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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.

God speaks to us often during Litos Ergos; I am so grateful for the messages He gives us. But every time He does this there is a little nagging voice in the back of my mind saying that God didn’t really speak to us. Maybe it was just my imagination. I am also thankful for this little nagging voice! It would be a mistake to forget that we can always get these sorts of things wrong. That little voice keeps me humbly “fact checking” everything I think are God’s messages against Scripture. It keeps me praying for confirmation.

But I promise, if we choose the world, it will not love us back. It will not care for, protect, or save us. We can cry out to all the world’s gods we like, leap around and cut ourselves on the altars of wokeness and abortion and CRT and BLM and all the other Baals being worshiped today. But there will be no voice. No one will answer. No one will pay attention. Only the God who sent Jesus Christ to die for us is the true LORD God who longs for us to turn our hearts back to Him again.

This battle has always raged around us although so many of us have been asleep to it. But now as it is ramping up, many of us are waking and realize that we are standing naked in the middle of the battlefield with no armor or weapons. God has provided us with our needed armor, our shield, and sword. It is up to us to pick up those pieces, get our souls right with God (helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness), spend our time in prayer warfare (shield of faith), read and learn the Scriptures (loins girded with truth, sword of the spirit, feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace). God will do the rest. But it is up to us to pick up our armor and our weapons and learn how to use them. Don’t let the enemy find you naked on the battlefield!

There are times when our circumstances might seem awful. But God may very well be working out a plan. If we are seeking and following Him, then we can know for certain that everything that happens to us, even things that might seem dreadful at first, God is actually allowing or causing as part of His perfect plan for us.

The very same Holy Spirit that led Paul and Timothy can guide us today if we listen. We learn to listen just as the first Christians learned… by seeking God (1) through prayer, (2) in the Scriptures, and by (3) having a pure heart that loves God and is surrendered to His plan. All three of these are important for the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
Scripture forms the foundation to understanding how God works. Prayer is personally interacting with the Holy Spirit. The state of your heart is the most important of the three. All the prayer and Scripture in the world will not help us discern God’s leading if we do not love God and willingly submit to His authority.