Acts 10:38 | The Biblical Definition of "Doing Good"

What does it really mean that Jesus “went about doing good” in Acts 10:38? 

In this powerful and convicting episode, we challenge the common idea that “doing good” is simply church attendance, volunteering, or outward acts of service. Instead, we explore the deeper biblical meaning of goodness as the visible expression of God’s character flowing through a surrendered life.

This message confronts people-pleasing, religious performance, hypocrisy, and the masks many wear in the church, while calling listeners into true heart transformation through the Holy Spirit. We discuss discernment, obedience, compassion, confronting darkness, and why God evaluates the posture of the heart more than public appearances or ministry success.

You’ll also hear a heartfelt prayer for cleansing, freedom, self-examination, and receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit so you can walk in genuine goodness, healing, justice, mercy, and restoration.

If you’re hungry for authenticity, deeper holiness, and a faith that reflects the true nature of God, this episode is for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey guys, it's Wednesday. We're halfway through the week, and I'm excited to chat with you today. I wanted to share something that was on my heart, and I really dove into this with the Lord and was like, um, asking the Lord to give me a better definition of what it means when God says that Jesus went about doing good. So in the church and in the body of Christ, we can say we're doing good. You know, we're helping the homeless, we are um going to Bible study, we go to church service every Sunday, we we volunteer, we help, we serve, we do all these things that are good, right? So I kind of um wrestled with the Lord a little bit because I see that in the church, and I see I see a lot of people that proclaim that they're doing good biblically. And then I get around them on a more personal level, maybe outside of church, maybe, maybe um, you know, on a trip or different things, and it's like the person that you that you thought you knew actually it's almost like they're not even the same people when you get to on a personal level sometimes with people and you get outside of um maybe the presence that's in the church, or maybe the anointing that's there, or maybe the reverence, you know, it's almost like I'm coming to see that we as believers have a problem of masking ourselves on Sunday. We put on this mask and we put on this uh this fake Jesus and we portray ourselves as good and doing good, and my spirit has just really been burdened by this because I I see it so heavily in the church that it's really sad and it makes me it's hard. Uh and I'm gonna admit it, it makes me it makes me not want to go to church. It makes me um I just get so tired of fake people, and um, I I struggle with that, I wrestle with that with the Lord, and of course, you know, I constantly ask him for grace and mercy, and I know no one's perfect, and I'm not perfect, and I understand that we're all human, but I think when it becomes a cycle and it repeats over and over, and these people begin to go around the mountain uh again and again and again, and it's like, why are they not changing? Like they're doing good and they're they're quote unquote, you know, serving and quote unquote worshiping Jesus, but their offerings are terrible because guys, God does not evaluate your your the things that you do that he does evaluate the things you do, but I'm saying like he's not really looking at all of the religious and the works and all of the things that we call good, doing good. He's looking at the posture of your heart. And so I think it would be absolutely devastating if we could see the hearts of people and for for me, um, you know, with the gift of discernment, it's actually a a very um it's a very hard gift to carry, I believe, because you begin to see and you begin to hear in the way people talk and the way people act when their guard is not up, when their mask, when their Jesus mask is not on, you begin to see the true who they are. Um, you know, I we just had a leadership retreat and it was amazing, but I I told every one of these leaders, I said, you know, I pay attention to the details of what you post on Facebook, you know, the comments that you make on on different posts on social media, like how you respond. When I'm looking at a leader, um, yeah, I'm evaluating because that's called discernment. And it's not that I'm, you know, some people say, well, oh, you're just critical. Well, you know, some of us need to be more critical, some of us need to open our eyes a little bit more in depth because we are we are calling people good that they're not good. Um, their heart is not good, and their intentions are not good. And and one of the scriptures that, you know, just absolutely brought the fear of the Lord on me. And I remember the season where I just cried out to God and I was just so um scared to death is the scripture that talks about how your heart will deceive you. And I just thought, wow, like if my own heart can deceive me, then how will I even know if I'm doing the right thing? And so that was a really um, that was a really hard truth for me to receive, but I want to go into this um highlighting scripture from Acts 1038. Okay, and this is a time that I really would love for believers and Christians and those who serve in uh the temple of God, whether it's at your church or a ministry or whatever that looks like, however, you're serving um Jesus. I want you to go deeper into this with me. Acts 10 38 says, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good. I read that and I thought, doing good. And then it says, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Now I stuck on that on the part um healing all who were oppressed of the devil, because you know, a lot of times in deliverance ministry we talk so much about casting devils out, deliverance. And what I want people to really understand is that deliverance is a is an effect of healing, and so when you when you receive healing, all of those oppressions of the devil, they are being cast out, that you are being delivered. But it originally roots that you need healing. So I try to tell people in deliverance, you know, deliverance is healing. But as I as I was, I felt like the Holy Spirit was not calling me to really focus on that part of the scripture, but he kept saying, doing good, doing good. He went about doing good, and I began to say, Holy Spirit, what are you saying about this specific part of this scripture where he says he went about doing good, and so uh let's let's let's break it down, okay? Doing good in this context, in this scripture, when he's talking about this, he's not talking about being nice, he's not talking about um that it is a nature of God that is expressed. So when he says he went about doing good, he's talking about the way that Jesus carried himself, his character, um, the way he responded, or maybe the way he didn't respond, um, how he was obedient, how he uh feared the Lord, how he it's about his character. Doing good is God's nature expressed. So if we look at ourselves and we say, oh, we're doing good because we go to church every Sunday, we're doing good because we go to Bible study, or you know, we we um we serve the widows, or we we help in the youth group, or we um feed the homeless, or we, you know, do any kind of community work. I mean, there's a lot of things that we call doing good, but I want to take you to a different perspective because doing good in the eyes of God is literally making sure that people are seeing the character of Jesus, the character of God through your life, not in just what you do. I wish we could just get away from evaluating fruit from a place of what they did or what they built, or you know, the miracles and the signs and the wonders and all the things of their ministry, because in these last days, we're gonna see miracles, signs, and wonders. We're gonna see all of those outward expressions. But let me tell you that the fruit that God is evaluating is the fruit of your heart, the fruit of your mind, the fruit of your mouth, the fruit of your feet and your hands, and what you watch and what you listen to, and what you partner with and what you don't partner with. And that is the fruit that he is evaluating. And you know, it's really hard to actually evaluate that kind of fruit on somebody's life until you have a personal relationship with them, okay? So this is what he means by doing good, it's not activity, it's literally how are you expressing the very nature of God in your life? In Mark 10, 18, it says, No one is good except God alone. So if he literally says, no one is good, you can't even be good unless you have God, unless you have the nature of God, because God is good. And he says he turns all evil for good, that means he turns all evil for God because God is good. No one is good. Mark 10, 18. No one is good except God alone. So when we quote this scripture of, oh, well, he'll turn, he'll turn it for good. Well, that's not for your good. That's for God, for his glory and his kingdom. He's turning evil to satisfy himself, to please himself, to glorify himself. It's not for you. So everybody wants to quote that. And I just feel the Holy Spirit on this. We want to proclaim, oh, well, that's okay because he'll turn the evil done against me for good. But Mark 10, 18 says, No one is good except God alone. You can't even be good because you're not God, and you'll never be God. So we strive in the body of Christ to be good, to be good enough, to be accepted, to be received. Who cares? Who cares if you're accepted and received by man? Why are we continually to try? To be honest, the reason why we serve in the church and the reason why we're so dedicated, it's really sad, but I see more people who do those things. They they say it that they're doing it in the name of God or Jesus, serving Jesus, but they're actually just trying to please man, they're really just trying to maybe get in, um, you know, be accepted by leadership. Or I mean, guys, you're already accepted by God. Man can't even accept you when you've already been accepted by God. And there's no room, there's no place, it's not, it's not available. That position in your life is not available because God already has it, or does he? Majority of the time we are pleasing man and we are worshiping man and we are serving man to be accepted by man when God says, I accept you, I have redeemed you, I am the one who saved you. What does mere man do? What can mere man do to you? Nothing. Man can't even be good to you. Because good is only God. You can't be good, your pastor can't be good. No one is good except God alone. Doing good. He went about doing good. He we are talking about the nature expressed of God. So are you doing good? Are you representing God? And God is love. So biblical goodness originates in God Himself. Jesus, when he was doing good, means he was manifesting the goodness of God in visible action. James 117 says, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. So doing good is not human image management. It's not how your pastor sees you, it's not how your husband sees you, it's not how your children see you, or your mom, or your dad, or your boss, or your manager, or whoever it is that you're seeking to be seen by. Doing good is not human image management, it is heaven's character flowing through a yielded life. Your goal is not to do good to please man. Your goal is to do good as Jesus did and represent God's nature. So in Acts 1038, it literally is saying doing good, and then it says healing all oppressed by the devil. That means good is not abstract, it confronts evil's effects. The number one devil and giant you need to conquer in your life above every other thing is the giant of pleasing man, pleasing man in their opinions, pleasing man and serving man and doing for man and trying to get acknowledged and accepted by man. No, take that giant down of worshiping man. We have an idolization of man, you can see it all over social media, you can see it in your life. Well, you can even idolize your husband, and that is an idolization of man. You can idolize your children above God, you can idolize your parents and your father, your earthly father, and your earthly mother, and their opinions of you, your brothers and your sisters, and then it goes into um your church and your job and your boss and your colleagues and your girlfriends and all the comparison and the jealousy, and and well, she's doing this, and so I gotta do this, and now I gotta step my game up because man, she's really rocking it, and I gotta do this, and you know, stop like this idolization of man. I mean, we are portraying the image of man more than we are portraying the very nature of God. So it says good is to confront evil. Guys, we need to confront evil in ourselves. If I could get people to just turn the mirror around and look at themselves and evaluate themselves, it would just cause a domino effect in the body of Christ. There's so much that we point fingers at that literally when you point your finger, you have three fingers pointing back at yourself. We need to self-evaluate. Am I portraying and doing good in expressing God's nature? He is good. So if you're doing good, then you're doing God. So doing good includes undoing what darkness has done. We're not talking about everybody else, we're not talking about confronting darkness and the homeless people, we're not talking about confronting darkness and every person that you see that's got a devil. Everybody deals with devils. We live in a fallen world. He, the kingdom of darkness, is upon the face of the earth. Yes, he has a kingdom, but he doesn't have dominion. That's for God's people. But we can't even take dominion in the kingdom of darkness because we continue to worship man. Satan, he doesn't even have to get you to worship him if he can just get you to worship man. You literally, the Bible says to not worship the creation of God. And so here we are worshiping man, and we're literally worshiping creation. Doing good includes compassion toward human need. Jesus repeatedly expressed goodness through mercy. Mark 8, to I have compassion on the crowd. He fed the hungry, he touched lepers, he restored outcasts, he welcomed children, he forgave sinners. So, yes, doing good includes seeing suffering, being moved with compassion, taking righteous action. I see so many people in the body of Christ. They see somebody that needs help, they're oppressed by demons, um, they're literally in the altar manifesting, and these people are freaked out. I mean, they're scared, they're running the opposite direction. I used to have people, um, I was in a church where um there was a door for some reason to the enemy uh where witches would come in. And so every time a witch came in, the Holy Spirit would highlight them to me. And I remember talking to one of the girls that was um uh semi-in the leadership, and she I told her, I said, Well, I'm gonna, you know, we were talking about it, and she said, you know, yeah, I think I think that that lady's a witch. And I said, Which one? Show me. And she told me, and I said, Oh, good. Well, next Sunday I'm gonna sit by her. And she said, What? And I said, Yeah, and next Sunday I'm I'm gonna sit by her if she comes back. And she said, Why would you do that? And I was I was just shocked. I was like, What why wouldn't I? That doesn't make any sense. If you see somebody who is, oh, so what if she's a witch? I don't care. That just means she's bound by a spirit of witchcraft and perversion and a demon that needs to be snatched off of her. And I'm gonna go sit by her and let the fire of the Holy Ghost within me burn that devil off of her. Guys, Jesus was moved with compassion. You don't look at somebody suffering and just go, oh gosh. No, but you wanna know why? Because the church is so scary. Of this, this, this demonic uh lie from hell that says their demons gonna jump on you or something. I don't even know. I I can't even go into that because it would take me too long. But people are the enemy has actually placed this fear on people in the body of Christ, and they're not it it actually hinders their their compassion to help people and set people free. They're no longer moved with compassion, they're moved with fear, and they run instead of literally confronting darkness, and I never understood that. And next thing I know, I'm the one getting cast out of the church because I'm literally confronting darkness, and you know, then they begin to think that, you know, I'm evil. And it's just like, wow, like you guys, you guys want to dabble with darkness instead of confront it and cast it out? That doesn't make any sense to me. And I remember the day that the Lord told me, He said, Hey, it's time to go. They've chosen to go around the mountain again. And you know, I was my spirit was so grieved because I I really had hoped that they would choose the presence of Jesus in that place, and that they would have chosen to confront darkness and and deal with the principality that was there and ruling in that congregation. Yet the Holy Spirit dismissed me and said they've chosen to go around the mountain again. Because they were no longer moved with compassion, but they were moved with fear instead. Jesus saw people's suffering and he was moved with compassion and he took righteous action. It's not easy to confront darkness, it's not easy to walk alongside a witch and watch her get delivered and be restored back to light. It's one of the most beautiful and passionate things that I have in my ministry and in my ministry with Jesus and my family and my ministry partners. You know, that's one thing that we find so amazing about God is that He wants to restore the outcasts, He wants to touch the lepers, He wants to feed the hungry and forgive the sinners. He's not moving on behalf of the righteous. Yes, he moves on behalf of their prayers and their obedience. But guys, it's those hearts that are crying out for help, that are oppressed by the enemy, that he's running to. That he's going after. He's going after the one that you think should be cast out. That's the one that he's actually walking with. Micah 6 8 says, He has told you, oh man, what is good? And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. Jesus embodied all three justice against oppression, mercy to the broken, humility before the Father. So doing good is not passive kindness, guys. It includes setting right what is wrong. And you'll never do good until you include obedience to the Father. John 8 29, Jesus said, I always do the things that are pleasing to him. John 4 34, my food is to do the will of him who sent me. So doing good is not self-defined activity, it is obedience to God's will. Something can look impressive and still not be good biblically if it is outside God's will. Let me say that again. Something can look impressive and still not be good biblically if it is outside of God's will. Jesus said in Matthew 20, 28, the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve. So goodness often looks like lowering yourself, helping others, giving strength away, serving without applause. Guys, he's not talking about serving man. The son of man came not to be served, but to serve who? God. We've got this idea in the church that we're to bow down and serve man. No, Jesus came to serve God. He was obedient to God and God's will. He manifested God doing good. He manifested the very expression of God's character. That is how you serve God by having your character in alignment with God's character. Scripture ties good works to practical sharing. Hebrews 13 16. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have. Galatians 6 10. Let us do good to everyone. Guys, I want to shift your focus. It's not doing good to man, it's doing good to God. And then the goodness that man, the fruit of goodness that man receives off of your life is the fruit. But you've got to learn that doing good is serving God by expressing his character and all of the fruits of the spirit. Galatians 5 22, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. Goodness is a fruit of the spirit. So goodness is an inward character, integrity, purity, honesty, faithfulness. If you're constantly serving man and seeking the approval and the acceptance of man, guys, you are not, you are not serving God. You're serving man. You need to have, you need to have purity in the intentions of your heart. And guys, I will tell you, sometimes you don't even know that the intentions of your heart are bad until the Holy Spirit starts convicting you and showing you. Right now, I pray that every single person at the sound of my voice will allow the Holy Spirit to show you the areas where you serve man above God, where you idolize the opinions and the voice and the acceptance and the praise of man over God. We need to check the integrity of our heart, the purity, honesty, faithfulness of our heart in who we are actually serving. Jesus' external works flowed from inward holiness. Guys, if you don't have it right on the inside, you don't have it right on the outside. I don't care what it looks like. I don't care how many souls you save. I don't care what how many sermons you preach. I don't care, it doesn't matter to me. I have so many people that are like, oh yeah, but they got fruit in their ministry. And look at how many souls they save and look at how many trips they go on, look how many homeless people they serve, look how many widows are on their list in their widow's ministry that they serve on a weekly basis. Oh, look at, look at, look at, look at, and I and I'm like, I don't care. I don't care about any of that. I don't look at any of that. I want to know, how do you act when you're not in church? How do you act when the presence and the anointing isn't there anymore for you to ride upon somebody else's glory cloud, somebody else's glory wave, somebody else's gold dust and feathers? Okay, great. You went to that service, you saw the manifestations of the miracles and the signs and the wonders. That's great. But you're riding on somebody else's obedience, somebody else's sacrifice and somebody else's prayer life and somebody else's oil. But what do you look like when you leave that place? What do you look like when it's just you? And you don't have somebody else's glory cloud to ride on. What happens when the glory lifts? What happens when the presence is removed? What do you look like then? What does your heart look like? What is your integrity, your purity, your honesty, your faithfulness look like then? Because that's what I'm looking at. Everybody can put on the Jesus mask. But I want you to take off the Jesus mask, look in the mirror, and then evaluate yourself according to Scripture. Are you doing good? Because I'll tell you, nine times out of the out of ten, the answer is no. You're not doing good. Matthew six, one, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. I'm gonna read that again. Matthew six, one, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. Guys, biblical goodness is not branding. I don't care what your ministry reels and your ministry. Um we even do, you know, trips and we have like a recap video. Like, I don't care what your recap videos look like because I'll tell you, they only highlight all the good things, they don't show you all the bad things that people went through to get to that place, to have that um that manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the presence of Jesus. They don't show you what the the crushing that the leader went through. But even in all of that, when I meet you and I shake your hand and I look in your eyes, in about five minutes, we will know what kind of fruit is in the tree of your heart. Okay, sometimes goodness is it is hidden, it's ordinary, but it's still powerful. So, what does doing good actually mean in Acts 10 38? To reveal God's nature through spirit-led action by healing the broken, freeing the oppressed, serving others, showing mercy, practicing justice, obeying the Father, giving generously, living in holiness, confronting evil, restoring what was damaged. But guys, you can't do these things if you haven't first self-evaluated your own heart. God, the the verse begins with God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power. Then he went about doing good. I want you to get the order of this verse. Holy Spirit, okay, God, first of all, God anoints you with the Holy Spirit and power. Then the fruit of that is doing good. That's expressing the character of God, and from expressing the character of God, all of those things that we just listed: healing the broken, freeing the oppressed, serving others, showing mercy, practicing justice, obeying, giving generously, living in holiness, confronting evil, restoring what was damaged. All of that is a fruit of expressing the character of God, which is called doing good. And then it says that he healed people who were oppressed of the devil. True biblical goodness is empowered by the spirit, not human effort. I'm gonna say that again. True biblical goodness is empowered by the spirit, not merely human effort. So, guys, if you have never been baptized in the Holy Spirit and power, and then there's fire, are you truly doing good? You can't, you cannot truly biblical do biblical goodness if you don't have the Holy Spirit, if you've never been baptized in the Holy Spirit. You can't. You're just doing acts, charitable acts without God, and you're calling it good. You're putting on your Jesus mask and you're not representing Jesus, you're not doing good in the biblical um definition of that, okay? I'm sorry, but you're not. You need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Acts 10 38 describes spirit-anointed goodness that carries authority, healing, and freedom. Jesus said in 1 John 2, 6, whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. So for believers, doing good is not just admiring Jesus' life, it's imitating his way, which was the character of God. Doing good, I'm gonna end with this. Doing good is the visible expression of God's character through a life yielded to the Holy Spirit, bringing mercy, truth, healing, justice, and restoration wherever God sends you. Guys, I want you to take time, self-evaluate. There are things in your heart that do not represent God that you don't even know about. They are so hidden by the enemy. He has so blinded the eyes and the ears of your heart that you don't even know it, okay? Until he begins to stir it up and he begins to expose what is in your heart to yourself. He's not even wanting to expose you to other people, he wants to expose you to yourself first, because that's the goodness of God, that's the grace and the mercy of God. So, right now, in the name of Jesus, Father, I ask that your Holy Spirit begin to stir the hearts of your people. And right now, in Jesus' name, everything hidden that is keeping your people from manifesting the very nature of God in their life, it be exposed now in the name of Jesus. Every piece of hidden um darkness that has caused your people to be blind to their own heart posture that needs to be evaluated. I cast you out in the name of Jesus. I cancel your assignment on their life. You will flee now and loose God's people in the name of Jesus. And Father, I just call for the cleansing to the bride of Christ and to the body of Christ right now in the name of Jesus. And guys, if you have never been baptized in the Holy Spirit, I want you to take a moment right here. I'm gonna pray a prayer for you to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. I want you to get quiet. I want you to get to a place where it's quiet. Um, if you're not able to do that right now, I want you to um get a quiet place later and rewind uh this recording and go back and get to a quiet place where you can receive the Holy Spirit, okay? In spirit and in truth. So either do it now or do it later, but be sure to do it if you have never been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Maybe you grow up Catholic, maybe you grew up Baptist, maybe you grew up Methodist. Um, you know, I don't know. In the Pentecostal church, you know, um we've we've we do the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Guys, it doesn't have to be all crazy, it doesn't have to be Pentecostal crazy like they like they preach, it doesn't have to be like that. Um, I know some people won't agree, but I really don't care. And I don't worship man, I worship God, and so I have seen people baptized in the Holy Spirit and they begin to sing, they begin to dance, they begin to um fall on their knees and cry. There's many different ways that the Holy Spirit will encounter himself um with you, and so it really just depends on how you were raised, what you've been through, what kind of pain and suffering you've been through. Maybe um you were had you were traumatized, you know, as a child. There's many different reasons why he does it differently with every person. So I don't want you to get this idea of like, oh well, I don't want to do the whole like yelling and screaming and and all the things being baptized in the Holy Spirit because you know that's like this image that they've put on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I've seen people just uh be filled with joy and uh laughter, and there's so many different ways that people can be baptized in the Holy Spirit. So if that's you and you want to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, I want you to just raise your hands right now wherever you're at. Raise your hands, and this is just an act of surrender to God. This is not a surrender to anything or anybody else but God Himself, and you're simply just raising your hands from a place of surrender, and you say, God, I want to be baptized in your Holy Spirit. I want to walk and I want to express the very character of God in every part of who I am, every atom that makes up my body, my voice, my eyes, my ears, my heart, my feet, my hands, everything, all that I am, Holy Spirit, consume me for your glory and your kingdom. I want to serve you, God, and not man. And so, Father, I just ask right now in the name of Jesus, Holy Spirit, that every person listening to this at the sound of my voice, that right now, Holy Spirit, you will release yourself, release yourself and fall upon your people from the top of the tips of their fingers over the top of their head, down to the soles of their feet, embodying them right now in Jesus' mighty name, that the fullness of your spirit will begin to manifest throughout their life and everything that they say, everything that they do, every thought that they have, everything in their heart hidden or exposed and unhidden. Father, I just ask right now that the all-consuming fire of God would fall upon your people and consume them, Lord, so that they can be set free, so that they can walk in the light and they can confront the darkness, that they will be a walking flame back into their churches, back into their homes, back into their schools, back into their businesses, back into their communities and their nations, that they would be ignited as a burning flame of fire, holy fire. In Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Guys, this was good. Please, if you um if you have a testimony, if you were baptized in the Holy Spirit, if you um if you chose today and said, you know what, I no longer want to express man, but I want to express the very nature of God. I want to do good. I want to do good like Jesus did good. Then feel free to comment, share, reach out to us. You can reach out to me personally. My email is cody codie at global footprints ministries.com. That's that's footprints with an S and Ministries.com