Acts 9:17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord–Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here–has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

I have always been impressed with the faith of Ananias in this story. He had every reason to be very scared of Saul, but he trusted Jesus more than he feared Saul. I’m guessing that he had experienced the Lord showing him things previously that had turned out to be true. Otherwise, like most of us, he would probably have chalked his vision up to his imagination, or to whatever he had eaten for supper. Obviously the Lord spoke more to him after verse 16 and before this verse, because he had clearly been shown that Jesus had directly appeared to Saul on the way to Damascus. It also jumps out at me that he addressed Saul as “Brother.” That may have been purely a social convention, as it is in some cultures, but still it took faith for him to use that term with someone who was notorious for persecuting believers. The thing is, Saul was not so unique as we sometimes think. Just yesterday I watched a video from Jews for Jesus where someone was interviewed who had previously hated Jesus, and though Jewish, was actively pursuing Zen Buddhism, but had a transformative encounter with the Lord and now is in active and fruitful ministry. In it he said he could imagine Jesus saying, “I want that one,” simply because he had been so vehement in his opposition to Christ. And the trigger for his transformation was a presentation of the Gospel by a girl who was high on LSD at the time! We put people into boxes and write them off all the time, forgetting that nothing is impossible for God. Ananias obviously had the faith to overcome that tendency, and the world has been transformed as a result. It’s hard to imagine how different history would have been had Ananias not been obedient to the Lord. We need to seek to be just as available.

I don’t have a track record of dreams from the Lord, but my wife does. Over 20 years ago the Lord gave her a series of three dreams about a traffic accident, which she had not long after the dreams. Had she not been obedient to what she had been shown in the dreams, a man would have died and she would have been charged with his death. That has made her rather sensitive to such things! We will be making a trip to Tokyo in a couple of weeks, and when we got our plane tickets, we noticed that evening that hers was made out with her middle name, rather than her given name. (Japanese don’t use middle names, and generally give the family name first, so how to write or express our names is a recurring issue.) The thing is, a little while back she had a dream of not being allowed to board the same plane I was riding because of precisely the issue of how her name was on her ticket! Of course we went back the next day to try to get the ticket changed, but the airline wouldn’t do it, and assured us there would be no problem, since she had various forms of ID that have her full name. Naturally she’s a bit uptight about it, after having had the dream, so she will be taking her passport along with everything else, even though it’s a domestic flight. That’s not nearly as serious an issue as what Ananias faced, but it is still a matter of paying attention when the Lord shows you something. I tend to hear from the Lord as I read the Bible, particularly in my morning devotions, like right now. Recently He’s been giving me more messages than I currently have opportunity to preach, and I’m feeling more and more strongly that He’s going to give me a lot more opportunities! I’m not to run around trying to fulfill that on my own, but I’m to hold myself ready at all times, so that I can make the most of every opportunity the Lord gives me.

P: Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for a wife who listens to You. Help us both listen attentively and accurately, not in fear but in anticipation of what You are going to do around and through us. May we flow with Your Spirit in every detail, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!