Monday Morning Encouragement - September 12, 2005

Good morning! Today I want to share with you the following account from the book of Acts:

Acts 5:15-16 (NLT)
As a result of the apostles' work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter's shadow might fall across some of them as he went by. [16] Crowds came in from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil spirits, and they were all healed.

As we discuss this passage this morning I want for you to get a clear mental picture of a boat moving through the water. When a boat moves through the water it leaves a wake in its path. This wake spreads out from behind the moving vessel and affects other vessels on the water. The wake can be gentle if the boat is moving slowly and is not displacing a great amount of water. On the other hand, a fast moving vessel displacing a large amount of water can be very disruptive to the other vessels.

As we move through life, we also leave a wake in our path. Our wake can be life giving or can be destructive. For example a kind word can make somebody’s day, but a harsh word can destroy their spirit. In this account we see that Peter’s wake was a life giving wake.

Notice that the hope was for Peter’s shadow to fall on the sick. Peter was not praying over the sick, he was not even laying his hands on them. He was simply walking past and yet those in his wake were experiencing the healing touch of God. How did that happen? Let me take you to an earlier set of scriptures in Acts:

Acts 4:8-13 (NLT)
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Leaders and elders of our nation, [9] are we being questioned because we've done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? [10] Let me clearly state to you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed in the name and power of Jesus Christ from Nazareth, the man you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead. [11] For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says,

'The stone that you builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.'

[12] There is salvation in no one else! There is no other name in all of heaven for people to call on to save them."
[13] The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men who had had no special training. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.

There are two things that we need to see. First of all Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:8 tells us that when the Holy Spirit comes upon us we receive “power” to be the witnesses of Christ. So Peter was operating not under his own strength and power, but under the power of God. Remember the Peter we see being so bold here is the same Peter who had only a short time earlier denied Christ three times.

Secondarily, Peter was so fully surrendered to Christ that His influence was evident in all that Peter did. Look at the final two sentences of verse 13. The members of the council saw that Peter was an ordinary man…but they recognized he had been with Jesus. People were being healed not because of anything Peter was doing, but because of God’s presence in his life. Peter was so surrendered to Christ, that to be in Peter’s presence was to experience the presence of God.

Did you notice? Peter is not actively involved, so his ego is not getting the best of him. People are being healed by the passing of his shadow and not the touch of his hand. What is so exciting about this is that all of the glory belonged to God. Peter quite frankly was out of the loop.

How surrendered to God are you today? Do those in your wake experience His touch? As you move through life is the focus about you and what you are doing or is the focus what God is doing through you? Today I encourage you to look behind your boat are you leaving a life giving wake or a wake of destruction?

Until next Monday, may God’s richest blessings be yours.

Carl