Hearing him

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

HEARING HIM

Acts 22:10-16

10 "'What shall I do, Lord?' I asked. "'Get up,' the Lord said, 'and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.'  11 My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me. 12 "A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. 13 He stood beside me and said, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight!' And at that very moment I was able to see him. 14 "Then he said: 'The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.'

NIV

Now that Paul told them it was Jesus who was speaking to him, he also tells them what Jesus said and that he was being directed and called to a specific task. Here is where it gets a little dicey although he still has the attention of the crowd. As Paul continues with his experience and being blinded by the Lord and being healed when he meets with Ananias and then gets his actual marching orders. Is Paul the only one who has been chosen to know the will of the God and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth? We easily accept this happened to Paul and surely with all that he did and all the letters he wrote as inspired by the spirit which have been kept and determined to be God breathed words that are part of our Bible. But could this also happen to us today? Surely not in the sense that we could write letters that would be added to the Bible, but that we could be called by God to a task? Could we have such an encounter with Jesus, actually hearing his voice, or perhaps the voice of the Spirit? The answer has to be, yes we can. Now we should also note that Paul was not seeking an audience with Jesus, in fact, he was certainly on his way to persecute people who believed Jesus was the Christ. Paul was not on his knees praying for direction, or seeking the will of God. When God determined that Paul should be his witness, God himself intervened in Paul’s life, making it clear that he was God. We often spend too much time seeking the will of God, rather than trusting that God will intervene when he determines he wants us to get up and go somewhere and do something. This man has already experienced that voice of God intervening twice with those very words. He intervened telling me he would move me from the city to the suburbs, and then years later he intervened, once again speaking directly to me that we should move from one state to another. How can we not believe God will do the same when he determines so? God will intervene in all our lives, but we do need to know it is him speaking. As Paul asked who it was that was speaking to him, we also need to make sure the voice we hear is that of God. There are all sorts of voices calling for our attention, but specifically the voice of the enemy of our soul. He can also speak false words into our lives, giving us desires to move, desires to have, desires to act or say things which are not the will of God. He would try to deceive us into believing it is God, but we have the Spirit and the ability to discern those voices. When God spoke to Paul, he had no doubt who it was, and when God speaks to us, we also will have no doubt it is him. We are his sheep and we know the sound of the voice of our shepherd. He makes us to lie down in green pastures, he leads us beside quiet waters, he restores our soul.  He will speak to us, we need only hear him.