INNOCENT PERSECUTION

Acts 9:4-6

He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!

Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

At the time he persecuted the church Saul most likely thought he was doing a good deed. The cause he was fighting for would seem to him a just one for he thought he was fighting for the Lord.

Acts 9:1-2

Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest.

He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains.

Can you fight for God, when the Psalmist was describing idols He said:

Psalms 115:3-8

Our God is in the heavens, and he does as he wishes.

Their idols are merely things of silver and gold, shaped by human hands.

They have mouths but cannot speak, and eyes but cannot see.

They have ears but cannot hear, and noses but cannot smell.

They have hands but cannot feel, and feet but cannot walk, and throats but cannot make a sound.

And those who make idols are just like them, as are all who trust in them.

You cannot fight for a living God, if people renounce Him it is their own condemnation, He doesn't need man to kill the person. If one slanders His name or insults Him, He does not need man to fight His cause, HE IS GOD.

If only human understands what it means to be the Heavenly Father, they will quit religion and all these philosophies of men and serve Him. He is God.

Isaiah 45:6-7,9,12

so all the world from east to west will know there is no other God. 

I am the Lord, and there is no other. 

I create the light and make the darkness. 

I send good times and bad times. 

I, the Lord, am the one who does these things.

“What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? 

Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’ 

Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’

I am the one who made the earth and created people to live on it. 

With my hands I stretched out the heavens. 

All the stars are at my command.

So anyone asking you to kill or hate another because of religion CANNOT BE FROM GOD. Selah

Thus while Saul was persecuting the church, the Lord had already prepared Him for ministry. His persecution was in ignorance.

Many today passed through or are in that category, they have been given gifts and special knowledge by the Heavenly Father, yes many all over the world. He did this for His pleasure that they might serve Him, however Christ said that many are called but few are chosen (not all discover the true essence of their gifts till they pass on). This is why the church must wake up, believers should take evangelism, soul winning seriously. Many may look okay on the outside, you may even mistakenly admire them because of their wealth, wisdom, achievements or fame, however they are spiritually dead for they have not found eternal life which is in Christ Jesus.

Revelation 4:11

“You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. 

For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.”

So the Lord stopped Saul on his tracks as he was at the heights of his persecution journey, there and then he encountered the one who gave Him purpose. He had to lose his earthly sight, that he will be refreshed and when the Heavenly sight will be restored and his physical eyes is opened he will understand that he has been brought from darkness to light.

Acts 9:17-18,20

So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized.

And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!”

Many are still trapped in ignorance like Saul was, it is time for them to receive their redemption.

Acts 4:11-12

For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, 

‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’

There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

In many places the persecution against believers is outright and physical. In more civilized places it is subtile and even coded. For remember the battle is in the mind. The enemy began to convince Eve using scriptures "Did God say . . ."

The enemy tempted Christ saying ". . .it is written . . ."

Today the same vices are used, yes they use scriptures to try to confuse the believer, who has even experience the power of God's Spirit. How can you have light and then begin to negotiate with darkness? How can you have faith and then begin to dable into philosophy. How can you have the very Word the only revelation of the Father (Jesus the Christ) and be playing around with angels, Mary, dead saints or his earthly relations, or ginis, or prophets or whatever it is that the enemy is trying to complicate people's faith with.

Galatians 3:1-6

Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross.

Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ.

How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?

Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?

I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.

In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”

The Lord will keep us from falling.

We will not be at the side walk, we will be part of what God is doing to save souls.

False teachers, prophets and philosophers will be exposed.

Those who persecute ignorantly will encounter Christ.

In all, the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

He calls us blessed.

Love

@the watcher.