Healer: A 7-Day Devotional With Casting CrownsSampel

During his earthly ministry, Jesus told his disciples that he would be crucified and rise again. After both happened, he told them, “Go tell the world about me.”

So they did. In Acts 9, Philip is an evangelist in Samaria who is in the middle of everything Jesus promised. He’s seeing miracles. The Church is growing. Jews and Gentiles alike are coming into God’s Kingdom. Everything is happening just as Jesus promised when suddenly God tells Philip, “Go walk down this road from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place.” And it’s a while before the next thing happens. I’m a visual person, and every time I read that story I think, “How long was Philip walking, just going nowhere?”

I’ve been in moments like that, where I felt, “Hey, we’re the good guys. We’re doing the things we’re supposed to do to tell people about Jesus, and now I feel like I’m in the middle of nowhere. What in the world am I doing out here in this spiritual desert?” Did Philip have time to feel sorry for himself? We don’t have all the details.

But when we’re in the middle of a trial, we begin to search, manipulate, create, scheme, and work our way out of that situation. If we read the story of Philip on the desert road, we learn that as he is walking he spots a chariot up ahead. He never would’ve seen the chariot had he stayed in Samaria in the middle of all the action.

Stephen’s obedience led to the salvation of an important member of the Ethiopian queen’s court who then takes the gospel to the continent of Africa.

It’s difficult to grasp this picture. The whole thing seems weird. It doesn’t make a lick of sense to your modern sensibilities—unless you’re right where God wants you to be. When you’re on the road God has marked out for you, it ultimately will make sense—if not for you then at least for God’s Kingdom.