January Devotional: Am I on the Right Road?

I tend to be most fascinated by people in the Bible who are least famous.  I am a fan of Philip the Apostle. Philip was an imperfect man, and when you hear the term “giants of the faith,” he is not the first person you think of. I can relate to Philip.

One of the first things I liked about Philip was that he was an uncomplicated man, and responded simply and trustingly to Jesus.  Jesus says to him “Follow me,” in John 1:43, and immediately in verse 1:45 we see the action he took in response:

Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

There is no doubt that without training or a large church backing that Philip is a missionary. He is not perfect. He cannot always grasp the reach of God or His glory. Neither can I. When Jesus asks Philip to help Him feed the crowd of over 5000, “Philip answered him, ‘It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” John 6:7 

But despite doubt and misgivings, Philip does what the Lord directs him to do, and he became part of one of the greatest public miracles Jesus performed. God allowed Philip to participate even though his faith was not initially strong. Jesus used this challenging situation to build Philip up.

And that is why I love Philip. As imperfect as he was, he was willing for Jesus to use him, even when he could not see the way that was going to be accomplished.

Most scholars believe the Philip of Acts 8 is the Apostle Philip. With all Philip’s limitations, God was using him mightily to spread the Gospel in Samaria. Philip was on a roll for the Lord! Acts 8:5-8 says:

5 Philip went down to the city[a] of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. 6 And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. 7 For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was much joy in that city.

People were paying attention to him, he was casting out spirits, and his ministry was bringing joy. So God left him in that place, right? Wrong. In the midst of an exciting, fruitful ministry experience, this is what God did with Philip:

“26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Rise and go toward the south[d] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” Acts 8:26

God moves Philip out of everything that is working so well. To us, it is counterintuitive. But it is so like God.

And the next verse describes the place God is sending him. “This is a desert place.”

One might think God was sending him to another population that needed him more. But God was sending Philip to just one person.

27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
    and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
    so he opens not his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
    Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”

34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”[e] 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

We do not know why the eunuch was important to the Kingdom of God, but we know he was because God worked supernaturally through Philip to be sure the man received eternal life. Maybe God just loved that eunuch for himself. Maybe the eunuch was to take the Gospel message back to Candace and her entire household. But what is important to me in this story is that Philip left a thriving, public ministry that was bringing him much joy and many accolades to witness to just one man.

For some of us, our purpose on earth is to witness to just one person. That person may be a neighbor, a co-worker, or the hardest of all, a friend. We may dream and speculate that God may want us to do something more defined or that seems bigger, but the chances are He is sending us to just one or maybe a few individuals in our lifetime. We have to be willing to get off the path we are on and allow God to put us on the road to the south, a road away from our comfortable place of service and into a desert place.

We may be like Philip and later witness to many more people, but our hearts have to be willing first to start by obeying His direction to go speak to that one person.

Have you prayed for direction for the year? Have you asked God, “Am I on the right road? Do you want to direct my steps in some new direction?”

As always with these prayers, trust and verify. Hear from the Lord. Stay in the Word for confirmation that you are on the right road now or that God is preparing to move you in a different direction. It is very important that you stay where you are if God is not ready to move you. God had to wait until the eunuch was on that road in order for it to be time for Philip to leave Samaria so that their paths would intersect. Do not leave Samaria until you prayerfully receive direction from the Lord. But when He says, “Go,” be ready to be blessed and to bless others as He has foreordained.