At 17 years old, Ravi was about to commit suicide when God spoke audibly to him and stopped him. Since then, God has woken him up at 4 A.M. every day and given him instructions for ministry. One day God gave him directions to go and preach at a village in India with few specifics about the area. When he arrived, a group of men from a nearby Hindu temple came to listen with machetes in hand. Ravi began to preach about Jesus, which one man in particular was especially interested in.
“I am so happy,” that man said after accepting Christ. He put his hand on his chest, mentioning he felt peace there. As it ended up, this man was in charge of the local temple festival that happened every 5 years, which would bring in over 10,000 people. The next one was 2 months away. It seemed that God was setting something up and co-laboring with Ravi to bring his plans to fruition.
You don’t always know what’s on the other side of the Holy Spirit’s call or what to do when you walk into that call, so faith and trust have to become commonplace in ministry. For Ananias, the call was to go meet one of the greatest persecutors of the church in his time. The chief priests had used what power they had in society to grant this villain the right to imprison any Christians he came in contact with, and he did so with great zeal.
Ananias, a Christian himself, must have been fairly terrified to receive this command. But God informed him that he had set the stage for this moment, so Ananias walked forward with faith, trust, and probably some fear. God then used Ananias’ obedience to turn this great persecutor of the church into one of the church’s greatest heroes: the Apostle Paul.
What is God calling you to walk into with faith and trust today?
*This devotional was created out of the themes of Acts 9:10-19 found in today’s reading at CommonPrayer.net. You can see Ravi’s story from this article in the documentary, Father of Lights.
Jamin Bradley 