My fierce bully of a man who becomes one of my spiritual heroes is being led into the city of Damascus and he is blind and has been blinded by a most unique light.
Into Damascus he is goes, led by his companions and he is broken and fallen and deflated, and really a crestfallen heap, and yes, what is more, he is now blind!
Is this not ISIS in a different form and in a different day? This man Saul of Tarsus was fierce and had been seeking to wipe out and destroy the Church of Jesus Christ.
That will never be done and the persecutors today need to realise and recognise that.
This must have been almost too much for any man!
Might that be why he needed three days and three nights in prayer and fasting and then three years in Arabia?
Three days is significant is it not? The old Saul of Tarsus was dead and he spends three days in a room in Straight Street, Damascus.
"Someone, take him into Damascus, and leave him alone."
Later, he discovers that this was and is ALMIGHTY GOD!
Up to this point his whole life had been based on a fake and a fallacy.
What did he think about in those three days?
It would have been very different from the days when he journeyed from Jerusalem to Damascus.
What was he going to do? Go back to Jerusalem or return to Tarsus, and how would I get there, because I am blind?
This is one of the most dramatic acts in the Bible.
God intervenes! Ananias, go to Saul at this address, and Saul has received a vision.
Speak about God's secret service!
Ananias tells the Lord all these details as though God knew nothing about what had been going on!
Are some of our prayers not like that?
God says "Go" and again there are details. There is a detailed description of the people he will minister to, and the suffering he will experience. You will find all this in Acts Chapters 9 and 22 and 26.
Is it not highly significant that God has all this written down by a doctor, Dr. Luke who wrote the Gospel which bears his name?
Ananias makes for that house and that man who is praying!
Saul is waiting. Would this visitor not hearten the baffled Saul?
Brother Saul, we read, and Ananias does what Jesus told him to do.
Had the word 'brother' ever been used before in all Saul's life?
This was now to become a life of infinite grace and mercy and love.
His life was being strategically planned, and slowly revealed.
The tone of Ananias's voice must have been so soothing and therapeutic and it was in various ways.
He was baptised, and then, Saul had something to eat.
He was alive again!
Soon he is on the warpath for Jesus Christ, and off Saul goes to the synagogue, preaching that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
What was Paul's reaction to what God was saying? I was not disobedient.
God had given Paul a vision of what was going to happen over these next years.
Ananias went to the house. Brother! Look at these words in Acts Chapter 9.
See and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Scales fell from his eyes so that Saul could see again and then he is baptised in water, and then some food!
He went and preached Jesus Christ, as the Son of God and what a transformation, after this intervention by Jesus and by Ananias.
He proved that Jesus is the Christ. How did he do it? He did so from the Scriptures. Paul knew the writings on the Old Testament.
An amazing leader has just been born. A wild fierce bully of a leader has been 'born again'. That is what makes the difference and that is what is so desperately needed today.
Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children's Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.
He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary at http://www.studylight.org entitled "Word from Scotland" on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column.
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