Acts 8.1ff Saul approved of their killing Stephen. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in
Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
How difficult for the Christians at that time (no doubt like many persecuted Christian groups today) Difficult not to fear that the church will be destroyed by such a powerful enemy as Saul. How can they survive?
Yet God turns the whole thing upside down. Saul becomes Paul , the great apostle, who plants churches throughout Asia Minor and Europe.
From Archenemy to ‘Archbishop’!
What does this teach us? It reminds us that God is sovereign. Nothing happens outside of his overarching plan to ultimately restore all things together with Christ as head. Even terrible things God can turn round, and work together for our good.
Nothing can stop us reaching our ultimate destination which is to spend eternity with him in heaven, where all evil is banished, and he will wipe away all tears from our eyes, there will be no more death or grief or crying or pain. (Revelation 21).
Ultimately the only thing that is certain is that Jesus is going to come again one day, and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Phil 2) And everything is happening to move us towards that goal.
And Isis cannot stop it, nor can multinational corporations - nor your boss at work.
We can sometimes feel very powerless, and frustrated because power seems to be in the hands of those who abuse it, and cause difficulty and damage. But if our hearts and lives are seeking to be in harmony with God, and we are pressing on to simply live lives to do his will, to try to help his kingdom to come, his will to be done on earth, as it is in heaven, ultimately nothing that we do will be in vain. When we get to heaven, we will look back and see how God has woven all our actions as part of his unstoppable plan to bring in his kingdom. Like some amazing tapestry, in which each thread is being utilised as part of the wonderful whole.
But of course if we are simply trying to feather our own nest. Then there are certainly no guarantees!!!
So lets be encouraged: Jesus is Lord, he is sovereign over all, and if we hide under the shadow of his wings, we are safe, and he will work all things together for our good. We must take comfort from that and not be anxious and not be afraid.
So therefore God wants each of us to be brave, and be bold and fearlessly seek to do his will, to bring in his kingdom, and trust that he will fill every valley, level every mountain to enable us to get to our goal.
What are you seeking to do for God in your life? How are you helping to build his kingdom and fulfil his plan?
Remember the Lord’s encouragement to Joshua before entering the promised land (Josh 1.6): Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
Secondly, the way that God completely change the situation for the early church:
Firstly by God’s sovereign independent act, answering the prayers of his people, no doubt – he confronts Saul on the road to
Damascus, and in of blinding light speaks to him and indeed lines him, to put an end to his persecution and bring into his knees. That was a sovereign act of God with no human agency, apart from prayer.
But the second thing is the amazing story of Ananias.
God acts by his Spirit to prompt Ananias to go to the house where St Paul is staying, and lay his hands upon him and pray for his site to be restored. He does this through giving a vision both to Saul and Ananias, on the one hand, and then the vitally important fact of the obedience of Ananias, to respond to the prompting.
So here we see God sovereignly at work through his independent activity, but also through leading and guiding his people by his Spirit.
We live in God’s world. He is the one who pulls all the strings. He is the one who races up empires and brings them down.
He is the one who guides you every moment of every day. But are you listening to his voice? Are you open to be guided by his Spirit, or are you deaf to his promptings?
The 23 rd Psalm speaks so clearly of this… The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
As does John chapter 10, in which Jesus echoes Psalm 23 .: The gatekeeper opens the gate for the Shepherd, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

This is the normal Christian Life: Are you a follower of Jesus, do you listen to his voice calling and leading you?
Are you open to be led by the Spirit in this way? This is the essence of what following Jesus is all about . Not following a set of rules and principles, but following a Person (Jesus), being led on an adventure of faith, by his Spirit.
The Spirit of Christ speaks to us in a variety of different ways, sometimes by visions sometime through promptings, in scripture, and our conscience bears witness to us, and dares us to believe this is the voice of the Lord – and take a risk
Of course its not easy - his ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts and our thoughts (Is 55) and he often does things which seem upside down to us, like the first of the last, and the last first – the greatest must be the servant, etc
So he will often ask us to do things at make no sense humanly speaking. To give, forgive, take a risk, sometimes seeming to court disaster, but all about trusting that God has got it worked out, and we need to simply trust and obey.
Ananias had no idea that God had worked sovereignly in Saul, to humble him and make him open to the gospel. Ananias wasn’t told that. He was simply told to go on lay hands upon Saul.
We will often find ourselves called by God to do things which make no sense to us.
But in the end Ananias with used by God in a remarkable way to act as a hinge point which transformed Saul from being archenemy to arch friend of the gospel. And God had chosen to use human agency to do this, a human agent who was willing to follow the prompting of the Spirit, to be obedient to a vision, and not question.
Would you like to live this way? Would you like to be used by God to be an instrument of transformation, to bring in his kingdom in a variety of different ways. To know such joy and fulfilment in your life – the Joy of the Lord?
You will only be able to do that if you seek to be led by the Spirit, seek to follow the prompting of the Spirit of Christ in your life. If you are not willing to do that, God will use someone else, and you will never know the joy of seeing your life used in this way. If you play it safe.
The big issue is, are we willing to trust God without borders, without boundaries?
Do we trust that God knows us through and through and will never let it be tested beyond our power to remain firm as we are assured in 1 Corinthians 10.13?
Do we believe that Jesus is humble and gentle in Spirit and will never ride over us roughshod? (Mt 11.28ff)
Do we believe that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, that we are safe in his hands? (Rom 8.38)
Do we believe that he truly is sovereign over all things, and is in control?
Are we willing to trust our lives into his hands? Completely? 24/7?
Would you like to be led by the Spirit? Then we must be willing not to quench the Spirit.
If we keep on ignoring the Spirit, because of our fears, then eventually he will stop speaking to us, his voice will no longer be heard. Just like the voice of conscience. If you systematically ignore your conscience, it will no longer bother you.
If you systematically ignore the promptings of the Spirit, he will no longer bother you either.
But on the other hand if we choose to listen now to the prompting of God Spirit, and begin to be more open, then we will slowly, incrementally grow to recognise the voice of the holy Spirit, and his promptings will become louder and louder, and we will enjoy greater and greater fellowship and fruitfulness for God.
One small application for this might be our willingness to be open to God prompting us to speak to our friends about Jesus, and help them to come to know him, one way or another.
We instinctively believe it can never happen, they will never be converted but we do not know what is happening on the inside, what circumstances may have caused them to be open to God now. We will never know unless we ask.
I’m not suggesting that we simply go up to every militant atheist and ask him or her to give life to Christ, but if the Lord prompts you, to speak to your friends, to invite them to a Christmas service, the important thing is sent to be obedient to that prompting, no matter what our natural inclinations is.
But the big thing here is are we willing this morning to be open to God’s Spirit, to live a life led by him, following Jesus? Is that what you would like more of?
Then maybe it is time for us to be committed to that right now . To make a decision that I will from now onwards be obedient to my conscience calling me to respond to a prompting that we think may be the Spirit of God calling me.