When God Interrupts Your Life for a Greater Purpose | Acts 8–9

Welcome back to The Bible Made Real Podcast with Kathy Abraham. In this episode, Kathy walks through Acts chapters 8 and 9, exploring the expansion of the early Church, the power of the Holy Spirit, the conversion of Saul, and how God uses ordinary people for extraordinary Kingdom purposes. 

Episode Overview

This episode marks a major transition in the book of Acts.

The first seven chapters focused primarily on the Church in Jerusalem. Now, beginning in Acts 8, the Gospel starts spreading into Judea and Samaria—fulfilling Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8:

• “You shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (NKJV)

Kathy explores how persecution, suffering, divine interruptions, and radical transformation all became instruments God used to expand His Church. 

Acts Chapter 8 — The Gospel Scattered & Multiplied

1. Saul Begins Persecuting the Church

Key Passage:

Acts 8:1–3

Following the martyrdom of Stephen, Saul violently persecutes Christians—dragging men and women into prison and making “havoc” of the Church. 

Key Themes:

• Religious zeal without truth
• Spiritual blindness
• God’s ability to transform anyone

Kathy emphasizes the contrast between who Saul was in Acts 8 and who he becomes later as the Apostle Paul. No one is beyond redemption.

Real-Life Application:

• Never write someone off.
• God can transform the hardest heart.
• Your past does not disqualify you from your calling.

2. Persecution Leads to Expansion

Key Passage:

Acts 8:4

• “Those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.”

The believers were scattered because of persecution, yet God used their displacement to spread the Gospel. 

Key Themes:

• Divine disruption
• Growth through discomfort
• God’s purposes in unexpected transitions

Real-Life Application:

Sometimes the very thing that feels like opposition is actually God repositioning you for expansion.

Kathy reminds listeners:

• Closed doors may be divine direction.
• Hard seasons can become holy redirections.
• God often grows us through discomfort.

3. Philip Preaches in Samaria

Key Passage:

Acts 8:5–8

Philip preaches in Samaria and many people are healed, delivered, and filled with joy. 

Historical Context:

The Samaritans were historically despised by many Jews because of intermarriage and cultural mixing after the Assyrian conquest.

Yet God intentionally brings the Gospel to them.

Key Themes:

• The Gospel breaks barriers
• Salvation is for all people
• Jesus brings lasting joy

Real-Life Application:

The Gospel is not limited by:

• ethnicity
• background
• status
• culture
• past mistakes

God’s heart is for everyone.

4. Simon the Sorcerer & the Danger of Wrong Motives

Key Passage:

Acts 8:9–24

Simon the sorcerer believes and is baptized, but later attempts to buy the power of the Holy Spirit with money. Peter rebukes him sharply. 

Key Themes:

• False motives
• Spiritual pride
• Influence vs. purity of heart

Major Takeaway:

You can desire spiritual things while still having impure motives.

Real-Life Application:

This is a warning for anyone in ministry, leadership, or public influence:

• God cares deeply about the condition of the heart.
• Platform without purity is dangerous.
• Ministry must flow from surrender, not ambition.

5. Philip & the Et

Welcome to The Bible Made Real.

Be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss upcoming episodes.

You can connect with Kathy on Instagram @kathyabidinglight and learn more at kathyabraham.com. 

Transcript

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Welcome to the Bible Made Real Podcast. I'm Kathy Abraham. And in this episode, we're going to be continuing our study on the book of Acts. We're going to be looking at chapters eight and nine of Acts. And so chapter eight actually starts another segment. In the beginning, if you were with me when we first recorded Acts chapter one, I talked about how Acts is divided into three parts. And so the first part, the first seven chapters, are really the church in Jerusalem. And here in chapter eight, now we see the expansion of the church happening in Judea and Samaria, where Jesus said in Acts 1.8, he told them, You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. So now we're actually transitioning to this next part. Okay, so here we are in Acts chapter 8. At the end of Acts chapter 7 was the martyrdom of Stephen. Okay, he was stoned to death under the consent of Saul. And so this is exactly how chapter 8 opens. And here we see Saul persecuting the church. And we will go through um the events here in chapter 8 and in chapter 9, summarize them, and talk about how they apply to your real life today and what you can take away and learn from these chapters in Acts. So let's begin. Acts chapter 8 opens up with Saul persecuting the church. Now he consented to the death of Stephen, which we know, uh the persecution of Stephen and his burial. And this is how it opens. Okay, and as at verse 3, we say here it says, as for Saul, he made havoc on the church, entering every house, dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. I just want you to remember this because later in chapter nine, we're gonna see the conversion of Saul into Paul, one of the greatest apostles and teachers of all times of the gospel. But you're gonna see that I just want you to remember um what he was doing. He was wrecking havoc on the church and actually dragging women and men into the street. So this is um not someone who was like protesting on the side of the road, but actually killing and harming and hurting the church. We're gonna see his amazing transformation later and how Jesus can use anybody to preach the gospel and uh to be a saint. Okay. So Christ is preached in Samaria. So what happens after that? Okay, as we continue on, if you look at verse four, it says, Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. The they were scattered because they had to be, because of persecution. There was opposition and they began to scatter away from Jerusalem. And what was happening? It was the expansion of the gospel. So this displacement was actually a divine displacement. Okay, sometimes we have to be uncomfortable in order for us to move and to grow and to do the thing that God wants us to do. So this means every closed door, anytime you face opposition, persecution, you're misunderstood, things are not going the way you wanted them to go. A move, a certain shift or change in your life may actually be God's direction, God's expansion, God's new thing that he's doing. The growth that is happening is just hard to see in the moment. But we see this very clearly here in the book of Acts that the growth of the church happens because they become scattered. Okay, so then Philip went down to the city of Samaria. Now, this is not Philip, one of the 12 uh disciples. Okay, this is Philip that was um arranged, ordained as a deacon uh by the apostles when they had to go start preaching and they needed people to care for the riddles. We talked about this earlier in another episode. This is that Philip who was um among them, one of the Greek-speaking Jews that was filled with the Holy Spirit that we see in uh chapter six. That's what it was. Okay, let's continue. So Philip went out to Samaria, okay, to preach the gospel there. And what happened? So many people were healed, miracles happened, demons were cast out, paralyzed men were healed, and there was great joy in that city. Now, I just want you to remember Samaria was um during the conquest of the northern kingdom in BC 722. Samaria was taken over by the Assyrians. Okay, so Samaria was that middle area between uh north um Israel, okay, and Judea. Samaria was in the middle. And so this population began to interbreed and mix. So they were considered unpure because there were so many different marriages, and the population had kind of fizzled over time because of the displacement uh after the the attacks of the Assyrian in the in the northern kingdom. So uh the Samaritans were always kind of considered impure, unclean, looked down upon. And here the gospel is being brought to them. They are healed, and there is great joy in this city. And this is really a testament, how the gospel breaks barriers, reaches other people, the broken, the lost, uh, those that are unfamiliar to us or different than us. It doesn't matter. The gospel is for everybody. And so this is a good uh wake-up call for us to get rid of our prejudice and get rid of our uh small mind thinking and thinking that the gospel is only for a certain amount of people when it's for everyone. And notice how it says the city was filled with great joy because now they are being saved. Great joy is a real deep joy that happens uh when Jesus is brought into a city, into a town, into your home, into your life. It is not just a happy moment, it is eternal, everlasting, full, deep joy. Okay, let's move on to the next section. So the next section is about Simon the Sorcerer. Here, uh, Philip is in Samaria preaching the gospel. He's baptizing people, and there is a man named Simon who is a sorcerer, doing all kinds of magic, getting attention for people. But now he's seeing that there is another greater power than him, right? Power of the Holy Spirit. And the power of the Holy Spirit is being preached and baptizing people. And so he hears the gospel from Philip and he actually believes and he becomes baptized. And then he sees Peter and John praying for the Holy Spirit to come down to those who are baptized, as it had not come down yet to them, by the laying of their hands. So Peter and John are praying for the Holy Spirit to come down, they lay their hands on them, and the Holy Spirit comes. And so Simon is like, Oh my goodness, how did you do this? I want this magic. And what does he do? He asks for this great power. He says, Can you give me this great power also? Uh, that you have uh the gift to have people receive the Holy Spirit and he offered them money. So Peter gets really angry with him in verse 20. And Peter says, Your money perish with you. He basically curses him. He curses him in his money, and he says, Because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money, but you have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. How many times could our heart not be right in the sight of God? We may want good things, right? We may have a public platform, we may want influence, we may want power, um, and we may even wanting to be do it for the name of God or for God's sake, right? Or to bring God glory. But he's saying, your heart is far from God. It is not right in the sight of God. This is a check for us to keep our hearts pure and our intents pure before God. It's so easy to get caught up in the wrong intention and the wrong motives, even doing something good for God. So uh he quickly repents and he asks Peter to forgive him and he says, sorry, I'm sorry, this should not have happened. He says, Pray to the Lord for me, uh, that none of the things which you've spoken may come upon me. Uh so basically he's saying, please, I hope none of these curses will happen because he's telling him, For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity. So he prays for him and they testified of the gospel, and they returned to Jerusalem. Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages there in uh Samaria. Now, this last section in chapter eight is really interesting. Uh, Philip has an encounter with an angel who directs him and tells him to go to this Ethiopian eunuch to tell him about Jesus and to preach to him. So it is a really cool story. If you listen to this, um it says the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip. This is verse 25, uh, sorry, 26, and he says, Arise, go towards the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, and this is the desert. So he went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Canais, the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all of her treasury, had come to Jerusalem to worship. And returning, sitting in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Okay. And the spirit told Philip, Go to him and take over his chariot. Imagine what Philip is thinking, but he does. He obeys the spirit and he runs over to him, he hears him reading this prophet Isaiah and says, Do you understand what you are reading? Clearly, he didn't understand it. He needed interpretation, and that is exactly why the angel of the Lord sent him to interpret this. And he says, How can I, unless someone guides me? He has no idea what he's reading. And he is asking for guidance. And he asked Philip to come up with him and sit with him. And this is the place of the scripture where he was reading. Now, this is really interesting. The eunuch was reading Isaiah 53, the suffering servant, okay? And he reads this passage to him. Um, Philip actually reads it to him. And then you the eunuch answers Philip and says, I ask of you, whom does the prophet uh say this? Is he talking about himself or some other man? The suffering servant is about Jesus, right? And so Philip opened his mouth and taught him the scripture and preached Jesus to him. And they went down the road and they found water. And then the eunuch said, Here is water, what hinders me from being baptized? So Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, and you say you may be baptized. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. So he commanded the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down to the water and he baptized him. And when he came out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went in his way, rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotos, and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. Okay, this was a very holy spiritual detour. But wow, what amazement. This is how the gospel was sent to Africa. Okay. Ethiopia was part of Africa. And uh this is exactly how it was spread with one man. One man. Sometimes we think, what am I? I'm only one person. How can I make a difference in this world? It's just me. There's nothing that I can do that can help or make a difference. That is so untrue. Read the book of Acts and you'll see it's one person, it's one tongue, it's one Holy Spirit, it's one person claiming and preaching. Peter converted 3,000 in one sermon. It's a Samaritan woman going to her city and saying, Hey, I had an encounter with the living Jesus, and they all were saved. This is the power of the gospel. Don't underestimate the value of the one person because it's not about you. God is not limited by one. God works in and through everything. And so this eunuch was hungry and thirsty. He was a holy and righteous man. He was seeking God. And notice what was he reading? He was reading Isaiah. This was the a prophetic Old Testament scripture, and that is where he found the Lord. You know, a lot of us um discredit the Old Testament, right? We think we don't need it, or it won't help us, or it's not the way to preach the gospel. It's not part of the gospel. That is not true. It was Isaiah that brought him to the scripture and to Christ and revealed Jesus to him through the Old Testament. So Jesus is in the Old Testament and Jesus is in the New Testament. He is all over Scripture, all over to be found, ready to be found. And let's talk about Philip for a second now. Philip was on a mission, right? He was baptizing, converting, preaching miracles, and God sends him over there to this one area for one person. And he's not, you know, it's not like a lot of us would be like, oh, that's too little for me. Like you're asking me to go there. It's almost like a demotion. It's like saying, Hey, you're doing all these things. You're converting the whole city. I need you to go speak to this one person who's a eunuch from Ethiopia. And he's gonna be like, Why are you wasting my time? But Philip obeys and he is taken by the spirit there. He does what he needs to do, he baptizes him. And notice how the spirit removes him right away and places him somewhere else. So don't be shocked if God has you in a conversation you never expected or in a situation you never thought could happen, because God's placement is so above beyond our comprehension. And for such a divine purpose, you and I may not even understand ever on this side of heaven. But that's okay. As long as we are working with the Holy Spirit and there's a synergy there, we are in um agreement with the Spirit and we're getting on board with what God is trying to do in your life and in the life of others. You could be someone else's answer prayer. Someone else could be saying, Lord, send me someone to explain this to me. And you could be that person. So don't underestimate the one small significant thing God is asking you to do. It may seem small in your eyes, but wow, the entire gospel was brought to a continent because of this encounter and interaction. All right, so this concludes our study on Acts chapter eight. And now let's move on to Acts chapter nine. Okay, Acts chapter nine. Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the way, which is the new movement of Christianity, whether men or women, he might bring them to bound to be bound in Jerusalem. Imagine, okay, Saul is heavily persecuting the church. He is so zealous, yet he's completely spiritually blind. You can be so committed to something, yet have the wrong um understanding. And that's what Saul lacked. He lacked truth, he lacked knowledge, he lacked correction. He needed that. He was spiritually blind. And look, and look what God does. Verse three, as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, Who are you, Lord? Then the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goats. So he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what have what do you want me to do? Then the Lord said to him, Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what to do. So the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one. Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus, and he was there three days without sight sight, and neither neither ate nor drank. Okay, what just happened? He had an encounter. Okay, he had a divine spiritual encounter. Paul, Saul, was moving fast. He was moving fast, persecuting the church. He was on a mission, he was so zealous, but he was going in the wrong direction, and God had to stop him quickly, abruptly. He needed this sort of um sting. He needed a wake-up call. And sometimes we need that in our life too. Unfortunately, sometimes it's a crisis or it's a some something we never expected could happen fast, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, and it just takes you back. It's an awakening, and sometimes that's what God does. He tries to awake us and shake us. And what can seem like a crisis is actually mercy. God is merciful to say, hey, stop, slow down. You are going the wrong direction. You are going to harm yourself and others so much more. Stop. And he redirects us. So Paul Saul, I keep calling him Paul, Saul, was spiritually blind. And now he is physically blind. This is not a coincidence. Okay. God is doing this on purpose because he is trying to start over. He wants to say, You don't know me, you don't see me. I'm going to give you a real encounter with me. You're going to understand who I am and you're going to see the truth very soon. He is resetting him and basically transforming him into a completely, entirely new person, which we will see here uh very soon. So he is blind, he cannot see. His companions took him to Damascus and he sat there three days, three nights without food, water, blind. This is a very type of uh burial, crucifixion, you know, three days in the tomb sort of situation here for Saul. All right, let's move on. Okay, the next section talks about Ananias baptizing Saul. So uh there was a certain disciple of Damascus named Ananias, and to him the Lord said in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Here I am, Lord. We see this a lot, right? The here I am, Lord. We see that in Samuel, we see that in Abraham, we see this in a lot of uh the prophets of the Old Testament. So the Lord said to him, Arise and go to the street called straight and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. And in a vision, he has seen a man named Ananias coming to him and putting his hand on him so that he may receive sight. Do you see how God orchestrates this again? He arranges it. He says, Paul is being prepared for this, right? Saul of Tarsus is being prepared. He already had a vision that you're gonna come to him. And so now God comes and talks to Ananias. He does that in our life. Sometimes he'll put somebody on your heart. Somebody, sometimes he'll remind you of somebody, or he'll come and speak to you and say, Hey, ask about this person, or check on them, or this person needs something. Because they may be on the other side praying and they need someone. And God does that. He arranges your need with someone else's provision. And so he puts us together with those who can help us. So pray. Always pray that you can be an ananias to somebody and that you can help someone else. And also pray that when you need someone, that God sends you the right people, right? Say, God, send me the right people who you want me to do life with. Send me the people you want me to work with, to minister with, to, to do business with, to, to um serve with, to be in my community, send me my the right family members, my right friends, send me the right people that that are aligned. And he will. He'll totally do that. Okay, verse 13. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he's done to your saints in Jerusalem. And here, here he has this authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name. Saul of Tarsus has power from the chief priest to actually bind people. So he could have put Ananias in jail. He could have hurt him, tortured him. He had that authority. So Ananias had to take a risk by obeying God. You know, and this was not a safe man. This is a dangerous man. But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine, to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel, for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake. What does he call him? God calls Saul a chosen vessel of mine. We don't know who God chooses and why God chooses people, but he does. We just need to trust God and obey him, get on board with him. It's not our job to understand or know why, but it's our job to say, okay, you got it, God. Whatever you want. We don't know how many chosen vessels may be around you, that may be people who are completely broken, who are so off course that we judge them and we think there is no way God could use this person. You never know. They could very likely be God's chosen vessel. So we must treat everybody with the same respect, the same dignity, and the same fair chance that God can use anybody he wants. It's not up to us. It's up to God. And we need to trust that and just say, sure, God, you you know everyone. You understand if that's the person you want to use, Lord, I trust you. I'm I'm again on board with this, Lord. I'll do it. I'll do what you want me to do. And so Ananias went his way and he entered the house and he laid his hands on him and he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you came, he sent me that you may receive sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once, and he arose and was baptized. So when he had received food, he was strengthened, and then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. I just want you to see this kind of progression because it's actually very um biblical and very uh uh there's a pattern here that we see in our own life. So we are spiritually blind. God causes some sort of disruption in our life, okay? And now he is without food and water and blind for three days. There is a sort of stripping, there's a sort of nakedness, there's a sort of deprivation, there's a sort of dark place, there is a sort of death that happens. There is a sort of fasting, right, to the self that's happening here. And then God in his mercy, he sends help. He sends his help in the form of the Holy Spirit. And do you see here? He says to specifically to Ananias, he says, I need you to go because this chosen vessel of mine, I've chosen to go in the name to in my name before the Gentiles, kings, and children of Israel. God already has a plan for Saul. He already knows this is what you're gonna do. Your mission and your calling is to do this, this, this. Your mission and your calling is to do X, Y, and Z. He has the same for you. You just need to know that you have a calling, you have a purpose, you have a mission. You gotta figure that out. You gotta ask God to reveal that to you and show you to take the scales off your eyes, to be baptized with that whole with the Holy Spirit and to have that enlightenment. So now he does. And what does he do? Yes, he gets baptized. He receives the Holy Spirit and he gets food. He becomes nurtured. That is part of our discipline to also nurture ourselves and prepare ourselves for the mission now. Now that you have that agreement and now you're on board with what God wants to do, you got to do the work now. You got to prepare yourself, okay? Nurture yourself, physical food and spiritual food. And he sent he spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. Okay, let's continue. Verse 20 immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues that he is the son of God. How does this happen? Look at this immediate transformation right away. Saul is now preaching the gospel to people in the synagogues. How? Literally, just a few sentences ago, he was persecuting people and hurting them and putting them in jail. And now he's preaching. Luke is trying to emphasize here in the book of Acts the transformation power of the Holy Spirit. This is not just a facade. It's not something that just slowly happens. When you are truly encountered by Jesus and the Holy Spirit, your life changes. Yes, you're not perfect overnight, but there is an evident transformation that people can see, and that is so hard to hide. Everything begins to shift and change when you are in total surrender and submission to the Holy Spirit in your life. Then they were all who heard were amazed and said, Is this not the one who destroyed those who called on the name in Jerusalem? And he's come here now for that purpose so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests. They're confused. They're like, I thought you were here to arrest them. And now you're talking about the same Jesus. You're preaching the same Jesus whom you wanted to arrest. But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving them that Jesus is the Christ. Again, this only happens with the power of the Holy Spirit. It's a power of the Holy Spirit that allows us to be bold, that allows us to preach the truth, that allows us to be changed and transformed and used by God. Now, after many days were passed, the Jews plotted to kill him. They already want to kill him. Imagine he just started preaching, and a few days passed and they want to kill him. But their plot became known to Saul, and they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night and led him down the wall in a large basket. So the disciples are trying to help him to escape from being killed and persecuted. Guys, Christianity following Jesus does not come without a cost. There is going to be opposition, and sometimes it's going to be risky. It's going to cost you your life, cost you relationships, cost you jobs, positions, titles. It's going to cost you a sacrifice. But that is the Christian life. We are called, just like Jesus, to sacrifice and suffer for the sake of the gospel because great is our reward. And that is our calling to be like him. And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him and they did not believe that he was a disciple. So they were still shocked. They weren't ready to accept him. They couldn't believe what was happening, and they thought maybe he was faking this or maybe he was putting on a show. But Barnabas actually vouches for him. Barnabas uh took him and brought him to the apostles, and he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that he had spoken to them and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. So that when he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out, and he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against Hellenists, and they attempted to kill him. When the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus. Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace, and they were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied. When you are walking in the will of God of your life, you're going to have peace no matter what. Okay, so even in the midst of them wanting to kill Saul and take him away, and he's hiding and he's running away, what's happening? There is peace. There is joy. Thousands have peace and are edified. This is the work of God. So don't shrink back. If you're, you know, you got the download from Christ and He is telling you what to do and you're doing the very thing He's telling you to do, and all of a sudden things are kind of going kind of crazy around you, but not inside you. You are still in the will of God. You still have peace. Trust God is still working and He's moving and He's bigger than your circumstances. And then greater is He who is in me than He who is in the world. Tell yourself that. Remind yourself, you got this. God is on your side. Things may be falling apart on the outside, but things are really working on the inside. And truly, this is what we see here. Um, and it says they were multiplied, they were comforted by the Holy Spirit and they were multiplied. There is fruit. You will know them by their fruit, Jesus says in Matthew. You will know them by your fruit. Is what you're doing in the will of God producing fruit? If it's producing fruit, you can know that you are in the will of God. Okay, the story shifts now back to Peter. Peter heals two people. Actually, he raises one from the dead and he heals one. He heals uh Aeneas, who was bedridden for eight years, paralyzed, and helps him rise. And then at Jopa, there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. This woman was full of good work, okay? And notice, by the way, they called her a disciple, but she was a woman, disciple named Tabitha. This woman is full of good works, charitable deeds, which she did. She was an honorable, amazing Proverbs 31 woman. Okay. But it happened in those days that she became sick and died. And so everyone around her was mourning, uh, mourning her death. And Peter came and stood in the midst of them, and he took them all to the room, he knelt down and he prayed, and he turned to her body and he told her, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and then she saw Peter, and she sat up, and he gave him her, gave her his hand and lifted her up. And then um, when he knew, he called the saints and the widows, and he presented her alive to them. And it became known throughout all Job that many believed in the Lord, and it was that he stayed there in many days in Jobah with Simon a tanner. So this chapter ends with more miracles, uh, more raising of the dead, and the expansion of the church. So I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Bible Made Real of Acts chapter eight and nine, and that you see the power of the Holy Spirit converting the worst sinner into a saint, using everybody, ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary, God-purpose, God-ordained kingdom vision things. You are never too small, you are never too unimportant to be used by God and for the kingdom. I'll see you next week when we go over Acts chapter 10, 11, and 12. Thanks for joining me. Thanks for joining me on the Bible Made Real podcast. If today's message resonated with you or encouraged you, please like it, share, and hit follow so that you never miss a single episode. And make sure to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as it really does help us to reach more listeners. You can also visit my website, KathyAbraham.com, to receive the Bible's tools, resources, all the prayer books that you saw today, and free devotionals in your inbox every week. You can also follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Kathy Abiding Light, behind the scenes content and daily architect. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and I'll see you in the next one.