Thursday, January 30th, 2025
One of the greatest conversions that we have record of in the Bible is that of Saul of Tarsus. His stint with the ways of the world found him dragging Christians out of their houses and sending them to prison. Then he had an incredible encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus that turned him into one of the most influential disciples for Christ. But today, I want to go back even farther in history to the first time that Saul was mentioned in the Bible. We are heading to Acts where Stephen had just presented his final case before the Jewish council and was about to face his imminent end. Acts 7:57-58 says:
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; 58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Does that feel at all like a transfer of wicked power? It sure does to me. Not only was Saul there observing and agreeing with the death of a disciple of Christ, but he allowed the others to offer the sacrifices of their wickedness at his feet. It’s like their overflowing wickedness needed a place to land so that it’s path of destruction could continue.
Are there times that we allow others to throw their defiled laundry at our feet without considering the effect it may have on our soul? I’m fairly certain that most of us will never get to the level that Saul got, but the enemy will use any unchecked part of our soul to drag us down as much as he can. And it’s important to know this is not about the “people” that we may confront, it’s about the demonic forces behind these people that we must be willing to resist.
I’ll give an example from my own life. I was attending a funeral for a friend at a more traditional, religious church. The religious spirit was certainly on the thrown in this building. I really felt heavy in my spirit that I was not to participate in any of the rituals that the rest of the attendees were being asked to partake in. When the service was over there was a gentleman by the exit door holding a large rope that went up to the bell at the very top of the church. This was new to me, but apparently everyone was supposed to ring that bell in remembrance of the person that had passed. My chance to ring the bell came and I pleasantly declined. Something unrighteous stirred up in that gentleman and he tried to coerce me into ringing that bell, but I again declined and proceeded to walk out the door. I knew deep within my spirit that no matter how upset that man got I needed to obey my Heavenly Father.
Final Thoughts…
Our nation, our government, our schools, even some churches are finding themselves with defiled laundry at their feet, unwilling to refuse it. God is stirring up a boldness in His Bride to stop allowing the smearing of truth and righteousness. He has presented us with a crossroad between pleasing man and pleasing Him, being politically correct vs. Biblically correct. Lord, give us ears to hear You clearly and a boldness to obey no matter what our obedience might look like to others.