Jesus proclaimed in Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
This last Sunday, our Pastor Obie continued in the church’s sermon series through the Book of Acts, stating that The word grit is defined as “courage, confidence and resolve; strength of character: the strength of mind and determination despite difficulty.” In our faith life, true spiritual grit is perseverance, endurance and passion grounded in salvation and the eternal perspective of everlasting life in the kingdom of Heaven; not what you do, but what you are, because of who you are in Jesus Christ and whose you are in Father God. That grit don’t quit!
Acts 14:1-4 Now it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude both of the Jews and of the Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the multitude of the city was divided: part sided with the Jews, and part with the apostles.
Pastor Obie gave us five traits of spiritual grit. (1) Spiritual Grit invests time instead of taking the easy way out. As in the days of the Apostle Paul, the hostile opposition of darkness and unbelief is poisoning the minds of multitudes today. Do not run, do not leave, but stay because opposition leads to opportunity. Invest time, let your light shine and address the issues, not avoiding them because light in the power of the Holy Spirit exposes even the shadows and conviction convinces. (2) Spiritual grit testifies boldly and trust the Holy Spirit to bring godly results. A witness, by definition gives eyewitness testimony of what they’ve seen, heard and experienced personally. The witness for the Jesus Christ boldly does the same for what the Savior of the world has done, what the Lord of lords is doing in their life today, and what the King of kings is going to do for them in the future, temporal and eternally as the omnipotent Holy Spirit leads.
Acts 14:8-17 And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who had never walked. This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, “Stand up straight on your feet!” And he leaped and walked. Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
The third trait of spiritual grit is that
Let’s go into this more in the next post in Pastor Obie’s message.
In Christ, Brian
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