Friday: Brother Saul
WEEK 42
FRIDAY
BROTHER SAUL
Acts 9:10-19
We continue the mastery of the art of prayer in the Acts. The next place we find an instance of prayer is when the apostles had sent Peter and John to the Samaritans, “where they prayed that the new believers receive the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:15).
This instance of prayer is in the direct line of the kind of prayer that emerged in Acts; it was a prayer for others. And the highest prayer for others, that they might receive the highest gift God had—the gift of Godself, the Holy Spirit. This was significant. Had this spirituality been the type I have seen in India, it would be more interested in being objects of wonder at the spirituality developed than in imparting it to others. In other words, it is a development of the self and as such is self-centered. But self-giving was at the heart of the divine gift of the Holy Spirit, and hence they caught the contagion. They wanted to give the highest since they had found the highest.
The next place prayer is mentioned is when Ananias goes in to the stricken Saul, lays hands on him, and prays: “Brother Saul, the Lord sent me—Jesus . . . so that you could see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit” (9:17). Again the same outgoing type of prayer for others and this time for an enemy, and infinite compassion is in the prayer: “Brother Saul.” Turning an enemy into a brother through love! Moreover, as we have noted, Ananias went beyond the original commission of Jesus to him “that he could see again,” and added on his own, “and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” He wanted his former enemy to share the highest he had—the Holy Spirit.
The next instance of prayer is when Peter went into the death chamber of Dorcas and “knelt and prayed. He turned to the body and said, ‘Tabitha, get up’” (9:40). Again, here was prayer reaching even beyond death to the spirit world. Prayer can do anything, anywhere, provided it is linked to the loving, redemptive purposes of God. If it is linked to the self and its selfish purposes, it goes nowhere except in futile circles, round and round on itself.
O Lord, I thank you that you have put laws into our freest act, the act of prayer. When we obey those laws, we touch life everywhere with your power. I thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I shall touch everything redemptively through prayer this day.