Acts 9 – An Encounter Changes Everything

Kim Butcher 09/01/2021

Right before Jesus ascended into heaven, he told the disciples that it was good for him to go so that the Father could give them the promised gift, which was Holy Spirit. This had to have been a little confusing to the disciples at the time, but they did what they were told – they stayed in Jerusalem until the promise arrived.

In Acts 2, we read that 120 people, including the disciples, were in an upper room praying and waiting for this promise when the Holy Spirit fell upon them. They were all filled with the Spirit of God and everything was new to them in that moment.

They are living a new way of life – being led by God’s Spirit in them. They were learning to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and follow the direction He was leading them in and this was an exciting time. Everything is new to them! They are seeing things differently because now the Lord is opening their eyes to what He sees.

At this time, the Gospel of Jesus was being shared and people were beginning to follow “The Way”, which meant they were giving their lives to Jesus and being filled with God’s Spirit. Thousands of people were coming to know Jesus.

When the disciples were walking the earth with Jesus, they saw him perform miracles all the time and now they are filled with the fullness of who He is. They are walking in all the power and authority they carry because of the Holy Spirit – so they are starting to see miracles take place as they encounter people.

We see that in Acts 3 when Peter and John are doing what they always do – they were walking to the temple, but now filled with the Spirit, they saw a man that was always laying at the gate. Instead of walking by him, they knew the authority and power they carried and the man was healed!

People are getting saved daily because they are hearing the good news of Jesus and they want to know him. Their lives are being changed and then they are going out and telling others of Jesus. So there are now many that are following “The Way” ……but there is now a guy named Saul…..

Saul is a Jewish leader and he is angry! He doesn’t believe that Jesus is the Messiah and he wants to stop these people from spreading these lies – He goes from city to city, getting Christians arrested and sent before the courts, in hopes that they will be killed. This is how he thinks he is going to stop those that are following “The Way”.

He was on his way to Damascus, on a mission. Really he is on a warpath and nothing was going to stop him from getting a letter to the priest to have all the Christians arrested and killed.

But what we read in Acts 9 is that he encounters Jesus – and His whole life changes!

A bright light shines upon him and he falls to the ground and hears a voice saying to him “Saul, why are you persecuting me”. As scary as that had to have been, he knew exactly who he was talking to.

Jesus gave him instruction and said to go into Damascus and wait. As he gets up, he can’t see anything. I can imagine that had to have been pretty scary at that moment. The guys that were with him are now leading Saul, who is pretty powerful, by the hand to where Jesus was telling him to go and wait.

We then read about a man named Ananias, who loves the Lord with all of his heart and will do anything that the Lord asks. I think that when he said yes to Jesus, he probably never intended to go face to face with a man that has been killing all those who are following Jesus – but He gave Jesus his yes and he goes. That had to have taken complete trust in Jesus.
As he gets to Saul, he calls him Brother and lays his hands on him, just as Jesus instructed him. Something like scales falls from Saul’s eyes and he can see – but now he is seeing everything differently. He is seeing everything through the eyes of one who has encountered Jesus.

There is so much that we can learn from this story about Saul and his encounter with Jesus that day. One thing that I keep thinking about is that there is no one too far gone for Jesus to meet. No one is in too bad of a place that Jesus would turn his back on them and walk away.
It takes one encounter with Jesus to completely change the direction of someone’s life. Just one encounter with His incredible love and forgiveness to completely change how we see this life we are living.

And as far as Ananias, we get to learn from his life that we may not ever understand all that God is doing, but we can fully trust Him when He asks something of us. Ananias didn’t know that God was completely transforming Saul’s life and that he would change the lives of so many others because of this transformation. All he knew was Jesus said go and he said yes.
As believers, we get to pray for those that seem far off and believe that God is never going to stop pursuing them. He wants a relationship with every single person on this planet and will not stop in giving them the opportunity to know Him.

Also, as believers, we get to partner with the Lord every time He calls upon us to go. As we say yes and move out as He directs, we will see miracles right before our eyes. We will see lives completely changed because they will encounter God. We will see the impossible take place. It just takes our yes.

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Acts 9 – An Encounter Changes Everything

Kim Butcher 09/01/2021

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