19
Are You Ready For What Happens Next?
Jon Burgess5“I was in the town of Joppa,” he said, “and while I was praying, I went into a trance and saw a vision. Something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners from the sky. And it came right down to me...9“But the voice from heaven spoke again: ‘Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.’10This happened three times before the sheet and all it contained was pulled back up to heaven.11“Just then three men who had been sent from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were staying.12The Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not to worry that they were Gentiles. These six brothers here accompanied me, and we soon entered the home of the man who had sent for us. Acts 11:5,9-12
Prayer is preparation for what will happen next. Peter was hungry and waiting for his food. Instead of wasting time he prayed. God used that time in prayer to bring him a fresh revelation of what He was about to do through the Holy Spirit with the Gentiles. While Peter was still debating this idea out with God the three guys sent by Cornelius were knocking at his front door. It's at least a 24 hour journey from Caesarea to Joppa. God had set something in motion the day before Peter even knelt down to pray.
I wonder what would have happened had Peter never stopped to pray. He would have missed the vision and the consequent change of heart. The knock on the door would have been turned away for Jew would never go anywhere with a Gentile. He would have missed out on the birth of the Gentile church with the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit! It makes me think about what I'm missing out on when I fail to fall on my knees. When I don't take time to pray, do I see the knock on the door as an annoyance rather than an opportunity? When I don't take time to pray my heart stays stuck in old ways of looking at people. I become a Pharisee calling dirty what God has called clean when I fail to let Him scrub my heart clean through prayer.
I don't want to miss out on a single thing You have for me Lord. I take time today and every day to pause and pray and let You show me the way. Let me enter each day with an expectancy that You have set in motion something I'm about to step in to!
