"Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, 'Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?' Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step ..." (Acts 11:1-4).
At a strategic time in the unfolding of Your plans, You made it clear that this Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God was for all - Jews and Gentiles, slave and free, men and women, all people of all places and positions of life. You chose to use Peter to share Your heart, but first You had to change his heart. So You caused him to encounter You in a deep spiritual experience. It wasn't his first; it was just another step in the journey of what was becoming to him a lifestyle of spiritual experiences, encountering the Spirit of the Living God.
So "step by step" Peter shared with others what You had shared with him and how You shared it, through the communion of his human spirit with Your Holy Spirit. First, he was praying. And in the communion of prayer, You drew him into a trance and then a vision. You stirred his heart to look and then opened his eyes to see. Then You opened his ears to hear, using Your vision and Your voice to challenge the way he had been thinking and open his mind to think in a new way - in a much bigger way, far outside the box of his former legalistic limitations and human hindrances of Your Kingdom (v. 11:5-10).
Then from the place of prayer, You brought him to the place of action. From his encounter with You, You caused him to encounter those who would go with him to accomplish in the natural realm what he had seen and heard in the spiritual realm (v. 11:11-18). Because he had spent time with You to hear Your voice, Your Spirit spoke through him for others to hear his voice. And "the Holy Spirit fell upon them" to change their lives by the power of God to fulfill the plans and purposes of God for their lives and the generations of lives who would be changed through them and their descendants (v. 11:15).
Lord, lead me step by step in Your Spirit. Draw me near to You in prayer. Open my ears and eyes to hear and see what You are doing in the ways that I'm to have a part. Let my lifestyle be a supernatural, spiritual lifestyle of encounters and experiences with You. Keep challenging my limited thinking and stretching spiritual muscles. Keep changing me so You can keep using me to have a place and a part through the power and leading of Your Spirit for the coming of Your Kingdom on this earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Friends, I'll be preaching the Sunday morning message at First Christian Church Ruidoso this Sunday July 10th in the mountains at Ruidoso, New Mexico. Please come jon us if you're in the area! (575-258-4250). God bless you, Tommy
