His Transforming Touch
Saul, who later was called Paul, is a prime example of the way the Holy Spirit can transform your walk. Can you imagine calling someone who is a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a murder, “Brother”?
To the natural ear, that sounds impossible. But that’s what the Holy Spirit can do. He makes the impossible possible. When God told Ananias to go and pray for Saul, he argued: “Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:” (Acts 9:13).
Nevertheless, Ananias obeyed God and went to pray for Saul. The moment Ananias met him, he laid his hands on Saul and said:
“Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 9:17).
Even the apostles didn’t want to associate with Saul. They were not convinced of his conversion. As far as they knew, he had been on his way to Jerusalem to kill them, for they had seen no evidence to support that theory!
It took Barnabas to change their attitude. He brought Saul before them and explained “how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus” (Acts 9:27).
“One touch of His presence can change the course of our lives.” When the apostles saw the transformation that had taken place in Paul, they were amazed. He had turned one of the cruelest persecutors of the church into one of its champions. This man who had once been a threat to their own personal safety and to the message they preached now went about proclaiming “Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God” (Acts 9:20).
If the Holy Spirit could transform Saul into Paul, totally re-orchestrating his life and the purpose for his very existence, imagine how He could transform you and me.
Just one touch of His presence can change the course of our lives so that we will walk in His ways to accomplish His marvelous will and not our own.
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