Harvest Daily Devotional 11/11/03

Harvest Daily Devotional 
by Pastor Greg Laurie

November 11, 2003

Simple Obedience

“Go and do what I say.  For Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel.” (Acts 9:15)

Prior to his conversion, Saul was a leading Pharisee and possibly even a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin.  He presided over the death of the first martyr of the Christian church, Stephen.  After his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road resulted in his conversion, the Christians of Saul’s day were at first suspicious of his conversion, and understandably so.

So when God directed a believer in Damascus named Ananias to seek out Saul and pray for him, Ananias was reluctant, of course.  But Ananias did what God told him to do.  He found Saul in the place where God said he would be.  He prayed that the Lord would restore Saul’s sight (he had been blinded by the light as Jesus spoke to him on the Damascus Road), which the Lord did.

It is interesting that when God wanted to use someone to minister to Saul, He didn’t call an apostle like Peter or John.  He called an ordinary man.  Ananias didn’t write any book of the New Testament, raise a dead person back to life, or give a notable sermon that we know about.  But he did, by faith, take a man under his wing who would do all of the above and far more.  Ananias discipled the newly converted Saul who, in time, became the legendary apostle Paul and probably the greatest preacher in the history of the church.

Thank God for the Ananiases of the kingdom, those who faithfully work behind the scenes to make such a difference in our lives.  They may be unknown to man, but they are beloved of God.

Copyright © 2003 by Harvest Ministries.  All rights reserved.  Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996.  Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189.  All rights reserved.