Day 7: Acts 5:1-16

But no one else dared to join them, even though all the people had high regard for them. Yet more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord—crowds of both men and women. (Acts 5:13-14)

Just read these two verses a couple of times. Can you see the paradoxes that characterized the impact of the early church on the society surrounding them?

On the one hand, no one else dared to join them…not after witnessing both Ananias and his wife Sapphira drop dead when they lied to the apostles about how much they had made from the sale of their property. Luke sums up the response to their deaths this way: Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened. (v.11). Can you blame them?

Yet all the people had high regard for them. You see, as scary as it was to see two people pay such a price for lying, the general population did not dismiss the Christians as extremists…instead their esteem for the church actually went up!

Not only that, but more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord. Their fear of what happened to Ananias and Sapphira did not prevent crowds of both men and women from believing in Jesus.

Some in the Church are afraid that what might appear to be “extreme” can potentially turn onlookers away from Jesus. Yes, that potential is always there. However, our experience has been that the exact opposite tends to happen more often than not. Case in point.

One evening, at our Miracles, Signs and Wonders Meeting a newcomer showed up in excruciating pain. He could not sit still in one spot. He had to keep on changing positions frequently. At one point, he even left the meeting for a while (to go stretch out in his car, as we discovered later).

The message that evening was actually based on verses 15-16 of today’s passage, about how Peter’s shadow healed the sick. I preached on the kind of expectancy people had to have to bring in their sick from the countryside on stretchers and line up the streets of Jerusalem…just so Peter’s shadow could fall on them when he walked by.

Then came ministry time. Normally we would ask those who came seeking a miracle or breakthrough to stand up, ask others in the congregation to gather around them and then minister.

Not this meeting, though. We invited those who answered the call to come and sit on the front row. Then we invited everyone else in the congregation to form a line and walk past them, so that our shadow could fall on them. After all, if Peter’s shadow released what overshadowed him, namely the Holy Spirit, so would ours!

I could see the raised eyebrows of one of our members at the back. This member had been quite concerned that extreme manifestations and ministry methods could turn off potential members.

We asked for progress reports after the first pass…there was some improvement in the gentleman with excruciating pain. He felt some warmth in his stomach area. That’s all.

We thanked God for what He was doing and did another walk-past. When we checked again, we discovered that the pain had subsided even more. Now he was sensing the presence of God in his chest. We continued to praise Jesus for the progress and did one more round of casting a Holy Spirit shadow.

This time the change in his body was nothing short of miraculous. He was smiling. He was walking without pain. Although his physical healing has not yet manifested completely, the healing he received in his spirit continues to impact his family and friends nearly a year later.

Dear friend, may you also be blessed to witness extreme acts of the Holy Spirit and experience the extraordinary results that follow.