13“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. 14And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” 15But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 16I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” – Acts 9: 13-16 (NIV)
I like the Lord’s response to Ananias in verse 15. He does deliver an explanation first. He delivers His expectation; “Go!” There is no long, drawn-out debate, only a deliberate directive with the Divine saying: “Go!” You get the point and God got to the point. He simply started out by telling the man in a vision and in response to his questioning of God with an answer from the Almighty. “Go!”
How many different ways has God told us the same thing to do? How many times has He repackaged or reshaped the same message to reach you for what He wants you to do? If your Christian journey has been anything like mine, I know that God has had to use many ways and many words to simply show me the same simple thing that He has said to me more than once. Even when I think of the countless people He has used for confirmation, conviction and counsel for me over the years and on some of the same things, I sit back and marvel.
God goes out of His way to use others to reach us. He desires that we, too, become willing workers in this kingdom business. He wants us to get so worked up about what He has for us to do as His work that we become willing to go to extremes to get the work done and to get the Word out there.
Let Him work on you. Let Him work on your willingness. Pray for Him to work on you. Once He has worked on you, then watch as He works through you. You just have to get into a position where you are willing. Once you are willing, then He can take you anywhere to do anything with you because you are simply willing to go for Him and in His name.
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