“By what power or what name did you do this?”

Peter and John went on their way in chapter 4 of Acts to begin the Proclamation stage of "Operation Gospel Expansion."  The religious leaders of the day felt very threatened by their teachings, techniques, and especially the following they were starting to amass in and around the area.  So they did what any good leader would do...they seized them and put them in jail.  Probably thinking this would scare them into stopping....??

The irony is that they were being brought to the religious leaders for actually performing an act of kindness!?  So, there have probably been times we have done things that go against popular opinion, and our character or motives have been questioned, but we knew deep in our hearts it was the right thing to do.  What do we do in these situations...become defensive?.....gather people to be on "our side"?....what should we do?

Well, what did Peter do?  He was filled with the Holy Spirit.  (v. 8)  Am I tuned up?  Living a spirit-filled life?  My personal test for this is to take stock of how comfortable I am.  If I am coasting, just muddling through my daily existence, I am probably living an "ernie-filled" life.  If I am being challenged, tested, forced to step outside of what I know I can do....chances are pretty good I am needing some supernatural spirit-like help.  Hence needing to be filled with the Spirit. 

So what is the result when we choose this path??  Look at verses 13-14.  "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.  But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say." 

So may we go about our daily grind attempting things way beyond what we can do ourselves so as to render our critics speechless....

..................by what power or what name did you do what you did today??