How to discover your vision (4)

“He saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, ‘Cornelius!’” Acts 10:3 NKJV

When God wants to change the status quo, He often starts by giving someone a vision. That’s what broke a centuries-old racial barrier and allowed the Gentiles to hear the gospel preached for the first time. Did you know you can be a Christian and be prejudiced? Indeed, you can be a believer and be biased toward people you don’t really know or understand because you have spent your life avoiding them and making judgments about them. Jesus told His disciples, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14 NKJV). And Peter was present when Jesus said it. But either he wasn’t listening, or he didn’t like what he heard. Back then, the divide between Jews and Gentiles was as deep as the divide between blacks and whites in America before the civil rights movement. God told Peter to go to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, and preach the gospel to a person Peter considered to be “unclean.” Prejudice is the product of a closed mind. It is contempt prior to honest investigation. It is pride that must be humbled. So how did God change Peter’s heart? It required not one, but two different visions! God gave Cornelius a vision in which He told him to invite a Jewish preacher named Peter into his home to preach the gospel. And at the same time, He gave Peter a vision in which He told him, “If I accept someone, don’t you dare reject them!” The truth is, when God wants to change things, He starts the process by giving someone a vision—and that someone could be you!

Bible in a year: Genesis 16-17 and Matthew 5:27-48