in the synagogue there, and many of the Jews and the Greeks believed. ACTS 14:1. At Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went together to the synagogue and preached with such power that many—both Jews and Gentiles—believed. We will read a little further on (vs 21 below) that when Paul...

BELIEVING IN AND BELIEVING ON Arriving at Acts Chapter thirteen we find that from this point on, Paul’s missionary journeys become the key feature of the Book of Acts. He was commissioned to do thos buy the leaders in the church at Antioch. Acts 13:1 The congregation in Antioch was blessed with a number of prophets and teachers, such as Barnabas, Simon, (nicknamed Niger the black one), Lucius the...

INNER RESURRECTION POWER Continuing in the Book of Acts Chapter eleven we see in verse nineteen the great changes to the church in Jerusalem because of the persecution of the church. Acts 11:19 The believers who had been scattered during the persecution after Stephen’s death travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria. They preached the word of God, but only to Jews.  That time of...

REPENTANCE TO LIFE  Acts 11:1 Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. 2And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, 3saying, “You went to be with uncircumcised men and ate with them!” 4But Peter explained it to them in order from the beginning, Peter then tells them in the next seventeen verses...

GOD’S WORK OF RECONCILITION  The Book of Acts continues in Chapter nine describing the growth of the church and the work of the Holy Spirit through the ministry of the Apostle Peter. Acts 9: 31. Things then began to go peacefully in the churches throughout all of Judea and Samaria. The churches began to grow and multiply, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. So th...

SOVEREIGN OVER US The book of Acts is officially called the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, but many say that it could be renamed as ‘The Book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit’, because it was God acting sovereignly through the Holy Spirit in people who had yielded their will to his will for their lives. In Chapter nine we saw the sovereign work of God in changing the entire purpose of Paul’s life...

PAUL’S JOB DESCRIPTION  Acts 9 :1. Saul continued to terrorize the disciples of the Lord with murderous threats. One day he went to the high priest, saying he wanted letters of authorization he could give to those in the synagogues of Damascus, that if he found any followers of Jesus, men or women, he might arrest them and bring them bound as prisoners, to Jerusalem. 3. He set off on his journey,...

PHILIP AND THE EUNUCH – ACTS 8:26-40 The story of Acts chapter eight concerning Philip’s ministry in Samaria and the account of all the people there receiving the power of the Holy Spirit continues to unfold in a most powerful way. Acts 8:26. The angel of the Lord then spoke to Philip and told him to travel south on the road that goes from Jerusalem down to the desert region of Gaza. When he got t...

THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER Acts 8:1. Saul fully approved of Stephen’s execution. And then there arose a great persecution against the Jerusalem church, which caused disciples to flee from Jerusalem and be scattered throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria. But the apostles stayed in Jerusalem 2. Some faithful disciples carried Stephen to be buried, and there was much grieving and lamentation ov...

THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT  Reading from the last two verses of Chapter 6  Acts 6:14. and certain hostile Jews set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this temple and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” And gazing at him, all who sat in the council s...

INSIDERS and OUTSIDERS We finished reading in Acts chapter five with the account of the apostles rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus. They continued preaching daily in the temple and proclaiming to all the people this new way of life, which was not just about doing what they were meant to do but about being who they were meant to be. We follow the account...

FIGHTING AGAINST GOD  We saw in the preceding verses of Acts chapter five how there was such an outpouring of grace and faith through the power of the Holy Spirit working in the church with healings and signs and wonders and the good will of the people in going without, so that they could care for one another’s needs. We also saw how in the example of the judgement upon Ananias and Saphira that th...

SIGNS OF THE SACRED The phenomenon of the power of gracious giving that occurred in Acts chapter four where they had ‘all things in common’ was a sign that God had poured out great grace and faith upon the people that displayed itself in a love and care for one another in their differing needs. The last verse in Acts chapter four says ‘Joseph, called by the apostles "Barnabas" (which means "Son of...

ALL THINGS IN COMMON  In the second half of Acts chapter 4 Peter and John were set free from custody by the council of Jewish leaders for preaching in the power of the name of Jesus and miraculously healing the crippled man at the temple. This had caused thousands of people to join themselves to the Church, and the religious and the secular power base of the Jewish leaders was now even more threat...

IF I BE LIFTED UP  In Acts chapter three we saw that Peter and John had prayed for the healing of a well-known crippled man who used to beg daily at the gate of the temple and was now leaping about and praising God. A crowd of onlookers continued to grow with all of them standing about amazed at the miracle that had occurred, and Peter was preaching to the growing crowd about the resurrection of J...

HEALING RAIN REVIVAL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT   When Peter said on the Day of Pentecost that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was what the prophet Joel was speaking about, he quoted from Joel - ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh (all people). That is what happened. That was the start of the ‘last days’ outpouring, but Peter did not quot...

TIMES OF REFRESHING IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD  ACTS 3:1. Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock prayer service and as they approached the Temple a man was there, who had been lame from birth, and who was carried every day to one of the temple gates called ‘the gate Beautiful’, where he would beg for money from the people who entered the temple. When he...

 HEARING GOD SPEAK  Acts 2: 1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place (One hundred and twenty in the upper room). And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3Then there appeared flickering tongues of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4And they were all filled with t...

  THE END OF THE BEGINNING  The dead body of Jesus was brought back to life in resurrected form when the Spirit of Jesus re-inhabited his entombed body on the Sunday following the Passover Sabbath. Only moments after this a number of people that accompanied Jesus from Paradise on his Heavenward journey also inhabited their recently entombed bodies and made the briefest of appearances to their love...

THE RESURRECTION  When Jesus gave up his Spirit to his Father, before he ascended, the Bible says he first descended - in his Spirit - on a mission of great purpose. Below him was a place called Paradise, and next to Paradise was a place called Hades. Jesus had spoken about these places when he told the story of the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar. The rich man who lived sumptuously in arrogant s...

GOLGOTHA Jesus had been sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate and then tortured and flogged by the cruel guards of King Herod, and finally commanded by Pilate to carry his cross to Calvary, or Golgotha, which means ‘the place of the Skull’. Pilate told a Centurion to arrange for an escort of guards around Jesus to escort him to the windswept hill. The heavy beam of the cross was placed on Jesus' bl...

PASSOVER FEAST  Ever since Jesus had become the main attraction at the feast of tabernacles and proclaimed himself as the fountain of living water many of the Jews believed that he was the One - the Christ - the Rock from which flowed the water of life for Israel. From that time on and right up to the feast of Passover the healings and miracles and wisdom words of Jesus became more and more awe-in...

ROCK OF AGES There were three main ceremonial feast days that Israel celebrated every year. The first was the feast of Passover, commemorating Israel’s miraculous escape from Egypt. Each family had to sacrifice a firstborn lamb of their flocks and sprinkle the blood of the Lamb on the door posts of their houses, and the angel of death passed over the houses of the Israelites, while the firstborn o...