January 28

Acts 4:16-17 (NIV)
16 “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it.
But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”

This is a picture of the religious of every age who have quenched the fire of God. They could tell that God was moving, but they didn’t like how it was being done so they “quenched the Spirit”. Let’s put up a wall right now to that thinking and behavior, to protect ourselves against this insidious spiritual attack. The wall is called surrender and humility. If we are surrendered to Him who holds the keys to everything and humbly receive whatever He would send us, then we will be protected from that “religious attack” that quenches the fire of the Spirit. May our thirst for Him become more pressing than water.

Acts 4:30 (NIV)
30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

The disciples all realized that the signs and wonders confounded the leaders and brought great glory to God which resulted in hundreds or even a thousand more people putting their trust in Jesus as the Messiah (Savior). Reasonably, they prayed for more signs and wonders – us too!