A New Way of Seeing: Letting Go of What We Think We Know
This week’s prayer guide focuses on the Apostle Paul’s dramatic transformation from a zealous persecutor to a sacrificial builder of the Church (Acts 9, 22, 26). There is so much we could unpack from his encounter with the risen Lord on the road to Damascus, but today I’d like to focus on the loss of sight he experienced immediately following his visitation from Jesus.
After his visitation, Saul was blinded and led into the city, where he fasted for three days. Through a supernatural instruction, a believer named Ananias came to restore Saul’s sight. Upon being healed, Saul was immediately baptized, beginning his new life as a disciple.
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus often healed physical conditions to illustrate deeper spiritual truths. Saul, a "Pharisee of Pharisees," was intellectually proficient in the Law but spiritually blind to the Truth that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah. In Matthew 23, Jesus condemned such hypocrisy, calling the Pharisees "blind guides" and warning that those who exalt themselves will be humbled.
Saul’s experience brought these truths into a painful, physiological reality. Praise God for His mercy! He emerged from those three days with his natural and spiritual eyes wide open, fueled by the Holy Spirit to boldly witness to the Truth.
Perhaps the most frightening reality here is that Saul was completely unaware of his spiritual blindness. His pedigree, intellectual pride and self-righteousness had deceived him into believing he was in right standing with God. It took three days of blindness and dependence on the mercy of those he had been seeking to destroy to realize he had been living in the dark.
I believe these passages present a sober warning to the modern Church. As Jesus says in The Living Bible paraphrase of John 9:39, "I have come into the world to give sight to those who are spiritually blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind."
A Closing Prayer: Lord, grant us clear eyes, fresh faith and deep humility to see you (and each other) rightly. Like Saul, may we be willing to learn what we do not know and re-learn what we think we do. Give us the grace to build up the Body of Christ to a position of strength and maturity, until we all believe alike about our salvation and our Savior (Ephesians 4:12-13). In the matchless Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Jaime Lind
COO, Revive New England