Acts 18

| February 11, 2010

Acts 18

9One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city."

Wouldn’t it be great to hear God speak to you so clearly?  When we go through Acts up in the K, I like to spend a little bit of time on this verse.  I have to imagine that Paul probably thought a time or two, “Why am I bothering with all these people?”  Everywhere he went people rose up against him.  He was imprisoned, beat to within inches of his life, and all for the sake of others’ salvation.  God told Paul quite clearly to preach the Good News, even repeating it with “DO NOT BE SILENT!”

I get asked occasionally, “Why doesn’t God speak to us today like He did to people in biblical times?”  I don’t think it’s a matter of God not speaking to us; it’s a matter of us not listening to Him.  Think about how much time Paul sought God’s will for his life and how often He was in prayer.  Now think about how much time you seek God’s will and how often you are in prayer.  I know for myself that time is not even comparable.  The business of life gets in the way of seeking the Lord.  Not only that, there is so much technological noise out there that our minds are rarely silent. 

So if you’ll try, I’ll try too.  Let’s all spend quiet time each day away from everything and ask God to speak to us like He did to Paul…and be listening!!