Author: missionspaul

Take someone with you

Acts 11:12
“The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house.”

We should take people with us. We go alone to the cross and we cross over to eternity alone. However, every other journey shouldn’t be alone. It doesn’t matter whether you are widowed, divorced, or have never married, you are not meant to do this life alone.
You can take someone with you. It might be a niece or nephew, a neighbour or friend, a peer or trainee, young or old, always find someone.
I am thankful for the young people that have always accompanied me on a journey in life. Of course my very own 2 special children who are priceless and great friends along this amazing path. But also young people in the churches I’ve led and now those who are missionary apprentices. I love it all.
Whatever and whoever they are you can take someone with you.
Peter took 6 men with him.
So what did they have to agree to?
They had to believe that:
1. The Spirit had spoken. People want to fall behind the Voice from heaven.
2. Peter was worth following. They went with ‘me’. They saw in Peter something valuable. With Peter they would always have an exciting life!
3. They were open for change. They would enter into this mans house with Peter. They were willing to enter into an experience they would never have had before. They were not resistant to change.

So ….
1. Carry the purpose, the cause, the vision in your heart whatever that is.
2. Believe in you. Be sure. Be strengthened. Be a person people want to be with, likeable, sociable, loving and gracious. Work on the ‘you’ so that you can say, ‘they came with me’.
3. Let the journey not just be easy but make it challenging. Make it difficult. Taking people with you is to see God transform them.

Go on …
Take someone with you.

Right then …

Acts 11:11
“Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying.”

Right then…
At that very moment…
Behold…
That’s the God we serve.
Never forget He works behind the scenes of your life with many surprising interruptions. The sheet ascends to heaven for the lesson is over and right then, immediately, as soon as that happened, the next event took place. This next event was the test for the lesson.
God is working His order in your life. It might seem unorganised or haphazard but there is a plan with many ‘right then’ moments still to happen. There could even be one today. Trust Him and put your life in the God who knows.

The push and pull of heaven

Acts 11:10
“This happened three times, and then it was pulled up to heaven again.”

The sheet comes down full of creatures. It comes from heaven, pushed out of heaven not because it has been expelled but rather it has been commissioned. There is a push of heaven that forces revelation and inspiration for the transformation of the person. My children are adults now. They no longer need me to push them on the swing. This is the joy of any parent who always shouts ‘hold on’ whilst they push the child forward. If they do not hold on the force of pushing could cause the child to wobble and even fall off the swing.
Here comes the push. ‘Hold on’ is the unspoken voice. ‘Get up kill and eat these unclean creatures’. Hold on. Trust me. This is going to cause you to wobble and be uncertain but hang on in there, I am doing a new thing.
What new thing is God pushing towards you or indeed pushing you towards?

Peter wrestles and he wobbles and the exchange lasts three times and then …

Peter sees the unclean creatures go back to where they came from, to heaven.
It was only ever going to be for awhile. Heaven loans earth the sheet, this canopy, it has come down to Peter like a tabernacle resting where he was. Peter looks into that sheet and has this amazing experience but now heaven wants it back.
There is a pull of heaven. A magnetic force pulling whoever belongs to him.
Jesus came and tabernacled amongst us. The invitation was to take a look and engage with him. He became unclean for you and me. He took on the sin of the world. The world rose and killed him. The sacrifice was paid and the resurrection proved it. But then the pull of ascension took place.
Jesus went back to heaven. He always knew he had to return.
Isaiah said that God’s word would not return to Him empty of what it had been sent for.
The pull of heaven.
God is forever drawing you to His side. Heaven wants earth. God wants you. His desire is so strong for you. You may be unclean in the eyes of the righteous but His love draws you to Him.
How is God pulling you towards Him? Is it for solitude? Is it for rest? Do you know that pull, that strong desire from heaven for you to go higher? Do you know that today is the day to come away from the earthly things, from the limited and contained, to the impossible opportunities set before you?
There is a time to go low in humility of service, to the dusty earth, this is missions. May God until Christ is pushed again from heaven continually by His Spirit push us to the needy, to those who are blind and lost, who need a Saviour, who need Jesus.
There is a time to go higher. To take out eyes off this world and to look to Him. May God continue to pull us towards Him, where we recognise that the most important thing is not only missions on the earth but the worship of Him in heaven.

This is the push and pull of heaven.

The second time

Acts 11:9
“The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’

Growing up I remember (even now,) the sentence ‘For the second time of asking …!’
I hadn’t heard it the first time. Well, I had, I just wasn’t responding the way I should have done.
Another sentence I remember is, ‘I’m not going to say it again ….(but then they continued to repeat what it was they were not going to say again)’. Such confusion!

Sometimes we don’t hear it correctly. We hear it but we don’t take it in. We hear a message, an instruction perhaps, maybe a command. But it’s strange, it is not what we thought we would hear, it’s contrary to our belief of what we think God wants. It can seem like an attack, an assault from our enemy instead of a divine call from heaven.
We hesitate, we pull back, we deny, doubt and rule it out. NO is our response. That can’t be the message. We must have heard it wrong. So we take no action. There is a pause in our life. That pause can last.
What we hold to and deny 20 years ago may not be true of us today. Things change. We change. God knows that. So the voice comes again. He knocks on the door of our heart again.

Abraham had to hear the heavenly voice a second time.
Elijah was told the second time to get up and eat.
Jeremiah received the word of the Lord a second time, so did Jonah and Haggai.
Christ appeared once and He will appear a second time.
The second time. A second chance. Another opportunity that we might understand.
Thank God for the grace of the second time. Thank God He doesn’t give up on us when we don’t get it the first time round. Thank God for His patience.
We have all benefited from the second time voice.

I am good.

Acts 11:8
“I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

Peter was so careful.
He didn’t take into his body anything that was impure or unclean.
He didn’t drink or eat the wrong things that Jews would never take in.
He had a feeling of purity and cleanliness. He felt good about himself.
Some people live such good lives. They don’t break any rules. They don’t compromise. They don’t make mistakes. They don’t abuse their bodies. They have a track record, a cv that is very impressive. They are set apart from the ‘sinners’. They can boast about what they haven’t done and what they don’t get involved with. These people are found in all religions and outside of them. Yes they can even be Christians. Popular Christians. “I want to be like him” “She is so holy”. We build our heroes but then we knock them down.
Peter was all this. He was one of the purists. But he was reflecting as he was repeating the story of what happened. In this reflection he realises that though he and everyone thought he was pure, blameless and clean. He wasn’t so. In fact he found out that what God says about purity is far greater than what he and any other says.
Don’t be fooled. Don’t be impressed. Look only to God who calls people righteous.

Get Up

Acts 11:7
“Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.'”

When you move to look into what God is showing you then you are going to position yourself to also hear Him speak to you.
And what was the message? It was to move again. Get up.
God moves and He calls us to move.
GET UP
To the paralysed, ‘Get up’.
You might be incapable but move and see that you are more than capable.

To the man with the shrivelled hand, ‘Get up’ and stretch out your hand.
You may feel your best days are over but move and you will see everything restored.

To the dead young man in his coffin, ‘Get up’.
Things may be dead but move and they will be resurrected.

To the sleeping disciples, ‘Get up’ and pray.
You may have slipped away from where you should be but move and you will be reconnected to God.

To Peter, ‘Get up’, move and kill that prejudice.

With this command comes the ability to do just that.

I have seen those in self-pity get up, those who used to have passion for Jesus get up, those who gave away their potential get up, those paralysed by a stronghold in their life get up, those in the grip of guilt and self-condemnation get up.

This seems to be the constant call of the Spirit: GET UP.
God is the God of the resurrection.

Take a look

Acts 11:6
“I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air.”

Peter looked into what God was showing him.
When something strange happens, when the extraordinary takes place, when your circumstances change, stop, pause, don’t jump to conclusions, take a look inside, question, think, discover and ask, “God what are you showing me?”

Exodus 3: 4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

King Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace and said, “Look I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” Daniel 3:25

When God sends something then be careful you do not dismiss what should be looked in to. Moses would not have heard the call of God if he hadn’t gone to look. Nebuchadnezzar would not have seen Jesus if he had not looked into the furnace. Peter would have missed a whole revelation if he hadn’t looked in to the large sheet.
So take a look today in to what God is showing you.

Joppa

Acts 11:5
“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was.”

The name Joppa has a number of definitions:
A place of refuge and acceptance.
A word meaning beautiful.

Let me suggest my own modern version of this account:-

“I was seeking after God from the position of knowing I was safe in His arms. He is my refuge. The world may shake but my acceptance is from Him. It is what He calls me that counts. My identity is in Him. As I was seeking God my eyes were open and I saw something very real, this was not a dream, this was as real as I was standing there. It is difficult to describe but it was something like a large sheet. It was a material covering, like a tent, a tabernacle, a resting place, coming from heaven. It came to rest on where I was. It came to me. A divine habitat coming to rest on me! Something from heaven touching my earth.”

And that is my prayer today. Let something from heaven touch my earth, near to where I am. So let it be. Amen!

Precisely

Acts 11:4
“Peter began and explained everything to them precisely as it had happened:”

One of the greatest dangers for those involved in missions in any capacity is that of exaggeration.
Every story told raises not only awareness but finances. Some fall into the trap of the sensational = more support.
I would rather have no stories than to have stories I could not verify.
Did it happen like this exactly? That is the question to ask.
Peter explained precisely. It is the strongest word meaning as it happened.
Books are sold, even earning prizes for being bestsellers and then are found to be exaggerated, sensationalised, lies.
Ministries parade the conferences but then later are found to have not been truthful in their presentation.
Let’s do precise.
Do you have a testimony of God working in your life?
Just say how it was not how it wasn’t.
Be precise.

Precisely

Acts 11:4
“Peter began and explained everything to them precisely as it had happened:”

One of the greatest dangers for those involved in missions in any capacity is that of exaggeration.
Every story told raises not only awareness but finances. Some fall into the trap of the sensational = more support.
I would rather have no stories than to have stories I could not verify.
Did it happen like this exactly? That is the question to ask.
Peter explained precisely. It is the strongest word meaning as it happened.
Books are sold, even earning prizes for being bestsellers and then are found to be exaggerated, sensationalised, lies.
Ministries parade the conferences but then later are found to have not been truthful in their presentation.
Let’s do precise.
Do you have a testimony of God working in your life?
Just say how it was not how it wasn’t.
Be precise.