Day 30 – Not Education, But Experience

Hello Higher Praise, This is your Pastoral Intern Jason Hood. I’m the first guest blogger, here to encourage you during this last-half of our corporate 40 day Fast. Acts 4 is an amazing chapter, and there are many encouraging lessons that can be taken from it. What I’m about to share with you is a passage that has spoke volumes to me; I hope that you will allow it to bless your life.

Acts 4:13, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they (Peter & John) had been with Jesus.

In Acts 4 Peter and John are captured due to preaching the gospel and performing a miracle. When questioned about their ministry (v.7), “By what power and what name have you done this?” Peter speaks by the power of the Holy Ghost, with boldness the name of Jesus, giving all the credit to Christ! How could one attain such boldness, especially in life changing situation? It wasn’t his education or his flattering speech; it was attained by having been with Jesus.

Boldness and courageousness comes from the experience of being with Jesus. We will all encounter tough situations when our faith will be put to the test, or even seasons of our life when absolutely everything seems to be going wrong. It is only through the experience of being with Jesus, hearing His voice, and knowing His word that will sustain us in those moments. If we choose not to be experienced in Him, we will learn a lot of lessons the hard way. We can either learn from the school of hard knocks, or we can learn from the school of the Holy Spirit! We must be with Jesus! And when we have, I believe that the light of our life will so shine that everywhere we go, the people around us will realize, “They have been with Jesus!” I say that as a family, we experience God, by being with Jesus.