A Nugget from New Life Network
Scripture for the Day (August 22, 2017)
Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you. (Philippians 4:9)
We have shared with you many times about the importance of hearing God’s voice. Jesus said my sheep hear my voice. That sheep is you, if you have accepted Him as your savior. He wants to talk to you and give you wisdom and direction but we must have ears to hear. Are you ears on?
In Act 8:26-40 we see a great example of the importance of hearing God. The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip and told him to arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. By the way, this is in the desert. Notice that the angel did not tell him why he was to go or what he was to do when he got there.
One of the things that we have mentioned several times in our devotionals is that two-thirds of God’s name is “GO”. If you want to hear from God then there will be many times that He will not give you all the details. He is really bad about that. It may be that He just wants to see if you will go first. If you don’t go then He is not going to waste His time giving you all the details.
Philip arose and went, not knowing what this was all about. When he arrived at this place he saw a man in a chariot and heard him reading scriptures from Isaiah. This man was an Ethiopian eunuch (a black man) that was in charge of all the Ethiopian Queen’s treasures. The Spirit told Philip to go near the chariot so he could talk to this very important man from Ethiopia.
As Philip heard the eunuch reading Isaiah he asked him if he understood what he was reading. The eunuch responded that he needed some help so Philip began to explain the scriptures to him and sharing that Isaiah was prophesying about Jesus. As they discussed the scriptures the eunuch gave his life to Jesus and they stopped the chariot near some water and the eunuch was baptized. As Philip and the eunuch came out of the water the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away and translated him to another city and the eunuch saw him no more.
Talk about the importance of hearing God’s voice!!! I want you to see that it would have been very easy to miss this appointment. Put yourself in the place of Philip. He could have argued with God about going out into the middle of the desert with no details of why he was going. He could have argued about having to talk to a black eunuch. He could have argued about how in the world he was going to get back home after ending up in the middle of the desert. There is just all kinds of excuses Philip could have used to justify not going. Sound familiar???
We don’t have a clear biblical account of what happened to this eunuch but tradition has it that this man went back and introduced the Gospel to Africa. I believe that is probably what happened because when he left that baptismal service he went his way rejoicing. He was on fire when he came out of that water and when you have had that kind of radical conversion, and have just watched your fellow traveler disappear before your very eyes, there is no way you are going to stay quite.
Good job Philip!!!
