John Piper explains:
…the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch teaches us one of the ways God uses to evangelize the world. I say “one of the ways God uses” because it is clear from the book of Acts that a lot of evangelism was done without an angel of the Lord having to tell the Christians to do it (e.g., 8:4). It’s what one does if one loves Jesus and loves people. You tell the good news. Jesus already gave us a command to be about it in the Great Commission. So you don’t have to have an angel of the Lord to tell you to do it any more than you need an angel of the Lord to tell you not to do it.
But on the other hand, we may be more in danger of making the other mistake, namely, of thinking that we can do all God wants done by simply evangelizing according to our own planning. So God includes in his inspired Word stories and teachings that equip us for another kind of good work—not just wise and prayerful planning on the basis of circumstances we can see, but also listening responsively to the Spirit when he may want to tell us to do something that we might never think of doing through our own planning—like, “Go down to a desert road that leads to Gaza and wait for further instructions.” Philip could not have computed form Scripture and circumstances that that’s where the Spirit was moving next……
That’s the kind of mistake people make, I think, when they say that we should not be like Philip today and listen for the special direction of the Spirit in personal evangelism. The Bible doesn’t rule out that special guidance and the Bible doesn’t take its place. The Bible illustrates it, and the Bible advocates it, and the Bible regulates it—and it does so sufficiently. “All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” We have all the authoritative truth in the Bible that we need in order to properly discern and respond to God’s voice in nature or in the conscience or in the dreams or visions or extraordinary revelations like: “Go south to a desert road that leads to Gaza, and await further instructions.” Or: “Go up and join this chariot.”
Suppose somebody said, “Hey, why are you lifting that cloth in the air to find out which way the wind is blowing? The manual says that it contains everything you need to know for successful sailing. Shouldn’t you just look in the manual to learn which way the wind is blowing?”
…….Consider the analogy of a manual on how to use a sailboat. It says on the front of the manual: “All you need to know for successful sailing.” So the manual claims to be a sufficient guide for sailing. You read in the manual on page 6, “Before hoisting the sail, be sure that you know the way the wind is blowing so as to put the rigging in proper position to avoid capsizing or injury.” So you go out on the lake with the boat and before you hoist the sail, you hold a little cloth in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.
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