A Place Of Revelation

Acts 16:25-40

Paul shouted to him, “Stop! Don’t kill yourself! We are all here!” (Acts 16:28)

ON THE SURFACE, Paul and Silas’s time in Philippi had not gone as expected. They had found no synagogue. They had cast a spirit out of a fortune-telling girl and were imprisoned when her owners stirred up a protest. Beaten with thick Roman rods and put in stocks designed to create discomfort, they sang hymns of praise until an earthquake broke their shackles and opened the prison doors. They were free—or could have been, if they had left. Instead, Paul took advantage of the critical moment to minister to the jailer who would have suffered dire consequences for letting the prisoners escape.

Kingdom citizens understand that one of their roles is to see what God is doing in the midst of a crisis and position themselves in it as a catalyst of his revelation. Most of us would have assumed that the miraculous jailbreak was a divinely orchestrated occasion to flee. But Paul saw something else: a divinely orchestrated occasion to point to God. So Paul remained in his cell, out of concern for the jailer’s life and need for salvation—both the immediate kind in saving his skin from certain execution, and the ultimate kind in putting his faith in Jesus. Paul and Silas could have left again the next morning, yet Paul insisted that the magistrates face up to the injustice they had committed in beating and imprisoning two Roman citizens—and in the process, admit that these alleged troublemakers had the integrity to see the problem through to the end.

Those who want to be catalysts for a revelation of God’s nature learn not to flee a crisis discreetly. Instead, they position themselves in the middle of it. Why? Because that’s where God is most likely to reveal himself. It’s the best place to see answers to prayer, offer solutions to problems, and meet the needs of those experiencing the weight of the crisis. His Kingdom comes when rival kingdoms are shaken. And when they are, we are very often called to be there.

{Lord, transform my instincts from avoiding trouble to seeing your face in the midst of it. Give me eyes to look for your revelation—and how I can be a part of it. Amen.