In Acts 10 we find that the door is thrown open. This is the account of the first Gentiles that are admitted to the Church. It is made clear in this passage that the way to God is wide open to all. That everyone can be made holy & pure thanks to the sacrifice of Christ Jesus.
Cornelius, a God fearing Roman Centurion receives quite an astonishing vision. He is visited by an Angel who tells him to send for Peter the Apostle and also tells him exactly where to find him. Peter meanwhile also receives a vision. Firstly he is offered, by God, an array of ‘unclean’ food and told to eat it. (Acts 10:9-16) Peter protests but is told “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy”.
While he is still trying to work out what on earth his vision was all about the men sent by Cornelius arrive asking for him. Peter is prompted by the Spirit to go with them. Note here that this is not a big vision as before. Nor is it an angelic visitation like that of Cornelius’ but a simple prompting of the Spirit.
This is often how God works in my experience. You will receive something from God that you do not understand; whether it be a passage of scripture, a word or prophecy, or even a grand vision. So often our response is to sit and ponder; seek God for the answers, pray. These are all good things to do. But notice here Peter is prompted to go off and do something seemingly completely unrelated to his vision. Of course we know that in the end what Peter was told to do was exactly what the vision had been sent to prepare him for. In the vision God had made the unclean food clean to show that he had chosen to open the way to make the unclean people, the Gentiles, clean.
The prompt for Peter to act was what brought him the answer he was looking for. We don’t always need to know all the answers or the complete picture to be part of what God is doing. In fact it seems He almost prefers it if we don’t.
DetailsRob Borley
June 30th, 2005
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