Amidst the amazing story in Acts 9 of the conversion of the Apostle Paul is an often-overlooked character, Ananias, who deserves our consideration and admiration for his obedience in adversity.<\/p>\n
10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, \u201cAnanias!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYes, Lord,\u201d he answered.<\/em><\/p>\n 11 The Lord told him, \u201cGo to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n 13 \u201cLord,\u201d Ananias answered, \u201cI have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n 15 But the Lord said to Ananias, \u201cGo! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n 17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, \u201cBrother Saul, the Lord\u2014Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here\u2014has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.\u201d 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul\u2019s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength.<\/em><\/p>\n John Pollock writes in his book The Apostle: The Life of Paul,<\/p>\n \u201cAnanias the obscure (never heard of before or since) had been chosen to baptize Saul. This was to be the first example of a historical pattern that great ambassadors for Christ, however much prepared in other ways, would be brought to their vocation by unimportant agents:<\/em><\/p>\n – Augustine hears a child\u2019s voice repeat, \u2018Take up and read!\u2019;<\/em><\/p>\n – John Wesley listens to an anonymous Moravian reading Luther;<\/em><\/p>\n – D. L. Moody, wrapping up shoes in a store, pauses for a few words from his Sunday school teacher;<\/em><\/p>\n – Charles Haddon Spurgeon, sheltering from a snowstorm, hears a workingman in a snowbound minister\u2019s pulpit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Among the many benefits of serving the local church, as a member of Empowering Action, is the opportunity to interact with modern-day Ananias\u2019, whose obedience, often in obscurity and affliction, produce \u201cfruit that lasts\u201d for the Kingdom. Often their hearts reflect the words of the Psalmist,<\/p>\n It is good for me that I was afflicted, Amidst the amazing story in Acts 9 of the conversion of the Apostle Paul is an often-overlooked character, Ananias, who deserves our consideration and admiration for his obedience in adversity. 10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, \u201cAnanias!\u201d \u201cYes, Lord,\u201d he answered. 11 The Lord […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heroes-of-the-faith"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/web-blog-honor-600x300.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/web-blog-honor-600x300.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Kent Husted","author_link":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/author\/khusted\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/em>That I may learn Your statutes.
\n<\/em>The law of Your mouth is better to me
\n<\/em>Than thousands of gold and silver pieces. (Psalm 119:71-72)<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"