Like an Angel's Face

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

LIKE AN ANGEL'S FACE

Acts 6:15

15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

 Acts 7:1-8

7:1 Then the high priest asked him, "Are these charges true?" 2 To this he replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 3'Leave your country and your people,' God said, 'and go to the land I will show you.'   4 "So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. 5 He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. 6 God spoke to him in this way: 'Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 7 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,' God said, 'and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.'   8 Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

NIV

Because Stephen was full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and full of God's grace and power, and did wonders and miraculous signs among the people, those who felt they were in charge became so jealous that they fabricated lies to accuse Stephen of blasphemy against Moses. We will get into Stephen's response, which is full of grace and truth, but first, we wanted to consider his appearance. All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. We wonder how they knew what an angel's face looked like.  This description of Stephen gives us a clue of what someone full of faith and the Holy Spirit should look like. That is not to say that all apostles and the rest of the believers did not have the Holy Spirit; as we know, Peter was full of the Spirit when he got up and preached the best sermon ever, and thousands responded and accepted Jesus. But Stephen was special, and yet only a man, like us. However, he must have released the power of the Spirit to perform those signs and wonders and to be so full of the Spirit and wisdom. That is another clue to his appearance and to how we could appear if we were to actually release the power of the Spirit within us. If we were as full of the Spirit as Stephen was, our faces would show it, and we would be performing great signs and wonders. There is no reason we should not have the power of God in our lives, unless we are quenching the Spirit and trying to be righteous or religious and spiritual on our own efforts. We are told that Stephen was as he had been before he was selected by the people to be a deacon because he was chosen, having been full of the Spirit and wisdom. We can be full of the Spirit, full of the power of God, full of grace and wisdom, for we have the same Spirit that Stephen did. The question is whether we believe it and if we release the Spirit's power. If we allow the Spirit complete access to our whole being, there would be visible evidence to others; even our continence would reflect the glory of God, and maybe, just maybe, our face would look like the face of an angel.