Whispers of His Power – JUNE 19

John 13.7:  Jesus answered and said unto him,  What I do thou knowest not now;  but thou shalt know hereafter.

Matt. 5.11:  Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake.

In Acts 16 we read how Paul was forbidden by the Holy Spirit to go to preach the word in Asia (v. 6) and in Bithynia (v. 7), but had a vision of a man saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.  And immediately they set out, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them (vv. 9, I0).

The result was bad trouble; they were beaten, cast into prison, and put in the stocks.  It must have been very perplexing for them.

To the questions that come about things we know the Lord does (vv. 6 and 7) the answer of peace is found in John 13.7.  To the opposite kind of question, about things the devil does (v. 20 onwards) we have Matthew 5.11.

This distinction holds good every time. In this one chapter of Acts we have opportunities for both kinds of questions, exactly as in one short period of life we may find ourselves faced with both.

But there is always peace in these two answers.  They explain nothing, but they still the heart and lead it into quietness.

That is why at midnight Paul and Silas were able to sing praises to God;  and we know what happened after that.

oooOOOooo

These words are from ’Whispers of His Power’ a collection of writings that Amy Carmichael wrote for her ‘children’ and others associated with the Dohnavur Fellowship. and are Copyright © The Dohnavur Fellowship 1982

Unless otherwise stated, biblical quotations are from the Authorized King James Version of the Bible.

The following abbreviations are used to refer to other versions and sources:

BCP:               Book of Common Prayer, the Great Bible of Coverdale

Conybeare:       W. J. Conybeare, The Epistles of Paul (a translation)

Delitzsch:        F. Delitzsch, Notes on Job and the Psalms

Kay:                W. Kay, The Psalms (a translation)

LXX:              The Septuagint

Moffatt:           J. Moffatt, The New Testament: a new translation

Rotherham:      J. B. Rotherham, The Emphasized Bible Revised Version

RV:                 Revised Version

Way:              A. Way, The Letters of St Paul (a translation)

Westcott:         F. Westcott, Notes on the Gospel of St John

Weymouth:      R. F. Weymouth, The New Testament in Modern Speech

Young:            R. Young, A Literal Translation of the Bible

Verses of poetry without quotation marks were written by Amy Carmichael.