Acts 11:15-18

God is in total control. We will not fully understand the wisdom in HIStory until He chooses to reveal it to us…through the Holy Spirit. Always be seeking to hear Him and see how He uses current events and the people involved to bring about His will on earth!

God has not left us at the mercy of our own weaknesses; He has sent the Holy Spirit to help us follow their example, and to be Jesus’ witnesses in all of the earth. Christ places believers in the care and safekeeping of the Holy Spirit until the day He returns. The Samaritans were part Jewish; the Ethiopian eunuch and Cornelius were Jewish proselytes. Finally the Jewish Christians that made up the early church understood Jesus’ commission to them: they were to bring the gospel message to everyone who would listen.

The manifestation of the Holy Spirit was the same to the Gentiles at Caesarea as it was to the Jews at Jerusalem.

Acts:11:15-18 

¹⁵ And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. ¹⁶ Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ¹⁷ If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”

¹⁸ When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”

⁷ And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. ⁸ So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, ⁹ and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. 

Acts 15:7–9

¹¹ I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 

Matthew 3:11

³³ I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 

John 1:33

⁸ So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, 

Acts 15:8

⁶ Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” 

Isaiah 49:6

¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 

Romans 10:12