Dangerous Obedience

In Acts 9, we encounter one of the most powerful moments in Scripture—the transformation of Saul. A man who once hunted the church, approved of murder, and operated with authority to destroy believers suddenly comes face-to-face with Jesus. What makes this moment so powerful isn’t just the encounter—it’s the response.

Saul doesn’t argue. He doesn’t defend himself. He asks one question: “Lord, what would You have me to do?” 

That single prayer of surrender changes everything.

At the same time, God calls Ananias—a believer who knows Saul’s reputation. Saul is dangerous. Saul is feared. Saul is the enemy. Yet God tells Ananias to go anyway. And he does. Not only does he go, but he calls him brother.

This episode reveals two sides of powerful prayer: surrender and obedience. Saul surrenders his will. Ananias obeys despite fear. And between those two acts, God launches a transformation that would impact the entire world.

What started as persecution became purpose. What looked like destruction became destiny.

One prayer. One yes. One act of obedience.

That’s all God needs to change everything.

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Transcript

Press means to apply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through.

And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us.

Greetings, everyone. Welcome back to the Press Movement Podcast.

Thanks for joining me today as we are going to the book of Acts. And we're going to start in chapter eight, but the prayer comes out of chapter nine, still with Acts being one of my favorite books. I feel like the buildup to this prayer is very important to the story itself.

Last week, we got to discuss Stephen and him being the first martyr for the name of Jesus

Christ and how that impacted the church is what we'll look at today, or it had a great impact. As

you open Acts chapter eight, you can see that Stephen was just murdered. And the Bible lets

you know that one of the key players in this murder was Saul.

The Bible records that he was consenting until his death. That word consenting means that Saul

was pleased with and he brought together approval for, he agreed to applaud to it. In other

words, Saul was egging on his death, but he did more than that.

You learn a lot about Saul in this chapter. You learn his influence really, because he's not just

standing there watching and applauding, but rather the Bible also records that he made havoc

of the church. He was trying to tear the church apart.

He was trying to spot it or defile it or devastated is another word for havoc. He was literally out

to destroy the church. Bible records that he was entering into every house and hailing men.

I'm in verse three of chapter eight, hailing men and women, committed them to prison. That

word hailing means dragging. He was literally dragging them out of their homes, out of their

assemblies and taking them to prison.

He was instrumental in the scatter of the church. The Bible records in verse one that they were

all scattered abroad throughout regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. The

apostles had to stay put.

They became the center, the nerve center, if you would, for the church. You'll see throughout

the book of Acts that people have to go to them to ask questions, to get direction. They set the

tone for the church.

They set the early governance for the church because at this time there would not have been

pastors and all of that just in place because the church was just starting. The apostles governed

it and they did it as a unit. That meant they had to stay put in times when everybody elsewanted to run.

They had to be easily found when it would have been better to be hidden. They stayed put, but

this thing that Saul consented to and applauded and made sure he endorsed, this thing killing

Stephen caused a scattering of the church. But with it, it scattered the message, the message

that Jesus Christ was alive and well.

You'll see that throughout the scriptures, how the scatter of the church actually aided the

mission of the church. It did not destroy it. It carried it further than it would have thought to go.

I have to stop there and just point out, isn't that what God does? Even when we think we're

breaking, even when it feels like chaos or havoc as was intended here, God still has a way of

getting all the glory, all the honor, and remembering his people. We'll go ahead and we'll skip

over to chapter nine because the rest of chapter eight is really talking about a man named

Philip, who I think you should definitely go back and look at because the Lord uses him so

uniquely in terms of ministry. It shows you so much about the function of the church and even

how they work together.

But we'll stick with the story today of Saul because it's Saul's prayer that we're going to look at

as we get to chapter nine. The Bible lets you know in chapter nine that Saul continued

breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. He was not doing

this thing undercover.

Saul was very, very explicit about his mission, about what he wanted to accomplish, about the

fact that he wanted to tear down the church. I think it's one thing to fight a covert enemy, but

it's another thing when your enemy is telling you what they're going to do to you and how

they're going to do it. And this was Saul.

He's breathing these things out. I think that's interesting because it doesn't just say like he

spoke it or he said it. No, this is coming not just as naturally to him as breath, but as frequently

and as easily as breathing, he is threatening a slaughter of the church.

Not only is he threatening them, but he also has authority and influence to get the right to

threaten them. The Bible says he went to the high priest and desired of him letters to go to

Damascus, to the synagogues, if he found any in the way. And if there were any men and

women, the Bible says of this way, he requested permission to pre-arrest them and bring them

round to Jerusalem.

So he has influence with the government and is making this a government operation. He has

the authority and the boldness to do it and the hate to do it. Not only that, he's strategic

enough to know I'm not going to be reckless in doing it.

I'm going to fight them and I'm going to do it intentionally. I'm going to do it under the

authority of the government. This is Saul.This is what made Saul so incredibly deadly to the church. There was no appeals process when

the government's already against you too. There's no appeals process when he has the right to

walk into your house if he finds out you're of this way and kill you or take you to prison.

And when it starts off the mission of gathering these saints, it starts off with Stephen, whom he

oversees the martyrdom of. That already puts a reputation out there that this is a man to be

feared. This is a man who's backed by the government.

And this is a man who means to kill you if you're of this way. I must say I do like the phrasing of

this way. They didn't have the sect of Baptist or sect of apostolics or whatever.

They weren't calling them all that just yet. They didn't even call them Christians yet. All they

knew is this is a different way.

And whatever way this is, we don't like it. So if you're in this way, we're coming for you. But part

of the irony of that to me is that to be of that way and to be known, they had to be willing to tell

somebody.

Can you imagine if every time you went to witness about God, it was life or death? Can you

imagine if you were following him in this way so hard, people knew you were? So you'd be

found out, not because you wore a sign on your back, but because you couldn't hide the

change he has in you. He was able to identify those of this way, even without completely having

definition of, oh, they go to that church. Oh, they look like this.

No, it's the way they are now. There was a reputation being born for those of this way. The

Bible records that he went to the high priest, got this letter so he can kill a bunch of people in

Damascus and pull them out of their synagogues and go into their houses and he wants to

arrest them.

But as he journeyed, the Bible records also in verse three, suddenly there shined round about

him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul,

why persecutest thou me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom

thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the bricks.

And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what would thou have me to do? And the Lord said

unto him, arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do. You see here,

Jesus himself steps into Saul's journey to kill the people Jesus died for, by the way. And Jesus

doesn't even make it about them.

He says, why are you persecuting me? That teaches us a lot about one, the heart of Jesus, that

when things touch us, they touch him. That when we're going through, he goes through with

Hebrews says it slightly differently, but it emphasizes the same ideal. When the Bible says, for

we have not an high priest, which cannot be touched with the filling of our infirmities, but was

in all points tempted, like as we are yet without sin in Hebrews 4 15.Our high priest, Jesus the Christ is touched when we're going through it. So he says, Saul, why

are you persecuting me? Saul says, Lord, who are thou? Can I just introduce the thought that

everybody fighting against Jesus doesn't know him? Everybody who appears to be an

opposition and we think they're just ungodly, or they're just doing different things, or they're

just a saint worshiper, or they're just a Buddhist, or they're just whatever. They don't serve

Jesus Christ.

Can I introduce the thought that everybody doesn't hate Jesus because they know him? Some

people just don't know him. They've never met him. Maybe they've heard about him, but

they've never met him.

They don't understand who he is. They've been raised in a different way, a different tradition,

and they've been devout to that because in their hearts, they're doing the best they can. They're

serving to the best of their ability.

But what I've learned of everyone like that is when they really want to be right, and when they

really want to give God their best, he has a way of interjecting himself into their lives and

making sure they learn this way. He doesn't change the way or cause deviations or make

accommodations saying, well, you know, they weren't raised like this. So let me have a different

plan for them where they can still go to heaven based on X, Y, Z. No, God has a way of

introducing his truth to them that would not otherwise know him, but they are pious in nature.

They are devoted in nature. This is Saul. Saul loved God so much.

He was willing to fight anything and anyone who came against what he was taught. That was a

characteristic that Jesus could work with. As much as it was torture to the saints and havoc to

the saints, Jesus saw in him, somebody, if he gets truth, he will not let it go.

He will fight for it. And Saul's reflex in this conversation shows you exactly that. Because as

soon as he hears, Jesus says, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Who art thou, Lord? And

when the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest, it is hard for thee to kick against the

pricks like you're hurting yourself.

You're not going to win this. Saul immediately trembling and astonished, says, Lord, what

would thou have me to do? Just like that, he recognizes, hold on, he's the real master. Just like

that, his life shifted to my life is your life.

What do you want from me? What can I give you? And he was willing to be obedient. He says,

arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And Saul did just that and

was led into Damascus.

Now he's going into the place where he's coming to kill them. You'll see throughout the

scriptures that Saul does have a reputation already and the people do fear him. And so I can't

imagine going into the place you plan to kill people now converted and looking to serve the

God that you were willing to kill them over just hours ago or just minutes ago.We don't know how long the vision lasted, but can you imagine that? To answer this prayer, the

Lord of vision says, Ananias. And Ananias answers, behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said

unto him, arise and go into the street, which is called straight and inquire in the house of Judas

for one called Saul of Tarsus.

For behold, he prayed. Saul's praying and God is answering over here to Ananias. But Ananias

has some hesitation, which you must understand based on everything we shared here today.

And even if you didn't listen to last week's podcast, you want to go back and do that one as well.

But he lets him know Saul has been praying and Saul has seen in a vision that a man named

Ananias is coming and he's going to put his hand upon him that he might receive his sight.

Ananias says, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he had done to thy saints

at Jerusalem.

So word was a hundred percent out. This is a bad guy. And here he hath authority from the

chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.

So he knew that as well. But the Lord said unto him, go thy way. For he is a chosen vessel unto

me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.

For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. And Ananias went his

way and entered into the house and putting his hand on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even

Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me that thou mightest

receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. Can we just talk about Ananias for a minute?

Because some people will preach a thousand messages and never reach the apoxy as many as

Ananias did by this one act of faith.

That he was willing to go to a man he knew was coming to kill or to imprison the Christians who

call on Jesus' name. But at the word of the Lord, Ananias, even with his humanity, his hesitation,

his questions, his fears, he goes and lays hands on this man. It doesn't just lay hands on him.

He calls him brother. What kind of forgiveness is that? What kind of pardon? What kind of faith

in the ability of Jesus Christ to actually deliver? When you go to somebody knowing their story,

knowing they were fundamentally against you and would have arrested you in a heartbeat,

maybe just days or minutes ago, whatever. What kind of confidence did Ananias have in God to

not just walk up, but call him brother, lay hands on him and let him know what thus said the

Lord, that the God you saw in the way, hold on Ananias, who told you that? Jesus did.

The God you saw in the way, he sent me here. And he leads Saul to his own conversion because

immediately after that, their fill from his eyes as it had been scales, he could see clearly now,

Jesus whom thou persecuted. And the Bible says he arose and was baptized.

And when he received me, he was strengthened. There was Saul certain days with the disciples

which were at Damascus. During the crowd, he came to arrest.And this all happened because Jesus showed himself to Saul. And Saul said, okay, Lord, what

would you have me to do? From that one prayer of surrender, that one bowing moment of

what do you want from me, came an estimated, some say more, some say less, whatever, 13

books of the New Testament. Came so many of the stories and the words of faith that we use to

encourage ourselves through the scriptures.

And it all was birthed because Saul said, what do you need me to do? And Ananias was willing

to do it despite fears and threatenings. The saints of Acts that we see recorded, walked in

boldness often. And this was an example of that, an example of why we should follow Jesus

Christ.

Because to us, it may look like one little thing or even one big thing, but maybe it's just like,

well, he just asked me to do one thing, but one thing can change everything. One moment can

change everything. One act of surrender can change everything.

And we see that in Acts chapter 9, we see the surrender of Paul and the surrender of Ananias

would set on course a plan of salvation that would be published throughout the world because

Paul would carry it to the Greeks as well and to the Gentiles. What is God trying to start that we

have to let Him continue in us? I wonder what our surrender will do. Who will our surrender

save? What will be the fruit of our surrender? Today I challenge you to pray even as Saul did,

Saul who would later be called Paul.

Lord, what will that have me to do? And watch what God will give you. And no matter how big

or how small, do it anyway, because He doesn't make mistakes. And in the details, God builds.

In the little things, God builds. Today I challenge you to pray. Pray with that yes in your heart.

Pray with that surrender and watch Him demonstrate that prayer reaches every single

situation. Join the movement. Join the community.

Like, share, and subscribe to this podcast. Visit us at PressToPray.com or find us on Instagram

or Facebook. Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears? I know

some of us have prayed and we're wondering how long should I pray about this? Why should I

pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like

God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice.

It's too quiet in this world for troubles we have. You have to raise your voice and God wants to

hear from you. It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer.

It's designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith. Visit PressToPray.com.