"Propaganda Or Promise"

"What should we do with these men? We can't deny the signs and wonders. But to keep this propaganda from spreading any further among the people, let's threaten them severely and warn them to never speak to anyone in this name again." Acts 4:16-17( TPT)

Educated, wealthy and elite people in power can be a formula for unprincipled collaborationists and political sycophants, who would sell their mothers for power. Judas Iscariot the disciple fell into this same type of mindset selling Jesus to the Sanhedrin and became a collaborationist, betraying the Son of God. In this chapter of Acts we see the Sadducees leading the incarceration of the Apostles. They saw these miracles and the message of the gospel as a threat to their political structure. They were materialistic rationalist, in Acts 23:8 it states that they did not believe in the resurrection, angels or spirits. To them the Messiah was simply an ideal.

Today we have a similar issue operating in America. Power belongs to those who can afford it and self seeking flatters are on the rise. The Sadducees were a small but influential group who tried to induce political control of the people, they were threatened by the power of God, but what they saw performed by the Apostles could not be denied. They proceeded with trying to silence the raw and uncut truth of the gospel, this power that no one can deny.

The same spirit of the Sadducees exist today in many ways. When we preach truth many call it propaganda for it injures the institutional structure of the world we live in. The gospel does not present an idea, but facts that others don't want to be spread. For example the truth about love, race, and life. Those who felt like public prayer opposed the constitutional rights of many silenced it in our schools, they believed it to be propaganda and not a promise as when God says; "if my people who are called by my name would humble themselves and pray, seek My face, I would heal the land". (2 Chronicles &:14) They threatened and warned and called prayer rhetoric and silenced it that there would be no more public displays of prayer in our schools.

I love this story because Peter and John do not back down. The council commands them never to teach or speak using the name of Jesus again, but the apostles reply to them saying; "it's impossible for us to shut up!"

Today I encourage you not to let no one or anything threaten your confession of faith. The enemy is trying to silence you, for he knows that there is deliverance, healing and power in the name of Jesus. Instead call on Him to empower you to embrace this treasure of the grace and presence of the Holy Spirt at work in you. It's not propaganda, it's a promise that whosoever calls His name, He shall answer and that if we ask God for anything using His name we shall get it. I pray that God will empower you as His children to speak the word of God freely and courageously and that He will stretch His hand of power through you to heal, and to move in signs and wonders. No Propaganda here! It's A Promise!