Acts Chapter Nine
Before I comment on chapter nine I want to make a comment on your adding your thoughts at the end. Some people have contacted me saying they were having trouble adding their own thoughts. I have done some experimenting, here is what I have found. At the end of each posting is a small word “comments”. If you click on that word it will open a page with a box for you to write your comments. On the bottom of the page are several options. If you click on “name” it will open a box where you can type in your name. You can click ok and it will send your comments to me to post on the web. I hope this helps. I’m not sure why the designers of the software had to make it so complex.
Now, on to chapter nine .
Here is a story that shows what happens when person has an encounter with Jesus. Saul began his very active persecution of the church. He was on his way to Damascus to find believers and drag them off to prison. He was breathing out murderous threats (breathing out threatenings and slaughter) against the church. I can picture his excitement as he headed down the road thinking of all those crazy Christians he was going to arrest.
On this road he had his encounter with Jesus. When he heard a voice asking why he was persecuting him, Saul had to have the most amazing shock when he heard, “I am Jesus”. Saul was extremely hard against the Gospel. God knew it would take a powerful encounter to get his attention.
I would like to challenge your thinking on this concept of a powerful encounter with God. I believe that this is desperately needed over and over again in our modern world. More and more people have no concern or care about Jesus or the Bible. They want to create their own religious beliefs and refuse to hear anything about the Bible. “All this Jesus stuff is too narrow.” They need a powerful experience of the power of God in their lives. I encourage you to be praying for many to experience a powerful encounter with Jesus.
Saul was taken blind to the city and God used one of His followers to reach out to the one who was persecuting the church. Ananias knew all about Saul. Thankfully he was willing to do what he knew God was telling him, even though he was afraid. He went to pray with Saul, who was then baptized in water and The Holy Spirit. There was an immediate transformation and Saul became as zealous FOR Jesus as he had been AGAINST him. He shocked many who saw this complete transformation.
Let me make a quick comment on Saul’s zeal for the Lord. It didn’t burn out after a while. Zeal, enthusiasm, desire to spread the message of the love of Jesus must be a constant part of our makeup. Don’t let the sarcasm of the world keep you from being excited about Jesus.
One powerful statement about Saul: God said He would show him how he would suffer for the Lord. No one wants to suffer. God has an amazing ability to use suffering to advance His Kingdom. Don’t believe the preaching that says the Christian life is always supposed to be a piece of cake.
Chapter nine ends with some stories of how God was using Peter in miracles. Included is a favorite Bible story of the resurrection of Dorcas. As we are reading the Book of Acts we need to let the power of the Holy Spirit that is shown in the early church stir our hearts with hunger and desire to see the same things today. Since God never changes, His power is just as real today. We just had our week of prayer. We’ve been seeking God for the supernatural. Keep on praying and seeking God for more of His power.
