Filled With Joy and the Spirit

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

FILLED WITH JOY AND THE SPIRIT

Acts 13:49-52

49 The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. 50 But the Jews incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. 51 So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

NIV

It really doesn’t matter what the response of people is when you are filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. However, the word of the Lord still spread through the whole region, which must have meant that those who accepted the word of the Lord shared it with others. Certainly, Paul and Barnabas were very active in speaking the word of the Lord, and the truth of the gospel message, however, new believers must have shared their experiences because of their newfound life. How can people not be excited to find out they have been saved from the penalty of sin, and death, and been given eternal life? There are always going to be skeptics and haters of the truth as was the case in this region. Jews were not happy about God offering anything to Gentiles, for God is theirs and they are God’s, at least, that seems to be their view. But they were not happy just being against what Paul and Barnabas were teaching, they had to stir up others to be against them as well. Being forced to leave the area was just another day in the life and legend of Paul and Barnabas as they were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. Sure, they shook the dust off their feet, in protest, and that must have been done in public with some shock and awe effects. Sort of, well you protest against us, and we protest against you by showing you we are done with you, and we shake your regions dust off our feet. We will not win every time we share the gospel message, but the point is we should be sharing this message. How can we stay silent if we are filled with joy and the Holy Spirit? That almost sounds like an oxymoron, filled with joy and the Holy Spirit and staying silent. Paul and Barnabas were not ashamed of the message, or of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. They spoke boldly and some accepted, some rejected, however it did not affect Paul and Barnabas from spreading the good news. They were overjoyed because of those who accepted the word of the Lord. This should be our story as well. The fact that we may not see many new believers come to faith in Jesus, although we might if we were to share the good news with others, we still have all the other believers. Because of them, we can be filled with joy because we all are filled with the Holy Spirit. We can be like Paul when he wrote to the Philippians and told them that he thanks God for them. Can we say that we thank God for all the other believers in our life’s circle? Well, we supposed we should thank God for all believers all over the world, but as Paul said, it was whenever he remembers them, which implies he once knew them, as we know because he started that church in Philippi. So then as we are in a local  church with other believers that we are acquainted with whenever we remember them, which should be fairly often, we should be thanking God for them, for we are filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.