Acts 9:13. “Lord, I have heard by many of this man…” THIS MAN. Saul was a fiercely intense person who is introduced as one opposed to the Gospel. After his encounter with the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus, he went from being a persecutor of God's people to being a preacher of the Gospel he had once opposed. His intensity was channeled for the furtherance of the Gospel. He was well-trained by Gamaliel. He knew the Bible. From years of learning and quiet meditation, he became a world-renowned missionary. He was able to promote the Gospel with clear logic, personal experience and a passionate concern for others. He was able to see the picture of what God was going to do through the Gospel. He was a man of conviction, but was also able to see how other people were thinking. He used every advantage – his background, his training, his citizenship, his mind, his weakness – to further the work the Lord had given him to do. From articulate preacher to inspired writer, he used every divinely given gift he was given and he allowed God to use him to be all that he could be for the sake of the Gospel. From being a Gospel preacher to a church planter God used this available man in many different ways. His ministry led him to be a caring spiritual father, and to be a challenging spiritual corrector. Even though he was one sensitive to God’s leading, he was not one afraid to live himself.
Through the words of Ananias, we get insight as to how the Lord viewed the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. God had followed him through the school of Gamaliel, when he was under the jurisdiction of the high priest, right on to the road to Damascus where Saul was finally stopped. In a remarkable work of grace Saul saw the risen Lord Jesus Christ Himself and was blinded by the glory of God with what seemed like scales of safety put over his eyes. The only person he was involved with for three days was the Lord. Then Ananias heard from the Lord that Saul was chosen by the Lord to represent Him to the Gentiles, kings and the children of Israel. By the words of Ananias his eyesight was miraculously restored and those scales fell off.
What we hear and what really is true; often are very different. What a person was in the past, may have been very different than what is that same person is presently. The work of God in events and people is very impacting. He can change what is dark to light; what is hopeless to joy; what is useless into something useful.
We may underestimate the work of the Lord, when by His grace He saves people we thought were unlikely candidates for salvation. Our limitations are because we only see the outward appearances. God looks on the heart. God is no respecter of persons and neither should we be when the grace of God is seen in ways we least expected.
In people, aliens can become citizens; enemies can become friends; skeptics can become believers; those who oppose can, be promoters of what they once fought. The only way we can make a true evaluation of a person, is to see them through God’s eyes. The change came in Paul because of one word – “Lord.” That changed “this man” into “Brother Saul.” He was changed from a “persecutor and injurious person” into a “chosen vessel unto Me.” He changed from “he that destroyed them which called upon this Name,” to one who was to “bear My Name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.” Instead of making others to suffer, he would “suffer for My Name’s sake."
A number of years passed in the life of Saul about which we know very little. God was preparing his "chosen vessel" in a number of different ways and places for the work ahead of him. He would have learned much of the Lord and the basis of the new covenant when he was in the deserts of Arabia. He learned how to be on the receiving end of persecution when he was in Damascus. He learned the necessity of fellowship and meaningful communication with others from Barnabas. He would have learned how to respond to skeptical believers in Jerusalem.
It is a cause for joy to know that assemblies were planted in places where the Lord Jesus Christ had preached in Judea, Galilee and Samaria. We will not always see ourselves, the result of what the Lord had led us to do in places where it seemed there was nothing done. In God's time and way those assemblies were taught and built up. The saints were conducting themselves honorably with a sense of awe as they realized they were walking in the steps of Jesus and were representing Him. The Holy Spirit assured them they were doing what the Lord intended and there was on-going blessing in salvation.
Everything we do has value when we are willing to take time to learn the things of the Lord and are willing to live with dignity, respect and honor in a way that brings glory to our Lord. When that is true of us we will know the comfort of the Spirit in spite of anything that may happen. Perhaps the Lord will trust us with some new lambs to be added to us and then multiplied.
“May I never make snap judgments based only on what I have heard of a person’s past life, or even on hearsay in the present. Give me, Father, the privilege of seeing people through “the Father’s eyes” and not the eyes of biased or prejudiced men. Amen.”