The Spirit Filled LifeSample

WHEN HE SPEAKS
By: Heath Adamson

There is no limit to what God can do as long as we aren’t concerned with who gets the credit. Philip leaves a massive revival in Samaria to go to a desert. In doing so, he steps aside to allow Peter and John to place their hands on believers to be Spirit-baptized. Sometimes the desert can be very fruitful. Philip stepped out of the limelight and allowed others to shine.

How do you handle it when God promotes someone you poured into? Success in leadership doesn't define who we are in as much as it reveals who we are. 

Sometimes God asks us to go places we never arrive at. Philip is asked to travel to the road leading to Gaza but he never reaches Gaza. He is transported to Azotus.

Sometimes being produces more than doing. Philip obeys the command to go and be near the chariot. The eunuch is returning from a pilgrimage to the Temple, a place laden with Spirit-filled 1st century Christians, and he leaves still not knowing Christ. Was he overlooked or ignored? There is evidence of exclusivity in the NT church. Regardless, the Spirit still fixed His gaze on the seeker from Ethiopia. He is converted and baptized and Eusebius tells us he will be the first Gentile believer and supposedly become the funnel for Gospel expansion in Africa.

Whatever happened to Philip…

Acts 21:7-9 "…Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied."

None other than Paul was at his house. Who would have ever thought that the Gospel explosion in Africa, providing refuge to the Apostle to the Gentiles, and reshaping the theological perspective of the Church would stem from a leader who understood that awakenings occur when we accept responsibility without demanding a title?

Philip never could have comprehended the gravity of the moment in Acts 8. We don't know what made him so mighty other than he dared to listen when the Spirit spoke and his dictionary was written by a divine hand. 

When the Spirit speaks, may our answer always be “yes.”

What is the Holy Spirit speaking to me?

ACTIVATION

Have you already determined your answer to be “yes” to whatever the Spirit asks?