Friday, May 3, 2019

The Spiritual Gift of Agitation

Monday, May 6, 2019

Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength.  Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days.  And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!”  All who heard him were amazed.  “Isn’t this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem?” they asked.  “And didn’t he come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priests?”  Saul’s preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn’t refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.  After a while some of the Jews plotted together to kill him.  They were watching for him day and night at the city gate so they could murder him, but Saul was told about their plot.  So during the night, some of the other believers lowered him in a large basket through an opening in the city wall.  When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to meet with the believers, but they were all afraid of him.  They did not believe he had truly become a believer!  Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the way to Damascus and how the Lord had spoken to Saul.  He also told them that Saul had preached boldly in the name of Jesus in Damascus.  So Saul stayed with the apostles and went all around Jerusalem with them, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.  He debated with some Greek-speaking Jews, but they tried to murder him.  When the believers heard about this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus, his hometown.  The church then had peace throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and it became stronger as the believers lived in the fear of the Lord.  And with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it also grew in numbers.  Acts 9:19-31

Wherever Apostle Paul went he started a riot or a revival; these words still ring in my ear since I first heard them forty years ago from a friend in ministry.  It seems every time Paul opened his mouth (or his pen) what came forth was the spiritual gift of agitation.  By that I mean Paul was prone to get right to the bone of truth, no matter what was in the way.  If you had a soft exterior, he’d cut through that flesh like a surgeon.  If you were of the hard-shell variety Paul would leave your pride in pieces on the floor.
Consider the evidence; from the first we hear about Paul he is heartily joining-in the religious leader’s decision to stone Stephen.[iii]  Then a meeting with Jesus on the Road to Damascus leaves Paul blind, turned 180° towards eternal truth, eyes re-opened, and preaching that truth from Damascus to Jerusalem with his life on the line.  And every time he preaches there is a riot or revival (oftentimes both) as a response to the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord.
The chief piece of evidence that Paul’s ministry was one of agitation, driven by the Spirit of God, is how every time Paul preached people wanted him dead.  (I’ve felt like that a few times!).  Added to that is the reality expressed by Luke in this text that once Paul was hurried out of town, the church experienced peace, but were left with an insatiable desire to press forward for the sake of Christ’s kingdom.  In short, great things happened!
Now there is a difference between just stirring-it-up, an agitating self-important troublemaker, and someone cooperating with God’s Spirit to unsettle those who are comfortable in their unbelief.  There’s an old saying that describes the task of any preacher:  we are to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. 
Paul was a master of both.
For You Today
If you’re comfortable in your routine it may be time to have a little talk with Paul…that is, only if you don’t mind a little truth shaking your comfort zone to the bone!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[ii] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©
[iii] See Acts 6

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