01/25/2024 – “God’s Overpowering Purpose” // “I have appeared to you for this purpose …” (Acts 26:16)
“The vision Paul had on the road to the Damascus was not a passing emotional experience, but a vision that had very clear and emphatic directions for him. And Paul state, ‘I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision’ (Acts 26:19). Our Lord said to Paul, in effect, ‘Your whole life is to be overpowered or subdued by Me; you are to have no end, no aim, and no purpose but Mine.’ And the Lord also says to us, ‘You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go…” (John 15:16).
When we are born again, if we are spiritual as all, we have visions of what Jesus wants us to be. It is important that I learn not to be ‘disobedient’ to the heavenly vision’ — not to doubt that it can be attained. It is not enough to give mental assent to the fact that God has redeemed the world, nor even to a reality in my life. I must have the foundation of a personal relationship with Him. Paul was not given a message or a doctrine to proclaim. He brought into a vivid, personal, over powering relationship with Jesus Christ. Acts 26:16 is tremendously compelling ‘… to make you a minister and a witness…’ There would be nothing there without a personal relationship. Paul was devoted to a Person, not a cause. He was absolutely Jesus Christ’s. He saw nothing else and he lived for nothing else. ‘For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified'(1 Corinthians 2:2).
Soli Deo Gloria!