“Pray For Insight!”

“Pray For Insight!”(Acts.9:1-22).
Luke tells us that “Saul was still breathing murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples…” He went to the high priest and asked for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found disciples of the Lord there he would take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
On his way he encountered the Lord himself. He became physically blind before arriving Damascus. As directed by the Lord, Ananias went and placed his hands on Saul so that he could see again and be filled with the Holy. Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized… At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.” It is true as Marilyn Ferguson said, that “sometimes things have to get worse before they get better.”
When you pass by newsstands you find people reading the headlines on the front cover. These are the people who spread false information. The headlines are intended to captivate, but if one does not read the article to the end, he may not know that some headlines are misleading.
We never can be certain of the end by its beginning. It is the end that matters. Some memes or skits do not make sense unless you watch till the end.
Who would have believed that Saul’s mission to Damascus will be the opposite of his mission warrant? Not even Saul himself! God can use anybody for his mission.
When we have not yet encountered the Lord Jesus Christ we live in spiritual blindness. Such was the spiritual blindness of Saul and that is why he was a ringleader in persecuting the Lord’s disciples. When some Pharisees asked Jesus whether they were blind too, he answered, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains”(Jn.9:40-41).
The Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of the prophecy, “In that day the dear will hear the words of the scroll, and out of the gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see”(Is.29:18ff). He is the light of the world whose light illumines even the physically blind. When his light shines on you, something like scales will fall from your heart and the outcome is that at once you will begin to preach that “Jesus is the Son of God.”
The evil that permeates all fabrics of society is evidence that the gospel should be preached in and out of season. The Lord Jesus Christ says we should ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field.
It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are; the Lord can use you. Even though Jesus told two blind men he healed not to tell anyone, they still went out and spread the news about him all over the region(Mt.9:27-34). Good deeds cannot be hidden!
A powerful sermon testifying about Jesus was from a man who had been blind from birth. When Jesus gave him sight, and as he was being quizzed by some Pharisees, he testified: “…You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing”(Jn.9:30-33).
May the scales fall out of our eyes and give us spiritual sight so that we can have insight into the things of God. And that by discerning them we should be a sermon for others through our words and deeds!
Sunday prayer: Holy Spirit fill me with spiritual insight and thereafter to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ in thought, word and deed. Amen!
Have a blessed Sunday! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.