There was series of surprises from the time Peter saw the vision to when he walked into the house Cornelius. First, Peter received a surprising vision. When he was praying in Joppa, God revealed a vision to him. A vision is nothing new because back in the Old Testament time visions is one of the way that the Holy Spirit spoke to people. Three times in a roll, the Lord remind Peter not to be bound by his past experience, ideologies and narrow racism, and he must be prepared for the miraculous work that God will perform among the gentiles. This is the surprising part of the vision that Peter received.
Next, Peter also experienced a surprising confirmation. When he thought about the vision, verse 11 says that three people came down from Caesarea to meet Peter, and that was a wonderful confirmation! He wasn't really willing to go, but the Lord reminded him to go with them without reservation, so that was a surprising confirmation.
Not on that, he also saw a surprising result. Verse 15 tells us that as soon as he spoke, even before he could make an altar call, the Holy Spirit already came upon them. The most surprising part was that those people were not Jews, but rather gentiles whom he didn't want to be close to. By then, he already saw that the Holy Spirit had completed accepted gentiles to become part of the church of Christ. Therefore, as he said in verse 17, "who was I to think that I could oppose God?"
In our life, are we experiencing God's guidance in surprising ways? Are we willing to humble ourselves to follow Him? When God leads us in surprising ways, let's be determined to obey and follow Him!
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