Faithful on Fridays Blog

As the Holy Spirit moved throughout the church in the early days (Acts 21) we find people regularly recognizing His voice and responding to it; what a great example of New Testament faith. Paul was confronted by some believers who told him, ‘through the Spirit’, not to go to Jerusalem (21:4) and when he arrived at another port, staying with Philip the evangelist and his daughters, he was urged again not to go to the Holy City. 

Let’s look at Philip a little closer, who’s called ‘one of the seven’ (vs. 8) and his daughters who regularly and accurately prophesied. Acts 6:3-5 describes the Twelve Apostles learning how to delegate; that’s an incredibly vital character trait of leaders. They undoubtedly saw how far they were being stretched studying the Word, preaching, teaching, and caring for people and realized others were needed to assume some of responsibilities to lighten their load allowing them to stay focused. 

Isn’t that true in our churches today? It’s important for our pastors to have the necessary time in their day to study and pray receiving revelation from the Spirit for their teaching and preaching; that time is crucial for our churches to grow and stay healthy. Paul later taught that the various ministries of the church would be the new way to ‘serve tables’ or care for people (1 Cor. 12). We need to understand that the pastor is not the end all of the church but only one facet of her ministry; the entire body of Christ is responsible for actively caring and loving her people.

What about these four women, the daughters of Philip? We’re only told that they prophesied or delivered God’s words of encouragement, strengthening, and comfort (1 Cor. 14:1-3), on the other hand, Paul also encountered Agabus (vs. 10-12) who operated in the church as a Prophet (Eph. 4:11-14) delivering his predictive message from God by prophetic act:

He came over, took Paul’s belt, and bound his own feet and hands with it. Then he said, “The Holy Spirit declares, ‘So shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and turned over to the Gentiles.’”Acts of the Apostles 21:11 NLT

There was deep love among the believers toward Paul and they feared for his life but Paul wouldn’t be deterred by their emotion; he knew he’d not only be imprisoned but eventually die for the sake of the gospel. 

The prophesies were fulfilled in Jerusalem and Paul was arrested, beaten, and imprisoned (vs. 30-36) but he never lost focus of sharing his testimony of what God had accomplished in his life.

New Testament faith learns to recognize and respond to the Spirit’s voice and guidance but sometimes our emotions can interfere with our ability to accurately hear. When we spend time with God, seeking His will and ways we can be confident, as Paul was, for His will to be done.