And a voice came to him, “Rise,
Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten
anything common or unclean.” And a voice spoke
to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.”
This was done three times.
(Acts10: 13-16a)
Receiving the Holy Spirit is a
great thing, but it’s only the beginning of the story. Peter had been baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit
at Pentecost, and now God was teaching him to walk in the Spirit. The Lord Jesus was asking him to do something
he would otherwise never do – go preach to the dreaded Gentiles. Jews of the
day didn’t even speak to Gentiles. What a difficult thing it must have
been for Peter to obey when he had no understanding of what the Lord was after!
One of the earmarks of a
Spirit-filled believer is God working through him or her in ways never
imagined. If we are truly Spirit-filled, we are responding to God’s call to go
where we would not have gone, love those we once felt nothing for, forgive
those who hurt us most, and give what we would have kept. That’s when the Holy
Spirit is having His way with us. God sent Peter, a Jew, to a place he would
never have gone, to minister the Gospel to people he didn’t think God even
cared about. Peter’s obedience would make a way for those lost in ignorance and
sin to enter into the Kingdom of God, because he allowed the Spirit Who filled
him to also direct him.
I encourage you to trust God more
than your feelings or experiences, like Peter did. Peter simply obeyed God. You,
too, must obey Him - even when He takes you through new and uncomfortable challenges.
He is an exceedingly good God who will perfect and prepare you to do all He
asks of you, through the Spirit Who fills you. Learn the lesson Peter learned –
if you will let God change your mind, He
will use you to change your world.
Love and peace,
Pastor Eric
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