Thoughts on God's Guidance from Acts 10 and 11

Where do we find the guidance of God? As the apostle Peter discovered, we find God’s guidance in the everyday with God. We all want to know what the will of God is and how we can know when it truly is the will of God. But the will of God on earth as it is in heaven is unfolding everyday in the lives of His creatures. In Acts 11:1-18 the apostle Peter finds himself explaining how he discovered the will of God for his everyday and what would become his role in the world as God used him for his glorious purposes. Let’s look and see how God guides Peter.

First, Peter was led in prayer. Peter was in the mode of communion with God while on the rooftop of Simon the tanners home in Joppa. He was there at midday awaiting a meal being prepared for him, but his time was spent in communion with God in prayer. I do not believe he was seeking God’s will for how the gospel would go to the ends of the earth and what strategy he should be implementing for the accomplishment of that task as he pursued this vision for the church promised to him by Christ (Acts 1:8). I believe he was simply there in prayer fellowshipping with his Lord and King, the lover of his soul. It was in the context of communion by prayer that the Lord led him.

Second, Peter was lead by God’s word. Peter was in prayer and in that time of prayer he fell into a trance, not sleeping as we may often experience when trying to pray, but he received a vision from God. But the vision was not absent of the word of the Lord. The Lord spoke to Peter through the vision three times telling him directly what to do. After the vision was gone he then was spoken to directly by the Spirit of God telling him exactly what to do. Then after the Spirit spoke to him men came from Cornelius’s home telling him that an angel of the Lord had appeared to him and told him exactly what to do, which was send for Peter. I do not believe that we should be seeking a vision from God for guidance, nor do I believe we should be asking the Spirit of God to speak audibly to us, nor do I believe we should seek an angel of the Lord to speak to us. I believe that this teaches us rather to seek God’s guidance through God’s word. God has given us his inspired word which is profitable to lead us in paths of righteousness and to train us for those paths of righteousness (2Timothy 3:16). I believe that God tells us exactly what his will is in his word and I believe it is sufficient to lead us in his will everyday.

Third, Peter was lead by God’s providence. “God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions.” (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q.11) Peter finds himself living out his life not in a willy nilly fashion but in the scope of God’s providence. It is no mistake that Peter has already seen God working in Jerusalem, Samaria and now in the outer parts of Judea. It is no mistake that he is in Joppa while Cornelius is a day and a half away in Ceasarea. It is not mistake that as God is speaking to Peter in the vision three Gentile, unclean, men appear at the door where he is staying. It is no mistake that it is made known to Peter that an angel of the Lord has appeared to Cornelius and sent for him. The providence of God lead Peter and it would be in the providence of God that Peter would find God’s will.

Fourth, Peter was lead by obedience. Peter did not hesitate to invite the three men in, they were unclean Gentiles. Peter did not hesitate to go on the journey the next day to Cornelius’s house, he was an unclean Gentile. Peter did not hesitate to speak to Cornelius and all gathered all that God had commanded him. Peter did not hesitate to baptize them and remain with them for several days. God made his will known to Peter in the pathway of obedience.

Fifth, Peter was lead by an internal and external call. The will of God in the end was to bring into the church Gentiles through faith in Christ and to use Peter in the process. Peter did not know all this in advance but as he was called by the Lord he followed his lead. He had an internal assurance that built along the way as he followed God’s lead. But as he followed that internal leading God gave him external confirmations that this was his call. He sent men, he plowed in the heart of Cornelius and his household and the certainty of this was they were believing and repentant unto life as Peter saw them baptized with the Holy Spirit just as he and other Jews had been. Peter’s going and preaching according to God’s will was confirmed by the reception of the gospel by these formerly unclean Gentiles and the internal calling was externally confirmed for Peter.

Therefore, Peter was able to follow God’s leading through prayer, the Word of God, God’s providence, his own obedience and both an internal and external confirmation. And just as God lead Peter he will lead his own children in his will as we hold fast to these same principles.