And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” –Acts 8:29-30
If this text were written about me, it’d read a bit different. It’d say something like, “The Spirit directed Mike to go over and talk to that guy at the gas station. So Mike drug his feet and kept debating whether or not it was God talking to him or a bad burrito. By the time Mike decided to saunter over there the man was gone and the only creature left was a cat softly bunting against the gas pump.”
I don’t know how many times something like that has actually happened to me. I’ll get a pretty distinct impression that I ought to go talk to somebody, or do some thing, and I’ll debate forever whether or not its actually the Lord. I suppose I’m worried about being seen as a fool—or maybe even being a fool. I don’t want to be one of those loons who gets weird impressions and does really strange stuff and then blames my weird behavior on the Lord. But I can’t get around those words…
“So Philip ran…”
I want that kind of obedience. I want that kind of excitement and expectancy. Philip ran because he figured this was why God pulled him away from a revival in Samaria to go out to a desert. He knew that God was up to something. And so he didn’t drag his feet, he ran.
Running was quite the undignified act in Philip’s culture, and that is telling (convicting?) as well. I sit and deliberate on whether or not I’ve actually heard God’s voice while the opportunity passes me by. Why do I do that? Cause I don’t want to be made a fool. I don’t want to be undignified. Sure, there is some good theology behind it as well. I don’t want to be a false prophet who claims that God has spoke to me when really it was just my own silly thoughts. But if I’m being honest my bigger fear is probably in looking like a false prophet than actually being afraid of actually being a false prophet.
Philip was a man who was filled with the Spirit. He loved the Lord. And he was a guy who loved people as they are. It didn’t matter if they were widows in the Jerusalem church, Samaritans, or an Ethiopian eunuch. It seems that the Spirit worked in him to make him a man who loved people at first sight. So it’s not surprising that his obedience is as swift as it is. And that’s my answer too. Little steps of Spirit-filled obedience. It’s the type of obedience that Jesus had. And it’s the obedience He has purchased for us.
—
Photo source: here
