Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your prayer for humble yet bold, holy and loving teams who preach the gospel accurately and see God confirm His Word is good and right, and we join with you in asking this of the Lord.
We ask with you for boldness as the apostles prayed in Acts 4, that God would enable His servants to speak His Word with complete boldness as He stretches out His hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of His holy servant Jesus. As it is written, they went out and preached everywhere and the Lord worked through them confirming His Word by the signs that accompanied it, and this salvation which was first announced by the Lord was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness with signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. This shows the preaching is not merely human and the grace is not human. We do not believe men simply, but God Himself bearing witness. When God was about to introduce His kingdom and His higher way of life, He was pleased to work miracles as pledges of His power to make the invisible kingdom manifest through visible works, as He did through Paul from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum, not by priestly garments and outward symbols but by mighty signs and wonders through the power of the Spirit of God.
Yet we also remember that signs alone do not make a person admirable before God. How long shall we use miracles as cloaks for our own remissness. Many have cast out demons and yet because they worked iniquity they incurred punishment rather than honor. Paul himself did not glory in miracles but in his weaknesses, his persecutions, his labors and his endurance for the sake of the gospel, showing that the whole work is God's doing and nothing merely our own. The greatest signs are a holy life. That is why we must seek above all the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, for those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires and walk in step with the Spirit. Gifts are given according to His will and for the common good, apportioned by the same Spirit as He determines, not as we demand. Those other signs done by wizards were not true powers but weakness and empty show, but the divers miracles of God are true and are given wisely.
So we pray as you asked from 1 Timothy 4:16 that God would help us get both our lives and our message correct, to watch our life and our doctrine closely. We ask the Father in the name of Jesus who suffered, died for our sins, rose and ascended on high and gave gifts to His people, to grant accurate, loving and bold preaching of the gospel and to confirm the message of His grace as He wills, whether through wisdom, knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, tongues or interpretation. We ask for protection and keeping from sin, from temptation, from pride, from deceivers and from the evil one, and that we would be content to be like our Master, not seeking our own will but His. Make us humble yet bold, holy and loving, not conceited or provoking one another, so that whether You grant visible wonders or the quiet wonder of transformed character, Christ alone is glorified and sinners hear that salvation is in Him alone.
We thank You that You hear those who ask according to Your will, and we ask this with thanksgiving, trusting Your peace to guard our hearts as we continue to preach Christ crucified, risen and reigning, the true Anointed One and Lord. Amen.
We ask with you for boldness as the apostles prayed in Acts 4, that God would enable His servants to speak His Word with complete boldness as He stretches out His hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of His holy servant Jesus. As it is written, they went out and preached everywhere and the Lord worked through them confirming His Word by the signs that accompanied it, and this salvation which was first announced by the Lord was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness with signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. This shows the preaching is not merely human and the grace is not human. We do not believe men simply, but God Himself bearing witness. When God was about to introduce His kingdom and His higher way of life, He was pleased to work miracles as pledges of His power to make the invisible kingdom manifest through visible works, as He did through Paul from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum, not by priestly garments and outward symbols but by mighty signs and wonders through the power of the Spirit of God.
Yet we also remember that signs alone do not make a person admirable before God. How long shall we use miracles as cloaks for our own remissness. Many have cast out demons and yet because they worked iniquity they incurred punishment rather than honor. Paul himself did not glory in miracles but in his weaknesses, his persecutions, his labors and his endurance for the sake of the gospel, showing that the whole work is God's doing and nothing merely our own. The greatest signs are a holy life. That is why we must seek above all the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, for those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires and walk in step with the Spirit. Gifts are given according to His will and for the common good, apportioned by the same Spirit as He determines, not as we demand. Those other signs done by wizards were not true powers but weakness and empty show, but the divers miracles of God are true and are given wisely.
So we pray as you asked from 1 Timothy 4:16 that God would help us get both our lives and our message correct, to watch our life and our doctrine closely. We ask the Father in the name of Jesus who suffered, died for our sins, rose and ascended on high and gave gifts to His people, to grant accurate, loving and bold preaching of the gospel and to confirm the message of His grace as He wills, whether through wisdom, knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, tongues or interpretation. We ask for protection and keeping from sin, from temptation, from pride, from deceivers and from the evil one, and that we would be content to be like our Master, not seeking our own will but His. Make us humble yet bold, holy and loving, not conceited or provoking one another, so that whether You grant visible wonders or the quiet wonder of transformed character, Christ alone is glorified and sinners hear that salvation is in Him alone.
We thank You that You hear those who ask according to Your will, and we ask this with thanksgiving, trusting Your peace to guard our hearts as we continue to preach Christ crucified, risen and reigning, the true Anointed One and Lord. Amen.
