Written by Scott Fiddler
The Word
44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47 “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.
Acts 10:44–48
Reflection
Every time I read this passage, I think the same thing: If the Holy Spirit hadn’t fallen on the Gentiles with the evidence of speaking in tongues, would Peter and his fellow Jewish-Christian believers have believed the gospel was for them too?
What happened to Peter and his friends in this moment is what we call today a “paradigm shift.” A paradigm is a set of connected beliefs, an intellectual framework, if you will. Paradigms are how we make sense of the world. A paradigm shift happens when we realize a different paradigm provides a better explanation of a phenomenon. There is a natural inertia against adopting paradigm shifts because they upset our intellectual apple cart.
I’ve had a number of paradigm shifts in my walk with the Lord. One had to do with the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I’d been taught I received all I needed of the Holy Spirit when I was born again. But then when I compared my experience to the experience of believers in Acts, it was very different. I didn’t have power in my life. I struggled with the same sins and rarely shared the gospel. I certainly had never experienced speaking in tongues or prophecy.
My paradigm for understanding this disparity was provided by Cessationism. The Cessationism I had been taught held that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit were primarily to help jump-start the early church and passed away with the canonization of the Bible. This paradigm explained my experience—or lack of it—and I could have remained satisfied with it.
But I remember praying, “Lord, if You have something more for me, I want it.” So, I decided to study the Bible on the issue. And the more I studied, the less Cessationism made sense. Eventually, I came to a firm conviction that when it came to the power and gifts of the Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a subsequent experience, what was for the New Testament Christian was for the modern Christian.
Then something else happened. I began running into Christians who asked me if I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. That had never happened to me before. It was like the Lord wanted to make sure I believed in it before He offered it to me.
When one of them asked, I answered, “No, but I want to be.” She prayed for me, and I was baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Had my paradigm shift not happened before, I would not have been open to it, had faith for it, or had someone pray for me to receive it. Paradigm shifts are powerful things.
Reflection
None of us is as open-minded as we’d like to believe. We become comfortable with our understanding of God, sometimes mistaking our understanding for the truth itself. But God is committed to conforming us to the truth, and sometimes that requires a paradigm shift.
The question is whether we will be open to His leading or require Him to upset our intellectual apple cart.
Prayer
Lord, help me always to be open to a divine paradigm shift and Your nudging for change. Amen.
Leave a Reply