By: Carole L. Haines
So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized; and he took food and was strengthened. (Acts 9:17-19)
There is no greater demonstration of the power of Christ to transform a life, than the Conversion of Saul from Persecutor to Powerful Preacher. God took someone who was persecuting the Church of God, broke him down brought him to repentance and used him to change the whole world. Apart from Jesus, God’s own Son, Paul was used more prolifically than anyone else in the Early Church. His transformation from Saul to Paul was the most dramatic conversion the Early Church had ever seen. That same transformational power is available for changing us from who we were to who God sees us to be. Do we really believe in the transformational power of Jesus Christ in the lives of those who have put their trust in Him? Do we believe it for ourselves, do we believe it for others? His power toward us who believe is immeasurable, it is infinite.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. (Ephesians 1:18-21)
I find it is so much easier to believe in the Power of Christ for the lives of others than for myself. But when I look back at where I was when He called me, what I have been through, and His deliverance and transformation from then to now, I am amazed at His Work. We are much too harsh and critical of ourselves. We must cease to see ourselves through any other lens but the lens of Christ and His redemptive power. We are all truly walking miracles of God. Let’s choose to see each other that way. Let’s choose to see ourselves that way, not through our natural, critical, human eyes.
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