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Heeding the Gospel
📖 Acts 16:14-14
Acts 16 - Series 03/Episode 14 - Fri, 10th July 2026 - Heeding the Gospel - Acts 16:11-15 - LYDIA'S CONVERSION - I Corinthians 02:04-05
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Acts 16:14 Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.
The Lord opened the heart of Lydia to heed the Gospel spoken by Paul. We are messengers of the Gospel, but it is the Lord who is speaking through us and bringing conviction and transformation in the hearts of the hearers.
The Lord, with utmost patience, expounded to the disciples, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself. Luke 24:25-27 Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! (26) Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" (27) And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
The hindrance in the disciples that prevented the word of God from transforming them was their slowness to believe. Hebrews 5:12-15 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. (13) For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. (14) But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
When we are slow to believe and apply the word into our lives, then we are still babes, who can only feed on milk and not solid food. Those who are of full age are those who have their senses trained to discern good and evil based on the word. They have taken God at His word and applied the word to their lives by faith. This application of God's word into our lives by faith is righteousness.
Faith is the God‑given means by which we receive His Word, obey it, and stand righteous before Him. Romans 1:5 Through Him we have received grace and apostleship *for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, This was the faith of Abraham that made Him righteous before God. Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. / James 2:22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?
Since the disciples were not moving forward in this journey with God of faith in Him, leading to obedience, they were being foolish and slow of heart to believe in the Scriptures.
It is the Spirit of God who reveals the application of Scripture in our lives. I Corinthians 2:10-11 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. (11) For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
When we have come to Christ, we have received His Spirit. I Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. / Galatians 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"
We speak, understand and function in the realm of the Spirit of God. I Corinthians 2:13 These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
The natural man will find the things of the Spirit of God quite bewildering and strange. The people of the world will consider those whom the Spirit of God is leading to be foolish and not smart enough to survive in the materialistic world. I Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Since the words of God are matters of the Spirit of God, it is God alone who will open the hearts of people to believe and receive God's word. Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
Paul, being aware of the Holy Spirit's dynamics, was eager to witness the demonstration of God's Spirit in his ministry. I Corinthians 2:4-5 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, (5) that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
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