09/02/2011 - Divine purposes

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“So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the LORD who does all these things.” (Acts 15. 17)

Some Pharisees who believed in the Gospel wanted to make the newly converted gentiles go through the rite of circumcision. The apostles gathered in Jerusalem and, after hearing Paul and Barnabas, they began to discuss whether this and other issues related to Judaism should remain or not among the principles set forth by Jesus and which the formerly lost people had adopted. In the next verses, they instructed the newly converted to keep just four prohibitions of the Old Testament.

Peter stated at that moment that God had appointed him long before to make the Gentiles listen to the Good News and to believe in it. He also said that the Lord – the One who knows all hearts – had given them a testimony by granting them the Holy Spirit just like He’d done before with the Jews, and that He hadn’t taken sides either towards the Jews or the gentiles when He purified their hearts.

James, full of the Holy Spirit, gave his interpretation of that by saying that it was the Lord Himself rebuilding the fallen tabernacle of David. Then he carried on saying that that restoration had the purpose of making all men seek the Lord, including the gentiles on whom the Name of the Lord had been invoked.

That teaches us that the work of the Holy Spirit being performed in our midst is the foreseen restoration of the tabernacle of David for all those men and women who have been forgotten by the Church and ignored by its missions, so that they’ll listen to the sweetest message ever and convert to Christ. The most important work we must do nowadays is undoubtedly to take that anointing to the forsaken so that they can get to know the divine plan of salvation. That’s what pleases our God the most!

It’s such a holy work that it mustn’t be done with the sole purpose of making our Church, or our denomination, grow. If that’s the only purpose we have, we’ll find ourselves fighting against God. We must be careful not to hinder the operation of the Most High, but to work hand in hand with Him so that everybody will have full knowledge of The Truth. The decision concerning where they’re to congregate will be made only by the Lord.

James went on talking about the gentiles by whom the Name of the Lord is called. We need to invoke the Name of Jesus on the lost ones not only in prayer, but also by preaching the divine Word among them. When we cause them to believe in the operations of the Lord concerning healing, deliverance and prosperity, and we invoke the Holy Name upon them, we give them the right to have their sins forgiven.

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares