“And the believers were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 13:52 (NLT)
When Paul and Barnabas were run out of Antioch of Pisidia, it could have looked like the fire was about to die. The leaders were gone. The ones who planted the seed were gone. But the whole point of them showing up remained, because the believers had received the Word of God and had met Jesus. The source of their fire remained.
Acts says those believers were filled with joy and filled with the Holy Spirit. That takes me straight to Acts 8. Philip shows up in Samaria, the Word of God spreads, and the Word is accompanied by the power of God. People are healed from physical and spiritual afflictions, then joy fills that city. That is what happens when God moves. Relationship with God brings what only God can give us.
And here’s what hits me. Peter and John could leave Samaria after imparting Holy Spirit because the believers had everything they needed. The source wasn’t the leaders; the source was God. Paul and Barnabas could leave Antioch the same way. The relationship with God hadn’t left, and the power of God hadn’t left, because the believers were filled with the Holy Spirit. When you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, you can have a joy that will not run out and will not dwindle away, even when things shift and people disappear.
Romans 15:13 says God, the source of hope, fills us completely with joy and peace as we trust in Him, and then we overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. So today, I pray we would seek overflow in the middle of our chaos. Not by grabbing control, not by trusting our feelings, not by letting our circumstances preach to us. We must seek our source and put our trust in Him. And when we do, God will fill us with His joy and peace, then we can keep spreading wildfire for Jesus even in the middle of chaos.