The Book of Acts: scripture written about the birth of Christianity; a handful of apostles sent forth into the wilderness of the world. Their survival pack: the Holy Spirit; their map: faith.
Jesus resurrected after His death on the cross and returned to the Spirit. His physical body was no longer with His disciples. Upon the spiritual manifestation of Jesus, those disciples graduated into apostles. They graduated from students to emissaries. The apostles were the first, after Jesus, to preach the gospel. It was an immense responsibility and it took place on a road that had not yet been walked. But the road had been paved; Jesus' life blazed a trail through the wilderness that led directly to the fortress of God.
It became the apostles' opportunity to be available to God, to allow God to insert them as instruments whose work would cause the philosophy of God to course through the veins of society and pump directly into the hearts and minds of every individual they encountered. The philosophy of God, found within scripture, is God's ultimate purpose for us: to restructure humanity and the earth in accordance with His righteous will. It began with Jesus' delegation to the apostles. And importantly, continued with the apostles’ faithful willingness to accept.
The first apostles were special and necessary, and so are the apostles of every generation. Each person is a potential apostle of God, and no matter how they choose to preach God's will, through oration or action, they are a harbinger of the Kingdom of God. Today we hone in on a snippet of the apostle Philip's life to understand what it looks like to become an available instrument of God.
This excerpt of Scripture, Acts 8:26-40, exemplifies the manner in which we are called by God; the reason for which we are called by God; and the result of answering God's call.
THE MANNER IN WHICH WE ARE CALLED
Expect God to call you from a dormant state into an unexpected place.
Philip "arise."
Do not expect to be ready; God's call on your life at present will be the catalyst to your future. It might frustrate you, confound you, or scare you, but God chooses you in your rawest state. Because when he looks at you, He sees your potential instead of your presentation. Always.
We see the reverse: A humble person views their presentation as insufficient, and they are wrong. An arrogant person views their presentation as sufficient, and they're wrong too.
God chooses you in a raw and dormant state because He has plans to mine the potential out of you. He's an expert at it. He puts you into a position you are not ready for, but sustains and supplements you with His strength and His wisdom until you build the figurative muscle you need, the wear and skillfully utilize the toolkit that is faith.
If you think this doesn't apply to you, think again. God has apostles (and potential apostles) in all sectors across the globe: businesspersons, preachers, teachers, artists, engineers, parents, siblings, children, friends, co-workers, acquaintances. No matter who you are, you are in a position of potential apostleship. As soon as you render yourself available to Him: ready or not, here He comes. With a plan and a purpose for your life (and a rigorous but compassionate spiritual exercise program to prepare you).
The angel of the Lord visited Philip and charged him to arise and go... to a desert. God purposefully drew Philip into a desolate place. And perhaps most amazing of all, Philip listened. Philip allowed God to call him into a specific, but not a spectacular place. Will you consider it demeaning to be sent into such a place? Because Jesus was honored to walk into those places, to doctor the spiritually sick. We are led into the desert with the expectation that we will become thirsty… we are called to purposes that will present needs. The point is to enter the desert with the faith that when thirst develops, we drink from the living water, the well of God. We enter God’s purpose for us and faithfully consult with Him as our needs develop.
Do you need a platform and light-system to pronounce your work? Because Jesus was good with the sun on His back and rugged mountain under His feet. What if God’s plan for you is not to become a celebrity, or a celebrated anything, but a servant, like Jesus. Not a slave to any person, but a servant of God, assisting Him to help others. Will you allow God to draw you into that place? A place that provides the opportunity for you to shine on others, rather than to be shined upon. To be the light, as, through faith, God’s light shines through you.
You must be able to appreciate that God will frequently send you to a place or person that doesn't sparkle and shine... precisely because it does not sparkle or shine. He will nudge you to go, and then subtly press you to do something once you get there, and not a moment before.
What a faithless luxury it would be for God to present all of the details upfront: all the details of His entire plan printed, laminated and bound. No, if you choose to receive delegation from God, you will quickly find that His is a plan that can only be carried out by faith. In steps of faith. The Lord told Philip to arise and go, so Philip arose and went. Phillip listened to God without question or hesitation. He listened to God with confidence not in himself, not in the prospect of where he was to go, but with full confidence in God.
THE REASON FOR WHICH WE ARE CALLED
Your determination must not be dependent on particulars, God reveals in hints and tidbits His master plan.
Philip entered the desert. He had no specific instructions upon entry. He looked around. You will never be able to determine what God wants you to do until you train yourself to determine what God wants you to see. God calls you to widen your perspective in effort to render you a more effective and efficient apostle.
An instrument fixes something that is broken. A support upholds something that is weak. An educator ministers to something uneducated.
Learn to observe the areas in which your instrumentation, support or education can mend, strengthen or educate. Phillip was trained by Jesus, and so are we. From Jesus, Philip learned to enter an area, observe its need for the particular skill he could provide, and then humbly implement it.
God calls you to recalculate the course of His chosen ones in effort to guide them into the kingdom (and thus, gently hurl them into God's love).
The divine-nudge came from God: for Philip, it was in the form of a chariot. God instructed Philip to catch up to that chariot and hop inside. Philip ran. That chariot was about to be overtaken by the command of the Holy Spirit. And wherever it was headed, it would set out on a new course after He was done. Will you run in spirited response toward God's objective for you?
Inside that chariot was a man reading what might as well have been riddles, because he did not understand the book of scripture in his hands. The man was clearly frustrated, a great representation of the frustration of life without God. He asked Philip: How can I understand this unless someone guides me? A prudent question for sure! How can we expect the world to heal itself, educate itself, support itself unless it has help? Your apostleship, in whatever form is particular to you, is necessary.
That man in a chariot today is a child in class with dyslexia. It's an intern without the resources to develop. It's a person with a disability without the ability to thrive. A direction-less child in need of a parental figure. There are so many personal iterations of this "man in a chariot" that exist today and could benefit from having your expertise implemented into their life.
Perhaps you think you have no expertise. Incorrect. God distributed gifts to every person, 1 Corinthians 12. We are one body that operates via many parts. Whether you recognize your gifts or not, through your servitude to God, through your kind and intentional interactions with people in your day-to-day, they will reveal themselves in ways that assist other people.
That man's weakness was Philip's specialty and he offered his service charitably. Philip interpreted the scripture for the man, specifically the words of the prophet Isaiah who prophesied of Jesus' experience on the cross. Philip began to "preach Jesus," in other words, he spoke of righteousness manifested. He explained how Jesus outlined the path of peace and cobbled together the road of righteousness.
Philip acted as an instrument which offered new life to a man. And the man enthusiastically took it; he baptized himself at the first opportunity because the kingdom that was preached to him was one he definitely wanted to be a citizen of.
God calls you to perpetuate the kingdom. That man in the chariot happened to be a man of "great authority." Which means that what he believed, what he said and what he did influenced and impacted a lot of people. Used properly, his platform could benefit a lot of people. It could serve the kingdom of God. Suddenly God's strategy is as stark as it was obscure at the start. If he became a Christian, his platform would host the Lord and his audience would receive the word of the Lord. The benefit of a relationship with God.
You see, this was not a random man. He was a root system whose tree would benefit from what he chose to take in. Because of Phillip, he chose the word of the Lord. Philip's faith in God and assiduous ministry transformed that man and potentially, the lives of many others. By waking up when God called him to and going where God told him to, Phillip brought the lamp of Christianity into a man, a place that was formerly dark.
Wherever God sends you, to whomever He sends you, it is to perpetuate the kingdom. God is an eternal light. Once He lights your spirit, you carry that torch into the world to light others' spirits. This is a light we keep on sharing until every dark place has seen the light of heaven; the righteousness; truth; justice; and mercy that has been established as law by God across the creation.
THE RESULT OF ANSWERING GOD'S CALL
When we produce good and faithful work, God will expect us to continue to yield.
The more productive we are, the more frequently we will be trusted with new responsibility. Do not worry, God continues to build the spiritual muscle we will need to carry them. Our kingdom-work is purposeful and valued not just by God but by the people who never saw us coming, but will never forget we came. By the people whose faces we lit up in the dark. Do not expect God to waste that potential once it has sparked.
As soon as Philip finished his objective with the man in the chariot, God vanished him from there and placed him elsewhere to do equally important work. Expect God to keep swiftly moving us to places where we are needed (into locations, into situations, into friendships, into partnerships, into new opportunities and fresh ideas).
Quietly but definitely, God moved Philip into Azotus. Azotus was a place but means "a stronghold." Along our journey of apostleship, we will find that God wasn't just using us to lead others, He was leading us all along. Into Azotus. A stronghold. His fortress, His kingdom. We commit ourselves to apostleship and quietly but definitely, God moves us into His stronghold.Passing through Azotus, Philip "preached in all the cities" as he moved. He utilized every opportunity in order to continue to yield in faith. Spiritual-work ethic like that is the reason why a mere handful of apostles was able to spread a small, infant movement into a global phenomenon surviving thousands of years. The potential of our apostleship is no less powerful, as it too, is powered by God.