“Spirit-Filled Words"
Acts 25:1-27
You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. [Matthew 10:18-20]
These were the words of Jesus before sending out the Twelve to minister to the house of Israel. “He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of diseases.” [Matt 10:1] It was a foretaste of the Spirit working in the life of believers, which was fulfilled at Pentecost [ref. Acts 2].
Jesus warned, however, “You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.” But it was Paul [not the original Twelve] who fulfilled those words. Within the record of Scripture, it was Paul who went before “governors and kings.” We see that specifically in Acts 24-26, and it was likely that Paul even shared the Gospel with Caesar Augustus [ref. Acts 25:12, 25:21]. Paul fulfilled the word of the Lord, “You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.”
But notice, too, the Lord’s encouragement, “But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.”
Spirit-filled words are different from learned words. One is from the heart of God, the other from the heart of man. Spirit-filled words reveal God’s wisdom, learned words man’s education. Spirit-filled words come in timely insightful revelation; learned words often in untimely insensitive sound bites. Spirit-filled words and spiritual lingo are vastly different.
“King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe. Then Agrippa told Paul, ‘You almost persuade me to become a Christian.’” [Acts 26:27-28]
Paul’s words were more than spiritual lingo. They were Spirit-filled, and that is why they moved people to change.
We must remember that it is God’s words that penetrate hearts. And Spirit-filled words come with His increase and our decrease.
