courage I asked, "Lord, what do you want me to do for you?" The Lord replied and said unto me, "Arise and go into the city of Damascus and it will be told of you there what you must do further." Damascus was an ancient Syrian city that was fortified with houses upon its walls. It dated back before our forefather Abraham. The men who journeyed with me stood speechless. They heard the sound of someone's voice that was speaking to me from heaven, but they couldn't see the person who was speaking.
"Rise up and stand upon your feet," echoed the powerful voice of the Messiah again from heaven, "for I have appeared unto you for this very purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of these things which you have seen of me here today, and of things that I will reveal to you in the future concerning me."
I arose from the ground just as He had commanded me. But when I opened my eyes I couldn't see out of them. It wasn't the dust that was preventing me from seeing. So great was the heavenly vision and so bright was the face of the Messiah that it had blinded my natural human sight. I couldn't see the men that I was travelling with. My earthly vision had been altered eternally by Christ Jesus Himself. From that moment on, I could no longer see things as a mere man and from an earthly perspective. I began to see things through the eyes of the Holy Spirit of God, from a heavenly perspective. It took blindness to end my blindness. I'd been so blind about Christ and His followers. I'd been so blinded by the Law of Moses and the traditions of my forefathers. My travelling companions had to lead me by the hand to ensure that I reached Damascus. My spiritual eyes had finally been opened to the truth.
For three days I was without my natural sight. I did neither eat nor drink during those three days as my heavenly encounter with the Messiah had struck me to the core. Yet deep down inside my heart I had a real Shalom - peace. I knew that the loss of my eye sight was only temporary, yet it carried powerful spiritual significance. My silent darkness was teaching me a valuable lesson. I was to never again walk by sight but I was to walk by faith. Leaning my entire personality upon God and putting my confidence in Him and in Him alone.
It was during those three days of darkness that my understanding became enlightened. The eyes of my heart were flooded with pure heavenly light as I was filled with the spirit of wisdom and revelation. I came to the realisation that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ had chosen me and set me apart even before I was born. When I was still in my mothers womb, He had woven me together intricately and forged it into my DNA to be His chosen servant. He had called me by His divine grace, His undeserving favour and blessing, to be an apostle and carry the torch of the glorious gospel of light to the non-jewish world. It was pleasing and fitting for Him to unveil and reveal His Son in me, so that I might proclaim Him among the Gentile nations with boldness and passion.
In my dark blindness I could hear the echoes of history shouting as my understanding became awakened with the illuminating light of the Messiah. It was the dust of the ground that had taken my sight away on that Damascus road. It was because I followed after my human flesh and it's dictates that Almighty God had caused my blindness. Once upon a time it was that very same dust of the ground that had restored the sight of a blind man. I had heard about how the Messiah, had restored a man's sight by putting mud in his eyes.
One day as Jesus was passing by, he saw a man who had been blind from his birth. His disciples asked him, saying, "Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind without any eyes?" Jesus looked up and stared directly into their curious faces and answered, "This man nor his parents have sinned, but he is blind that I might demonstrate the wondrous working power of God. And that the healing power of God should be made manifest in him." His disciples were shocked and overtaken by the Masters answer. It didn't make any sense to them. Why would God allow a man to be born blind, so that he could use that man to demonstrate His power in him. Jesus was undisturbed by their thoughts and continued, "I must work the works of Him who sent me, while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world."
After He had spoken these things, He spat on the ground. Yes, He spat on the ground! He made clay of the spittle as He mixed His saliva with the dust of the ground. Then He did the ridiculous, He anointed the eyes of the blind man, smearing them with the clay. Pressing it into his empty eye sockets. Then Jesus boldly commanded him and said, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam."
So the blind man went on his way and washed in the pool just as he had been commanded. The man returned seeing. He had received his sight. When the water at the pool touched the mingled clay it turned that dirt into a set of eyes. If Almighty God in the Garden of Eden could have turned an entire clay statue into flesh and blood. Thus creating an entire man from mud, then just creating eyes must have been an easy task for Him.
I knew what it was like to now walk around in darkness. I now knew what it was like to grope around in the dark not knowing where I was and being completely disorientated, not knowing which direction I was facing. Not knowing what time of day it was. I now had to rely upon my hearing and my touch for the first time. I was totally blinded on the outside while I became all seeing on the inside. The words of Jesus had become true when he said, "I have come into this world, to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind." Jesus had told the Pharisees when they became hostile with Him, assuming that He was saying that they were blind. "If you were blind you wouldn't be guilty of sin," Jesus replied, "but because you say I can see your guilt of sin remains." I thought I could see and that's the reason why I was so blind. I was also guilty of sin.
My sin had made me blind. I had been blinded by the Law of Moses and by my zeal to keep the Law. Here I was, blinded in the natural, yet awakened deep down in my spirit. It only took one supernatural encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ to purge my conscience. I went from having a conscience that focused on sin to having a conscience that focused on righteousness. This righteousness could only be obtained by faith and by faith alone, a righteousness apart from keeping the Law of Moses.
It was this faith, the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that I became a messenger, a minister. I was to compel men everywhere to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, first the Jew and then the Gentiles.
I am Paul, called by the Grace of God to be an apostle. When God our Saviour revealed His Love and kindness to us, He saved us, not because of our own righteousness and the good things we had done, but because of His mercy. He washed away our sins giving us a new life through the Holy Spirit.
Amen - so be it.
Connect with us: Follow
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timothy.green.1276
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/timgreen0007
Blog: https://royalwritersblog.wordpress.com
Google +: https://plus.google.com/109058071524425576056
Email:
[email protected] Eyes Opened. #3
I was still in Damascus. It had been three days since my heavenly collision with the Messiah of Light. Jesus had given me clear instructions and a mandate from heaven, empowering me to be a servant of the Gospel of His Kingdom. I was to preach the message of the cross of Christ, the Messiah. I was to open spiritual eyes that were blind and enlighten men's understandings to the truth, that they should turn away from their darkness towards His marvellous light. I was to setting them free from the power of Satan and introduce them to the power of God. That they may freely receive the forgiveness of their sins. That they may be sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ and that they may have an eternal inheritance in Him.
I did many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. In Jerusalem, I shut up many of the saints in prison. I had received authority from the chief priests and carried their letters of delegation in my coat pockets. I gave my consent and voiced my opinions against the saints. They were put to death because of me. I had punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme against God. I was exceedingly maddened and obsessed against them and their doctrines, I persecuted them, even purs
uing them to strange cities. I was unworthy to even be called an apostle, I was the chief of sinners. I was the waste and the filth of the world.
I had been praying and I saw a man in a vision by the name Ananias, who came in to visit me while I was still in Damascus. In the vision he put his hand on me and prayed for me that I might once again receive my sight. There was indeed a disciple in Damascus by that name. The Lord had spoken to him in a vision and had called him out by his name. "Ananias," called the God of heaven. "Here I am Lord!" acknowledged Ananias. He was curious as he had never received a vision of this nature from the Lord before. The Lord had instructed him to arise, and go to the street which is called Straight, where I was staying in the house of Judas. Ananias questioned God because he had heard the many things about me. News of how much evil I had done to all the saints at Jerusalem. How that I had been given authority from the chief priests to bind all those who called on Christ's name.
The Lord said to him, "Go your way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me. I have ordained that he bear my holy name