Following Jesus will always call us out of our regular routine and into a life of Spirit-led risk. For one person, the Ethiopian Eunich, life was transformed because a believer stepped out of his routine and moved with the prompting of the Spirit. We often assume that moving with the Spirit should be emphatic and logical, but often it is a small move and it doesn’t always make a lot of sense. In Acts 8, the Holy Spirit prompts Philip in an odd way, with very few details other than telling Philip to go and run near a chariot on the road. As Philip trails the chariot, he overhears the Ethiopian Eunich reading from the prophet Isaiah and asks a simple question: Do you understand what you are reading? We see from this chapter, that the Holy Spirit moves us from a life of routine to one that takes risks through leaning into small promptings and asking simple questions… even if it’s a little illogical and uncertain. In doing this we see that it isn’t Philip’s qualifications, but his faithfulness that unlock hope in the life of the Ethiopian Eunich. When Jesus left he promised that He would send His Spirit to be with us always. That means that the Spirit is always moving in us and we want to people who catch the wind of the spirit in our everyday lives. We have been given the power of the Spirit within us, and that is not a Spirit of timidity, but one that moves us to faithful action.
