“But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: “Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. (…)” Acts 14:14-15

Beloved, 

The book of Acts of the Apostle is a wonderful compendium of vibrant testimonies of the wondrous works the Lord has performed through the apostles with the support of the Holy Ghost. As Jesus promised before his departure to Heavens, the outpour of the Holy Spirit indeed triggered such a powerful empowerment of the disciples which ultimately resulted in an outstanding revival: many were healed of a diversity of diseases and illnesses, dead people came to life, those who lied to the Holy Spirit were stricken to death, foundations of prisons are shaken and doors opened on their own accord allowing the servants of God to escape imminent death. 

Amidst that outburst of divine power, it would have been easy for the apostles by the hands of whom God was performing those wonders to be tempted to take the credit. But glory be to God, they learnt through their Master Jesus that they were human beings and mere vessels of the Almighty. When the Lycaonians, seeing the healing of a lame man, mistook Barnabas and Paul as gods come down in human form (Acts 14:11) and even named them after their gods, look at what the apostles did: (a) they tore their clothes; (b) they rushed out into the crowd; (c) they shouted for everyone to hear them and invited them to stop what the people was doing and (d) they delivered the powerful message saying, “we too are only human, like you” and (e) they eventually gave all the glory to God.

I believe that they promptly acted that way for two reasons: on the one hand, they learnt humility from Jesus who was submitted to God the father till death on the cross; on the other hand, they learnt from what happened to King Herod in Acts 12. Acts 12:22-23 reads “They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.” 

Today, is the Almighty doing anything through your hand, remember that you are only human and let the praises and the glory go to him for God does not share his glory with anyone. Let’s remember how Herod died and be humble!