Acts 9 tells the story of Saul’s (Paul) conversion and of his Holy Spirit baptism. When he was filled with the Holy Spirit:
- He could see what he had never seen before. Scales fell off of his eyes. He could see Ananias, a follower of Jesus, as a brother rather than an enemy. He stayed in Damascus several days with others who were following Jesus and could see what this new movement was truly all about.
- He could submit to God’s plans rather than follow his own. Verse 20 tells us he started preaching the Gospel immediately. He went from persecutor to preacher; from terrorist to evangelist. It wasn’t what he HAD to do because he was afraid God wouldn’t accept him or would wreak some kind of havoc on his life. It was what he wanted to do. His desires were totally changed.
Saul had been going to Damascus to arrest Christ-followers, but he was arrested himself, by the person of Jesus Christ and by the person of the Holy Spirit. As a result, his desires, his wants became what God had wanted for him all along. For me, that is the moment of sanctification. When my heart, mind, and will are transformed to want to know and do the will of God, when that is what I wake up thinking about, when that is what fuels my passion, when that becomes what I naturally want to do, it is evidence to me that I have had a supernatural experience with the Holy Spirit.
How is it that the Holy Spirit can change my desires? How is it that the things of God can be as fun and as inviting as the things of the world? When we pursue a relationship with the Holy Spirit, there will be a supernatural shift in our hearts, minds and wills. It won’t be something we have to work toward. It will be something we can’t resist. It will become a natural inclination.
If I could suggest that this story could help us see some steps towards encountering the Holy Spirit for ourselves, I would first say:
In order to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you first need to encounter Jesus.
Saul knew a lot, but he didn’t know what mattered until he met Jesus.
Second, If you desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit you need to evaluate where you are, what you are doing and why you are doing it.
After meeting Jesus, Saul had to wrestle with some pretty heavy questions. Why was he persecuting Christians? Could he justify shedding innocent blood simply because he couldn’t understand the experience that the Jesus-followers had testified to? Why was he doing what he was doing? Did it keep the religious leaders in his pocket? Was he aspiring to have even greater influence and a greater following in the Jewish community? Did he have an ego problem? Did he want to be viewed as the smartest guy in the room? Is that where his significance came from? Could he admit that there was more to this Jesus-thing than he had yet understood? God was helping him understand that he needed to evaluate himself before he started preaching to other people.
If you desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit you need to be willing to be led.
I guess you could argue that Saul had no choice but to be led. He was blind. But Saul could have told the men who were with him to take him home instead of leading him into Damascus. He could have said to the Lord, “I don’t know who You are, but I don’t have to do what You say.” He could have relied on his connections to take him to the best doctor around in order to try to get his blindness cured. He could have decided that if God was going to take his sight, he would never listen to Him. But he didn’t. The Lord had told him to go into the city, and Saul, like a child, was led by the hand. He went willingly.
If you desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit you need to be willing to deal with what He brings to your understanding.
For three days, Saul was praying. We read that he didn’t eat. I don’t think he was fasting. I think he was too sick to eat. I think he started to realize the error of his ways, and it made him sick. I think he realized what he had been doing and how blasphemous and horrible his acts had been. I think his prayers were filled with, “Oh no! What have I done, Lord. Can you forgive me, Lord Jesus?” and “Can you help me forgive myself?”
One of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of sin and to purify our lives. If we always think the sermon is for someone else, we aren’t open to a work of the Spirit in our lives. If we are sincerely asking God to speak to us through messages like this, when He does, we need to be faithful to respond. We need to be open to correction and receptive to confess what needs to change. We need to own what we need to own, release what we need to release and surrender what we need to surrender to the Holy Spirit. There is no shortage of Holy Spirit work in God’s church, and by church I mean the entire church everywhere, but I am not so sure that there might not be a shortage of cooperation with the work He is attempting to do.
If you need a defining moment, if you desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit, make sure you have had an encounter with Jesus, be willing to be led, be open to evaluating who you are and why you do what you do, be honest with God and yourself and surrender everything to Him.
