Missions Paul

Acts 9:13
“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.

Today my son gets married. It doesn’t feel 2 minutes since he was being born. Where has 23 years gone and how did it go by so quickly?! I get the joy of conducting the wedding ceremony as I have done for 2 other ‘adopted’ sons of mine.
This morning I will do what I have done for the other 2 on their wedding day, I will text my son a message of fatherly blessing and prophetic encouragement.
I will be inspired by the verse we are reading this morning, though perhaps a little strange to use for a wedding day message (however we are in a bible plan with no deviation!).
This is what I will tell him and this is what I want you reader to hear also today.
“Son, in this life you will hear many voices. There will be many things that disturb you, annoy you and will cause you to divert your path away rather than through that season of life. Above all fear no man. Fear no reputation, fear no threats and fear no reality. Do not be trapped by the fear of any man created circumstance. But choose to call Jesus your Lord and fear Him. Be in awe of Him. He has final authority over everything. Nothing is above Him. Calling Him Lord means you have to always say YES to Him and NO to man.”
“Lord I have heard many fearful things but I say YES to you.”

The networking God

Acts 9:12
“In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

Can you imagine being the star player in the vision of another person?
God is the God of set-ups.
He speaks to the sinner about the saint and then goes to the saint and tells them what He has said to the sinner!
He connects individuals together, getting people to cross each other’s paths. He makes things happen. He is a networker. You see God could have just healed Saul supernaturally. He didn’t need Ananias. He wanted Ananias. He wanted to show Saul that a disciple in Damascus that would have been persecuted by him if he had not been knocked down, was actually now the vehicle for his healing.
You don’t know who is thinking about you right now.
You don’t know who may be talking about you or even dreaming of you.
You may be in someone’s vision and you don’t realise it.
But God knows.
You have a part to play on this earth for the salvation of many.
Are you within the networking of God. Are you ready?

Acts 9: 11
“The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.”

Two years last Easter a Koranic teacher in an Islamic country began on Good Friday to pray and fast in order to seek Mohammed. But Mohammed didn’t show up. So he went into the second day. On the third day in the early hours, Jesus came to the Imam. Jesus explained the way of salvation and the man committed his life to Him. What happened next is right out of the pages of Acts 9. Jesus gave the man the name of the street and a picture of the church building in the city of where the Elim church worships. It was there he met our worker who today continues to mentor the imam each week.
The Lord told Ananias to go to the house of Judas.
It was on a street called Straight St.
The Lord gave Ananias the name of the person he was to meet and what he would be doing.

The fact is the Lord comes to Imams and to Pharisees and reveals His salvation plan to both. And if He comes to them He will come to us.
He knows where all the houses are.
He knows the names.
He knows what is happening behind the closed doors.
He knows everything.

Acts 9:10
“In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.”

You can get yourself into all sorts of trouble when you say YES to the Lord.
It doesn’t take long to put a list together of who said YES to God.
Noah said YES and saved the world.
Abraham said YES and nearly sacrificed his son.
Moses said YES and saved Israel.
David said YES and faced a giant.
Esther said YES and realised she was born for such a time as this.
Daniel said YES and spent a night with lions.
Mary said YES and magnified the Lord.
The disciples said YES and formed the first Church.
And you?
The Lord will call you by name. Be careful how you respond.

Acts 9: 9
“For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.”

Sometimes you have to lose the physical to explore the spiritual.
Saul was bring convinced of the resurrection of Jesus, his spiritual sight was being opened as his physical sight was closed.
You may be hindered today, your circumstance may be difficult but it could prove your finest moment.
Sometimes God has to shut you in. He has to close down your options. He has to take all control from you. It might seem unfair at the time. But trust Him. He is working in you to work through you, it might just take some time, even all of 3 days!

Acts 8:8
“Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus.”

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting a lovely lady who has recently come back to Jesus as a follower. I spoke to her of baptism and service to God. It was obvious to me that she would need a helping hand.
Saul recovered from the knockdown but he had temporary blindness and so his friends led him by the hand.
Maybe today you should not tell someone what to do but lead them by the hand. Be with that person, let them journey with you for awhile.

Acts 9:7
“The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.”

On Friday morning the nation woke up divided in its decision.
The BBC had filmed a short documentary of the Barnes family who were divided in its decision in the days before the referendum. The family agreed not to watch or listen to the news on the nations decision and then the BBC filmed them hearing the result together. The response from the older family members who voted LEAVE and the younger members who voted REMAIN was the same, they were speechless. LEAVE didn’t think it would happen and REMAIN couldn’t believe it would.

Sometimes words don’t come easily, in fact they don’t come at all.
The men accompanying Saul was standing there watching their leader fall to the ground.
They heard a sound so knew something had happened but they couldn’t see in order to understand.
All they could see was Saul knocked to the ground.
Why? What? How? What now? How does this effect us?
Speechless.
But I think that’s okay. I think there are times when for a moment we should not speak for speaking sake. Times for when out of respect and impact of that moment, we should be silent. Shocked, stunned, perhaps upset, maybe anxious, or overjoyed. Whatever it is be quiet. Tomorrow is the day for words of hope or doom perhaps but right now is the day for no words.
There is no better example of this than when a friend is knocked down. Just be there, they don’t necessarily need your words of wisdom there and then, they just need you to be there. They need you to share their confusion, their question marks and there isn’t a better way than to use no words.

Acts 9:6
“Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Wasn’t yesterday interesting?! Our UK changed overnight and emotions ran high, too high at times throughout the day.
Was God in a crisis? Did He have His head in His hands? NO!
He knew what would happen.
Saul has been knocked down. Many used words like devastated and the “worst day of my life”!
Sometimes our lives are knocked down, our world rocks and we wonder are we ever going to be the same again.
What was the response of Jesus to Saul: “now get up and go”
You may be tempted to wallow in your disappointment but Jesus says today “Get up and Go”.
Today let us do exactly that and we will then discover how we should live this life.

Acts 9:5
“”Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.”

Saul called the voice Lord, not that he knew who this Lord was, but the voice was obviously more powerful than he was.
Can you imagine the shock to find out it was Jesus?!
Saul knew what Jesus meant. He knew that the persecution of the followers of Jesus was the persecution of Jesus.
Friends whatever you go through for your faith you go through it with Jesus.
Jesus is being persecuted all around the world. Where is Christ in all this suffering under the hands of ISIS for example? Well this verse shows us he is right in the centre being persecuted himself. How long will this go on for? For there will come a time when He comes again and this persecution will end as the perpetrators find themselves on their knees before the King of Kings.

He fell to the ground.

I read these words this morning from the Bible, Acts 9:4.
It is of a man called Saul, a leading Pharisee who was persecuting early Christians. In a moment Saul the murderer became Paul the apostle. But it commenced on the ground.
God supernaturally knocked Saul to the ground.

In the gospels there is a story of an evil spirit throwing a young boy to the ground in a convulsion. The story ends with Jesus lifting the boy from the ground fully restored.

Today, June 23rd Elim UK remembers it’s missionaries who in 1978 were terribly murdered in the Vumba, Rhodesia. They fell to the ground.
Peter and Sandra McCann, Philip and Joy…Wendy White… Philip and Suzanne Evans and Rebecca…Catherine Picken…Roy and Joyce Lynne and Pamela Grace…Mary Fisher.
They are an inspiration who with the great cloud of witnesses cheer us on who are here today. They fell to the ground but their act propelled others into a life of service in missions.
They fell to the ground not because of God or an evil spirit, it was man who did this. But their life or their impact didn’t end on the ground.

Also in the gospels is the story of a leper who voluntarily falls to the ground in front of Jesus as an act of worship. The story ends with Jesus saying He was more than willing to heal the man.
Not God, not an evil spirit, not another person, but the man himself falling to the ground.

Today, the U.K. nation goes to the polls to vote either to Remain or Leave the EU. One of the many questions debated angrily by many is whether we will be better off? Are we going to have more money? What are we going to gain? What are we going to lose? You see we must not lose. That’s the main point. We don’t want to fall to the ground. That would be wrong. We want to rise and be something.

Yesterday I spent some time with TearFund discussing many things but mainly the plight of those under the threat of ISIS. We were sharing stories of people who are the epitome of a Living Sacrifice.
Before the meeting I read an email from our worker in the Middle East who has a hidden church 500m from a very dangerous place. We cannot promote him and as a result he doesn’t receive much compared to others, but we do our utmost to support. He wrote this, “…still talking about Jesus and sharing with new people about His saving love, the last person I spoke with about Jesus was yesterday.” He is a living sacrifice. He is a surrendered man. He has poured his life on the ground for God. Spending time with this man you realise how rich he is, but not the riches of this world, a richness that is not of this life.

I have just got off from a Skype call to a missionary and a church pastor. The missionary could today be earning lots of money and have what everyone else has in her generation. The pastor she works for has a church in a slum and he feeds the poor every day. My world is split into 2 parts: I spend part of it overseas and though there are equal examples of corruption and politics to be found in the church in various places, I gravitate towards those who are on the ground and I love sitting with them for awhile, learning from them no matter whether it was God, evil, man or themselves that caused the falling how do they live and serve a surrendered life. The second part I live with those who are standing tall, reaching for the heights, being somebody big or trying to be. I live in a culture that doesn’t do ground work. Everyone wants to richer, bigger, stronger, taller. But I am a better man with the broken.

I am off to vote now.