Acts 9 Prayer
The first half of the Acts of the Holy Spirit is focused on the birth of the church. The second half is occupied by its expansion to the reaches of the then known world. The most crucial event of history, for which Jesus Christ lived, died, was resurrected, and glorified, was His infilling of a new humanity, the body of Christ.
The second most strategic event was the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. And the profound secret of his watershed life was that Christ lived in him.
Life in Christ, Christ in Paul—that’s the simple secret to climbing the heights of this Matterhorn of a man. His daring led the church to new frontiers, and his theology became the headwaters from which clear thinking has flowed. But to know Paul and not Paulism is to read carefully the account of his beloved friend to whom he entrusted his biographical portrait. And Luke shows us the man—his hopes and visions, his victories and triumphs, his frustrations and failures. For Luke, Paul was an act of the Holy Spirit, the living, indwelling Christ. The Pharisee’s conversion, character transformation, and intellectual remolding were distinctly the miracle of Spirit. Paul claimed nothing less or more. His life purpose and passion was, “For me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21
The Lord had a plan. The scales over Saul’s eyes would permit him to focus on nothing or no one for three days except the Lord who had appeared to him. Verse 9 reveals the dramatic scene of a capturer captured for a great purpose which he would soon discover: “And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.”
We pause for a moment to reflect on what that dramatic encounter really means to us and the people to whom we communicate.
1. Life really begins with a divine encounter with Jesus Christ. We are either being prepared for that or we are living in the assurance of it.
2. The Lord prepares us for that encounter with the “goads” of questions which won’t go away and a deep dis-ease which only He can resolve.
3. He is gracious to love us to the end of our own resources so that we can listen to what He has to say to us.
4. He has a plan for every life which we discover only after we have met Him. A guided life is a life in fellowship with Him.
5. He will use another person to confirm our encounter so that we can know both the joy of fellowship with Him and other believers. Conversion never happens in a vacuum of independence. It leads to a declaration of interdependence.
Prayer of Proclaimer, and Hearer revealed.
But the Lord had plans for Ananias and Saul. Ananias was to be a reconciler and bring an awesome message to his feared enemy. “Go” the Lord told Ananias, “for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake” (v. 15).
It was with the Lord’s deep compassion and acceptance that Ananias could say, “Brother Saul.” Brother? Yes, Ananias had taken the Lord’s command seriously. How we need people to enact His love in a daring way by calling us by a name we have not yet earned or accepted for ourselves! Who needs that from you and me? From whom do we most need to receive that kind of reconciling assurance?
But Ananias’s words were coupled with physical warmth. Imagine laying your hands on someone who you know had been on his way to arrest you! The Lord’s messenger was faithful first to his reconciling assignment and then told Saul that he had been sent to him so that he might receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit of the Lord filled Saul with Himself, the scales fell off his eyes.
—Acts 9:20–25
Catch the intensity of the word immediately. Saul could not wait to go to the synagogues in Damascus to share the good news he had just received. It was too good to keep to himself. He came right to the point. Jesus is the Son of God. The King James has it “he preached the Christ … that He is the Son of God.” The Greek text is that “he preached Jesus … that He is the Son of God.” The New King James Version acknowledges that with the footnote. Actually it is stronger wording to say that Saul preached Jesus and identified Him as the one who is the Son of God. It is
A great gift to the church is the excitement and enthusiasm of the newly born and filled. It is witnessing that quickens faith in others and often leads to their conversion when it is done in public worship. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so” (Ps. 107:2)! Verse 22 focuses the Lord’s power alive in Saul. Don’t miss the fact that Saul’s one message was “Jesus is the Christ.” He never veered from that all through the rest of his ministry. Even when he dealt with profound theological issues in his epistles, he always came back to basics. And right from the beginning Saul used all of the brilliance of his intellect, all the training to share the gospel
Talking to God for men and to men for God are good proofs of conversion