The Source

“Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?”—Acts 3:12 NASB

In the mid-nineteenth century when mountain men first experienced the geysers and bubbling springs in what we know as Yellowstone Park, they were completely mystified. Some referred to them as “vents of hell.”

They didn’t know that these thermal features simply were vessels for pressurized water that had been heated to the boiling point by volcanic rocks. They didn’t know that geysers have no strength of their own but simply release power from forces deep within the earth.

They wondered why some geysers were small while others were large. They could not have understood that the pressures and forces were the same for all geysers, but each geyser gave expression to these forces in different ways.

When the people in first-century Jerusalem saw Peter and John performing miracles, they reacted much like these mountain men. They were “full of amazement” (v. 11) and mystified by the power that the disciples demonstrated. But Peter and John knew the true source of their power. And they knew that God could do anything through them.

Each of us has a choice of what kind of vessel we want to be: a tiny geyser that erupts a little or a massive geyser that allows God’s power to flow in mighty ways. Do not limit His power in your life. And don’t worry about how others might react. Let His power flow through you without limits.

Reflection Question: What kind of vessel are you for God’s power?