Fan the Flame - a Journey Through Actsഉദാഹരണം

Day 23 - Ananias' Ministry to Saul

The transformation of Saul within 3 days is astonishing. Is it a kind of extreme makeover? To me, it’s more like the Uno reverse card that prematurely ends family dinner nights at our house! Is there anything better than unloading consecutive Uno reverse cards to win the game?!

Acts 9:10-19 is full of Uno reverse cards. Instead of imprisoning disciples, Saul was welcomed and accepted by them. Instead of separating families, he joined them. And instead of persecuting Christ, Saul received the Holy Spirit and was truly born again. Amazing role-reversal! Saul will go on from here and get baptised (9:18), train for 3-years (Gal.1:18), and commence his ministry (9:22), but the real hidden hero in this story is Ananias, who is mentioned only once in the New Testament and seems to be plucked from the pews by Jesus Himself. Ananias didn’t appear to be anyone particularly special, but the courage that he displayed by hearing God’s voice and obediently overcoming his fear to face Saul, risking death and imprisonment, is an example to us all. Ananias obediently followed God, and when he laid his hands on him and spoke, “Brother Saul,” and prayed for him, it’s a touching, powerful moment. For the first time, Saul was referred to as a fellow brother who belongs to Jesus, and touching him revealed a warmth in fellowship and acceptance, despite what Saul had just done to the newly established church. At that moment, Saul’s blindness ended, and as a symbol of the end of his spiritual blindness, he is baptised probably by the hand of Ananias himself. In 3 days, Saul went from death to life, blindness to comprehension, prosecutor to preacher. The Kingdom of God is littered with other amazing Uno reverse stories of transformation, and it’s awesome!

As we spend time together as a movement in this season, can we focus on 3 things from Acts 9:10-19? Firstly, to keep on praying to see more transformations in our movement and our world. Secondly, to keep identifying and releasing the ‘Ananias’ in our churches! The quiet, character-filled people who obediently follow Christ. And finally, to keep radically accepting those within our faith-families who are different from us. All of these things will mark us as a people of love, who believe in the power of God to transform lives and are ready to be used for that goal.

Written by Dan Lyons