A friend called me the other day to ask for prayer. He felt he was coming under severe demonic attack — one arrow after another was flying at him. Not only that, his children were experiencing demonic visitations at night while he was away speaking at a conference at which a large number of young people came to Christ.

There’s an intriguing paragraph tucked in at the end of Acts 2. It gives a brief description of the first church in Jerusalem. I wish it were longer, but I suspect God kept it short because he didn’t want everyone to try to make an exact replica out of it. But the principles listed there are important.

It starts with this statement: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

Occasionally the Bible presents us with a puzzle. Matthew tells us the disciples couldn’t cast a demon out because of their “little faith” (Matt. 17:20). Then he adds something which appears to be a contradiction: “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed… nothing will be impossible for you.” But Jesus himself told us that the mustard seed was the smallest of all seeds on the earth. So first he says their problem was their small faith. Then he says you only need small faith to do the impossible.

The Gospels tell the story of a desperate dad who brought his demonized son to Jesus for deliverance. While Jesus was up on the mountain, the man came looking for him. Failing to find him, he prevailed upon the remaining disciples for help. Their efforts came to nothing, and as Jesus came down the mountain, the man met him with his desperate plea.

For the past year governments around the world have been trying to control a public health emergency by curtailing liberties most of us would never have thought we would have to give up.

In an authoritarian state like China, the government simply imposes what measures it wants and people have to submit. In democratic nations, it’s a little harder than that. You have to persuade people to go along.