By Ryne Brewer
“Walk by the Spirit,” Paul wrote in his letter to the churches at Galatia (Galatians 5:16). My imagination has always been captivated by what that could look like. Throughout Scripture, we get opportunities to have our imaginations expanded around that phrase. Time and again, I’m reminded that the Spirit can do incredible things through the life of the believer when we are open to Him. Acts 8 helps me see this more clearly.
One of the first things I notice in this story is that the Spirit took Philip to an unlikely place. The angel of the Lord instructed Philip to leave the revival in Samaria (Acts 8:4–8) and go to a desert road where it looked like nothing was happening (v.26). And Philip went.
Next, walking by the Spirit led Philip to an unlikely person. The Ethiopian official that Philip met along that desert road was wealthy, powerful, and searching for God (vv.27–28). I ask myself: How often am I willing to be interrupted by the Spirit to encounter an unlikely person? Walking with the Spirit means being interruptible and humble enough to listen.
I also notice that the Spirit opened the door to an unlikely conversation. Philip found this man already curious and asking questions about God (vv.30–31). How often do I assume people aren’t spiritually curious, when in reality the Spirit has already been at work preparing them?
Finally, I see how the Spirit brought unlikely results. In obedience, Philip told the eunuch the “good news about Jesus,” and the eunuch believed (vv.34–35). “The eunuch said, ‘Look, there’s water. What would keep me from being baptized?’ So he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him” (vv.36–38). The gospel leapt over another boundary, reaching toward the ends of the earth.
The Spirit took Philip to an unlikely place, to meet an unlikely person, to have an unlikely conversation that led to an unlikely result. And I’m left asking: Am I open to walking by the Spirit this way? Am I willing to be led to places that don’t make sense, to people I might otherwise overlook, into conversations that feel uncomfortable—trusting God may already be at work to bring results I could never have imagined?
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