What Does Ananias Have to Do With It?

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

Read the blog here: http://dougapple.blogspot.com/

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32)

Why doesn’t God just do everything?

Why does He leave anything up to human beings?

I don’t know, but He does, and one great example of that is the story of Paul and Ananias.

We can read the story of Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter 9, chapter 22 and again in chapter 26.

He was called Saul at the time, and he was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians.

Suddenly Jesus Himself spoke to him from heaven!

I know that is strange by itself, but something even stranger happened.

Jesus Himself spoke to Saul, but He didn’t give him the whole message.

God didn’t just do everything. He got other people involved, including a Christian named Ananias.

In Acts 9 verse 6 Jesus said to Saul, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Jesus could have just handled everything Himself, right there on the spot, but no. He sent Saul into Damascus with only a vague notion of what was going to happen next.

Meanwhile, in Acts 9 verse 11 the Lord appeared to Ananias in a vision, called him by name, and told him to go see Saul.

And oh yeah, God gave Saul a vision of someone named Ananias coming to minister to him!

God could have just taken care of everything Himself, right? But He didn’t. He got Ananias involved in His work.

What does that have to do with you and me? All Christian believers are members of the Body of Christ, and when God wants to do a work on earth, He uses the Body of Christ, His people, to carry out His plans!

You’ve heard the old saying, “We are His hands and His feet.” That’s what this is, the Christians, the Body of Christ, His church, doing His work as He leads us.

And listen – each believer has an EQUALLY VITAL PART in the Body of Christ. Sure, we have different gifts and callings, different backgrounds and different experiences. But each one of us is important to God’s work.

There’s Saul, who would become Paul, and reach the Gentile world for Jesus and write a good portion of the Bible, and yet God chose to include little old Ananias in His grand master plan.

I have no idea why God uses people because we are generally an unreliable lot. Nevertheless, here we are, God’s people, His vessels…and His vassals! He has work He wants done in the earth, and He’s not going to do it all by Himself. He’s going to use people, and you and I are one of them.

And listen: it’s about to get exciting!

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.