My heart always races when I find small little truths in the bible. Maybe it is just me, but it blows me away, and it is usually very personal!
Take Agabus, the prophet we find in Acts. Paul and Barnabas is in Antioch, and has been teaching the church there for a year. So one day, Agabus pitches there from Jerusalem and declares a famine is coming.
“One of them, named Agabus, stood up in one of the meetings and prophesied by the Holy Spirit that a severe famine was about to come over Israel.”
(Acts 11:28 TPT)
(Which, by the way, then occurred about a year later just as prophesied and recorded by the historian Josephus when he spoke about Queen Helena of Adiabene, an ancient kingdom in Assyria with its capital in modern-day Iraq, who converted to Judaism and went to Jerusalem to worship, found the famine and gathered money and food to help the people)
Back to the story…
The Believers in Antioch decided right there and then. We need to help (this is at least a year before there are any indication of trouble) and asks their members to start bringing in contributions as they can to help the Jerusalem Church.
“They set aside the gifts and entrusted the funds to Barnabas and Saul to take to the elders of the church of Jerusalem”
(Acts 11:30)
As soon as they heard God’s word… they started preparing. For something no-one saw or suffered under yet.
I am just so inspired to think that God spoke, the need was identified, and the believers mobilised.
God Spoke, movement happened. Shema the Hebrew word that means “Hear and Do”
But did you notice two different actions? God spoke to Agabus, and he went. God spoke to the church, and they prepared.
Different results. Different requirements. Paul and Barnabas arrived in Antioch on Faith and God’s daily provision to sustain them. But here God uses Antioch to sustain the believers in Jerusalem.
God might call on me today to empty my wallet and buy food for a family I don’t know, but he can also call on me to study for a few years so that I can build a bridge one day.
We love instant gratification of our Faith! The stories and testimonies where the Holy Spirit arrives in force! When miracles happen!
But we rarely pay attention to the quiet miracles and actions of Faith. Who even knows about the grandmother who knits woollen caps for the homeless the whole year so that they can survive winter?
Then last, and probably the most comforting thing.
God prepared an answer to prayer more than a year in advance!
Know this and remember this the next time you can’t possibly see how God can intervene in a hopeless situation? He knows and has been active looong before you and I started worrying!
Just like any Father, God has you on His mind. His love is beyond our understanding and His love endures forever!
