Imagine with me a lengthy period of time with no noise because you have found a place where it is just you and God. A season where there is time to meditate on who God is, what He has said and what He has done. Imagine God filling the silence with His presence. Imagine God filling you with faith.
Isaiah 30:15 “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.” So many of us are in the last few words of that verse, we ‘have none of it.’
Our world is anything but silent. Activity has increased, our minds are flooded with ‘to do’ lists, we have plans, strategies and every experience we have we immediately go on social media and tell the whole world.
Maybe there are times not to tell. Maybe these times are times to think through what God has told us.
“… my immediate response was not to consult any human being. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.” (Galatians 1 v 16-17)
Remember that Paul is defending his own calling as an apostle. There are preachers saying he has learnt a gospel from others and yet Paul is clear. After receiving his revelation from the resurrected Jesus he didn’t go to Jerusalem to check his story out with those who had also seen the resurrected Jesus and known as the apostles. His immediate response was not that. He went into Arabia before returning to Damascus. There is a lovely comparison with Elijah in 1 Kings 19 who escaped to Mt Sinai (Horeb in Arabia) who then was sent to Damascus. The difference being that Elijah was depressed when he went to the mountain, Paul wasn’t.
The point is this. Perhaps Paul went to meet with God after his encounter and experience on the Damascus Road. The revelation he had received of Jesus being the Messiah was so undoing and mind-blowing he had to have time alone to process it. Was this a 3 year personal retreat? Or did he begin straight away evangelising amongst the Gentiles. No one knows. He certainly didn’t tell Luke, the scribe, about an Arabian missionary journey.
But what we can ponder today is what Paul didn’t do. He didn’t go and tell fellow believers of the huge privilege he has just encountered. He didn’t go to them and say, ’Look what happened to me!” They didn’t train him, disciple him and importantly interfere with the gospel he had received. This is the defence of his apostleship.
The point is this: are we too quick to run to people with the things we receive from God? Do we have a place whether Mount Sinai or another place where we can simply run to? Perhaps God wants you to hold on to what you have encountered from Him without telling people too quickly? Maybe He doesn’t want the world to know what He is telling you. Can He trust you to keep what He tells you confidential for a season? Is the reason for His encounter with you so that you will seek Him even further? I believe it is.
Missions Paul 