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But Paul’s time in prison gave him the opportunity to do something extremely important… write letters. He had no time to write letters when he was on the road traveling and preaching every day. But now he had nothing but time, and no other way to communicate to all of those churches he had planted except via letters.

Many of the things that happened to the Israelites in the Old Testament are physical representations of what is spiritually true today. In Psalm 80, Israel is described as a vine transplanted from Egypt. God “cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land.” (v.8-9) This vine imagery points to Jesus, who called Himself the true vine.

This is my daily prayer for our church, for our country, for the entire world… that God’s face would shine on us, that He would restore us, save us, and call us to Himself. COME, LORD JESUS!!!

And now we have found our new property. Once again, through signs, words, visions, and confirmations, God has made His will crystal clear. It is a beautiful house in a perfect location on 3 1/2 acres of flat cleared land, with a huge barn, chicken coop and even chickens. It is absolutely PERFECT for what we are wanting to do there… homestead. There is only one problem. There are no woods. I really REALLY wanted some woods. It was pretty much the number one thing on my list. This was our opportunity to own some more woods!

Paul, the man who had once hunted, persecuted and imprisoned Christians, the man who held the coats of the Jews who martyred Stephen, was now himself on trial as a follower of the Way. And God arranged the situation so that Paul might tell his testimony to the crowds. God’s plan had come full circle. What a marvelous, intricate, surprising web of holy fire God works for us!

I too was raised from the dead, when I was 30 years old. I died and my soul left my body. I remember traveling through the hospital corridors. Then I saw my body lying on a table in the ER before God brought me back to life. I can say from personal first-hand experience that God is indeed LORD over even death!!

Many people don’t realize that God raised two people back to life from the dead through the disciples after Jesus had gone. In Acts 20, we read about one of these instances when a “certain young man named Eutychus was overcome by sleep… fell down from the third story and was taken up dead.” (v.9) Paul “went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, ‘Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him,'” (v.10) And then Paul went on preaching! Can you imagine such amazing miracles being so commonplace that raising someone from the dead only warrants a short intermission?!

Every single time God spoke directly or through angelic beings in both the Old and New Testaments, the people were terrified — fall on their face, quaking in fear, pee in their pants TERRIFIED. I now believe that this is the only proper response when we encounter the Almighty God of the Universe. I think we do NOT have that response today because our culture has become collectively arrogant. We have built up our Tower of Babylon high enough that we are no longer awed by Creation.