Acts 10: 1-8, 17
1 In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. 2He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. 3One afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, ‘Cornelius.’ 4He stared at him in terror and said, ‘What is it, Lord?’ He answered, ‘Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; 6he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.’ 7When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him, 8and after telling them everything, he sent them to Joppa.
17 Now while Peter was greatly puzzled about what to make of the vision that he had seen, suddenly the men sent by Cornelius appeared. They were asking for Simon’s house and were standing by the gate.
Don’t you wish you had such clear directions for your journey of faith: go here, go there. Cornelius may have been trying to discern how he could be involved with the God he feared, or maybe how he could be accepted into the faith community. “What is it Lord,” Go “Send your men to Joppa and look for Peter!”
And then God uses a double vision to get Peter to provide an answer for Cornelius. The result of which is that they both grow beyond the traditions, or customs, into the spirituality of God’s kingdom. But it all began with both of them being involved with the discipline of spiritual practices, prayer and fasting. And so it can be the same for you. It is up to you to subject yourself to the disciplines.
Sure, this story is about the spread of Christianity to the Gentiles, but it shows how God uses those who search for him.
