This
says it all doesn’t it? Even the Apostle Paul, had the Lord not
opened Lydia’s heart, how far would he have gotten? As we say
today, not even to first base. But you see as Paul was laying out
this Gospel of the Grace of God and how that Christ died (we are
counted as in Him by God the Father, the Father of spirits and by His
doing made righteous, as Abraham was righteous) for the sins of the
world, and how He rose from the dead in power, and glory by the
Spirit of Holiness. And as Paul laid that out to her, the Lord opened
her for understanding.
Have
you ever stopped to think when Apostle Paul began his
ministry among these pagan Gentiles and the Hebrews, they had no
knowledge of any of this. The pagans, had no knowledge of the Old
Testament Scriptures or the God of Israel. They had no knowledge of a
promised Messiah and King to the nation. Oh they knew those Hebrews
were different, but they knew nothing of Judaism or nothing of the
Old Testament. And yet this Apostle can come into those pagan cities
and proclaim the crucified Jewish Messiah who rose from the dead
and they believed it by the thousands. It was to such an extent that
it literally penetrated and turned the Roman empire upside down, now
this is unbelievable. What about the heathens (as those addicted to
idolatry, such as in Religion with the many rites or systems in the rule of self),
those called wicked in the scriptures. These are none other than those who profess to
be what they are not, not merely hypocrites but are the actual heathens. Because
they by way of common core and usage abuse and profane God's name and
Christ's Body. They by habit mock Christ's Gospel and the kingdom of
heaven which is the true House of God's rule. Because Paul's Gospel
is not what is proclaimed by the masses today nor is it known in
Truth. Instead the worlds religion and its many fingers of deception
are what are being brought out and received as truth. But many will
ask what about the Jews, the Israelites and Islamist's or Muslim's
they worship God. To this I would ask, do they? I ask this question, because of what Jesus
implied to the Samaritan woman about true worshipers of God, who will
worship Him in spirit and truth, because God is Spirit. Which is to
imply that these kinds of people worship another spirit, and other god, they do not
who or what he is. But those who become His disciples will know the
true God of spirits, in His kingdom. This all takes us back to
2Corinthians 6 and the comment of Paul there stated dealing with the
disciples of Belial, the infidel, the ones
who disbelieves the inspiration of the Scriptures, and the divine
origin of true Christianity.
At
least we, when we share this Gospel with people, hopefully they have
a certain amount of knowledge but what about the understanding of these things? They at least know the
story of His birth and death with its accompanying resurrection and
ascension if nothing else, but those people had none of that. So the
Lord opens their understandings, and immediately they could embrace
it, they could believe it, and of course Lydia’s house, became the
very first congregation on the European Continent. But it took the
Lord supernaturally opening the hearts mind and the thinking
processes of this lady so that she could comprehend what Paul was
talking about. So always remember, whether it’s us, or anybody
else, we are just beating the air unless the Lord opens the heart and
the mind to receive the illumination in those we are witnessing to.
Ephesians 6:17
"And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:"
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