Believing In and believing On

BELIEVING IN AND BELIEVING ON

Arriving at Acts Chapter thirteen we find that from this point on, Paul’s missionary journeys become the key feature of the Book of Acts. He was commissioned to do thos buy the leaders in the church at Antioch.
Acts 13:1 The congregation in Antioch was blessed with a number of prophets and teachers, such as Barnabas, Simon, (nicknamed Niger the black one), Lucius the Cyrenian, Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch (syntrophos – a step-brother), and Saul. One day as they were all praying and fasting and waiting for guidance, the Holy Spirit spoke to them: "Take Barnabas and Saul and commission them for the work I have called them to do. 

Setting off on their appointed mission they sailed first to Cypress where Barnabas was from, and we read earlier in Acts chapter 4 that he had sold some land in Cyprus and given the proceeds to the church in Jerusalem. There, in the town of Salamis, they went to the Jewish synagogue and preached. John Mark who went with them as their assistant was the son of Mary whom we saw in the last chapter – she owned the home where all the believers were praying for Peter to be released from prison. John Mark was also the nephew of Barnabas.
Afterwards they preached from town to town across the entire island until finally they reached Paphos where they meet a Jewish counterfeit prophet named Bar-Jesus. His name in in Greek was Elymas which means a wizard or sorcerer. He had attached himself to the Roman Proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of considerable insight and understanding who invited Barnabas and Paul to visit him, because he wanted to hear their message from God. But the sorcerer Elymas interfered and urged the Proconsul to pay no attention to what Paul and Barnabas said, trying to stop him from trusting the Lord.

Vs.9 Then Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, glared angrily at the sorcerer and said, “You son of the devil, full of every sort of trickery and villainy, enemy of all that is good, will you never end your opposition to the Lord? And now God has laid his hand of judgment upon you, and you will be stricken with blindness for a season”.
Instantly mist and darkness fell upon him, and he began wandering around begging for someone to take his hand and lead him. When the Proconsul saw what happened, he believed and was astonished at the power of God’s message. It is interesting to note that Elymas who was a Jew and a sorcerer and a false prophet warranted the judgement of being stoned to death according to Jewish law. For some reason, most probably political, this man had not come under Jewish judgement - but he was dealt with directly from God for opposing God’s message to the Proconsul Sergius Paulus, so Paul sees the first fruits of the gospel to the Gentiles on this first missionary journey in the conversion of the Roman Proconsul. 

Vs.13 Paul and those with him left Paphos by ship for Sia Minor (Turkey), landing at the port town of Perga. It is here that John Mark departs from Paul and Barnabus and returns to Jerusalem, where his mother and family lived. 

After John Mark left, Barnabas and Paul went on to Antioch, a different Antioch - a city in the province of Pisidia, and on the Sabbath they attended the service in the synagogue. 
After the usual readings from the Books of Moses and from the Prophets, those in charge of the service sent them this message: “Brothers, if you have any word of instruction for us come and give it!” So Paul stood, waved a greeting to them and began. “Men of Israel,” he said, “and all others here who reverence God, let me begin my remarks with a bit of history.

When Paul is invited to speak to the Jews in their synagogue, he brings the same kind of message that Stephen brought when he was stoned to death in front of Saul. It is also similar to what Peter did when he preached the gospel. The pattern they used was to remind the Jewish people of their history and to highlight certain points which prophesied the coming of Jesus as saviour, to die for us and to rise from the dead.
He then further convicts them about Israel being the fulfillment of many other prophecies concerning their condemnation of Jesus, and their rejection of him as their Messiah. Paul also powerfully emphasises the significance of Jesus burial and resurrection, just as Stephen and Peter did in their testimony to the Jews.

The following week almost the entire city turned out to hear them preach the Word of God, both Jews and many Gentiles. But when the Jewish leaders saw the crowds, they were jealous, and cursed and argued against whatever Paul said.
Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared, 
Vs.44“It was necessary that this Good News from God should be given first to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and chosen to deny eternal life—well, we will offer it to Gentiles as a light to them, to lead them from the farthest corners of the earth to God’s salvation.’”
Vs. 48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as believed were ordained to eternal life.

No one can ordain or appoint someone to live something out of their heart unless they truly believe it - then they ordain it for themselves. The word in Greek for ordain is - tasso - "to place in order, arrange,"… e.g., whether being appointed by someone to do a task, or being appointed by God or though others to perform a ministry or to commit oneself through one's own responsibility or authority. But in this case it means to commit oneself through one's own responsibility or authority – to fulfill a life purpose.
After Paul continued to preach with emphasis about believing in the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus, many Jews chose to remain in denial, but those who truly believed the message chose to build their lives upon this and to live within the resurrected life of Jesus. 
What does it mean to believe? Everyone believes in something – its their reality.

Paul and Stephen and Peter made the resurrection paramount as a stunning event which was to change all of history and its subsequent universal reality. But if this truth is going to shape the spirituality and philosophy of our human thinking and behaviour it needs to be embraced individually in all of its beauty and power. It must not remain as a footnote of history that is recited and quoted and even supported by other historical writings as if it was enough to just believe it happened. The truth of the resurrection is that the resurrected life of Jesus is alive in me and wants to be expressed through me.

Many Christians and churchgoer’s have believed IN the resurrection, but that is not the same as believing ON. Last week this got me thinking and praying.
Why should a preposition make a difference?
Believing IN is essential, and it comes first. It means accepting something as true and not denying it. The Greek word is en. If you believe in something you can at least receive something from that truth or ideology and even make it a very important thing IN your life.
John 3:15 So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
Believing ON. The Greek word is epi, a primary preposition; properly, meaning superimposition. It means to superimpose one’s life upon someone or something as a belief system – I can believe in many things but what I believe on will shape my life. It is something we merge into with our life and it merges into us and lives out through us. It is not used in the Gospels. It only starts in the Book of Acts and continues through in the epistles – a different kind of believing.
Acts 16:31 "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved,

We are essentially spirit beings, and we must accurately and faithfully believe from our spirit which is created in the image of God in eternity. Our spirit was created as our uniquely and individually designed self. Our spirit contains our mind that can receive truth from God and our heart that receives faith to believe ON him.

We express that spirit life through our souls, and our spirit is able shape our souls. But our souls are also formed as the expression of emotional responses to what happens around us and by other belief systems and ideologies and imaginations that make an impression upon us. These soul activities can drive our decision making and shape our character. 
But our soul should not be running our life – Our spirit was created for that - to take the lead in our life and it has the responsibility to ordain itself to the truth about eternal life above any other belief system or ideology.
The soul also expresses the God given gifts and talents and unique personality that God created in our spirit, but our soul’s emotions can drive us into wrong thinking and wrong choices. The word emotion means ‘to emote’ or to move us into action and a disordered soul leads to disordered action. If the soul takes the lead it causes us to overloaded with the burdens of all the distress and suffering that we experience in life.
Our focused purposeful spirit was created to take the lead in our life and it has the responsibility to ordain itself to the truth about eternal life above any other belief system or ideology.

When our spirit takes the lead, it desires to follow a greater leader that is held in our highest regard. Our spirit wants to be one with the ideas and desires of that leader. That leader is Jesus. Our human spirit deep down longs to be understood and to be revealed to others as being real and believed in, and it longs to be that person to those whom it loves and wants to be with - to bless and strengthen their lives, and to be glad to be alive.

Let your spirit take leadership over your soul today – coming alive and teaching the soul what to believe – have the soulish belief systems or ideologies to stand aside for your heart of faith in the spirit. You can ordain yourself to expressing through your soul life that comes from your spirit. Otherwise your soul will chew you up instead of allowing your spirit to grow you up. Rather than trying to add more years to your life – add more life to your years. You will live better and longer.

David led with his spirit in bringing God’s blessing upon his soul Psalm 103.
Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all His goodness to you: He forgives all your failures, heals all your afflictions, redeems your life from destruction, and crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,