From the Life-Study of Acts - Seeing God's Move & Satan's Frustration in Acts 14

    God's move and Satan's frustration always seem to go neck in neck.  When I read through the New Testament, I saw in the Gospels over and over how the Pharisees and scribes were either plotting to kill Jesus or spying on Him and stirring up the people against Him. And in the book of Acts we see the same thing happening.  In Acts 14 there are several accounts of Saul and Barnabas preaching the gospel in some Gentile cities and some Jews came purposely  to stir up trouble: 

Atlantic Ocean Sunset I took in 2011

    Acts 14:2 says, "But the Jews who were disobedient stirred up and ill-affected the mind of the Gentiles against the brothers." 
    
    And then in Acts 15:1 and 5 we see that some believers that had previously been Pharisees were trying to force the Gentile converts to be circumcised. This didn't mean much to me until I read Witness Lee's comment on page 360 in Chapter 42 of the Life-Study of Acts:

Actually when this heresy concerning circumcision arose at Jerusalem in tLife-Study of Acts. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1985, Print).
he very beginning, Peter should have exercised the gift that the Lord had given him to clear up the cloudy situation in Jerusalem concerning God's New Testament economy [see Ephesians 3:9-11], according to the revelation that the Lord had given him and the other apostles in Acts 1:8 and the vision he had received at Joppa in Acts 10 concerning the Gentiles.  If he had done this, the Judaic heresy would have been cut off at the very beginning in Jerusalem and would not have spread to the churches in the Gentile world.  But he failed to do this, so Paul had to rise up and perform the surgery to cut off the racial cancer that would have destroyed God's New Testament economy and killed the Body of Christ (Lee, Witness.

    It almost looks like as soon as God starts to move, Satan gets an idea of what's happening and starts plotting a counter attack.  I really like the revelation in this Life-Study because the importance of what Paul did here didn't really touch me until I saw through this chapter what was at stake. God needs  the Body of Christ--a Body that is comprised of both Jews and Gentiles of many races and languages--to be built up to express the reality that God  has broken down all the middle walls of partition and has made all the believers truly one.  I really appreciate that this vision is so clear in the ministry of both Watchman Nee and his faithful coworker Witness Lee.

You can listen to excerpts from the Life Study of Acts along with excellent commentary by tuning into the Life Study of the Bible with Witness Lee.

Other Blogs on the Life Study of Acts:

In the Book of Acts What is Christ Doing in Ascension?
What Does the Early Church Look Like in the Book of Acts?
According to Acts 5:31 What is the Lord Doing as the Ruler of the Earth?
How Did the Lord Spread the Gospel in Acts 8?
What Vision Did Saul Have at His Conversion in Acts 9:3-8?
How Does the Gospel Reach the Gentiles in Acts 10?
How is Acts a Book on God's Move & Prayer?
Seeing God's Move & Satan's Frustration in Acts 14
Prayer, the Spirit, & the Word - The Way the Lord Carries out His Work in the Book of Acts
Seeing God's New Testament Economy in the Book of Acts - Part 1 of 2 
Seeing God's New Testament Economy in the Book of Acts - Part 2 of 2