Remember that guy named Paul in the New Testament? The one who wrote a bunch of books of the Bible? The guy who was thrown in jail, stoned, persecuted in so many ways, unimaginable ways.
This man was known for the way he lay down his life for God and the way he abandoned everything he may have wanted to do in his life in order to serve and build up the church. He planted and discipled so many churches and was an incredible man of God.
However, he wasn’t always like that. In fact, the way he lived his life was the exact opposite of what I just listed. His life was dedicated to the condemnation and murder of Christians. He HATED them. He literally went around and looked for followers of Christ so that he could have them arrested and killed.
And obviously the Lord took notice of that.
Paul (known as Saul at this time) was on his way to Damascus to do what he always did, and God struck him down with blindness and spoke to him, asking him why he was persecuting him.
The amazing thing is, Saul immediately acknowledged that God is Lord. Even after all his persecuting and condemnation, the moment he heard God’s voice, he knew who was speaking to him and he acknowledged Him.
God told him to go into the city, and then he would be told what to do. So he went. Without his eyesight, literally having to be led by the hand in his blindness, he went.
Now we go to a man named Ananias. The Lord speaks to him in a vision, and tells him straight up to go and find Saul and lay hands on him so that he could regain his sight. At first, Ananias hesitates and tries to make an excuse: “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name” (Acts 9:13-14).
But God was not about to go for that. Again He commands Ananias to go to Saul, “for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake” (Acts 9: 15-16).
I’ll be honest with you, if I were Ananias and God had just told me that He was going to use this guy who hates His people with a passion to bear His name, I would’ve straight up laughed in His face. I mean, come on God. You must have just smoked something, because I find that impossible to believe.
Imagine if Ananias had had that attitude. He probably would have turned right around and ignored God out of sheer disbelief and possibly fear for his own safety.
But instead, when God told Ananias to go, he went. He laid his hands on Saul and after Saul regained his eyesight, he was baptized. Then he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues! The very place where he had been condemning God’s people. People couldn’t believe this man that they saw – how changed he was, how he was a completely different person than he was before.
This is the way the Lord works. He makes it our choice to follow Him. Like I said before, Ananias could have easily said no to what God was asking him to do. But because he didn’t, because of his obedience, a man’s life was changed, and many more lives were changed from that.
This month in China, our ministry is to talk to people and to make friends. That’s it. We get to build relationships and tell people about what we believe and how God has turned us inside out.
A huge part of this ministry is listening to God’s leading when it comes to who to talk to and who to share our stories with. I feel like I have this new perspective of the conversion of Saul/Paul. I feel like I’m Ananias and I’m just waiting for God to tell me who to talk to.
The question is, what will my response be?
Will I scoff at God and try to make up some excuse, or will I listen to what He’s trying to tell me and take that leap of faith that He’s going to change somebody’s life through my obedience?
What are you going to do?
