From Worship to the Stones — and Still Getting Up

From Worship to the Stones — and Still Getting Up
In Lystra, one moment the crowd was ready to worship them.
Paul had just healed a man who had been lame from birth. The man leaped and walked. The people saw it and cried out that the gods had come down in human form. They called Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes. The priest of Zeus even brought oxen and garlands, ready to offer sacrifice to them. Praise was rising. Honor was being given. Everything looked triumphant.
Then the hand of the enemy moved.
Jews from Antioch and Iconium arrived. They persuaded the crowds. A voice of deception swept through the same people who had just been ready to worship. In a moment the atmosphere flipped. The same mouths that had been shouting praise now turned against them. They stoned Paul, dragged him outside the city, and left him for dead. What had looked like open favor suddenly looked finished. The assignment appeared over. The servant of God lay motionless on the ground.
But that was not the end.
While the disciples stood around him, he rose up and went back into the city. The next day he went on to Derbe and kept preaching. The one they left for dead got up, walked back in, and continued the work.
This is the heritage of those who serve the Lord.
The enemy can turn praise into persecution in a single hour. Deception can flip a crowd. The work can look completely over. But God is still able. You will simply get up, go back into the city, and get back to work — because the Kingdom still has work for you to do, and no stoning, no deception, and no sudden reversal can cancel the call.
Get up. Go back in. Keep going.