LOOK AT US

We are mostly accustomed or at least encountered at some point in time in our lives where well-meaning people give us advice or offer some sort of solution to our problems/predicaments when we are stuck in one of them. But it is very rare and hard to find someone coming up and declaring himself/herself as the solution to the predicaments we face in this fast paced complex life of ours.

In Acts 3:1-8 we see such a story of a lame man sitting daily at the gate of the temple which is called “Beautiful”, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple.

He was carried there daily and sitting there at the gate of the temple he would ask money from people who came to worship there. But that day he asked alms from Peter and John as they were entering the temple to pray in the afternoon.

Peter knew he carried nothing of what the man was begging for; but knew that he was the carrier of the solution to this man’s lameness which was his main problem. Fastening his eyes upon the man; Peter sternly ordered “Look at us”.

Oh what a confidence that Peter and John possessed. They had a revelation that the King of Kings was in residence on the inside of them. They knew that He that is in them is greater than he that is in the world (ref. 1 John 4:4).

What is interesting to note is that Peter never said to the man that there is a God out there who could heal him and that Peter could pray to Him for his recovery.  No, no, no, Peter displayed what Jesus taught in Luke 17:20-21 “…The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” KJV

Beloved, we carry the Kingdom of God within us; but at times we tend to have a “Short Term Memory Loss” and go around as if we are aliens to this Kingdom of the King of Kings.  The solution is not out there, instead according to scripture we are the very carriers of the solution which the world so desperately needs, but is completely oblivious of such a presence of ambassadors of the most High amongst their midst. Paul is exhorting and reminding the Corinthian church in 1 Cor 3:16 saying “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” NKJV

Beloved Peter could have tried to express the Kingdom in words, but the scripture in 1 Cor 4:20 declares “For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God's power.” NLT
Peter that day displayed and demonstrated the Kingdom through power and impacted not just this lame man who got well, but in Acts 4:4 it goes on to say that five thousand received Jesus and His Kingdom into their hearts as they believed in what Peter demonstrated and preached in their midst that day in the temple.

Yes brothers and sisters there will be opposition and adversities we might face as we preach this gospel of the kingdom of God, but let us remind ourselves that “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4 NASB

Let us therefore beloved lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also has laid hold of us (ref Phil 3:12) as we minister with the presence of the King of kings within us. Let us therefore go forth impacting our neighbourhood and community by boldly declaring “LOOK AT US” we’ve got it.

Blessings,

Thomas Mathew