The Miracle of the Simplicity of the Gospel
By Julio Severo
Apostle Paul was a great expositor of the
Gospel. He was a theologian, but his Christianity was not just words. It was theology
and practice at the same time.
“My speech and my message were not in
plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that
your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1
Corinthians 2:4-5 ESV)
Paul did not want Christians to base their
faith on mere theological wisdom without the power of the Holy Spirit. For him,
good theology was the Gospel with action, that is, the Gospel and the power of
the Holy Spirit should always go together.
The Bible says that Paul laid his hands on
the new Christians and they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, speaking in strange
tongues and prophesying. Paul wanted Christians, already at the beginning of
their Christian lives, living in the anointing of the Holy Spirit and
proclaiming the Gospel. How we need pastors today imitating Paul and, with
anointing and authority, laying their hands on Christians so they may speak in strange
tongues and prophesy.
The Bible says that in Paul’s services
people took pieces of clothing that Paul wore and whoever touched them was
healed and set free from demons. How we need pastors today imitating Paul and,
with anointing and authority, allowing people to bring clothes to services to
be prayed for or anointed on and then taken to the sick and oppressed by
demons.
The Bible says that in Paul’s services,
people who had converted and abandoned witchcraft and other wrong practices
publicly confessed their sins to the congregation and burned their books of
witchcraft and the occult in front of everyone. How we need pastors today
imitating Paul and, with anointing and authority, giving room for converts to
give testimony in services and burning and destroying their books and objects
of witchcraft and the occult in front of everyone.
Paul was a great expositor of the Word and
the power of God.
We urgently need to return to the
simplicity of the Gospel that the Apostle Paul demonstrated so well in word and
deed.
It is a pity that today many who boast of
being great expositors of the Word limit their exposition to words only, giving
no room to the exposition of the power of the Holy Spirit with strange tongues,
prophecies, casting out demons, healing, deliverance from witchcraft, anointed
clothes for healing and deliverance, etc. They like the exposition of words,
but not of power. They do not like to imitate all the simplicity of the Gospel
that Paul preached and demonstrated.
Here is what the Bible shows about the
simplicity of Paul’s Gospel:
“And when Paul had laid his hands on them,
the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and
prophesying. And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so
that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away
to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of
them. Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their
practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their
books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value
of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of
the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.” (Acts 19:6,
11-12, 18-20 ESV)
Portuguese
version of this article: O
milagre da simplicidade do Evangelho
Source: Last Days Watchman
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