Living Under A Threat That No Longer Exists
Acts 9:10-22
Introduction: Saul is a very interesting character. His name in Hebrew was Saul, but as a Roman citizen his name was Paul. Much of the New Testament was affected by the life of this Apostle. Most of the New Testament Theology was penned by Paul, even though he didn’t walk with Jesus during His earthly ministry. He wasn’t there because at the time when the movement Jesus started began to break forth in prominence he was being groomed to be a terrorist. He held the coats of the men that stoned Stephen. He was raised in the strictest sect of Judaism and they were adamantly opposed to this new move of Christianity.
If he came into the city he would kill and slay men, women, and children. He had a reputation for his brutality in how he killed Christians. He is on the road to Damascus and he’s gone to the chief priest to get papers to kill Christians. He had been released to terrorize Gods people. There are some people that have been released and their job is to terrorize anything you try to do for the Lord. I don’t care how nice, caring, careful, articulate, smart, or strong you are, there are some people who have been sent to terrorize you. If you live long enough you will run into people that will fight you because they have been sent to attack you (terrorists).
There are six key elements to the text that I want to discuss with you today. These elements hold true to the text but can be cut to the continuity of your situation as well. Let’s get to work.
1. New Levels, New Devils: with every new level God elevates you to, understand that there are new devils to fight. The higher you go in God the more you are attacked for your anointing. God was moving in a supernatural way in the disciples but the greater the anointing the greater the attacks. As the anointing got greater so did the attacks. They were healing many people but they were still being beheaded, skinned alive, and thrown into snake pits. That’s why it’s crazy for people to hate your for your blessings because they don’t know what it cost you to be blessed on the level in which you’re blessed. They don’t know the level of devil you have to contend with to walk in the anointing you are walking in. You pay a personal price for the anointing. Stop apologizing and trying to fit in with a group that will always hate you.
2. He Needs Permission to Attack: Now Paul has papers (warrants) to go into Damascus and persecute the Christians. He got permission to attack. That’s how the devil does; he’s got to get permission to attack. So he has to go to God and say you know you got that hedge around them so I can’t get to them (Job 2). Isn’t it nice to know that the enemy has to get permission before he attacks you? God even chooses what attacks he can use and the results of the attack. The Word of God tells us that no weapon formed against us will prosper, Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world, I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread, the steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord and He delights in their way. So if God allows the enemy to attack He already knows how far he can go and HE knows that what He put in you is greater than the enemy that’s coming against you.
That’s why you shouldn’t talk about people up under attack because the only reason you’re not under attack is because God has hedged you and you’re not ready for the level of attack they are going through. Sometimes we are being tempted and we think we are being attacked. We have to be able to discern and differentiate an attack from a temptation. Temptations are not attacks but the catalyst for the impending attack.
3. God Will Stop It: So he heads out and starts moving towards Damascus. He has his crew and his papers and they have made plans to go into Damascus and wreak havoc. Right in the middle of his plans to kill Christians Jesus shows up on the road and stops him in his tracks. I praise God because he can stop the enemy right in his tracks. The enemy that was headed to your house God just arrested him in the name of Jesus. God stopped it. I would’ve been dead, destroyed, lost my mind, divorced, died of cancer, nervous breakdown, thrown in the towel but God stopped it. I praise God because He stopped the enemy right in his tracks while he was on his way to my house. While you praise God for your house and your car I praise Him because it could’ve, should’ve, would’ve been me but God stopped it. You should’ve been dead but God stopped it. God allows the attack only to show up in the nick of time and stop it. He may not come when you want Him….
4. The Threat is Really a Test: God has stopped Saul on the road to Damascus and when He stopped him He humbled him too. He brought him to his knees and changed the way he thought. Saul had been thinking like this all his life but in one moment God changed his mind. The light was so bright it left him blind. He couldn’t absorb in his eyes the glory of God in the face of Jesus. He blinded Saul so he could experience how Christians walk. Before he walk and work with them he had to identify with them.
So now he’s still coming to Damascus but he is no longer a threat. In fact the threat level was raised in Damascus just to see how they would react to it. When we have a fire drill on my job, the purpose is to measure and grade our reaction to the drill. They need to see the response in the face of calamity. Saul’s journey was a well documented one and everyone knew what would happen when he made it to their town. But God allowed for the Christians in Damascus to hear about him coming before he got there. This was their fire drill. They had to be prepared in the face of danger. The threat level is supposed to promote diligence but often times provoke fear. The threat level doesn’t mean the enemy is greater than you, just that the possibility based on chatter that an attack is imminent.
5. The Threat No Longer Exists: Ananias, who is God’s child doesn’t know what God did to Saul on the road to Damascus. In Ananias mind he still has an enemy approaching. In his mind he is still living under a threat that no longer exists. God changed the threat level but he was still operating by what he heard. God wanted to use him to give Saul his sight back and set him up with the other Apostles. Initially Ananias staggered at the direction of God because of what he heard and the threat level they were under. He had to realize that the threat no longer existed because God quenched the fire that Saul was bringing to Damascus. Saul is still coming but he is no longer a threat. Your troubles will still come your way but they won’t be a threat to you like you thought. I know what’s it’s like to live up under a threat that no longer exists. You’re worried about something that God has already stopped in its tracks. God doesn’t meet with you before He fixes your situation.
6. The Real Fight is Between What You Heard and What God Knows: Ananais is having trouble receiving the blessing because he’s telling God what he heard. He says you mean to tell me you want to use him. I heard that he was a Christian killer, reputation for beheading people, been raised up as a terrorist. He had to understand that God knew it and He allowed it. Never think you have access to classified information that God doesn’t have. This is a fight between what you heard and what God knows.
It’s a knowledge fight. It’s a battle of the minds. What you heard will always rise up against what God knows. The weapons of our warfare….casting down imaginations…..against the knowledge of God. What you know about God is being fought by what you heard about the devil. If I say I’m going to bless you, bring you out, heal your body, have that house, save your kids, don’t tell me what you heard. Whose report will you believe?