PUT DOWN THE MIC

While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them who heard the word.

Acts 10:44

I often joke with our pastors about how many people want the microphone. Actually, I think that is the main reason Facebook has become so successful. Facebook provides a “microphone” to anyone who wants one. Anyone with a computer or a phone can just have at it without anyone getting in the way. That is what is so funny about today’s verse. Peter was just getting started with his best sermon when the Lord interrupted Peter. It’s as if someone turned off the mic in the middle of Peter’s sermon. If you really want to mess with a preacher just turn off his mic. Peter wasn’t the main player in this story, the main player was the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the best thing we can do is just get out of the way. Watchman Nee points out divine interruptions in his comments on today’s verse. He shows the Father and the Son also interrupting Peter. Check this out.

“God was always having to interrupt Peter! On the Mount of Transfiguration, “while he was yet speaking, the Father spoke. “This is my beloved Son,” He said. “Hear him!” Back in the house at Capernaum, when he had just committed his Lord to payment of the temple tax and was about to tell Him so, “Jesus spake first to him” to correct Peter’s false ideas on the matter. And here in Caesarea, while Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit broke into the sermon with His mighty acts, so that Peter’s six companions “were amazed,” and so could be appealed to in support of his testimony on their return to Jerusalem. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each intervened to interrupt Peter. We may welcome any check upon our flow of words when it is God Himself who breaks in!”

At the end of the day some church services need to be interrupted. Just how much information do we need, sometimes we just need to be still and let God move in our midst. Human ingenuity, human talent, and human wisdom will never solve our problems or meet the greatest need in our lives. Only God can do that. Peter could only go so far and then it was time for God to act. Maybe it is time to put down the mic and wait on the Lord.