If we\u2019re all honest, we\u2019ve all proclaimed something similar to ourselves whether audibly or thoughtfully in a moment of unintentional or unexpected sin. We love the Lord. We\u2019ve confessed our sins and asked Him into our hearts and we take up our cross daily\u2026.only to stumble and drop it too many times to count, and more than enough times to make us feel like powerless failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peter knew what this feels like. He was passionately dedicated to Jesus – to the point of cutting off an ear of one he viewed as an enemy to Jesus. THE GUY HAD HUTZPAH! Man, do I love that word. He believed himself ready to do anything<\/strong> that Jesus would need him to do as his friend and follower. He was shocked when Jesus told him that very soon he\u2019d actually deny even knowing him three times! Peter was aghast! – No way would that ever happen! He was sure of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n But\u2026 then we see the story in Matthew 26:31-75 Jesus got taken away by some government officials. Peter stayed close at hand to see what would happen to him and while waiting and watching, three people recognized him as a follower and friend of Jesus, calling him out as so. Guess what? Peter denied all three accusations out of fear. SHOCKER.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh Peter. Imagine the devastation and heartbreak he experienced when he heard the rooster crow as Luke 22 describes. He had a powerful love and dedication to Jesus and thought himself firm and strong enough that it seemed incredulous to him that he could ever possibly deny Jesus and let him down in that way. However, the truth emerged and Peter realized that no matter how much you love Jesus and no matter how strong you are, you are still weak in your own power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God knows this about us and that is why He provided an answer to our frailty. God knows we fail, but He has prepared a gift especially for us\u2026to help us in our weakness. Romans 8:26 says the Spirit helps us in our weakness. And Acts 1:8 encourages us – “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We see evidence of the benefits of such power from the Holy Spirit in Peter. Let\u2019s read in Acts 2:14 of the NIV. Here, Peter has found His Holy Spirit hutzpah and preaches his first sermon –\u00a0 \u00a0<\/sup>Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: \u201cFellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 <\/sup>These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It\u2019s only nine in the morning!” He said this because the onlookers were confused hearing people not of their nations speaking in their languages – and it was very OUT OF THIS WORLD to them to say the least so Peter says 16 <\/sup>“No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 17 <\/sup>\u201c\u2018In the last days, God says, WOW! On the day of Pentecost, as depicted in Acts 2 just weeks after Peter so miserably failed Jesus by denying him because he feared the reactions of the people, we find him BOLDLY addressing the curiosity of the crowds about the happenings of Pentecost by preaching his first sermon recorded in the book of Acts, subsequently causing 3000 people to be saved! What kind of power enabled him to do that? The same man who was cowardly only weeks before has now made a powerful friend in the Holy Spirit who gives him boldness and strength to do the things he ought to do. The Holy Spirit is available here and now to do that for you too. In that Pentecost sermon, Peter declared that \u201c \u2026the promise is for you and your children and all who are far off\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So many times we relate to Peter or even to Paul who himself admitted in Romans 7:15 that he finds himself doing the things he doesn\u2019t want to do and not doing the things he wants to or knows he should do. We are devastated that in our human weakness, we have fallen into temptation again and we wonder, \u201chow is it even possible to have the power or the strength to stand firm for Jesus?\u201d Thanks to Peter, now we know – it\u2019s not our power but HIS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you ever get fed up with yourself \u201cUgh! I\u2019ve done it again! I\u2019m such a failure! I am too weak and therefore will never be effective for God or any call He places on my life\u2026..\u201d If we\u2019re all honest, we\u2019ve all proclaimed something similar to ourselves whether audibly or thoughtfully in a moment…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[9,41],"class_list":["post-563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","tag-christianliving","tag-discipleship"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pac8FG-95","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asmymindunwinds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asmymindunwinds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asmymindunwinds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asmymindunwinds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asmymindunwinds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/asmymindunwinds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":564,"href":"https:\/\/asmymindunwinds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions\/564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asmymindunwinds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asmymindunwinds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asmymindunwinds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u00a0 \u00a0 I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
\u00a0 \u00a0 your young men will see visions,
\u00a0 \u00a0 your old men will dream dreams.
18 <\/sup>Even on my servants, both men and women,
\u00a0 \u00a0 I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
\u00a0 \u00a0 and they will prophesy.
19 <\/sup>I will show wonders in the heavens above
\u00a0 \u00a0 and signs on the earth below,
\u00a0 \u00a0 blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 <\/sup>The sun will be turned to darkness
\u00a0 \u00a0 and the moon to blood
\u00a0 \u00a0 before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 <\/sup>And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n*if you liked this post, please check out The Bible for Busy People Podcast<\/a>. This post is episode 2 from Tuesday of this week!<\/em><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"