Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: God speaks to us through his word. That's probably the most common way we hear God's voice, is right through the scripture, but it seems in the Bible and in our lives, there's times where God will speak through a vision or a word from the Holy Spirit.

Guest (Male): On today's word, Pastor Brett Meador and the Lord's method of divine inspiration.

Brett Meador: A vision can be seen if you would by the mind's eye, even so we can hear the voice of God with the mind's ear. And once in a while, you might have that sensation that something came into your mind that really wasn't of you, and it came from God.

Guest (Male): While praying on a rooftop, Peter received a vision from the Lord that would have an important impact on the early church and Christianity to this day. In our study of Peter's vision and its implications on today's word, Pastor Brett Meador examines how the Lord can still use visions to direct believers seeking him and how we can have confirmation that they are indeed from him.

Brett Meador: Are you a person who's had a vision or a dream from God? Now some of you are thinking, "Brett, you're wacko. That's just so weird," but it's not. I'm just going to tell you. I understand why some people believe that, though. When I was a young kid, the Lord was using us in the Jesus movement in the '70s. I remember there were a lot of hippies in southern Oregon that were coming to Christ in our church and they were all coming out of the drug culture and the drug scene.

My parents were hippies. My pastor wasn't necessarily a hippie, but hippies were drawn and they came and accepted Christ. But with that came some weirdness. Probably a little too much LSD. Maybe a little too much smoking weed too. I remember they'd walk around and some of these hippies in our church would say, "I had a vision and a dream." I was like, "Oh no, here we go." It was always something kind of weird and it was like, "I don't know if that was a dream or you're just having a little flashback from your last bad LSD trip."

But I also have to say, should we think that dreams and visions from God are actually legit? Is that something God can do? Well, if you know your Bible, of course, you have to say yes, at least in the Bible times. But my question is, is it for our time? Should you as a Christian be open to the idea of God speaking to you through dreams or visions? I'll show you here in our text.

How do you discern what's a hippie LSD trip or what is actually the Lord and the Holy Spirit? What separates the wacko stuff versus something that's really legitimate? I think we'll talk about that as we see a great story here in Acts chapter 10, verse 9. Let's take a look. Acts chapter 10, starting in verse 9.

It says, "On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh to the city, Peter went upon the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he had become very hungry, and would have eaten; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance." Peter is going on the rooftop, which was a normal thing in those days, and he's going up to pray and he falls into a trance.

Verse 11: "And he saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet, knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him: Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said: Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean."

"And the voice spake again to him the second time: What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven. Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius's house made inquiry for Simon's house, and stood before the gate."

"And called, and asked whether Simon, which is surnamed Peter, lodged there. While Peter thought on the vision, the spirit said unto him: Behold, three men seek thee; arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them." Then verse 21, Peter went down and went with the men.

We're going to see who these men are and what they're doing and what this vision is all about. The actual meaning of the vision is a huge thing. We don't want to miss that. But what's interesting is Peter has this rare sort of occasion where God speaks to him, and he speaks to him through a vision.

More often, God speaks to us through his word. That's probably the most common way we hear God's voice, right through the scripture. But it seems in the Bible and in our lives, there are times where God will speak through a vision or a word from the Holy Spirit. A vision can be seen by the mind's eye, even so we can hear the voice of God with the mind's ear.

There's a part of you that thinks stuff, and once in a while, you might have that sensation that something came into your mind that really wasn't of you, and it came from God. Or maybe it came from Satan. Maybe some of you thought, "That was a thought that really wasn't from God at all." But Peter has a vision and it's related to kosher food, kosher meat.

Basically, the whole Gentile world is going to benefit from him in this vision. Notice when God wants to do something big in the Bible, initiate something new or special or wonderful, he typically inspires a man or a woman through a vision or through an experience that's supernatural. Often God will attach something sort of mystical and mysterious to something great.

For example, when God wanted to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt through Moses's ministry, Moses sees a burning bush on Mount Sinai and he runs up to this mountain and hears from God himself to go on that amazing ministry of delivering the children of Israel from Pharaoh's hand. Often when God's going to do something great, he speaks in a vision or in a supernatural event.

When God wanted to open Europe to Paul the Apostle and Christianity, if you remember there in the book of Acts chapter 16, verse 9, God gives to Paul a vision of a Macedonian man. The Macedonian man was saying, "Come to us," and Paul says, "I have to go to Macedonia and bring the gospel."

So Paul goes and what's interesting is he doesn't see a man; he sees a woman. There are some women that get saved there in Macedonia and then eventually the church starts to grow in Philippi and reaches into Europe. It's an amazing change. God brings the gospel to Macedonia, which is entering into Europe, through this vision of a Macedonian man.

Here in Acts chapter 10, God again is about to do something new, something special, something huge for especially us Gentiles. This vision to see the unkosher food that Jews wouldn't eat made Peter say, "I've never ever eaten those things. Not so, Lord." What is God doing? He's starting to reveal that God is about to fling wide open the door to the church to the Gentiles.

This would have been shocking for Peter to hear from God, "Eat unkosher food." The Old Testament law told Peter he was supposed to not eat bats and not supposed to eat shellfish and not supposed to have bacon, sad to say. There are all kinds of dietary prohibitions in the Old Testament. And now suddenly God is saying, "I'm doing a new thing, Peter."

He says, "Those foods you Jewish people call unclean that I declared to you were unclean in the Old Testament law? I want you to kill and eat those." What is God doing? He's really preparing in the heart of Peter to accept Gentile people that are not Jews, that are not practicing the Old Testament law.

How did the Jews of the first century think of Gentiles? The Mishnah, which is a later writing of Jewishness, is not inspired like the Hebrew Bible. That's the inspired word of God. But later, oral tradition was written down and it's called the Mishnah. You can read there in the Mishnah, it explicitly stated that Gentiles existed primarily on the earth to fuel the fire of hell.

Consequently, the Jews avoided all action, all relationship with Gentile people, especially in the first century in Jerusalem. It was so bad that if you were a Jew walking down the street and you brushed up against a Gentile, you were now unclean. You would go home, burn your clothes, take a ceremonial cleansing bath, and then you'd be good to go.

That's how bad it was if a Jew touched a Gentile. Jews did not converse with the Gentiles, they didn't have anything to do with Gentiles, they had no concern for Gentiles. One thing that you might be shocked if you think about it, have you ever seen a Jew proselytizing or evangelizing? Have you ever seen a Jew go, "Become a Jew like us"?

You may have seen Jews for Jesus proselytizing, but they're Christians who believe in Jesus, so that's different. I'm talking about Jews. You'll never see a Jew proselyte. Why? Because they don't believe in it. In fact, if you are a person who says, "I'd like to become a Jew," they'll probably try to discourage you from it.

"That's the last thing you should want to be," they would say. "Yeah, we're God's chosen people, but I wish he'd choose somebody else for a while." That's the attitude of Jews largely. Evangelism is not a thing they believe in. But this was not God's original intention. The prophets, especially Isaiah, clearly declared God would not only bless the Jews if they would follow him and worship him, but also the prophet Isaiah would reveal that God has a plan to save even the Gentile nations.

The Jews, by the time that Jesus was on the scene and now here in Acts chapter 10, that was so foreign to them. The reason why is they just didn't believe their own Bible. Or they missed it or didn't want to hear it. But what did their own Bible say? Well, let me remind you what Isaiah had to say.

In Isaiah 42:6, "I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand," he's speaking to the Jewish people through the prophet. "I will keep thee and I will give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house."

What's God saying through the prophet Isaiah? "Guess what? You're going to be a light of the Gentiles." Most Jews would say, "Yeah, whatever. God has no plan for the Gentiles but to light them on fire and burn them in hell." But God is saying, "No, the Jews are supposed to be a light unto the Gentiles."

Listen to Isaiah chapter 49, verse 6. Isaiah, he said, "Is it a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the preserved of Israel? I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation to the end of the earth."

The Lord would be the salvation to not only Israel but to the Gentiles and salvation would reach even to the ends of the earth. You see, Isaiah is saying, "Jewish people, God has a plan for even the Gentiles to be saved." That's what he's saying. Now, the Jews, because of all their training and years of hating Gentiles, it just became so foreign to them.

They could care less about Gentiles. They actually hated them in many cases, especially during this time. Suddenly, after Jesus died, was buried, and rose again, the church is going to be made up of not only Jews but Gentiles. This is going to be hard for Peter to get because of the attitude towards Gentiles.

The Lord is going to give Peter a vision that's going to start to prep him to open the door to the idea of Gentiles being saved. He's saying, "Peter, I'm going to prep your heart by doing something that you're actually dealing with." Peter was dealing with hunger, so the Lord's like, "I'll use that hunger to teach him a lesson."

So here he is hungry and then he shows him all these unkosher foods. It's like some of you that are on your New Year's resolution diet and you're eating kale and stuff. Then you see a commercial on TV and they show a juicy hamburger from McDonald's and you're like, "Get thee behind me, Satan."

That's kind of what's happening here with Peter. Peter's like, "Oh man, I'm starving," and all of a sudden pigs and unclean beasts that you're not supposed to eat are coming down and the Lord says, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat. I know you're hungry, like kill and eat it." "Oh, not so, Lord." You see what's happening?

The Lord's using Peter's current hunger state to speak to him. He says, "I'm going to show you some un-Jewish, unkosher foods that you would have never eaten, and rise, kill and eat." The Jews were so convinced they were right about the filthy Gentiles. But in their own Bibles, it said God has a plan to save the Gentiles.

How did they miss something so blatantly clear? But it makes me start to wonder, what am I missing, Lord, that is blatantly clear in your Bible and I just read through it? I miss a giant thing the Lord wants to do. I'm just concerned. I have a hunch, as a guy who's been teaching the Bible for about 40 years, that we're missing big things.

We might say, "Yeah, we know that. Love one another." But is loving one another kind of a big deal in the Bible? Is that something God really wants us to do? Yeah, I think so, but it's one of those things I think, "Yeah, I'm going to love one another, but I'm really going to not like those people that are in a different political party."

"Yeah, love one another, but people that I like and are easy to love, of course." But the Lord is saying, "No, you're even to love your enemies, for crying out loud." I feel like that's one of the things that I have a hunch we're missing some big things like love. I think the church is missing some big things like the Bible.

Do we give proper priority to the reading of scripture? Maybe there's tacking on of scripture on a wall, but are churches really reading their Bibles? What does the Bible say? It's blatant. Very clear. "Give attendance to the reading of scripture," Paul says. "Study to show yourselves approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

The emphasis of reading the word in the context of church is giant. But instead, churches have turned from reading the word to TED talks where pastors get up and give a motivational speech about how you can make yourself better or feel better or be more liked or have more influence. It's really not a lot of scripture.

It's maybe tacking on a verse here and there. I think we're missing something giant. That's why at Athey we're saying let's get through the Bible. Let's go verse by verse and carefully study the word. The priority, I think that's one of the things we're missing. Like this, where the Jews were missing, "Oh yeah, God's going to save the Gentiles."

The Jews became very inward-looking. It was all about themselves and they regarded the Gentiles as worthless except for keeping hell ablaze. That was the only thing they were good for. So how can you and I know when we're amiss on the way we think, our ideology, our worldview?

A lot of people think they're right about their worldview, but somebody's got to be wrong. And God forbid you're wrong in your ideologies and your worldview. We've got so many influences today that could be right, could be wrong, but who really knows? Well, I love that we have the Bible.

I hope you let your worldview be shaped by God's word. That's as clear as a bell. That's the best way to get a very good, clear worldview. But are we missing stuff? Even though the Bible clearly states something, obviously the Jews missed something very clear. How can we be corrected by the Lord?

I think the Lord does that here with Peter through vision. He gives Peter a vision. Isn't it interesting? The Lord's saying, "Okay, Peter, I'm going to teach you something new here. See all this unkosher food? Rise, Peter, kill and eat." "No way, Lord." That's his wrong worldview right now.

If you know your New Testament, when Jesus died, was buried, and rose again, the law of the Old Testament including the kosher foods was done away with. It was not to not serve a purpose. In other words, Paul would say the law is going to be the schoolmaster that drives us to Jesus Christ.

It still serves that purpose that if you want to try to be good away from Jesus, without the cross, then all you have to do is keep the 613 laws of the Jewish Old Testament. Good luck with that because nobody in history has ever done that. So now in the New Testament, good news: they can have bacon!

But Peter hasn't learned that yet. He hasn't learned why it's no longer something he has to keep. God's going to say, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." "No way, Lord," through this vision. By the way, should you and I expect to see visions and dream dreams? I want to open your mind a little bit to this because I know people have been weird about this.

We've heebie-jeebied it with weirdness. "I heard a voice from the Lord," and we have to quiver with our voice, "and thus say the Lord," and it's just dumb. Stop that. One thing about the supernatural stuff in the Bible is I love how supernaturally natural it is. Once we have to raise our voices and flop on the ground and shiver and do weird stuff, we're just being theatrical.

Can God use those kinds of things? Sure. But I've been mostly impressed over the years of ministry and watching Christians that I know are solid and they're seeing visions and hearing dreams and speaking in tongues. I've seen it to be supernaturally natural. It doesn't come off as weird and it really represents the Lord well.

Should you be open to the idea of the Lord speaking to you through visions or dreams? I think the answer's absolutely yes. In fact, more today than yesterday. You and I should be more open to this today than we were yesterday. Why? Well, it's Acts chapter 2. Remember Peter's sermon?

Peter, being filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, quotes from the prophet Joel. He says, "It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams."

The Lord said it first in the prophet Joel about the last days. Now Peter, living in a New Testament era, is saying it. I think we're closer to the last days today than we were when Peter said this. Should it be that in the last days we see our sons and daughters prophesying?

"Brett, you said prophecy was ended with John the Baptist." No, I didn't. Jesus said that. Jesus said there are no more prophets. Correct. But there is prophecy in a New Testament way. One of the manifestations of the spirit the Bible talks about is prophecy. What is New Testament prophecy?

1 Corinthians chapter 14 says prophecy is when the Holy Spirit gives a person a word to say to someone else or even to a church. A word of prophecy can be spoken, but it's always going to be one of three things: a word of edification, exhortation, or comfort. That's what 1 Corinthians 14 tells us.

In the last days, that's what's going to happen. There are going to be more people filled with the spirit speaking exacting words from God to people that are going to be edification, which means to build up and encourage; exhortation, which means to correct a problem; and then comfort, the third one.

Boy, how we need that today: people filled with the spirit giving words of comfort. Here in Acts 10, God uses Peter with a vision to talk about the idea of opening the door of salvation to the Gentiles. But first Peter has to have understanding about what he's doing. He must prepare Peter's heart to be open to this, so he gives him a vision.

What we're seeing here is Peter's wrong worldview. Now in the New Testament church, he's still thinking you can't have bacon. The Lord's going to say we're going to fix that, but it's not about the bacon. It's about the Gentiles. God's starting with the bacon issue and now he's going to say, "You can have those."

"But they're unclean!" Just like the Gentiles. Don't call unclean what I have called clean. That's the point. God is saying, "You call bacon unclean, I'm calling it clean, so eat it." "Yeah, but the Gentiles are unclean." Don't call what I call clean the Gentiles. How's God going to call the Gentiles clean?

The same way Peter was made clean: by the blood of the cross of Jesus Christ. The same way he would be saved is the same way Gentiles would be saved. Peter seeing a vision is going to save the Gentile nations because Peter's going to open his ideas to seeing Christian Gentiles.

That's why I think Solomon put such an emphasis on vision. Remember what Solomon said in Proverbs chapter 29, verse 18? He said, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." This isn't just like, "I have vision so I've got my goals." There's a difference between supernatural vision and coming up with ideas and having goals.

Supernatural vision is what Solomon's talking about and it's what Peter saw. It was a vision from God. Peter receives vision from God that's going to reshape his thinking that the Gentiles are going to be saved. Vision is important. The Bible emphasizes the importance of vision.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador providing understanding from today's word for the Lord's use of visions to those in the Old and New Testaments while offering direction to believers even today. There's more to come next time in this message titled "Is My Vision From God?". I also want to remind you that if you've missed any portion of our study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com.

Kurt: All right, I have Pastor Brett with me right now. God is made up of three persons: the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yet it seems that the Holy Spirit is maybe the most misunderstood. Brett, can you share more about the Holy Spirit and what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

Brett Meador: You bet, Kurt. The Holy Spirit is misunderstood by a lot of people, which is so unfortunate because we're talking about God and his nature—God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Some people are uncomfortable with the topic of the Holy Spirit altogether and it has to do with, I think, a lot of human behavior issues.

Biblically, the Holy Spirit is God actively working in the life of the believer. That's that part of God that works. When someone places their faith in Christ, I believe the Holy Spirit then indwells them. But Ephesians 5:18 also tells believers to be filled with the spirit.

That phrase "filled with the spirit" speaks of being continually influenced, directed, and even empowered by the Holy Spirit. As it turns out, everybody's controlled by something. We can be controlled by fear, anger, pride, worldly pressures. But the Christian is called to be controlled by, led by, the spirit of God instead of all those other things.

What is the fruit of the spirit filling your life? Galatians 5 tells us love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, and faith. The evidence of the spirit isn't merely emotional excitement. Some people represent it that way, but it's an inward transformation that brings this Christ-like kind of fruit.

I'm personally convinced the Holy Spirit really manifests itself not just in those fruits of the spirit, but also in 1 Corinthians 12 talks about the word of wisdom that a person can have, or a word of knowledge or faith, gifts of healing, and miracles even. That's the spirit working through someone.

Then it gets into prophecy, discerning spirits, tongues and interpretation of tongues. People get kind of hung up on those, but Paul said tongues is the least of all those gifts. We need to remember the Holy Spirit is a perfect help for us. That's why we need him as the help, the comforter, and to be filled with the spirit is to be really dialed in as a Christian.

Kurt: That is really a great description of who the Holy Spirit is and how he is indeed a complete help for us in time of need. Thank you, Pastor Brett. Well, I want to mention one more time, if you'd like more information about Pastor Brett Meador or Today's Word, just go to todayswordradio.com. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue in Acts and show us how God's desire is to use believers to accomplish his greater purposes.

Guest (Male): Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.