In Acts chapters 8 and 9 you find two stories that speak to me about faith, obedience, and transformation. The first one is found in Acts 8, verses 26 through 40, the story of Philip and the eunuch. An angel of the Lord tells Philip to go to a road between Jerusalem and Gaza, which according to Philip is a desert. Now, how many of us like going to desert places? But, according to verse 27, Philip gets up and goes. And what does he find? An Ethiopian eunuch reading God’s Word.
A couple of thoughts. It’s always the Spirit of God and the Word of God that does the transformational work of God in the heart of any one person. Our responsibility is to be obedient to both. To go wherever the Spirit leads, even to a desert place or to someone we would otherwise overlook.
The eunuch was a Gentile of great authority under Candance the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship. He was a man who feared God, even though he didn’t fully understand God. As a eunuch, he would have been prevented from entering the inner court of the Temple to worship. God saw the heart of the eunuch while everyone else saw the man. But Philip, being obedient to God and open to the Spirit responds by entering into dialogue with the eunuch. The result is Philip became the mouthpiece of God, a conduit of truth and understanding that opened the way for the eunuch’s heart to receive Christ, be transformed, and then be baptized.
Acts 9 is the story of Paul’s conversion. Again, God sees his heart. He sees what Paul could be and would be if Paul would ‘see the light.” In vs.1, Paul is breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord,”. In vs. 8, after Paul has been struck blind by the light, he’s being led by the hand into the city. Not the way I believe he envisioned himself entering Damascus. Like us, Paul had to be humbled before his heart could be transformed and he could become a follower of Christ and God’s instrument of truth and hope to the Gentiles. Humility is always a part of transformation of one’s heart and mind.
I find it a bit ironic that Ananias was told to go to Straight Street and the house of Judas to pray for Paul. God was already setting Paul straight on Straight Street in a house owned by a man named Judas. The name of the man who betrayed Jesus, and the last time that name is recorded in Scripture.
Again, we see God’s servant, this time Ananias, being obedient to the Lord to go where he obviously does not want to go and speak to a man, he wanted nothing to do with. As Ananias would discover, before he took one step or spoke one word, the Holy Spirit was already at work on Paul’s heart as Paul prayed. Consider what Ananias would have missed out on if he refused to obey.
You and I can only be conduits of God’s transformational truth, love, grace, mercy, and hope. But be that we must be willing to be obedient and faithful to the leading and guiding of His Spirit and His Word.
Peace be with you church.
Pastor John