Urgent Obedience

Recently, my friend reminded me of a story in Acts chapter 8. It goes like this:

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

There’s so much to unpack here, but the first thing I always notice is that Phillip runs to the chariot. The Holy Spirit said go, so he did with no hesitation. That’s exactly what obedience should look like. Urgent. Unrestrained. Immediate. Phillip could’ve said “I don’t know, let me pray about it for a while and make sure that was really you, Holy Spirit.” If he did that though, the opportunity to share with the eunuch would’ve passed him by. This is what happens to us all the time. The Holy Spirit tells us to do something, we pray for “clarity” (even though we’ve already received it), and then we let the moment pass us by. We call it prayerfulness, but it’s really disobedience. I’m not passing judgment here, because I do it too, but imagine what our lives would look like if we ran after the things the Lord called us to. 

Isaiah 55:8-9 tells us that the Lord’s way and thoughts are higher than our own, so why do we question His commands? Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “​​And God placed all things under his [Jesus'] feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way." Christ is the head,, and we are the body. Think about your own body. When your brain tells your body to move or breathe, your body doesn’t protest. It immediately obeys because it knows the brain is sovereign and in charge. We should respond the same way to Jesus, who is the Head of us. We don’t have to question Him or wonder if His commands are good. We can trust in the facts of who He is and obey accordingly. 

Phillip did exactly that because He trusted the Spirit’s authority, and it led to the eunuch being baptized and walking away from the conversation rejoicing. This is the fruit that can come from urgent obedience to the Lord. Let’s walk in that more!!