28 Day Reading Plan Through the Book of Acts Weekly Devotional - Week 5

Acts 27-28 Melissa S.

Awakening Key phrase: Awakening from human realities to supernatural possibilities

I notice a slow fade happening in my life where apathy creeps into my soul over time. Before I realize it, I’m relying on logic, emotions, people or circumstances and embracing a natural worldview. The book of Acts jolts me awake. There is more to life than what I can see. Acts is a book of action that has the power to awaken us from human realities to supernatural possibilities. As we come to the end of the book, we find the narrative living up to its name with action packed drama. In Acts 27 and 28 we find that beyond this physical world is a spiritual one where angels protect, physical healing is possible, and the gospel goes forth in the midst of storms, shipwrecks, and snakebites. As Paul set sail for Rome as a prisoner, the officer in charge disregarded Paul’s counsel to stay put in the port at Fairhavens.

Paul had warned them, but they chose to go on anyway. How do you react when people don’t listen to your advice? When we truly believe that God is Sovereignly in control of our destiny, we have less reason to get angry or retaliate when people don’t listen. Awakening to supernatural possibilities takes the pressure off so that we don’t have to get people to do what we think they should do. God doesn’t need us to manipulate or force people to do things. He has His planet well under control.

Because Paul was spiritually awake, he didn’t make the impending danger about him. Instead, he was able to be a catalyst for others to awaken to the reality of their Creator. He told those on board who were scared out of their minds to eat and take heart.

Acts 27:23-25 “For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told.”

Paul believed God and exercised faith as the boat was being tossed about in a storm. He knew a shipwreck was coming, but the Lord had promised that they would live through it. As they washed up on the shores of Malta, the hits just kept on rolling for Paul with a fatal snakebite. At first the island people assumed he must have deserved divine punishment, but when he didn’t die from the bite, they heralded him as a god.

People’s responses to Paul’s situations change faster than the weather, but he remains steady in spiritual wakefulness. He sees beyond the human realities to the supernatural possibilities. He became God’s conduit for physical healing for many island natives to highlight a living God who intervenes in real-life problems. Then he arrived in Rome and continued his mission of sharing the gospel in whatever situation he found himself.

“When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets. And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved.” Acts 28:23-24

Some embraced the gospel and others rejected it. Paul didn’t beat himself up over the ones who didn’t listen. Instead he knew the responsibility to present the Word of God and leave the results up to God. When we focus on our own spiritual wakefulness, we can more readily trust God for outcomes.

As we come to the end of our study of Acts, consider these questions:

• In what ways has apathy crept into your soul? • Where has the Lord awakened you from human realities to spiritual possibilities? • With renewed passion from the early church, what are some tangible ways you can share the gospel

where you find yourself? • How can you focus on awakening to deeper faith and away from controlling people or outcomes?