Guided by the Spirit | Disruptive Presence 61

In which John and David consider how the Spirit guides the church. The language of the Spirit is easily used, but does contemporary usage reflect what we saw happen amongst the early Christians? Continuing in Acts 13, we explore some thoughts about this.

Episode 118 of the Two Texts Podcast | Disruptive Presence 61

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Transcript

 Transcript generated by AI

[00:00:00] David:  Well, John, it's back to Acts chapter 13. Having having said we were going to do verses 4 through 12, we managed we managed verse 2 and 3 and 4. So we said we're going to do 4 to 12. And I think in our last episode, we did 2, 3, 4. So we actually went, we actually lost ground on our move through the book. 

[00:00:26] John: But so enjoyable, so enjoyable. And yeah, for me, I think it's the wonderful thing about what we're doing together is that because we haven't sort of got an agenda. Or we're not on some sort of super duper timeline. We, we can actually just take our time on this stuff, which I have to say just at a personal level. 

[00:00:46] I'm, I'm personally deeply enriched by it and I hope our listeners are too. It's, it's a real blessing to me. So yeah. 

[00:00:52] David: Yes, and hopefully by now everyone's forgiven us for taking August off and resting our, our, our brains and our, and our throats from, from everything. But we, we're going to do this, this, this episode, we're going to Do 4 to 12 again, but because it's been a couple of weeks, if you're listening live, we thought let's reread the text just to sort of keep it fresh in everybody's mind. 

[00:01:18] It's a fantastic story. We sort of set the scene last time that, I mean, the reason we lost ground was you've got verse two in verse three, sort of creating a nice flow into verse four, haven't you? And this, this sense of the Holy Spirit. Spirit directing our operations at some level, as that would be a sort of way that we see that happening. 

[00:01:41] And I, and I'm really excited. I mean, I was very excited about how the Holy Spirit was shaping this in verse two, three and four. I actually, there's a couple of really interesting things going on in this story that we're looking at today. So I'm excited to, to, to get to it after, after saying we would, and then waiting two weeks and not getting there. 

[00:01:59] So, so you're going to read it for us. 

[00:02:01] John: I will, I will jump in and read this. So we're going to read from Acts chapter 13. And I will jump in at verse four. So the two of them, that's Barnabas and Saul, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to so Lucia and sealed from there to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salus, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. 

[00:02:25] John was with them as their helper. They traveled through the whole island until they came to pathos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and a false prophet named Bar Jesus. Who was an attendant to the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. 

[00:02:48] But Elimas, the sorcerer, for that was his, what his name means, opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from his faith. Or from the faith, sorry. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right. 

[00:03:09] You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You're going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun. Immediately, mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. 

[00:03:34] When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord. 

[00:03:43] David: It's a, it's a, it's a start, isn't it? I mean, they're sent out in the Holy Spirit and immediately you get a story like this, like, like, wow. 

[00:03:53] John: Yeah. It is. It's it. And it's interesting for me, David, that it just at a little sort of introductory technical level, it takes place in, in Cyprus that if our, if our listeners were to look at the map there, they're sailing from Seleucia straight across and in a sort of a Western direction and you'll hit the island of Cyprus right there. 

[00:04:17] And of course, it's a little reminder for us that, Barnabas, who we are introduced many, many moons ago to way back in Acts chapter four. He is of course introduced as Joseph the Levite from Cyprus. it could be I know they've been sent off by the Holy Spirit, but I also love this idea that there's a sense in which the Holy Spirit is to some extent. 

[00:04:43] Letting them go where they want to go on. Of course, there is a scent in which all the territory they're going to is sort of as far as the gospel is concerned, a sort of virgin territory. So, but I love the idea that Barnabas, who seems to be in charge at this stage, is leading it. The first little stepping stone of this first amazing missions trip to his home island and bringing the gospel there. 

[00:05:09] Is that, is that, is that too much of a stretch or is that, I, I just love that little idea that he returns to his home and he wants his home to get the gospel first. 

[00:05:18] David: I mean, that is, that is fascinating, especially in line of where we'll get in a few episodes time that they're taken that, if people read ahead to the end of chapter 13, the decisions that are made regarding their strategy would almost that. Well, I mean, it's no secret. You can go and read ahead at any time you want. 

[00:05:37] So let me just say it that they decide, okay, we're now just going to work amongst non Jewish areas, which is, It almost adds to that sense that there was an intention of let's go to our homes in our, our places first. Very, very human sort of, sort of thing. I mean, and I get it as somebody who's just returned from, the place of my birth having gone for a visit and, and. 

[00:06:02] And I went to places like Iona and like Glasgow Cathedral and all these sort of significant church sort of spaces. And you think about these people that really kind of put their roots in the ground in those spaces and wanted to see something happen of the gospel in those sort of areas. I think, I think I understand that. 

[00:06:24] That desire to drive that sort of space and, and, and head home. So no, I, I love that. John love 

[00:06:30] John: yeah. And it's interesting to me that a little bit, a little bit later on, when, when Paul is leading what seems to be leading a missions trip without Barnabas, that he, he, he goes to Tarsus, he, he goes to his home and, and works around that way. So, I, I do love this lovely little idea that, that these guys are interested in. 

[00:06:52] Not just bringing the gospel, as we're going to see, to sort of Jewish communities first, but also, well, why not start at the obvious place? Why not start at our home and work out from there, which does, does again, fit in with a lovely sort of nuance of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth. 

[00:07:09] It's, Cyprus is for Barnabas, his Jerusalem in some ways his home place. And, and I do like that little sort of, yeah. Hidden nuance there that, that, that Barnabas is leading, leading the team back home in order to, to see the gospel come there. Could be, could be an overstretch, but I do like the idea of why Cyprus when actually that's where Barney came from. 

[00:07:32] So, yeah, 

[00:07:33] David: Although I do laugh ever so, ever so slightly when you said, why not start at home? And my initial thought when you said that was, I think Jesus has a word about that, doesn't he? It's like a prophet is not without honor, except when at home. 

[00:07:47] John: Yes, absolutely. Sometimes it's best to leave home. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah  

[00:07:52] David: although you were also saying John, when you were, when you were talking through that sort of the trajectory of that journey, I had this moment where I was thinking, is, is one of the future options for two texts, sort of Mediterranean tours and the Holy Land. Tours because I, I, I love how you bring those angles of geography to our conversations, but, but I'm now thinking maybe in the future we could take our listeners on a, 

[00:08:16] John: Come 
 

[00:08:17] David: on a tour of these spaces and 

[00:08:18] John: Absolutely. Why not? That 

[00:08:20] David: you'd be in your element there. 

[00:08:21] Wouldn't you? 

[00:08:22] John: Absolutely. I'd love that. Yeah, completely, completely. 

[00:08:26] David: And so, so, so we've got this, this harmony. This is not actually new, even what you're saying in a good way that, that we've got the spirit doing something and the spirits driving the story, but. But in harmony with these missionaries, so, so there's, so there's a sense that their own desire, if we're building the story as we are, Barnabas is heading towards his people. 

[00:08:55] I love the idea that he's doing that with the spirit. Barnabas is not simply, or at least Luke's telling of the story. He doesn't think that whatever Barnabas's strategy has been overwhelms this sense that this is the work of the spirit that they're attuned to and that, that the spirit is leading, guiding them in the way that actually, and I think this is beautiful. 

[00:09:19] It makes sense to them. Like I, I wonder about the, sometimes a narrative within, within the faith that the call of God will. always be an unpleasant one, and and I know that there's a sense that in acts, the story is one of the spirit will take you to places that you don't want to go, but it doesn't mean that the spirit does that exclusively, and so I, I kind of, I love that harmony of. 

[00:09:49] Look at what we're doing in the spirit. But actually, if you look at it from us as people, it sort of also makes sense. I think there's, there's a sense of the grace and love of God in all of that, which I think is quite beautiful. 

[00:10:01] John: It totally is. And, and although the spirit may send us to places we've never been before, it doesn't preclude the fact that he, that he, he wants us to have a passion for the places that we started our journey in and the places that we, we know and love. And, and I love, I think, again, reflecting into that, I love verse five. 

[00:10:21] It says that when they arrived at Salamis, they proclaim the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. So again, there's that, that sense of. They, they want the good news of Jesus to come to the people in which this story is primarily rooted and, they, they are the ones that, that carry this amazing story to the point of Jesus and I, although the Jesus story is going to go beyond the boundaries of the Jewish synagogue, which we're, the book of Acts is relentlessly going to show us. 

[00:10:56] I, I do love the fact that they, they don't ignore the Jewish communities, but want. This, this gospel to bring together the Jewish and the Gentile worlds. And of course, we, you'll know better than me with your delight and love of all things Pauline, this is this is Paul's big appeal, like, for example, in in Ephesus when he Talks of Jesus being the peace that makes the two one and and I I think sometimes as 21st century Christians We sort of see the dangers We see Christianity as a sort of a reaction to to Judaism or a reaction to Jewishness And actually when you see those early believers, they're desperately trying to ensure That the Jewish world they know isn't excluded From the Jesus Messiah story they now have and they're desperate for that Jewish community to embrace The Jesus Messiah that has come to them both and and revealed himself so I I do love this and we do see this as a wee pattern until it can no longer be a pattern and And there are some jarring moments on the journey for sure But but I like the fact that as the Holy Spirit is sending them out to what looks like a gentile missional focus that the first port of call is home and, and the first port of call at home is the Jewish synagogue communities. 

[00:12:25] And, and I do like that David and I, I, I really do long for that message to be heard as far as the church is concerned. That actually the early church was not against its Jewish roots, but desperate, desperate for the Jewish roots to be wrapped into and brought to fulfillment in the Messiah Jesus. 

[00:12:50] David: think that this is the complexity of. Us often reading texts and say us, I mean, humans reading texts after history and has happened and therefore porting our views onto what we see is happening in the text. So because of negative attitudes towards. Jewish people in, within the history, whenever we see certain language in the New Testament, there's a, Oh, wait, you know what, what's going on here. 

[00:13:26] But I mean, I am still convinced that, and I hope this doesn't offend anybody, but I'm still convinced that if you, if you could, jump a time machine and appear at Acts chapter 13 verse four and say to Paul, how would you describe yourself? Paul would say, I, I'm, I'm Jewish and and I don't think at this stage, Paul would say that anything that he believes states or does is in any way against his, his, his being his identity in whatever level he sees that identity. 

[00:14:03] So I don't think Paul is ever in his own thinking an outsider. Trying to convince people to move over to his way. I think at best Paul believes that he has an interpretation of, their life and religion as Jewish people that involves Jesus and makes sense of who they are. But I don't think he sees himself as ever as somebody who has left that, there's, and I think this is really like a really important subject area, actually, that, that. 

[00:14:39] I, I want to say that a lot of the negative attitude towards the Jews within Christian history is caused by a misunderstanding of how we read Christian texts. And that, I mean, there are, I know for a fact, there are words that are used that if you're reading sections of John's gospel, even sections of acts because of the history and treatment, we go, Ooh, that's a little harsh the way that is, but we are adding later stories that are not. 

[00:15:08] This is, at best we're seeing a an internal discussion happening between brothers and sisters where, you know, maybe, maybe this is, this is far too colloquial an example to give for such a serious issue, but, I often I, you've got three children we've only, we've only got one child in my family and my daughter often says, she'll say to me sometimes when we've been somewhere, you and you'll, you'll recognize what she's seen in these situations. 

[00:15:33] We'll go to someone's house for supper, and on the way out, she'll say, Man, brothers and sisters are really mean to each other. Because when brothers and sisters fight, there's no filter, is there? Like everything's, everything's fair game, but the love is actually also strong because it's one thing, you watch two brothers fight, it could be pretty brutal, right? But if somebody comes against one of those brothers. 

[00:15:56] The other brother will be even more brutal in his defense of his brother. It's like, yeah, I can talk to him like that, but nobody else gets to talk to him like that. Now, forgive me if that's a really, really poor example. But I think if you look at the early Christian dialogue as, as these are, To these are all insiders having these conversations, so they are harsher in some sort of ways, and if we are uninformed, we can use them in deeply damaging ways, but I want to defend the text to say that's not what. 

[00:16:34] Is intended by Luke or John or Paul and Barnabas. I mean, that was probably maybe too much of a, of a, of a long talk about that, John. But I mean, I feel like you would resonate with that as well. 

[00:16:45] John: Oh, completely, completely. And I, I love the idea that Barnabas and Saul arrive at these synagogues and they've got a starting text. With the Gentile world, they're, they're starting, they're, they're almost having the, explain a page before they can get to Jesus. There's, there's some stuff they've got to explain. 

[00:17:06] Whereas to a Jewish audience, they've, they've got this amazing text, the scriptures, what we would call as Christians, the Old Testament, what may be referred to as the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. And they've got this incredible text as far as Barnabas and certainly Saul. Paul is concerned as we're going to see probably our next episode or whatever. 

[00:17:27] Once Paul starts Getting into the biblical text on explaining Jesus, it's magnificent stuff. And, doesn't, doesn't miss a beat in quoting the prophets, in quoting the writings, in quoting Moses, and in bringing all of them to bear to show who Jesus is. And so this, this incredible scripture that the first century Christian community were graced with, that came from the Jewish world. 

[00:17:56] Paul, Saul, Barnabas, they are desperate that that amazing scripture is heard by the audience that brought it, that protected it, that watched over it, that memorized it. And they want this, this community to hear these scriptures now through the resurrected Messiah. That is Jesus. And, and I love the fact that when they turn up at these synagogues, they've got a, they've got a starter for 10, they've actually got a tax that they can launch off. 

[00:18:29] And, and we, I, we, I don't think we should under, estimate both the emotional, strategic, and spiritual significance of all of that. I think there's a, when you, when you hear Paul, even when he writes to Rome, he, he says, I, I, I would rather myself be accursed than, than, than Israel lose this, that, that actually he's desperate that. 

[00:18:49] that his own nation truly gets and understands the Messiah. And, and I love the passion of this. And I love, I love this initial pattern. And it's a pattern these boys try to stick with until they're no longer able to stick with it. And I like that idea. 

[00:19:08] David: And that is interesting because you've got then this merging of the spirit's work in terms of philosophical and emotional ideas and then also the sort of ideas of home and the ideas of, like we're saying the spirit's driving this, but we're also saying that. It makes sense where Barnabas wants to go. 

[00:19:31] It makes sense where Paul wants to go. There's this, there's this kind of, it's a slightly lengthier section, but I'm going to read a few sentences from Willie Jennings commentary. Cause I love the way it sums up some of the stuff we were talking about in his poetic language. I, you know that I love this, but he says by this chapter, so he's talking about where we're at in the text right now. 

[00:19:51] He says, by this chapter, we find the spirit speaking clearly through And to the disciples, the voice of the spirit and the voices of the disciples are together, but not confused. The agency of the one does not negate the action of the other. I mean, I love that. And that's exactly what we're talking about, isn't it? 

[00:20:10] The agency of the one. Does not negate the action of the other. And then he says this at Antioch, we find people who know how to listen to the spirit. This kind of cooperation may in fact be rare for us, but it never had to be wherever women and men give themselves to the disciplines that attune the body to its hunger for the spirit. 

[00:20:30] They will find themselves receptive to the voice of God and the heat. They will hear the spirit speaking and offering guidance. Luke destroys the image, the bad image, the sick fantasy of a silent spirit who only occasionally whispers to a still heart. Rather, we have a communion bearing, community forming God who speaks in the midst of the multitude and makes known where we must go to follow the spirit's movement. 

[00:21:00] John: That's beautiful. beautiful. No, I love that. I love that. And that ties in really beautifully with our previous conversation of the sort of the, the, the congregation Antioch loosing and sending and the spirit sending. And, and that feels very official. That feels like, Oh yeah, yeah. That feels like, okay, everybody in the room seems to know what the spirit saying here. 

[00:21:24] But then when Paul, when, when Barnabas and Saul leave for Seleucia, we don't We're not aware of the Spirit speaking explicitly, but somehow Barnabas and Saul have made a decision, let's go to Cyprus and that's, that's sail west, let's go west and see what happens. And of course, once they leave Cyprus, they, they, they sail to the mainland and head to Perga. 

[00:21:48] Well, again, there's no clear direction explicitly in the text from the Spirit. There seems to be this, this cooperation between the big idea of what the spirit wants and also cooperation from his servants in terms of engaging practically and, and going in the broad direction that he speaks. And, and I know later on in the book of Acts, we'll get lovely, beautiful examples of the, the spirit and humans working together and even the spirit. 

[00:22:21] Stopping people from going where they want to go, but, but, but we're getting a really lovely introduction to this. Well, where shall we go? Well, maybe the spirit did tell them to go to Cyprus or maybe they went, Hey, let's go to Cyprus. Like, why not? It's the next island. Why not hop over there? Easy transport. 

[00:22:40] I've got relatives, relatives at home. We can, we can maybe put some money in the coffers for the next stage of the trip. Oh, and by the way, we can do a lot of preaching there. And, and it's like, yeah. Yeah, well, why not? Why not? And I think sometimes, David, if we're not careful, we can make mission a bit harder than it needs to be. 

[00:22:59] Sometimes we're, sometimes, and I would, as a card carrying Pentecostal, I would say, sometimes we're waiting for a word. And I understand why, but we're waiting for a word when sometimes I would say, well, maybe he's already spoken. Maybe we should just go with what's in front of us. But, but then I think even when he has said to go, I think even within the going, there's some. 

[00:23:24] There's some sense of leeway in how we go in some of that. And I think, I think sometimes beautiful Christians see the will of God or the voice of God as some sort of tight rope that we walk. And I prefer to see it as a pathway we walk that that actually, if we're obeying the Holy Spirit. We're going to have to work hard to get off the path. 

[00:23:44] It's not going to be one slip and you're dead, but it's actually going to be a hard, I've literally got to make a decision to go in a different direction than the direction the Holy Spirit has taken me and, and therefore harder to get out of the will of God than to stay in it. If, if we're listening to the spirit, does that make sense? 

[00:24:04] David: there's a great there's a great quote from St. Augustine who says this, right? Love God and do whatever you please. But the full quote is this, I love it. Love God and do whatever you please. For the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the one who is beloved. Right. And I think that's at some level, that's what, that's what you're saying, isn't it? It's like, and I think that's what Jennings is saying. 

[00:24:34] And it's what Augustine is saying, the voice of the spirit and the voice of the disciples, they don't get confused. They're not, the disciples know what they're doing and they know the spirit's calling them to, but there's also that sense that. That we need to, I think, to live with a lot more confidence that God, I mean, as Psalm 1 says, that God guides us. 

[00:24:51] And, and I think that doesn't mean there's a sort of fish hook dragging you along sometime. There's just a sense and presence of the normality of the Spirit of God in our, in our lives. And and that's why I really wanted to read that whole quote from Jennings as well. We want to get this idea. Away from us that to be a follower of the spirit means you're spending a lot of time guessing and thinking you, these, these early apostles and disciples, they're moving confidently. 

[00:25:21] And, and, and I, and I wonder if that makes sense, like here's, here's what I think about this story when I read it. And I'm curious if you think the same thing. They now arrive and they both bump into this very complex person, this, this false prophet who's also a magician, right? Whose name is Bar Jesus, right? 

[00:25:41] And, and I can't help but see the contrasts between this story and the stories of Jesus, right? It feels like what happens to them. Is stuff that we've seen happen to Jesus, they, they, they arrive where they're going and the sort of things that happened to Jesus happened to them. You think early chapters of Luke, of Mark, it's Jesus encounters the work of evil trying to resist him. 

[00:26:09] So even that's kind of gorgeous, isn't it? They step out into the way of Jesus and start to encounter the problems of Jesus. 

[00:26:16] John: Yeah, for sure. And, and I, I, what I love as well is, which I think is another little beautiful connector to the Jesus stories. I don't think Jesus necessarily went looking for trouble. I think Jesus just went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil. But, and, and it seems to me cer certainly, and I know we, we, we'll get to bar Jesus in a, in a moment or two. 

[00:26:41] But, but certainly when Jesus encounters demonic forces in the Gospels, it seems to me the pattern is they come looking for him rather than he goes looking for them. And, and, and he's getting on with the work of the kingdom. He's getting on with touching people, healing people, bringing the kingdom verbally to his world. 

[00:27:01] And then, and then he's confronted by, or he, he is even in some cases aggressively. Accosted by demonic forces. And I like that idea that actually if we're walking in the way of the Lord, not only are we walking in the way of the spirit, but, but we won't have to go looking for trouble.  

[00:27:20] David: Yeah. 
 

[00:27:22] John: we Really. We don't need to do that. I think when we are walking in the way of the spirit, I think the trouble will, will in some ways start looking for us. And, and, and we really don't need to crank that dial up. I think. If we're living righteous lives, we're going to bump into something eventually either directly demonic or, or, or even just something that is opposed to our way of life. 

[00:27:48] And, and then we, we will have the same sorts of scenarios that Jesus, Barnabas, and Saul encountered. And, and, and I like that idea. They're just getting on with it. And it's going well. And they don't seem to have encountered anything. any difficulty at all until they hit this man, but they're just getting on with the norm of their practice of proclaiming the kingdom of God. 

[00:28:12] David: There there's also a, a, a nuance perhaps to this story. I, if, if I step away from this sort of grandness of yeah. I mean there's so many things, I want to talk about in Russia ahead. The bar, Jesus, the son of the devil. This sort of language is all very fascinating. But before we overly demonize this Bar Jesus character cause I, I don't think we should do that. 

[00:28:38] It's fascinating that you also have a little parallel of, of not even necessarily as strong as. If the forces of evil, but you have one group of people who are just being led by the spirit in a particular direction, and then you have somebody else who is resisting it. And that's, I love the gorgeousness of that nuance in the way Luke sets out the story that this is what it looks like to follow the spirit. 

[00:29:02] This is what it looks like to resist the spirit. But of course that resistance to the spirit. And this is why we mustn't demonize Bar Jesus too much, is that we have seen that very same resistance from within the church, it's in the, in the 12 chapters preceding us getting here. So, so there's, it's like, there's also a beautiful warning in this story that you can end up with this sort of thing happening at all times to all people. 

[00:29:31] It was only a few chapters ago, Peter was saying, Oh, wait a minute, God, I'm not. Not quite sure what you're, what you're doing here that, that tension's there, isn't it? 

[00:29:40] John: it totally is. And I think that the human heart struggles with with all of that and whether that human heart is being led by simply our own desires and our own worldview or whether there is something more sinister at work within that human heart. At the end of the day, there is a worldview that would, by very definition of the way it sees the world, Resist a direction of the spirit. 

[00:30:12] And that's why we need the help of the spirit to open up our hearts to the spirit and be sensitive to the spirit. And I think though we are encouraged to walk with the spirit, be led by the spirit, keep in step with the spirit, there's a sense in which the Paradoxically, we need the help of the Spirit to do all of those things, it's, it's that, that I want to walk in step with the Spirit and I want to be led by the Spirit, but there's a sense in which, Holy Spirit, I, I need you to open my eyes. 

[00:30:46] I need you to guide me and keep me sensitive so that I can never inappropriately or accidentally or deliberately resist you working in me. And I, I think that openness to the Holy Spirit is so, so important. Even for those who are within the church that, that we don't want to be resisting unnecessarily who he is. 

[00:31:12] It's very easy to look at our world and say, well, that obviously people who don't believe are resisting. But, but of course it's, it can be as easy to resist within the church. And that's why we need the spirit's help to help us not resist him and be open and sensitive to him and invite him, him into every part of our world. 

[00:31:35] David: This seems to be like a really important conversation and, and maybe where we land today's episode because the, that invitation, but that constant invitation, and I'm probably only going to repeat what you've said here, John, but I don't want it to get lost, is that there can be a sense that. If we are part of Christian community, if we have had what we would recognize as an encounter with the Spirit, if we're not careful, that one experience we can then use to assume, oh, everything then in my spirit is open to It is right about what the Spirit is. 

[00:32:15] And you hear this language quite often, Oh, that doesn't sit right with my spirit. But, I think what Acts warns us of, is that you can be Peter, and you can have followed Jesus around, have preached the Pentecost Day sermon, but still find yourself... on a roof going, man, I'm not sure about this. And the thing that you're not sure about is exactly the thing that God is trying to do. 

[00:32:39] So I love how the spirit really in Acts resists the arrogance that we might develop by saying, because the spirit guided me once. All my opinions are now the ones of the spirit, and I love how you in a really beautiful and non anxious way sort of described that there of saying, actually, it does hold on us to be alert to what is, what is going on in us right now, the spirit is speaking, we must, we must learn to listen and not confuse our worldview with the workings of the spirit, because the story of acts at very least points out that your worldview may have to take, I was going to say second seat. 

[00:33:23] It might be third or fourth sometimes in, in the work of the spirit. You won't be overwhelmed by the spirit, but you will be invited by the spirit to, to let go of some of those standings. 

[00:33:34]