Acts 26:13-18 (NASB) “…at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who art Thou, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But arise, and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’…”
Acts 21:18-20a. (NASB) And now the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. And after he had greeted them, he began to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. And when they heard it, they began glorifying God…
Paul probably seemed like a very unlikely choice to minister in Jesus name to many Jewish people of the early church. After all, he had been persecuting them. If that wasn’t enough, once he did give his heart to the Lord, he was actually reaching out to the Gentiles. What was Paul trying to do anyway? Ruin their cozy little church family by bringing just anyone into it?
Later, when some Gentile churches had been established, others still opposed him. Kidding themselves into believing they were genuinely concerned with the well-being of the fledgling church; they were really just plain full of gangrene jealousy. The blood of Christ was not flowing through their minds as it should,
so decay was setting in to their formerly soft hearts. Having this new-found nobody placed in positions of authority that they themselves felt entitled to irked them to the hilt. Therefore, In the name of Jesus, they permitted themselves to behave in ways that quenched the flow of the Holy Spirit.
Have you ever been on either side of a situation like this? I was. When major changes were made in a ministry that I had long-term involvement with, I suddenly found myself under the authority of an outsider. In my thinking he was leading us in ways that weren’t bad, but that I did not believe to be the best. I chose to submit to his leadership and work with him for the sake of our Christian witness, but it wasn’t easy. Even though I truly considered him to be a friend, on the inside antipathy smacked me around for quite some time. I just felt like he had been given a position that rightly should have been mine.
Subsequent changes in our responsibilities did not set well with me either, even when I was given more authority. I was convinced that church leadership was not listening to the Lord. Never-the-less, I stayed there frozen in place until I was forced to leave because of health reasons.
God had been speaking to my heart through the whole ordeal. When He finally pulled the rug out from under me a few times, I began to listen. Once my arrogance, presumption and self-pity were out of the way, His plan for this time of my life came into focus. Now I rejoice both in the ministry I was previously
involved with, and in what He has me doing today.
Begrudging the placement of someone else in what you feel is ‘your ministry’ is disrespectful to Our Sovereign Lord. This is true even if you are not acting unkind towards the other person involved. Arguing and nit-picking are even more harmful. God wants us to work together as His arms on the earth. He
wants us to wrestle against darkness, not with one another.