Retelling A Vision

Acts 7:56

    “’Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

    Stephen did not keep what he saw to himself. He told the angry crowed what the Holy Spirit had shown him. He didn’t interpret or add anything to the vision but told them plainly.
    Maybe at this point Stephen knew why the Holy Spirit had shown him this, but if he did he did not share the interpretation.
    If it had been me, I might have added something like “look, what I say is true, or else the Holy Spirit would not have shown me…” or “Look, God loves me and stands by what I have said here today!”
    And though he didn’t say that, I believe that the crowd heard it regardless. These words are what broke their restraint. No doubt they thought he was making this up to claim that God backed up the insults he just told them.
    Think about it. These were God fearing people. If they believed he truly saw God and Jesus then, would they have been angry to the point of Murder, or would they have been terrified?
    But in their minds he was already a liar, so the truth he spoke to them only fueled their hate.
    The application I see in this:
    1st when God shows you something leave yourself, your opinions, and your interpretations out of it. Give it to the people as is.
    2nd Don’t let your preconceptions and hate blind you. If someone claims to hear or see a vision from God, do not be too quick to dismiss it unless it is very obviously against His Word and His will.
    3rd share what God share with you. Only in rare cases the things that God shows us can only benefit us and no other. Most of the time God uses us to relay his message to us to other people as well, so they might also learn from it.