Staying with the Divine Flow, staying in the Divine Order.
Acts 13, begins with the naming of five specific prophets and teachers, Barnabas the first and Saul, last of the five. “While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them”. Acts 13:1,2. The Holy Spirit called out Barnabas and Saul for His work, a God appointed work. The story doesn’t end there, “So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed her hands on them and sent them off”. They ratified and blessed the decision of the Spirit, by further prayer and fasting for Barnabas and Saul (the Church implementing the decision of the Spirit).
So we might think that would be everything necessary for the success of the mission, but other notable things take place in Acts 13. John Mark goes with them as their helper, V5, but leaves them in Perga, V13 and this later became a real point of disagreement (Barnabas and Saul/Paul parted company and Barnabas leaves the Bible account).
Then Saul, Hebrew Sha’ul, meaning ‘prayed for/asked for’, began to be known as Paul, Latin/Roman variant of his name, meaning ‘small or humble’.
V8, “Then Saul, who was also called Paul…”. A name change occurs in the Biblical narrative, right in the middle of the mission. We might say that because Paul was ministering more to the Gentiles, that his Latin name worked better but name changes always carried significance in the Bible.
Furthermore, the order of the apostles names change. The Holy Spirit said, ‘set apart for me Barnabas and Saul’, so that was the Divine Order. But later in the same chapter we see the order has changed, three times it’s given as ‘PAUL and Barnabas’, verses 42, 46 and 50. These men were on an important, God appointed mission, but during the course of their work, change was also happening in their relationship and their standing to one another.
A short time ago I shared in an earlier blog along a theme that the ‘main thing was not the main thing’. In this chapter we see that God is working powerfully through the apostles, but much change is also at work in them. God is working at different levels and on different character traits and ministry callings simultaneously. We truly don’t understand God’s ways and we like things to stay as they are, but God is always at work to release His Spirit through us and to create more of ‘Jesus’ in us.
May God bless us and keep us as we walk out His callings on our lives.