“They stoned Paul and dragged his body outside the city and left him for dead. When the believers encircled Paul’s body, he miraculously stood up! Paul stood and immediately went back into the city. The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.”
(Acts 14:19-20 TPT)
Have you ever been hit by something hard, like a kid throwing a stone? It’s not nice.
Paul was having a day. He healed a lame man and the crowd decided they were Gods. They convinced people they are not so they got stoned… his body dragged out of the city.
At which point he stood up and walked back into the city! A bit of a reverse Jonah… “I am not done here…”
How many setbacks do we need to face to decide maybe we “heard the Holy Spirit wrong”?
Or should we keep going at it until God says stop?
I am reminded of the pastor that, when he just came to repentance, took the Bible and it said to heal the sick, so he went to the hospital and started praying for people… of which every single one died. It’s depressing to say the least.
The Greek word used for Paul standing up after being stoned and dragged out of the city is “anistemi” and is the word used over 20 times in the New Testament about people raised from the dead.
Now… whether he had a proper concussion or was really, really dead, (I can imagine Jesus next him going, “come on Paul, get up. Walk it off! Its barely a scratch!”) doesn’t actually matter. He had his direction, he had his conviction and he was going to follow through.
Gets stoned… launches three churches.
Don’t be dissuaded by worldly adversity… it’s a feeble attempt to stop us in our tracks.
Let’s stand up and walk back into the city!
