“After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” Acts 4.31
I am a big believer in what God did in the past, he can do again. Those who argue against the gifts of the Spirit, miracles or any amazing acts of God, tend to limit what God wants to do in the future. I believe God’s supernatural activity transcends time and space. So what he did back in Acts, he can and will do again if we believe.
The disciples were just trying to figure it out, be faithful to Jesus’ calling upon their lives, and fulfill the great commission. They were still practicing Jews in many sense of the term. Maybe they weren’t continuing to make sacrifices at the Temple or maybe they were, but now, they were offering these to Jesus. (Perhaps this is why God allowed the Temple to be destroyed in 70 A.D., to untether the new Messianic Jews from tradition.)
So these disciples were following Jesus’ commands. And after they had been arrested, were persecuted by the Jewish leaders, they went ”to the place where they were meeting” and after praying, this place was ”shaken.” And, the text says, ”all were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”
What does it mean for the place where they were meeting to be shaken? The Greek word for shaken is σαλεύω (pronounced ’saleuō.’ It means to “shake up; agitate; (pass.) to be shaken, swayed, unsettled:– shaken (8), swayed (2), agitating (1), shake (1), shaken together (1), shook (1), unsettled (1).” So the question is this — what kind of shaking happened? Was it physical? Did the building literally shake? Or was it spiritual? The climate in the room shifted, became alive with God’s presence, and was spiritually altered.
I don’t know precisely but I will settle with either. The transformation of God’s people when encountering God’s Spirit leaves them ”unsettled, agitated.” And this happened after testing and prayer and by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. The early people of God were deeply moved, radically changed by the Spirit and given such a boldness that they preached the Word of God without reserve.
I don’t know about you but I want this kind of “shaking up” from the Spirit. I want earth altering encounters where after I’ve met with God in worship, prayer and the fellowship of believers, I want to be different. Set apart, ordained for his purposes.
Will you join me in praying for revival? For obedience from his people? For earth shattering, world altering work so that the world might know Jesus and his saving power?
“O Lord God, you are good. I am so thankful for your love and power in our midst. Come now, Holy Spirit, fill me with your love. Call me forth to obedience and to a richer experience with you and your Church. Thank you for forgiving your people and saving us from the power of sin and death. For you are good and your love endures forever.” Amen