Do not be alarmed
Acts 20:10”But Paul went down and fell upon him, and after embracing him, he said, "Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him."
Imagine a boy falling down dead during a night prayer, but the preacher came down totally calm and unruffled, “fell upon him, and after embracing him”, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him." Boy, this is incredible, audacious faith! We see two things here:
• Apostle Paul’s unshakeable faith in his own anointing, he did not run hither thither, make a huge noise because this was no ordinary issue but death; nevertheless, he did the first aid himself “ he fell on him and embraced him’, praying over him, as Elijah and Elisha did ( 1 Kings 17:21 ) ( 2 Kings 4:34 ). He believed greater is He that is in Him than he that is in the world. Clap hands for God! Amen. Today we have Christians who treat God, church and Bible shabbily, therefore they have no spiritual power to claim the power of God.
• Paul had full assurance of God and in His mighty power, only such people can look at death and say, ‘Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him!’ Amen. Hebrews 10:19–23 "Let us approach with a true heart in the full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water".
• Apostle Paul had to very carefully, discreetly, astutely and shrewdly handle this situation because this was happening in the night and his enemies were waiting for a situation to blow things out of proportion. Death can trigger panic around the community. Paul knew in his heart that God would smoothly take control the situation. During an interview Mr Ratan Tata said, ‘a Founder, Leader and a Pioneer has to take crucial and critical decisions alone because he cannot depend on the noise around him.’ We run a free English school for the underprivileged children in Hyderabad, India. On a particular day when we went to open the school, a few students who had come early were standing with us too, we found the lock broken and we knew that thieves had entered the school the previous night; however, we did not want the students to know about it. So we casually entered the school and tried to behave normal, things were thrown around so we blamed it on the rains the previous day and asked the students to clear the place, while my husband and me we discussed about it behind closed doors. There was no loss because there was nothing inside the school except chalk pieces, note books and pencils.
Most important the words you utter during times of crisis is very important, ‘I’m done, I’m finished, hopeless, nothing more” are words of dead people. The Bible says in Matthew 12: 35"The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. 36 "But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.
Apostle Paul spoke the most wonderful words during a terrible time of death, fear and confusion, he said “Do not be alarmed!”
"Never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before." Rahm Emanuel
Testimony
Work towards this! Regular Bible reading, separating quiet time with the Lord and meditation of the Bible are paramount for the growth of your faith. During the initial days of my launch into ministry and after resigning my job with the multinational bank, I did not have super-duper faith then to be cool during such times, I felt jittery, ’now, what do I do for the next month expenses?’ Praying for each and every bill took major portion of my prayer time. Let me share the first experience of need during that time, we had to pay our daughter’s school fees and we needed a certain amount of money. We didn’t know how we would get it and who would send; however, we kept praying for it unceasingly. As I was praying, I heard a knock on the door and it was the post man! We got money order for the exact amount we needed! Believe me, this is no fairy tale but the truth. Amen. Miracles kept flowing day after day and thus our faith kept growing in our life. Now my daughter is a B Ed. Computer Engineer, MBA and also completed her Masters in Divinity and is an ordained pastor. Do not be alarmed! God will do great things!
