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    Godspeak Pastor Rob McCoy: ‘Handful of apostles turned the world right-side-up’

    By Michael Hernandez 

    NEWBURY PARK—“A handful of apostles turned the world right-side-up,” said Godspeak Pastor Rob McCoy during Sunday’s livestream service.  “These were not hand-picked executives but the lowest of the low.  Twelve men took on Rome.  They were ill-equipped, impoverished and had no weapons.

    “God is going to take this rag-tag group of disciples and turn them into world changers.  He is going to take a superpower—Rome, who has their boot in the neck of every one’s liberty and going to bring them to its knees.”

    Pastor McCoy stating he was preaching from Acts 1:1-11—which he called the Acts of the Holy Spirt and compared it to current COVID-19 times where:  “We are in a mess. Our dreams diminished. We’re running scared.  Possibilities have been crushed.  Dreams have been deferred.  Our hands are tied.  We’re handcuffed.

    “The apostles had walked with Jesus for three years.  But they had followed a rabbi who came through town and who would ultimately be crucified.   All their hopes and dreams in Jesus were crushed.  They were isolated by their Roman oppressors.  They had to meet in secret.  Rome was trying to crush this uprising that was contending for power—not political power— but the power for the hearts of men.”

    What the Romans and religious leaders did not know stated Pastor McCoy was that a chasm existed between God the Father and man.  “Jesus was the instrument that allowed us to reconnect with God the Father.  He spanned this chasm between the Father and us at the Cross.  We were all on death row.”

    But Jesus paying the price of our sin—“through His righteousness” allows the Father to see us through His Son and not see our sin.  While our adversary who is Satan accuses and condemn us, “We have an Advocate—an Attorney who is Jesus Christ at the right hand of God, The Father, who makes intercession for us.  Jesus is the one who gives us access to the Father.”

    How does God do this in the Book of Acts? 

    Jesus, after the Resurrection (when He arose from the tomb)—presented Himself only to those who believed—who had faith.  He gave them instruction “to wait for the Promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4).  Jesus told them:  “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

    “The disciples world, their dreams had been crushed, their hopes deferred and they were paralyzed by fear.  But He commanded them to be strong and courageous and to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.  The Greek word for “power” is “dunamis” which is where we get the word for “dynamite.”  This word refers to the “strength, power, or ability” of God.  

    “It’s not your ability but your availability.  If you are willing, God is able.  If you are in His  hand and He is your Advocate, nothing can separate you from the love of the Father—not pestilence (COVID-19), not fear, not tribulation.”

    In another portion of scripture, John 14:16-18, Jesus says:  “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him now knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

    In two other gospel accounts (both Matthew 9:38 and Luke 10:2), Jesus instructs His disciples to “pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” and this was to be done with the Holy Spirit  

    Pastor McCoy said that the account shared in Acts 1 by the physician Luke was written to Theophilus, a “wealthy nobleman, businessman, political leader and patron”—who realized he had “to contend for the culture” because he was a “steward” and had been “placed on Earth to do good.”

    During this COVID-19 crisis, “God has reduced man to a minimum so that God can pour His maximum upon us.   Now, there is only room in your heart for Jesus.  We are instruments in the hands of a Mighty God but we are only valuable if we are clean and yielded in the surgeon’s hands.  If the instrument fights back it is problematic.  If the instrument is dirty, it can’t be used.  Our job is to have our lives available for the Lord.

    “The Holy Spirit, your Helper will give you wisdom and what to say.  The Holy Spirit will intercede and give you words.  All you have do is ask.  We do have a supernatural work ahead of us.  We need to seek an awakening—a revival.  Pray.  Ask.  Seek.  Knock.   Become witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

    WATCH:


    Michael Hernandez, Co-Founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service; editor of the History Makers Report and founder of History Makers International—a community nonprofit serving youth and families in Ventura County, is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. He worked 25 years as a middle school teacher in Monrovia and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted by email at [email protected].


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