RUN!

Oh, my poor, dear, neglected blog!  It's been over 3 months, but here's something! :)  I didn't have a whole ton of time and I'm not the best writer, but I had something that was on my heart that I felt needed to be shared to anyone who was interested in listening.


Let me just start out by saying, what a wonderful God we serve!  When I sat down to read my Bible this morning, I prayed and asked God to use His word to speak into my life this day and show me something I had never seen before.  Wow, did He deliver!  Not only did He do that, but I also got an idea for a blog post in the bargain! :)


Anyway, after I prayed, I started reading my Bible and found myself in the book of Acts (amazing book!) reading about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.  Now, I've heard this story tons of times and it's one that I really enjoy, but I got to see it with new eyes today.


Acts 8:26-31


²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert. ²⁷ So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.” 
³⁰ So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
³¹ And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² The place in the Scripture which he read was this: 


“ He was led as a sheep to the slaughter;
      And as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
       So He opened not His mouth.
       ³³ In His humiliation His justice was taken away,
      And who will declare His generation?
      For His life is taken from the earth.”<sup>[Isaiah 53:7,8]

34</sup> So the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. ³⁶ Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” 
³⁷ Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” 
And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”^[c]
38 So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. ³⁹ Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.


Now, the coolest part of this story is probably the fact that Philip was caught away and 'transported' about 20 miles away after he baptized the eunuch and the eunuch went away rejoicing!  But that's not the part that stuck out at me (and convicted me) today.  No, it's much deeper than that.


Verse 29 says, "Then the Spirit said to Philip, 'Go near and overtake this chariot.' "  And what's the very next thing that is said?  "So Philip ran to him"  He didn't walk, he didn't ask God for confirmation this is what He wanted him to do, he didn't pull out his Bible to check if this was the right thing to do, he RAN.  The Spirit spoke and he ran.  No questions asked.  And Philip, the eunuch, every person who knew either one of them and every person who has read the Bible since then has been blessed.  All because of one simple act - the Spirit spoke and Philip ran.


How many times have we asked for God to reveal something to us or use us in a mighty way or start a revival?  How many times have we sought Him and asked what we were supposed to do in a situation or asked Him what He wanted us to do with our lives?  How many times?  If you're anything like me, a lot!  How many times has He whispered the answer and we delayed?  How many times has He shown us something and we decided we needed to pray more about it or asked for more confirmation?  Gideon and his fleeces come to mind - what would have happened in this situation if Philip went home to 'lay out some fleeces'  The eunuch would have been home in Ethiopia by the time Philip learned this was what he was supposed to do!  How many times have we hesitated saying something to someone because 'we weren't sure we are going to say the right thing'?  How many times?  How many times has God told us to do something and we ran after it?  Hopefully at least a few times!  And how amazing and rewarding and encouraging and blessing-filled were those times?!?!


As Dr. Jeff Myers says in his book 'Handoff' (call-out to Jeff Reid for posting this on Facebook last night - God's timing is amazing!) "When you're doing what God designed you to do, your Master can guide you in a whisper."  This is what happened to Philip.  His heart was focused on his Heavenly Father and what he could be doing to serve Him.  And an angel came and woke him up in the morning: “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza” (v.26) and Philip went.  That's all it took and nations were blessed because of it.


Now, you're probably thinking, "God has never spoken to me like that.  If He had, I would certainly have done what He asked me to do!  He just doesn't talk to people like that anymore."  And I say, "have you ever listened?"  I'm speaking to myself, too.  We get so lost in day-to-day life, all the things we have to accomplish and all the information we have to sort through on a daily basis, we don't take the time to sit down and listen.  And I mean really listen.  We have lost that art.  We all have something we need to say, some point we need to get across it to another person or even to God, that we don't sit down and listen. 


Brothers and sisters, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."  The way He operates and who He is never changes!  He didn't just speak to people in the Old and New Testaments and then stop.  We just stopped listening.  Granted, they didn't have the Bible like we do and needed some more 'speaking to,' but I submit that God speaks to people today and not as many as He would if more people were listening.


Again I ask, how often do you ask God for wisdom and guidance?  How often do you run after it once you ask?  You have the Holy Spirit living inside of you and as long as you are focused on your Master, you will be able to run and do incredible things for His kingdom!


Again, I say what a wonderful God we serve!  What are we going to do about it?  Where are you going to run??


Blessings in Christ,