PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Acts 9:1–9 (NIV)
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him,“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
CONSIDER THIS
Finally, we arrive at the proverbial yet literal “Damascus Road Experience.”
There’s a technical term for such an event: divine intervention. Saul, kingdom enemy number one, possessed by a vitriolic—even demonic—anger meets his maker in the form of a forceful light and a piercing voice. Saul legitimately thought he was doing God a favor. He had absolutely no use for Jesus, and his sole ambition was to wipe his followers off the face of the earth. Saul, arrest warrants in hand, turns out to be the one put under arrest.
So what are we to make of this Damascus Road phenomenon? On the one hand, we can celebrate it as perhaps the most important moment in church history, just after the resurrection and coming of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, we must avoid the trap of setting this kind of experience as the norm for Christian conversion.
Perhaps somewhere along the way you’ve been questioned as to the precise moment you became a Christian. It’s not a bad question, but having a definite answer is not necessarily necessary. More than a “Damascus Road” story to speak of our salvation, we need a deeply inward, ever-growing experiential assurance of the love God has for us in particular. It is good to have a testimony that something happened somewhere in the past, but it is essential to have a growing assurance of something happening in an ongoing way.
The don of the Damascus Road would later say it this way:
The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. (Rom. 8:15–16)
Salvation is not something about which you convince yourself, nor is it a particular experience of which you try to convince others. We are given assurance of our salvation through the working of the Holy Spirit. Any authentic proof of our salvation to others also comes from the Holy Spirit through the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit.
Some people cannot remember a time when they did not possess a saving faith in Jesus Christ. Others can tell you the day and time, and there are a thousand varieties of experience between these two scenarios. The critical question is, “Do you have an inward assurance in your own spirit that you are a son or daughter of God?”
If not, ask God to give you assurance that you are God’s daughter or son through the inner working of the Holy Spirit. And wait for it. He delights to do this.
THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION
Lord Jesus, I am your witness.
I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness.
I receive your love and release my selfishness.
Come Holy Spirit transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.
THE QUESTION
What’s your story? Damascus Road Experience? Slow growing knowing of Jesus as Savior and Lord? Still tossed to and fro by doubts about your salvation and relationship with Jesus? Journal that out a bit today.
THE HYMN
Every day we sing a hymn together on the Wake-Up Call audio edition/podcast. Get your Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise at the Seedbed Store today.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com
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3 Responses
Is Christ in you?
Has your life
Been made new?
Are you being
Led by the Spirit
In what you
Think, say, and do?
“As many as are
Led by the Spirit
Are the children of God.”
–Romans 8:14
This is such a welcome posting. There are many factors that come into play in regards to an individual’s conversation experience. The MIAN THING is not being able to recount the exact time and place, but rather the current process of growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. As it was once explained to me by a pastor, a person raised up in church will experience a different type of conversion experience than someone who came to faith as an adult. It’s the difference of someone born with eyesight and someone born blind and receiving their sight due to an operation. I believe that this example can be found in scriptures when you compare Saul’s conversion with that of Timothy’s.
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. He knew it was God; he wanted a name. I don’t think it surprised him when he heard, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
What sticks with me is that for three days, all Saul saw in his mind’s eye was the glory of Christ.
Hold on to that thought a moment…
That glory lives in each of us, whether we have a moment of experiencing Christ personally through conversion, through another brother or sister, a minister or revival, or any other event.
We remember moments, not days.
I’ll never forget meeting Christ in my garage 15 years ago.
Since then, I’ve been blessed to have many experiences serving others by being Jesus’ servant. The dates and times are incidental. The events are monumental because they become a chapter of the story of my testimonial in Christ.
It is our testimonies in Jesus, of Jesus that help defeat the evil one.
Revelation 12:11
And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
So, when the devil attacks, tell Him of your assurance of being a child of God!
Staying 💪’ n Christ,
Ephesians 6:10
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.