Acts 26:19-23 Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision:… An experience on the very threshold of Paul's spiritual life! An experience rare, it is to be feared, and uncommon — realised by few — fulfilled by still fewer! What is it? Never to disobey the heavenly visions, never to run counter to the heavenly voices, never to resist the heavenly influences. I. OUR POSSESSION OF "HEAVENLY VISIONS." Here it was a voice and a vision too — it was the face and voice of Christ. And this is just as true for all of us. Behind the heavenly influences that play about our paths from veriest childhood, that try to arrest and touch and move us behind them all; in and through them all we, too, can hear these words of power and pathos, "I am Jesus." Behind light, and voice, and vision, there is to be traced the personal agency of the personal Lord. Let us thank God for such visions, and voices, and influences; providences, if you like, adapted to serve God's purpose and His will concerning us. Where would Paul have been, and what would he have become, but for this voice and vision from heaven? This is God's way of coming into contact with man. We are not to be left utterly to ourselves. Voice or vision shall declare to us what we are to be and do, and where to go. But for these heavenly visions and voices we should stand still in blankest ignorance or doubt, God knows whether. Thank God, lights do flash, and fingers do point, bright visions do make the face to smile, and the heart to rejoice, and set the being all astir with a tumult of joy and wonder. Then add to these the vision and voice that looks out and speaks from out the pages of the written Word. Add to this those ideals of higher Christian life; of duty and sacrifice, that come to us in those solemn pauses of life. II. OUR ATTITUDE towards these "heavenly visions." Paul's was obedience. How, then, shall we act if we obey the heavenly visions? Turn back, if He bids us, from our worldward wanderings! give up, if He bids us, our life of rebellion; throw down, as did Saul, the weapons of our hostility to Christ and truth. It may be they may never come back again to us. The bright light that flashed across the paths of earlier years, and the voice that then arrested us may never call us again by name. (Theodore Hooke.) Parallel Verses KJV: Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:WEB: "Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, |
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