Wednesday: The Steps Down and Up
WEEK 27
WEDNESDAY
THE STEPS DOWN AND UP
Acts 26:19-23
We are studying the mastery of the negative by the positive. This is vividly seen in Paul himself. Note his steps down into the negative: (1) “The witnesses placed their coats in the care of a young man named Saul” (Acts 7:58). Here he was more or less passive, allowing them to lay their garments at his feet. (2) “Saul was in full agreement with Stephen’s murder” (8:1). Here the passive turned to consent; he inwardly approved of the murder. (3) “Saul began to wreak havoc against the church. Entering one house after another, he would drag off both men and women and throw them into prison” (8:3). Here he became active in his negative attitudes; the inward consent turned to outward act. (4) “Saul was still spewing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” (9:1). Here the action became the person. He had committed murder; now he was murder—he breathed threats and murder. The act had become an attitude, had become him. He was positively possessed by the negative.
Then came the flash of light from the face of Jesus on the Damascus road, and Saul’s whole false universe of hate and murder tumbled in around him. He became physically blind. Why? Because he was now spiritually blind; he couldn’t see his way. So the spiritual blindness was transferred to a physical blindness—a conversion of a spiritual malady into a physical symptom. His negativism was complete. Then the positive, based on Reality, began to set in. Redemption began through love: “Brother Saul.” The positive love broke down the negative hate. The physical symptom, blindness, was removed when spiritual insight began to come. Forgiveness invaded him, took away his inner conflicts, and then—wonder of wonders—he was “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Now the positive took complete possession of him, and he began to breathe love and good will and redemption. The positive became him. The man who breathed threats and murder began to breathe out the Holy Spirit.
O Divine Spirit, how I thank you for your gracious redemption, willing to come into and take possession of murderous hearts. Take mine. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Today I will breathe in the Holy Spirit, and I will breathe out the Holy Spirit on everything and everybody.