Thursday, June 20, 2024
Ananias, the Unsung Hero
So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 9:17 NLT)
When Saul heard the voice of Jesus on the Damascus road, he fell to the ground, blinded by a searing light. Then Saul was led to the home of a man named Judas in Damascus.
Enter Ananias, the unsung hero. God appeared to him in a vision and said, “Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now. I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again” (Acts 9:11-12 NLT).
Now, you can understand Ananias’s reticence. Saul was a notorious hunter of Christians. He was the man who had Stephen murdered. Yet God was saying, “Go to Saul. He is praying.”
That would be like a Jew who was hiding from the Nazis hearing that Hitler had been converted. There was no way. Do you know someone whom you couldn’t imagine ever becoming a Christian? That is what it was like when Saul of Tarsus came to Jesus Christ.
The Message describes Ananias’s reaction this way: “Ananias protested, ‘Master, you can’t be serious. Everybody’s talking about this man and the terrible things he’s been doing, his reign of terror against your people in Jerusalem! And now he’s shown up here with papers from the Chief Priest that give him license to do the same to us’ ” (verses 13-14).
Sometimes God will put a burden on our heart to talk to a certain person. It isn’t as though we have a detailed blueprint of what we are going to say and how that person will respond. But we simply have a sense that we ought to go to this person or ought to go to that place.
That is how it was for Ananias. Sometimes we see opportunities, and sometimes we can make opportunities. For example, it might be as simple as initiating a conversation.
God told Ananias to go, and he went.
Now, if God tells us to go, can we say no to Him? Yes. Remember, God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach, but Jonah refused. So, God sent a great fish to swallow Jonah and then ultimately regurgitate him. And reluctantly, Jonah went to Nineveh.
The question is, will you be a Jonah or an Ananias? When God says go, are you going to be a Jonah and argue? Or, are you going to be an Ananias and take a risk?
What is the worst that could happen?
“Well,” you’re thinking, “I might get martyred.” That is true, but it’s unlikely. Probably what will happen is that someone will say, “I don’t want to talk to you.” Or, they won’t even respond to you.
Maybe they will argue with you, which isn’t always a bad thing. Then again, maybe they will listen to you and even believe what you are saying as you speak from the power of God’s Holy Spirit. So go.
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