Chapter 1 A Consecrated Life - Far Eastern Bible College

at the well (John 4). And now it was Philip who happened to be in
Samaria and who made use of his time there to tell the Samaritans about
Christ.
And the Lord gave Philip a very fruitful ministry while he was
there, opening the hearts of the Samaritans, so that many of them were
saved. The results were so great that news of it reached the church in
Jerusalem, which then sent Peter and John as representatives to confirm
the new believers and also to help out with the harvest (Acts 8:14–15).
After that it appears that more and more doors kept on opening in
Samaria.
Now, as we see the end result, we must not forget that all this would
never have happened without the first initiative taken by Philip: just one
man whose life was yielded to God, one man who, due to circumstances
beyond his own control, had to escape from persecution in Jerusalem, to
Samaria, but while he was there, he kept himself busy doing whatever
the Lord directed him to do. Clearly it was the Lord then who had
brought him there.
This now becomes an example to us. In life, we sometimes find
ourselves in new places of residence or work, because of changing
circumstances. It may be that we were looking for a job, and the only
one suitable is in a place far away, so we have to uproot ourselves and
our family, and transfer to a new location. In the midst of getting used to
the new place we find ourselves in, there is one thing that we need to
do: to remember that ultimately it is God who has placed us there. The
next step is to find out how the Lord want to use us while we are there.
There must be some purpose, some task to fulfil, in God’s overall plan
for this world, that we should consciously seek to do while we are there.
And when our task is accomplished, the Lord may then change our
circumstances again to redirect our paths to a different place to fulfil
another task.
We should therefore be sensitive to His will, asking Him, “Lord,
what do You want me to do in this place?” Our wills ought to be always
in step with His, so that we will not miss His directions to us. Turning
back to the story of Philip, we notice that he was sensitive to the
directions he received from God. In verse 26, we read, “the angel of the
34 A Consecrated Life