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  ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB
The One Year Bible Club with Teaching
Commentary by Nick Boork

June 15
​Acts 10:1-23
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June 15 ~ Acts 10:1-23
There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, 2 a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always. 3 About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius!” 4 And when he observed him, he was afraid, and said, “What is it, lord?” So he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter. 6 He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.[a] He will tell you what you must do.” 7 And when the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier from among those who waited on him continually. 8 So when he had explained all these things to them, he sent them to Joppa.

9 The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. 10 Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance 11 and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 13 And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” 15 And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” 16 This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again.

17 Now while Peter wondered within himself what this vision which he had seen meant, behold, the men who had been sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon’s house, and stood before the gate. 18 And they called and asked whether Simon, whose surname was Peter, was lodging there. 19 While Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are seeking you. 20 Arise therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them.” 21 Then Peter went down to the men who had been sent to him from Cornelius,[b] and said, “Yes, I am he whom you seek. For what reason have you come?” 22 And they said, “Cornelius the centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house, and to hear words from you.” 23 Then he invited them in and lodged them. On the next day Peter went away with them, and some brethren from Joppa accompanied him.

OKAY, HERE'S MY TEACHING COMMENTARY

Talk about divine guidance!

God knows how to direct our affairs and guide us in his purposes. In the case of Peter and Cornelius let’s look at all the elements involved here. With Cornelius he was praying and saw a vision of an angel appearing to him with a message directing him to contact the apostle Peter and gave him the exact address where he was staying. With Peter, he also was praying and saw a vision of all kinds of unclean animals being let down in a sheet and he heard the voice of the Lord speak to him in the vision saying arise Peter kill and eat to which Peter objected because it was against the dietary laws of the Old Testament. Peter was Jewish and did not eat anything unclean. However, God was trying to use this to communicate to him that now the Gentiles, the non-Jewish people of the world we’re cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Of course every individual still would need to make a decision, believe, repent and receive Jesus Christ as Savior but the point is that now salvation was available to the entire world because Jesus died on the cross and rose again and his blood was available to cleanse every human soul! This was the meaning of the vision. Why? Because God told Peter in the vision three times what God had cleansed do not call common or unholy. This is why Peter saw a sheet full of animals instead of people and this is why God also said to Peter arise, kill and eat.  It was a spiritual meaning not a literal meaning. Remember how Jesus told his disciples that unless they eat his flesh and drink his blood and they had no life in them? Ref; John 6:63 in the amplified version reads:  It is the Spirit Who gives life [He is the Life-giver]; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever [there is no profit in it]. The words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are spirit and life.

It was a spiritual truth about having faith to receive the redeeming work of Jesus, not cannibalism that the Lord was teaching when he said you had to eat his flesh and drink his blood to have eternal life! This is where we need to have discernment to understand the dreams and visions that we receive because many times the Lord uses images, pictures, symbols and typology to speak to us about his purposes. As Peter thought about the vision there was a knock at the door. It was the men Cornelius had sent looking for Peter. At that very moment, the Holy Spirit spoke to Peter and told him to go with these men because he had sent them. Now what were the chances that all of this could’ve come together by accident? I’ll tell you, next to 0% possibility. Only God could divinely direct Cornelius to connect with the apostle Peter. Remember, there was a cultural barrier between Jews and Gentiles back in those days. They just didn’t hang out with each other down at the local Starbucks!

I’ve experienced some divine guidance that I can say is only supernatural from God in heaven. I’ll never forget when I was a student at Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas Texas. I was only 18 years old and felt that God wanted me to attend this Bible school to prepare myself for the ministry. I felt God’s call to be a missionary while studying there. Once a year they had a missions week and had several missions agencies and organizations come and represent themselves at school. I was attracted to this one called World Indigenous Missions. They specialized in cross-cultural evangelism and church planting. I talked to the representatives and was praying about joining them after graduation and serving as a missionary.

At the time they had less than 60 missionaries around the world. After I graduated I went back to my home church in Royal Oak Michigan Woodlawn Church of God. The youth pastor at the time was Doug Bliss.  He asked me what I felt like God was calling me to do and I told him missions. He told me that he was planning on taking a small group from the church on a short-term mission trip in the summer. Guess what group he was going through? You got it, World Indigenous Missions from New Braunfels Texas!  Now out of hundreds of thousands of churches across the United States, what are the chances that at that moment in time our church would be connected with this tiny missions organization based out of New Braunfels Texas?

To make a long story short, I did go on that short-term mission trip and connected with Jerry Morris, a missionary who had planted 20+ churches in Tampico Mexico. I knew in my spirit that I was supposed to connect with him as an apprentice missionary and that’s exactly what happened. First, I studied Spanish language and culture for an intensive nine months and graduated with my diploma from Kingsway Missionary Institute in McAllen Texas. Then I sold everything I owned and moved to the Dominican Republic. Jerry Morris had moved from Mexico to the Caribbean island of the Dominican Republic. He was setting up a new missionary training center there. I followed him there as a missionary apprentice learning cross-cultural evangelism and church planting. The relationship I developed with Jerry Morris and the training I received radically impacted the direction of my life and ministry until this very day. It was during my time in the Dominican Republic that I also met and married my wife Yngris. Talk about divine guidance! But that’s a story I’ll share another time. I also have received what I can only describe as a divine vision from the Lord while in prayer and a couple of destiny dreams which I will include here along with my interpretations.  I have to say, that I have seen this vision and these dreams literally coming to pass and I sense that I am right in the middle of God’s destiny for my life.

VISION OF THE ARMY OF GOD

God promises that in the last days He will pour out His Spirit upon all people. Visions and dreams were prophesied to reveal God’s purposes to His Church. Ref; Joel 2:17. On August 1, 2001 about a month before my wife Yngris and I went to Singapore as missionaries I had an experience while praying that I can only describe as a vision sent by God. I was praying in my living room on my knees. Suddenly, it was as if I was standing on the side of a mountain. I looked down in the valley and there was an army.

Out of the army came a unit of fighting soldiers running up the side of the mountain. They passed me and as I turned in the vision I saw that there was another group of enemy soldiers guarding a iron door made of bars in the side of the mountain and chained. The unit that came up from the valley defeated the soldiers that were guarding this door. Then they broke the chains and opened the door. Out came all kinds of thin, weak and bruised looking people.

The soldiers led them down the mountain and as I looked at the army now I saw there were two tents in the midst of the army. One had written on the top “Healing” the other had “Equipping”. Everyone of the people liberated from the mountain streamed into one of the tents. Then the army was enlarged, grew in size and multiplied. Then the vision lifted.

INTERPRETING THE VISION

Wow! I thought to myself. I think God was speaking to me through the vision. I believe He was giving me a “Destiny Vision" of what He was calling me to do in the ministry. After much thought and prayer I have come to a few conclusions about the vision:
  • The Army is the whole Body of Christ, made up of individual Christians and local churches around the world.
  • The unit of soldiers are those that will go out and do the work of evangelism.
  • The soldiers that were resisting are demons.
  • The mountain is the kingdom of darkness.
  • The gate and chains represent spiritual bondage.
  • The people liberated represent the lost and backslidden.
  • The tent of healing is symbolic of the anointing of the Holy Spirit to restore and heal the total man.
  • The tent of equipping represents the discipling and training of believers, turning them into soldiers for Christ.
  • The expansion of the army represents church growth as a result of evangelism and discipleship.

The same day that I had this vision two books arrived at my home that spoke of the church as the spiritual army of God. I was amazed! I wrote on the inside cover of each of the books the date I had the vision and have them in my library today. The fulfillment of this vision has been the quest of my life since the day I received it and have continually sought God for His guidance how to see it realized. When God gives you a vision He will also show you HOW to develop it. God is faithful to reveal His strategies step by step if we will have faith and trust Him.

The book, "Developing the Preacher within you!" is part of my effort to follow the vision God gave me to raise up an army of preachers that are trained to testify and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to fulfill the Great Commission of Christ locally and internationally. I believe God would have churches all around the world to start “Developing the Preacher within you!” groups to equip the saints to do the work of evangelism, learning how to win souls, preach the Word and build up the Body of Christ.

TWO DESTINY DREAMS

After over three years of intense ministry in Singapore doing evangelism and church planting my wife Yngris and I returned to Utica, Michigan. I will never forget the day we returned. It was November 15, 2004. We went from living on the equator with typical temperatures of 80 degrees and sunshine all year to freezing cold wind and snow! Even though I was born in Ypsilanti Michigan the cold was a shock to my system. I thought I was going to die that winter as I battled the flu several times. However, a bright spot I can point to was a couple of spiritual dreams that I can only describe as destiny dreams for my life and ministry. In the Bible, Joseph had two dreams (Genesis 37:5-10) and Pharaoh of Egypt had two dreams (Genesis 41) God speaks to His people through dreams and visions.

THE DREAM OF THE BUS

The first dream I had was of Yngris and myself inside of a bus, kind of like a Grey Hound bus. We were cleaning the front window on the inside of the bus. This was the dream. My interpretation is that God was going to be sending us into a traveling ministry and we would be traveling together but we were in the process of getting clear vision.

THE DREAM OF THE GARDEN HOE TURNED TO BREAD

The next night I had another dream. In this dream I was lifting up a garden hoe and it went right through the clouds. As the hoe passed through the clouds I saw a work shop and an old man was sitting at one of those circular grind stones used to sharpen things. I saw the Father take my hoe in His hands and apply it to the grind stone and sparks flew everywhere as He put a new sharp edge on my hoe. Then He pushed it back down through the clouds and I pulled it down and in the dream I looked at it and the part of the hoe that is used to move the dirt, the head of the hoe, was not steel but was now in the form of a large slice of bread. Then in the dream I saw myself going forth hoeing across the fields.

My interpretation of the dream:

The hoe represents my gift and call to preach.

Me lifting the hoe up to the Father represents prayer to God.

The Father taking the hoe and putting a new edge on it represents God preparing me to be the preacher He has called me to be.

The conversion of the head of the hoe from metal to bread represents God giving me transformational messages full of divine life and revelation knowledge. Bread represents Jesus, the Bread of Life and His Word!

Me going forth hoeing the fields is symbolic of God’s call to me to be preacher of the Word of God and that the Word or message I will preach will be sowing the Word of eternal life doing the work of an Evangelist.

These two dreams made a deep impression upon me. Since having these two dreams I have seriously sought God in prayer for His guidance to see them fulfilled according to His plans and purposes. This book “Developing the Preacher with in you” and "How to start a Developing the Preacher within you group at your Church" are the fruits of my pursuit of God's call as revealed in the vision and dreams I experienced.

Since being saved I have been telling people about Jesus Christ and His salvation. Teaching and preaching the Word of God is the joy of my life and just comes easy to me. God gives dreams and visions to help guide His people in His purposes. I believe God has called me to be a Preacher, Teacher and an Evangelist. With the help of the Holy Spirit I will fulfill the plan and purpose of God for my life, do my part in the Body of Christ and multiply these ministries in others to win souls and build up churches where ever the Lord leads until the day I stand before my Lord and Savior!

WHAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE?

1) The God revealed in the Holy Bible is the living God and has the ability to communicate!

2) God uses dreams, visions and prophecy for his purposes.

3) God speaks through the Holy Spirit to his servants.

4) God can even use his holy angels to appear in visions and communicate.

5) How do you know if A vision, dream or Angel is from God? God will never speak contrary to his written word. 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21

6) The primary way that God communicates to us is through his written word and the inward witness of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 8:20, Romans 8:16

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