Today’s Reading: Acts 5:1-42 Meditational verse(s) for Today: (Acts 5:27-33) “And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them. ”
Food For Thought: Among other things, this chapter presents us with two indispensable tools that we as believers need if we are going to make meaningful impact with preaching the gospel.
One is boldness and the other is the manifested power of God. It is not one without the other – we need both. Boldness to proclaim the gospel without the accompanying power is a little more than an empty bravado and noise. The adversaries will mock, sabotage, and frustrate such efforts any time. On the other hand, power without boldness is like a loaded gun without a shooter or a sharp sword without a wielder – it will do no damage to the adversary. What provokes and sustains the boldness to preach the gospel in a believer, is the awareness and appreciation of the truth on which it rests and the good it is capable of bringing to men.
The apostles witnessed the cruelty with which the Lord Jesus Christ was punished and mercilessly crucified.
They saw the adversaries rejoicing that they had succeeded in killing Him at last. But to the enemies’ dismay, Jesus resurrected from the dead sealing their defeat and confirming all the claims He made that He alone is the Saviour of lost humanity. Possessed with such evidence and truth, fear and intimidation could not hold them down.
They knew these same adversaries had done their worst against the Lord Jesus and failed woefully. So, for the disciples, it was a payback time against the adversaries. As a result, they were filled with fearlessness and boldness to preach the gospel.

As believers, to acquire the needed boldness and fearlessness to preach the gospel, we must spend time meditating on the huge price the Lord Jesus had to pay for our salvation, the torture, sufferings, and death He went through, and the salvation, deliverance, and eternal hope that preaching the gospel will bring to unsaved souls all around us.
Then we need the power. The power to back up the gospel comes by the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:8). Unfortunately, this is the place where many believers struggle, for even though they are filled or baptized with the Holy Spirit, the power hardly manifests.
The big question is, where are we missing it? We must seek God’s face with fervent desperation until He helps us out of this situation because without the manifestation of the power, we can’t meaningfully advance the gospel He told us to preach in order to reach and save the souls for whom He died.

Today's Practical: Pray that God would open your eyes to see what you as a believer must do, (together with the grace to do it), in other for the power of the Holy Spirit to begin to manifest in and through your life. Pray the same for the Body of Christ worldwide.