Leaving A Dynamic Place To Go To The Desert

Acts 8:26 And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.

The background of this verse is that Phillip was at the city of Samaria preaching Jesus Christ and “the city with one accord gave heed to those things Phillip spake.” In other words they were having a meeting that was out of the banks. People were being saved, healed and delivered from unclean spirits. As a preacher this is a dream, that the people you are preaching to are soaking up the word and believing what you are telling them and acting on what they have heard. Of course with any good meeting there comes adversity. We have a little written about Simon the sorcerer wanting to purchase the Holy Ghost. But other than that it seems this was a great meeting in Samaria. It does not say how long Phillip was there but I would think he was in no hurry to leave. But God had other plans.

Our scripture verse today tells us that the angel of the Lord told Phillp to get up and go south to Gaza to a desert. Don’t you know Phillip wasn’t crazy about going to a desert place especially when he was in a place where there were crowds of people and they gladly accepted the word? But it is not recorded that he did anything but pick up and go. There in a desert place he met a man who was a eunuch who had not just authority but great authority with Candice the Queen of Ethiopia, who had been to Jerusalem to worship. When Phillip met him he was riding in his chariot reading Isaiah. But he did not understand what he was reading and when Phillip had finished explaining it to him he believed and wanted to be baptized. When he came up out of the water Phillip was caught away from that place and the eunuch saw him no more. Then the eunuch went on his way rejoicing. I believe he probably was the one that carried the Gospel to his home area and that is the reason God had Phillip leave the dynamic place to go to the desert place.

We need to keep this in mind when we are led to somewhere or something we really don’t want to go to. It is hard to leave a meeting that is so good and come back to the real world so to speak. I’ll use myself as an example. About 12 years ago I went to a Camp Meeting in Florida that I had been hearing about for sometime. People told me how good it was but I was a little apprehensive as many times when someone tells you how great something is it never lives up to expectations. But this did, even beyond. What a week! It was some of the best preaching and singing I had ever heard. I was on a spiritual high that I had never experienced. I had cried, shouted and laughed so much that I was totally exhausted even though all I was doing was sitting and soaking up the blessings of the Lord. When it came time to come home I just didn’t want to leave that atmosphere behind but I had responsibilities that I had to come back to. I told my wife as excited as we were we had to remember that no one else at our church had experienced what we had and I tried (although not real hard) to contain my condition. I hoped some of what we had gained would rub off on those around us, I don’t know if it did or not but it should have. I felt like I had left a dynamic place and came to a desert place, but I tried to find those there that I could try and help along the way. So if you feel like you have come off a mountain top experience to a valley, or a dynamic place to a desert place, look for opportunities to help others where they are.

Have a great day