Acts 2:17 // Summer of Scripture

Welcome to Summer of Scripture on the Naked marriage podcast. For 66 days in a row, we're releasing a short daily devotional for your marriage. Over these 66 days, we'll be sharing one scripture from each of the 66 books of the Bible and talking about how it applies to your life and marriage. Listen to all 66 episodes of these, and you'll have a better understanding of God's word and his perfect plan for your marriage. Let's dive in to today's scripture.

Welcome to day 44. We are in the book of Acts. The book of Acts comes right after the Gospels, which are the stories of Jesus. And it records the story of the early church, kind of how the early church was born right after the resurrection of Jesus, how the early church came together. It's a wonderful book written by Luke, who also wrote the Gospel of Luke. And today's verse is Acts 2:17. In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. So while Acts is telling the story historically, that early church, it's also looking ahead to the church in our day. And God's making promises about what's happening in our time and what we can expect. And I love this, that he's pouring out his spirit on all people. Yes, sons and daughters prophesy. There'll be visions and dreams. And God wants to do something new in us and through us. And you, you listening right now? You're part of that. You might think, but I'm not a preacher. I'm not this or that. But no, you're a part of this. God has a plan for you and your spouse, for your family. And if you're part of the family of God, and if you're not, you can be. He wants you to be. Put your faith and hope in Jesus Christ. He's inviting you into his family. There's a role for you to play within the kingdom that he's establishing.

There is. And I love this verse because it talks about visions and dreams. And again, I think some people, even Christians, are like, whoa, I don't know if that still happens today. Like, don't you know, that's kind of weird. It gives me the heebie jeebies or whatever you want to say, but to me, it makes me excited, Right? And I think that today, and I've heard other people, like missionaries, talk about how there's in other cultures, like when they travel across the world to other cultures People talk about visions and dreams more openly and you see more. It seems like almost more people are experiencing them. But I had a missionary friend of ours once say, I don't necessarily think it's that more people are experiencing them over in these third world countries where people are going on mission assignments. He said, I think it's that we are experiencing these things, but we push it away and we don't know. We don't want to talk about it. We don't understand it because it freaks us out. And it seems like, I don't know about that. But let me tell you, lean into it. Like, if you want to have more. Like, if you want more vision from the Lord, and if you want to have dreams, like have. Have dreams from the Lord, pray and ask for them. Like, I was talking to somebody recently and they said, I've actually started. Pray God, give me dreams that you bring me that are specifically for me and the calling that you have on my life and my family's life. Because I think, ask and you shall receive. I think that it's just being more open to it, right, sweetie?

Yeah, being open. God, he wants to speak to all of us. And that doesn't always mean that he's going to shine a light from heaven and speak through a burning bush and you're going to audibly hear his voice. I've never audibly heard God's voice. I picture him sounding like James Earl Jones, but I don't know. But he speaks to us all. He first speaks to us through scripture. I mean, scripture is a text message from God straight to you. Think about that. Like, whenever I get a text message, I instantly grab my phone and with a sense of urgency.

You almost wrecked the car.

Yeah.

Don't text and drive.

I know. She tells me that, and it's true.

I'm like, don't do it here.

The God of the universe, your heavenly father, your creator, has sent you this text message, this living, breathing message of his Word, the Bible. And so many of us leave it unread. And so I commend you for even listening to this podcast, which is about scripture and knowing more of God's Word. But I encourage you to not stop with just these episodes, but let it develop a hunger inside of you to know God's Word more. That's one of the main ways he speaks to us. He speaks to us through sometimes the words of other Christian friends. He can give us a specific word. He speaks to us through our own prayers, through those nudges we feel in our spirit. That kind of pull us one way or another. Those spiritual instincts that he's given us. And we can fine tune all of that. The more we pray, the more we walk with God. We study His Word. And then sometimes he might surprise you and speak to you in a way that seems completely supernatural. But just know God is capable of speaking to us in so many different ways. And so don't limit him or don't think, well, God would never speak to me through a dream because he might. All through Scripture. We see him speaking to people through dreams and visions and visions.

And we actually have some dear mentors of ours. The wife, I mean, she regularly has these dreams that I know are from the Lord and she shared some with me. And it's astounding, you know, but it's amazing too. And I will say this. You know, I think the reason that we tend to shy away kind of in our modern culture from accepting or even like being willing to try to lean into or understand dreams or visions that we think might be from God is because they've been played out kind of in a cheesy way through TV and media and things like that.

And there are a lot of people that.

And people have abused them. Like, that's certainly. Yeah, they've a lot of abuse.

It's turned into showmanship. It's turned into just wackiness.

Exactly. And I would say, how do you know if it's from God? The only way that you can know it's from God is that. Well, not the only way. One big way. I'll rephrase it that way. One big way you can know it's from God is that it's in line with scripture. God's character, because he is never going to give you a dream or vision that is counter to His Word and counter to his character. And so if it is, or like if you're receiving something that's counter to his word or character, it's not probably from God. Or if you hear even a preacher giving you, like, saying, this is my vision, this was my dream, and it's not count. It's not aligning with God's Word or His character, I would not trust that. Okay. That's how we know. Because God, it's very. His character is consistent throughout Scripture. And we know that His Word is true and God breathed. And so we have to put it through that filter.

We absolutely do. And. And just keep seeking God.

Yes.

Bible says you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. And so just like you're doing now? Listening. This is an act of seeking God. Studying scripture, attending church, you know, looking up teachings on YouTube or, you know, sermons. I mean, there's so much free content out there. There are books. Keep seeking the Lord. Do things that we know he's called us to do, like using your gifts to serve in your community for his glory. And you'll be surprised how God will meet you right there in unique ways. So read the Book of Acts because it's full of amazing, encouraging stories of God's spirit moving through his people. And it excites me for what he's doing today and for what he's going to do in the future. So God is still and always on the move, and we're so thankful for that. You and your spouse, you're a missionary duo commissioned by God to have a world changing impact in the world. So talk to each other about what that might look like in this season, how you could serve together in this season. Well, guys, thanks for tuning in. Join us tomorrow. Day 45, we will be in the book of Romans.