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Matthew 10:20
for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
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Luke 21:15
For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.
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Acts 4:8
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them:“ Rulers and elders of the people!
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Exodus 4:11
The Lord said to him,“ Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
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Acts 6:10
But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.
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Acts 7:2-53
To this he replied:“ Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran.‘ Leave your country and your people,’ God said,‘ and go to the land I will show you.’“ So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child.God spoke to him in this way:‘ For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated.But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said,‘ and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.“ Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with himand rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.“ Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food.When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit.On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family.After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all.Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died.Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.“ As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased.Then‘ a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.“ At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for by his family.When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.“ When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian.Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying,‘ Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’“ But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said,‘ Who made you ruler and judge over us?Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.“ After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say:‘ I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.“ Then the Lord said to him,‘ Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’“ This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words,‘ Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.“ This is the Moses who told the Israelites,‘ God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.“ But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.They told Aaron,‘ Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt— we don’t know what has happened to him!’That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made.But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:“‘ Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile’ beyond Babylon.“ Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David,who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.But it was Solomon who built a house for him.“ However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:“‘ Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be?Has not my hand made all these things?’“ You stiff- necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”
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Acts 7:55
But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
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Acts 26:1-32
Then Agrippa said to Paul,“ You have permission to speak for yourself.” So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense:“ King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews,and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently.“ The Jewish people all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem.They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee.And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today.This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me.Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?“ I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities.“ On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions.We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic,‘ Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’“ Then I asked,‘ Who are you, Lord?’“‘ I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied.‘ Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me.I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to themto open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’“ So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven.First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds.That is why some Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me.But God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen—that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.”At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defense.“ You are out of your mind, Paul!” he shouted.“ Your great learning is driving you insane.”“ I am not insane, most excellent Festus,” Paul replied.“ What I am saying is true and reasonable.The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner.King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do.”Then Agrippa said to Paul,“ Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?”Paul replied,“ Short time or long— I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.”The king rose, and with him the governor and Bernice and those sitting with them.After they left the room, they began saying to one another,“ This man is not doing anything that deserves death or imprisonment.”Agrippa said to Festus,“ This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”
