All of us fell to the ground, and I heard a voice say to me in Hebrew, ‘Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself by hitting back, like an ox kicking against its owner’s stick.’ —Acts 26:14 (GNT)
The topic of today’s article is a question Jesus asked Saul when he was on his way to Damascus with authority from the chief priest to persecute believers. In case you are not familiar with this story, Saul was a man zealous for God who felt that the believers of his day were doing something wrong. He believed they were corrupting the ways of God with their new teaching.
So, he went all out against the believers of that time. As he described it himself:
Many times I had them punished in the synagogues and tried to make them deny their faith. I was so furious with them that I even went to foreign cities to persecute them. —Acts 26:11 (GNT)
That was how zealous Saul was. In his mind, he was doing it for God, but he didn’t know he was working against Jesus and the Gospel.
So, the Lord appeared to him and asked why he was persecuting Him. Until then, Saul didn’t know he was persecuting the very God he felt he was fighting for. That encounter on the way to Damascus changed everything.
What is the significance of this story? Many believers today behave like Saul. They are literally persecuting Jesus while thinking they are fighting for Him. You hear them speak against churches, pastors, and doctrines. They see all the wrong things going on with the church, but they never see the good.
You never hear them emphasize the good happening in the body; instead, they focus so much on the bad, making it look like nothing good is happening in the church. The worst part is that they compare the Christianity of the early days to the Christianity of today, not realizing that the church of the last days cannot be compared to that of former days. They forget that Christians in these last days have to deal with specific end-time prophecies.
They talk down on churches and believers, thinking they are doing the right thing, but they do not know that they are persecuting Christ. Beloved, this shouldn’t be the case for you. See the good in the body of Christ and pray to God for the perfection of the saints.
If you can take this role, you are among those who are gathering with Jesus and not scattering. As He said:
Anyone who is not for me is really against me; anyone who does not help me gather is really scattering. —Matthew 12:30 (GNT)
Today’s Rhema
See the good in the body of Christ and pray to God for the perfection of the saints!
Confession for the Day
Father, I am grateful for this wonderful article. I choose this day to be among those gathering and not scattering, in Jesus’ name. Amen!
