The Bible recounts a story of when Peter is praying on the roof and he falls into a trance, then the Holy Spirit shows him a bunch of unclean animals and says, “Stand up Peter, kill and eat.” (Acts 10:12) This, then, is Peters response to the Holy Spirit: “Not a chance! I have never eaten anything that the Bible says is unclean.” Peter’s stance was this: If the Holy Spirit speaks, what he says will never contradict Scripture; and so, incredibly, Peter initially rejects the Holy Spirits words. But then the Holy Spirit continues by saying, “Don’t call anything unclean that I call clean.” The Bible says certain animals are unclean, but at a later date the voice of the Spirit declares them clean. If Peter was not willing to listen to the Holy Spirit, he would never come into a greater and clearer understanding of God (namely that God was not only revealing all animals are clean, but all people are clean; at this point all the disciples still thought the gospel was only for the Jews). Peter would have remained chained to the letters written in the Bible, when God wanted to bring him into a greater revelation of freedom that were not contained in the letters written in the Bible. But Peter did listen, though we read in Acts that he was nonetheless at this time greatly confused. After Peter accepted the leading of the Spirit, he was led to visit a gentile’s house, in spite of it all seeming to contradict his interpretation the Scriptures. These series of events of being led by the Spirit brings him to witnessing the whole household gets saved, and the story ends with Peter declaring: “I now realize, I get it now, how true it is…” His understanding did not come from his Bible knowledge, but from his willingness to follow the Spirit―despite the fact it initially felt to him like following the voice of the Spirit was a contradiction to the Bible itself. Peter, and all the disciples, had to wrestle with this new reality, where the Holy Spirit was alive within them and leading them, and when it seemed to be contradicting what they had been taught about Scripture, they had to listen and follow the Spirits leading, even if it initially seemed confusing, and each time they did they were then brought into a greater clarity of not only God and his ways, but a higher and more divine way to interpret the Scriptures, too.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 12:29:06 +0000
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